Reading Whiteness in Popular Texts: Helping College Students from Underserved Communities Become Racially Literate in “Post Racial” America
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This essay argues that the first-year composition class and freshman seminar can serve as spaces in which college students from underserved communities develop the skills to deconstruct, analyze, and disrupt systemic racism in texts and in their lives. Through a multi- media analysis of whiteness in the novel, The Help, and the films Dangerous Minds and Avatar, I conceptualize the racial misrepresentations that emerge, provide a vocabulary in which teachers and students can discuss and write about the whiteness in these texts, and suggest classroom activities that prepare and support students in their development of a critical reading practice. This project is furthered by an exploration of how an understanding of normalized presentations of whiteness and systemic racism provide possibilities for cross racial collaboration and by including in the discussion the work of social justice scholars who define and distinguish between allies and saviors.
Article Details
JCSCORE (ISSN 2642-2387) provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. All content in JCSCORE is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
Unless otherwise noted, works published in JCSCORE are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike License (CC BY-NC-SA). By granting a CC BY-NC-SA license in their work, authors retain copyright ownership of the work, but they give explicit permission for others to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy the work, as long as the original source and author(s) are properly cited (i.e. a complete bibliographic citation and link to the JCSCORE website), re-use of the work is not for commercial purposes, and the re-used work is shared with the same license. No permission is required from the author(s) or the publishers for such use. According to the terms of the CC BY-NC-SA license, any reuse or redistribution must indicate the original CC-BY-NC-SA license terms of the work.
Exceptions to the application of the CC BY-NC-SA license may be granted at the author(s)’ discretion if reasonable extenuating circumstances exist. Such exceptions must be granted in writing. For coordinating use permission you may either contact the author directly or email jcscore@ou.edu.
References
Arcario, P., Eynon, B., & Lucca, L. (2011). The power of peers: New ways for students to support students. In Summerfield, J. & Smith, C. (Eds.), Making teaching and learning matter: Transformative spaces in higher education, (pp. 195-218). New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9166-6_11 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9166-6_11
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2010). Racism without racists: Colorblind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield. https://doi.org/10.2307/40264552 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/40264552
Broido, E. M. (2000). The development of social justice allies during college: A phenomenological investigation. Journal of College Student Development, 41(1), 3-18.
Brown, K. D. (2011). Race, racial cultural memory and multicultural curriculum in an Obama "post-racial" U.S. Race, Gender & Class, 18(3/4), 123-134.
Cammarota, J. (2011). Blindsided by the avatar: White saviors and allies out of Hollywood and in education. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, 33(3), 242-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2011.585287 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2011.585287
Cann, C. N. (2015). What school movies and TFA teach us about who should teach urban youth: Dominant narratives as public pedagogy. Urban Education, 50(3), 288-315. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085913507458 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085913507458
Coleman, M. (2007). Presbyterian mission attitudes toward American Indians 1837-1893. University Press of Mississippi.
De Lissovoy, N., & Brown, A. L. (2013). Antiracist solidarity in critical education: Contemporary problems and possibilities. The Urban Review, 45(5), 539-560. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-013-0235-8 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-013-0235-8
Edwards, K. E. (2006). Aspiring social justice ally identity development: A conceptual model. NASPA Journal, 43(4). https://doi.org/10.2202/0027-6014.1722 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2202/0027-6014.1722
Feagin, J. (2006). Systemic racism: A theory of oppression. New York: Routledge. Fine, M. (1997). Witnessing whiteness. In L. Weis, M.
Fine, L. C. Powell, & M. L. Wong. (Eds.), Off white: Readings on race, power and society, (pp. 55-64). New York: Routledge.
Frankenberg, R. (1993). White women, race matters: The social construction of whiteness. University Minnesota Press. Freire, P. (1985). Reading the world and reading the word: An interview with Paulo Freire. Language Arts, 62(1), 15–21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203973431
Giroux, H. (1998). White noise: Toward a pedagogy of whiteness. In Myrsiades, K. & Myrsiades, L. S. (Eds.), Race-ing representation: Voice, history, and sexuality (pp. 42-76). Rowman and Littlefield.
Griffin, R. A. (2015). Problematic representations of strategic whiteness and “post-racial” pedagogy: A critical intercultural reading of The Help. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 8 (2), 147-166. https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2015.1025330 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2015.1025330
Guinier, L. (2004). From racial liberalism to racial literacy: Brown v. Board of Education and the interest-divergence dilemma. The Journal of American History, 91(1), 92-118. https://doi.org/10.2307/3659616 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3659616
Hall, S. (1980). Cultural studies and the centre: Some problematics and problems. In Hall, S. (Ed.), Culture, media, language: Working papers in cultural studies, (pp. 1972–79). London: Hutchinson. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203381182 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203381182
Heffernan, L., & Lewison, M. (2005). What's lunch got to do with it? Critical literacy and the discourse of the lunchroom. Language Arts, 83(2), 107-117.
