Writing a Pedagogy of Whiteness: Student Resistance and Compliance

• In Event: Pedagogies of Whiteness

Abstract

Our experiences teaching about whiteness in communication classrooms has been mixed, often resulting in a wide spectrum of responses from students. On one hand, white students resist, loudly proclaiming their objection to how the literature frames them as people in the world; on the other hand, white students comply, nodding as we try to explain how white folks have been constituted within a culture of whiteness and racial inequality. Our response from students of color often vary as well, from the concerning looks about how whiteness studies re-centers whiteness to the empowerment they narrate as a result of seeing this work being done. This essay builds from our experiences in the classroom and works to articulate the dilemmas we often face as we teach about whiteness in our courses.

Authors

• Chris McRae, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

• John Warren, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale