Race Unconsciousness in Schools: The Causes and Consequences of Variations in the Meaning of School Diversity

• In Event: 3429 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 5. Diversity, Inequality and Education: Race/Ethnicity at School

Abstract

For most racial minorities, racial consciousness is a daily reality, but for whites, race is easier to ignore. Colorblind theorists argue that not only is it easier for whites to ignore race but that ignoring race is a mechanism for maintaining white privilege when experiencing racial threat and is a contributor to racial inequality. Education is an ideal institution for empirically testing these theories. After the Civil Rights Movement, public schools consciously assessed race when addressing racial separation across schools. Today, there is little legislative or public support for considering race when determining where students attend school. Instead, championing diversity in schools is the new integration strategy. Yet, diversity is a race unconscious term—it can be used to refer to racial minorities but need not. Thus, understanding how people frame diversity in schools is an important factor in how effective these new strategies may be. If colorblind theories are correct, in instances when whites experience more racial threat, diversity is likely be framed as blind to race and this colorblindness should be consequential for racial inequality in schools. Using an experimental design, I find support for colorblind theories. Experiencing racial threat causes whites to adopt a colorblind frame for school diversity. Moreover, when whites have a colorblind frame for diversity, the type of diverse school they support is much whiter than those supported by people who frame diversity as the inclusion of racial minorities—a finding that has likely implications for school racial inequality.

Author

• Amy Petts, Purdue