Reframing Discourse From White Privilege to White Freedom: Teaching Black Lives Matter on New Terms

• In Event: 29.082 - Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: 29.082-3 - Positive Identity Development in Words and Action

Abstract

I have struggled as a multiracial woman to convincingly communicate examples of white racial dominance to a mostly white audience. As a teacher educator, where fully 82-90% of candidates are white, I have shifted the discourse of white privilege to “white freedom” as a strategy to better juxtapose the lived experiences of people of color (POC) with those of “passing white” people. This session addresses the most impactful exemplars of how white racial dominance reigns in education and larger society, how “white freedom” can teach others about Black Lives Matter, and how to avoid the semantic difficulty that “privilege” seems to evoke. This dialectical shift offers an alternate language and pedagogical approach to assist Whites in confronting racism writ large.

Author

• Taharee A. Jackson, University of Maryland - College Park