Critical Race Theory and Whiteness theory

Black and White. On Symbolical Implications of an Aesthetical Polarization.

by Roman Meinhold

In: Boleswa Journal of Philosophy, Theology and Religion. Vol.1, No.3. December 2007. 155-166. ISSN 1817-2741

This paper attempts to show that the aesthetic opposition of black and white as
aesthetic perceptible... more This paper attempts to show that the aesthetic opposition of black and white as
aesthetic perceptible "colours" applied to the description of the density of human
skin pigment (as it is still done, for example, in southern Africa) does not reflect
aesthetic reality. To make its case, the paper argues that human beings are not
simply black or white in skin colour; this categorisation is not precise, because
the black and white scheme is a simplifying reductionism. Besides being a
simplification and reductionism, the application of this colour scheme to humans
is also wrong, because from the perspective of human perception black and white
"colours" are opposites or extremes, while humans with contrasting skin
pigmentations are by no means necessarily opposites or extremes. Another
argument advanced in the paper is that this aesthetic opposition may lead to an
anthropological extremism and thus to an ethical problem. The paper concludes
with two normative suggestions, namely that the black and white scheme should
be replaced with a non-binary scheme and that an individual should not be
signified by her/his skin colour alone.

Intimacy with the Danish nation-state: my partner, the Danish state and I - a case study of family reunification policy in Denmark,

by Linda Lund Pedersen

Whiteness and Postcolonialism in the Nordic Region:
Exceptionalism, Migrant Others and National Identities.  (ed.) Loftsdóttir, K. and Jensen, L. Ashgate.  Forthcoming 2012, Oct

How does David Gillborn regard the significance of ‘race’ in education in Britain today?

by Thomas Sampson

The black students in schools all over Britain are victim on institutionalised racism everyday. In research carried... more The black students in schools all over Britain are victim on institutionalised racism everyday. In research carried out by Dr David Gillborn, an explanation for how this can be possible is offered using various methods. The paper argues that black youths are being segregated through academic achievement.

What Does Quality Mean in the Context of White Institutional Space?

by Danny Martin

National Identity, Transnational Whiteness and the Canadian Citizenship Guide

by Beenash Jafri

published in Critical Race and Whiteness Studies 8(1), 2012

The village in the city: Critical race theory, schooling and a life

by Kevin Burke

Burke, K. (2012). The village in the city: Critical race theory, schooling, and a life. Critical Race and Whiteness Studies, 8(1), 1-18.

The research is framed around stories—counternarratives in the tradition of Critical Race Theory (CRT)—of the author... more The research is framed around stories—counternarratives in the tradition of Critical Race Theory (CRT)—of the author coming to know his own historical racism as rooted in his geographical, political, racial, classed and religious upbringing in Chicago, United States. The paper specifically attends to the socioeconomic and religious aspects of race as defined and constrained by a place run through with its own racial historical leavings. As such, the work can be read as one continuous journey, or two very fractured versions of coming to know (the self and the boundaries around two fields of inquiry). The purpose is twofold: to explore the ways in which the disciplinary boundaries of two fields, CRT and Critical Geography, can inform a critical contextualisation of race and place for the author and the reader.

Mark of Cain(ada): Racialized Security Discourse in Canada's National Newspapers

by Naava Smolash

This essay compares coverage in two of Canada's national newspapers, the Globe and Mail and the National Post, of two... more This essay compares coverage in two of Canada's national newspapers, the Globe and Mail and the National Post, of two high-profile anti-terrorism cases: Project Thread (2003) and the Toronto 18 (2006). I read these media stories as narratives, open to literary analysis, that allow us to pry open and critique Canada's dominant national security discourse. These national newspaper narratives, I argue, mobilize racialized signs of otherness that legitimate and naturalize national security discourses, even when accusations are withdrawn by officials. This raises urgent questions about the ways in which media may naturalize state violence against Muslim, Arab, and South Asian citizens and non-citizens within Canada's borders.

Racism and education: coincidence or conspiracy?

by Nadine Dolby

White Fright: The politics of white youth identity in South Africa

by Nadine Dolby

Pedersen, L.L. and Samaluk, B. (2012) Precarious workers that made that made this special issue possible, Graduate Journal for Social Sciences, 9 (1), 7-8..

by Barbara Samaluk

Pedersen, L.L. and Samaluk, B. (2012) Editorial: Different Pathways into Critical whiteness Studies, Graduate Journal for Social Sciences, 9 (1), 9-21.

by Barbara Samaluk

2011-2012: Co-editing a Special Issue on Critical Whiteness Studies Methodologies in Graduate Journal of Social Sciences, envisaged publication in March 2012.

by Barbara Samaluk

Pedersen, L.L. and Samaluk, B. (2012) Editorial: Different Pathways into Critical whiteness Studies, Graduate Journal for Social Sciences, 9 (1), 9-21.

by Linda Lund Pedersen

The White Flesh of a Fish: Reflections about Whiteness and Methodolog

by Kristín Loftsdóttir

These House Negroes Think We Cursed

by Dr. Darron Smith

BSA Network 102_Summer 2009_DID Kevin Hylton_s

by Kevin Hylton

Desert Island Discourse Interview with Prof. Kevin Hylton in the British Sociological Association 'Network' Magazine.

