Leveraging Vulnerability to Redress White Fragility and Promote Antiracist Praxis in White Antiracist Affinity Groups

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: White Teachers Learning About Equity and Antiracist Practice (Table 7)

Abstract

Whiteness is a pervasive problem in education. Through supporting institutional hierarchies and systemic racism, whiteness limits access to high quality learning experiences for BIPOC students across the United States. This paper examines vulnerability (Applebaum, 2017) as a possible antidote to one manifestation of whiteness among white educators—white fragility (DiAngelo, 2011). Using qualitative methodology, this paper presents a multiple-case study bounded by three white teachers engaging in antiracist inquiry. Findings suggest that white fragility can be transformed though expressions of vulnerability, which function as a catalyst for antiracist praxis by allowing white educators to reengage in critical conversations and remain within the process of antiracist inquiry.

Author

• Diane Codding, Northwestern University