Critical Communication Pedagogy and the Proverbial Rock and a Hard Place: Black, White, Biracial, and Teaching Whiteness

• In Event: Pedagogies of Whiteness

Abstract

Engaging in critical communication pedagogy (Fassett & Warren, 2007) is complex, empowering, dynamic, emotional, and risky. Often I have been inspired by the positive energy generated from rich discussion and yet my body always remembers nervously the possibility that our conversation might become too hostile for most or hurtful for many. When we address the power and politics of Whiteness in particular in the courses I teach, dialogue often becomes fraught with the difficulty of intertwined racial histories. Given my own identities as a biracial (African American and Caucasian) woman combined with the sensitive topics of race and racism, critical communication pedagogy necessitates a tender balance between compassion and diligence; contemplative silence and voice; theory and embodied practice. As such, the purpose of this essay is to bring forward the challenges and beauty in the struggle of addressing the historical roots of White identity, the contemporary manifestations of White privilege, and the costs of Whiteness from within a brown body “always already” (Alexander, 2004; Madison, 2006) against the institutional backdrop of a traditionally White institution. In addition to narrating powerful moments when the role of my biracial identity has surfaced in surprising and painful yet often pedagogical ways, this essay will also highlight the consequential nature of having my brown body on the line in the hopes of utilizing critical communication pedagogy to raise social consciousness.

Author

• Rachel Griffin, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale