Privilege Under Threat: Color Blindness, White Fragility, and School Choice in a Changing Suburban Community

• In Event: 66.058 - Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: 66.058-12 - The Vast Consequences of White Supremacy

Abstract

This study examines the school choice process for white parents living in previously all-white suburbs. Through interviews and observations, I explore how parents make sense of their changing community and schools. Findings highlight contradictions inherent in white parents who chose a racially diverse school for their child and are tied to racial attitudes, colorblindness, and white fragility. This study tells an important story that is unique to the literature on white parents, race, and school choice- but is quite representative of the choices white parents will continue to face within a large number of changing suburban communities in America.

Author

• Lauren Fox, Teachers College, Columbia University