Guiding White pre-service and in-service teachers toward Critical Pedagogy:

by Brad Porfilio

Co-Authored with Curry Malott (In Press) Journal of Educational Foundations

Guiding White pre-service and in-service teachers toward Critical Pedagogy:
Utilizing Counter-cultures in... more Guiding White pre-service and in-service teachers toward Critical Pedagogy:
Utilizing Counter-cultures in Teacher Education

Brad J. Porfilio
Lewis University

Curry S. Malott
D’Youville College

This essay documents a few key examples of the critical pedagogy and curriculum that we employ to challenge pre-service and in-service teachers to consider the concrete and theoretical contexts of taking on a social-activist-teacher persona. Our vision of social justice is rooted firmly in the critical tradition, as it is anchored in excavating unjust social and economic formations that imperil the vast majority of the world’s population, while concomitantly empowering the economic elite. Not only do we believe that teacher educators must take the lead in helping their students recognize the social, political, and economic forces creating injustice in schools and in the wider society, but they must help current and future teachers develop emancipatory visions of how to develop instructional designs, collaborate with educators, and engage in activist initiatives, which have the potential to eliminate social inequalities and build institutional structures based on democracy, equity, and fairness (McLaren, 2005).  Like many teacher educators, we have worked in institutions where almost 95% of the teacher education students have self-identified as “White.” Because of the difficulties of working with this nearly ubiquitous at-risk group (at risk for acting as oppressors), we focus our attention in this essay on the challenges White in-service and pre-service teachers pose to practicing critical pedagogy.

"Tension in Intersectional Agency. A theoretical discussion of the interior conflict of white, feminist activists' intersectional location"

by Dieuwertje Dyi Huijg

- winning essay of the FWSA 2010/11 competition (Feminist & Women Studies Association)

In this article I question the wholeness of the agency of white, feminist activists. Drawing on intersectional theory,... more In this article I question the wholeness of the agency of white, feminist activists. Drawing on intersectional theory, I problematise the multiplicative character of their location in order to be able to understand how intersectional agency operates. This location reveals three layers of intersectionality; the junction of axes of social signification (gender and race); the junction of manifestations on these axes (female and white); and the junction of, subsequent, positions in power relations (disadvantaged and advantaged). I argue that this is specifically important and complex when we explore how whiteness can operate intersectionally. This results in three observations. First, this intersectional junction is conflictive in its interior; race as advantage and gender as disadvantage can operate as opposite structuring forces in power relations. Second, feminist activism is characterised by gendered action and aims at social transformation in the realm of gender. Whiteness, on the other hand, is often marked by racial passivity and omission via which it can invest in the maintenance of the racial status quo and non-change; this contradicts feminist objectives. Third, contra the conflation of agency with action, I agree that not every action is agentic. If not every action is agentic, then not all agency generates action. In turn, this means that agency can also result in omission; ‘something’ which is not action, i.e. an absence or void of action or, what I call, inaction. We can say that inaction is a familiar manifestation of hegemonic processes as whiteness. In turn, we can see that gender and race as structuring forces, subsequently, shape agency contradictorily, which can generate action and inaction simultaneously. The differentiation of layers in intersectional theory suggests that the agency of white, feminist activists is mobilised within a conceptual opposition in power relations that, consequently, questions the ‘wholeness’ of intersectional agency.

Keywords: Intersectional theory, Agency, White women

White privilege and experiential education: A critical reflection

by Jeff Rose

Rose & Paisley (2012)

Through narrative and critique, this critical analysis addresses the role and reification of privilege in the... more Through narrative and critique, this critical analysis addresses the role and reification of privilege in the pedagogical processes of experiential education. Using whiteness as a critical and theoretical lens, we argue experiential education is a privileged pedagogy, aimed at maintaining the status quo and reproducing dominant power relations between racialized social groups. Participants, instructors, spaces, and activities often reflect the
embeddedwhiteness of experiential education.We critically examine the use of challenge in experiential education and offer a language of possibility for future trajectories for experiential education which facilitates more just and equitable teaching and learning processes.

Contesting Europe: A call for an anti-modern sexual politics

by Jennifer Petzen

published in the European Journal of Women's Studies, February 2012 19: 97-114, special section on women’s rights, gay rights and anti-Muslim racism in Europe.

Jennifer Petzen
Humboldt University, Germany
Jennifer Petzen, University of Humboldt, In Western Europe,... more Jennifer Petzen
Humboldt University, Germany
Jennifer Petzen, University of Humboldt, In Western Europe, debates surrounding the integration of ‘Muslim’ women over the last decade signify the ways in which racialized notions of gender and sexuality have come to define acceptable and unacceptable ways of being European. Discourses concerning the wearing of the headscarf and ‘honour crimes’ are particular ways in which ‘Muslim’ genders are produced, condemned and held responsible for posing a threat to supposedly stable European values of gender equality and sexual emancipation. This article examines some of the interventions by feminist and gay activists Germany regarding the veil and so-called honour crimes, which reflect an increasing acceptance of the state’s escalating racialization processes on the part of activists. The article concludes that the very racialization of the category ‘Muslim’ needs to be examined not only in a postcolonial context but also how this process has emerged after 9/11 and the ‘War on Terror’.