Racist Babies: Deconstructing the White-Racialization Moment

• In Event: The Writing Was on the Wall: Dismantling the White Hegemonic Alliance in the Trump Era

Abstract

As a Critical Whiteness Studies scholar, I have on occasion been asked by white family members and friends for advice about how to curb the “racist” comments of their white children when they experience what I’ve come to think of as the white-racialization moment: A white child, when first seeing a Black person, says or shouts, “Mom, look a Black guy!” This utterance is remarkably similar to Fanon’s (2008) noted “Look, a negro” moment when he describes the common white, child reaction to his Blackness, noting both the white child’s fear and also the dehumanization of himself as a Black man. Tatum (1992) describes the same moment and notes how the white parent’s embarrassed reaction and shushing, aids in the early and swift lesson given to whites: Don’t talk about race. That early lesson later aids in the construction of their colorblind racism (Bonilla-Silva, 2013). To follow this shameful race naming, white parents work to apply liberal, colorblind philosophy, correcting their child and teaching them to silence any race talk by suggesting that race is simply skin color and that to identify this difference is “racist.” White children are then socialized into whiteness and white supremacism in what Thandeka equates to child abuse (Thandeka, 1999). Matias and Allen (2013) suggest this allegiance to or “love” of whiteness is in fact a sadomasochistic relationship. This paper digs into the white parental abhorrence to child race talk, it’s implications for themselves and their children, and some racial justice strategies for white family and friends.

This theoretical paper draws on Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) to apply hermeneutic phenomenology (van Manen, 2014) to the white-racialization moment, as well as critical hermeneutics (Gallagher, 1992) to examine the white parental reaction and possible interventions that then reflect their own reinforcement of whiteness and white supremacy that ultimately teach and reinforce the White Hegemonic Alliance (Allen, 2008). As a piece rooted in CWS, this paper will problematize whiteness and white supremacy through the critical hermeneutic analysis and rely on particular tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) to do this. These CRT tenets include whiteness as property (Harris, 1993), the critique of liberalism (Crenshaw, 1988), and the permanence of racism (Bell, 1980).

As the theme of AERA’s 2018 conference is “The Dreams, Possibilities, and Necessity of Public Education,” this paper will create knowledge through the interpretation of a notable phenomenon of whiteness and use it toward dismantling the nightmare of the White Hegemonic Alliance (Allen, 2008) so that the racially-just dreams and possibilities of education might one day be realized.

Author

• Naomi Nishi, University of Colorado - Denver