Race-Conscious Refinement: Rejecting Race-evasiveness as a Form of Cultural Capital in High-Income, Predominantly White School Districts

• In Event: 20811 - Who's Afraid of DEI?: New Questions and New Realities

Abstract

This article examines how school districts serving high-income communities described their commitments to racial equity in response to the Black Lives Matter protests following the police murder of George Floyd. As part of a larger study that used computational text analysis methods and found that statements from high-income districts focused on talking to students about racism, this article builds on qualitative analysis of statements from 104 high-income districts that vary in racial composition. In predominantly White districts, school district leaders expressed surprise and shock at evidence of racial violence and framed race-talk as necessary both for addressing the discomfort caused by learning about racism and to prepare students for leadership roles in “diverse” and “global” settings in their futures, thus rejecting longstanding White norms of color-blind racial framings and racial ignorance. By contrast, statements from similarly high-income districts with fewer White students also promote talking about race but describe these conversations as supporting racially marginalized students’ immediate socioemotional needs, rather than as something needed for (White) students’ future success. The findings suggest that comfort talking about race and racism may be emerging as a form of cultural capital for affluent White students, which I call race-conscious refinement: ease discussing racism beyond “diversity happy talk” as a mark of distinction that serves students’ future advancement. By exploring intended racial socialization of White students in predominantly White schools, this article contributes to research on Whiteness, DEI in organizations, and racial socialization. It adds to research showing how some organizational DEI efforts can paradoxically reinforce privilege as comfort talking about racism may become valued in elite spaces. The study raises critical questions about how “the racial contract” may be shifting to accommodate new, sophisticated mechanisms that uphold elite White dominance.

Author

• Bonnie Rogers Siegler, University of Wisconsin-Madison