Whiteness FAQ: Direct and Subcontextual Responses to Classroom Questions

• In Event: Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Diversity, Validation, and Learning

Abstract

Instructors and students with a critical race perspective are frequently confronted and often marginalized by questions of whiteness in the college classroom. These questions work to reinforce and promote white norms and ultimately white supremacy. This theoretical article and pedagogical tool responds to some frequently asked questions (FAQs) that exude whiteness in the classroom directly offering critical responses backed by literature, research, and theory. We also respond subcontextually, naming the assumptions that are embedded in these whiteness questions and deconstructing them. We offer pedagogical strategies for responding to and resisting whiteness in the classroom when whiteness FAQs arise.

Authors

• Naomi Nishi, University of Colorado - Denver

• Cheryl E. Matias, University of Colorado - Denver

• Roberto Montoya, University of Colorado - Denver

• Geneva L Sarcedo, University of Colorado - Denver