Introductions as a Site for Whiteness-at-Work: Everyday Enactments of [Whiteness] in University Settings

• In Event: Whiteness-at-Work in Higher Education

Abstract

Objectives/purpose: Using Yoon’s (2012) conceptualization of whiteness-at-work, I analyze one of the most commonplace sites in which whiteness as a paradoxical iterative process is enacted for faculty and staff in everyday work settings. This paper presents a composite sketch of micro-moments of introduction at the beginning of work meetings across several institutions of higher education. I argue that in these moments, normative whiteness (Author 3, 2018) and assumed racial comfort (Cabrera, Franklin & Watson, 2016) mark me as Other, non-white, and needing explanation. In these moments, whiteness-at-work colonized my being through normalized linguistic violence while simultaneously securing Whites as innocent and blameless.

Theoretical framework: I use Stewart and Nicolazzo’s (2018) articulation of [whiteness] to situate the ways in which introductions serve as an everyday site for whiteness-at-work. Stewart and Nicolazzo (2018) define [whiteness] as “an ideological container in which various interlocking systems of oppression operate” (p. 133). Cabrera, Franklin and Watson’s (2016) formulation of assumed racial comfort – defined as the entitlement to avoidance of discomfort by Whites in discussions of race – normalizes the linguistic violence that people of color experience in everyday settings.

Data source & methods: My data source consists of a composite sketch I wrote where I describe and merge several moments of introduction in work meetings. I analyze this sketch using tools of critical discourse analysis, particularly Situated Meanings and Big D discourse (Gee, 2014a, 2014b).

Results or conclusions: Normative whiteness (Author 3, 2018) is a powerful racial discourse extant in U.S. society today. In this case, normative whiteness and assumed racial comfort work together to normalize linguistic violence, position me as a difficult subject, maintain White innocence, and reveal the contradictory nature of whiteness-at-work.

Scholarly significance: If higher education scholars are to unpack the container of [whiteness], the outlines of this iterative, paradoxical process need to be delineated and analyzed, even in workplace micro-moments. Microaggressions and everyday linguistic violence at work reflect larger systemic enactments of hegemonic whiteness. University workers should alter their everyday practices in order to disrupt whiteness-at-work and push for more humanizing connections.

Author

• Orkideh Mohajeri, West Chester University of Pennsylvania