Helms, J. E. (1990). Toward a model of white racial identity development. In Helms, J. E. (Ed.), Black and white racial identity: Theory, research and practice (pp. 49-66). New York: Greenwood Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/2073777 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2073777
Jay, G. (2005). Whiteness studies and the multicultural literature classroom. MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, 30(2), 99-121. https://doi.org/10.1093/melus/30.2.99 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/melus/30.2.99
Jay, G. (n.d.). Introduction to whiteness studies. Retrieved April 28, 2016, from https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/gjay/www/Whiteness/introwhite.htm
Johnson, W. (2013). Allegories of empire: Django/Dorner/blackness/blowback. Transition 112(1), 13-21. Indiana University Press. Kellner, D., & Share, J. (2007). Critical media literacy, democracy, and the reconstruction of education. In Macedo, D. & Steinberg, S. R. (Eds.), Media literacy: A reader (pp. 3-23). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Kellner, D., & Share, J. (2005). Toward critical media literacy: Core concepts, debates, organizations, and policy. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 26(3), 369-386. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596300500200169 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01596300500200169
Ketchum, P., Embrick, D., Peck, M. (2011). Progressive in theory, regressive in practice: A critical race review of Avatar. Humanity and Society, 35(1/2), 198-201. https://doi.org/10.1177/016059761103500110 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/016059761103500110
Kivel, K. (2002). How white people can serve as allies to people of color. In P. S., Rothenberg (Ed.). White Privilege: Essential readings on the other Side of racism (pp. 132-135). New York: Worth Publishers.
Lewis, A. E. (2004). What group? Studying whites and whiteness in the era of “color blindness.” Sociological Theory, 22(4), 623–646. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0735-2751.2004.00237.x
Luke, A. (2014). Defining critical literacy. In J. Pandya, & J. Avila (Eds.), Moving critical literacies forward: A new look at praxis across contexts, (pp. 19-31). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203521861 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203521861
McCormick, K. (1994). The culture of reading and the teaching of English. Manchester University Press.
McIntosh, P. (1989). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, July/August, 10-12. Philadelphia, PA: Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. https://doi.org/10.1007/springerreference_76119
McLaughlin, M. & DeVoogd, G. L. (2004). Critical literacy: Enhancing students' comprehension of text. New York: Scholastic.
Martinot, S. (2010). The machinery of whiteness: Studies in the structure of racialization. Temple University Press.
Masterman, L. (2001). Teaching the media. New York: Routledge.
Mellor, B. & Patterson, P. (2004). Postructuralism in English classrooms: Critical literacy and after. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 17(1), 85-102. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839032000150248 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839032000150248
Moule, J. (2009). Understanding unconscious bias and unintentional racism. Phi Delta Kappan, 90(5), 320-326. https://doi.org/10.1177/003172170909000504 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/003172170909000504
Pimentel, C. & Santillanes, S. L. (2014). The white cinematic lens: Decoding the racial messages in The Blind Side. The Urban Review. 47(1), 126-143. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-014-0288-3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-014-0288-3
Reason, R. D. & Davis, T. L. (2005). Antecedents, precursors, and concurrent concepts in the development of social justice attitudes and actions. In R. D. Reason, E. M. Broido, T. L. Davis, & N. J. Evans (Eds.), Developing social justice allies (pp. 5–15). San Francisco: JosseyBass. https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.161 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.161
Roediger, D. R. (1999). Black on white: Black writers on what it means to be white. Random House.
Rogers, R., & Mosley, M. (2006). Racial literacy in a Second-Grade classroom: Critical race theory, whiteness studies, and literacy research. Reading Research Quarterly, 41(4), 462-495. https://doi.org/10.1598/rrq.41.4.3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.41.4.3
Schultz, J. (2014). Glory road (2006) and the white savior historical sport film. Journal of popular film & television, 42(4), 205-213. https://doi.org/10.1080/01956051.2014.913001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01956051.2014.913001
Sealey-Ruiz, Y. (2013). Toward a pedagogy of racial literacy in First Year Composition. Teaching English in a Two-Year College TETYC, Vol. 40(3), 384-398.
Sheared, V., Johnson-Bailey, J., Colin III, S. A., Peterson, E., & Brookfield, S. D. (Eds.). (2010). The Handbook of race and adult education: A Resource for Dialogue on Racism. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
Skerrett, A. (2011). English teachers’ racial literacy knowledge and practice. Race Ethnicity and Education, 14(3), 313–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2010.543391 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2010.543391
Stockett, K. (2009). The Help. Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam.
Sue, D. W., Bucceri, J., Lin, A. I., Nadal, K. L., & Torino, G. C. (2007). Racial microaggressions and the Asian American experience. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 13(1) 72-81. https://doi.org/10.1037/1099-9809.13.1.72 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/1099-9809.13.1.72
Twine, F. W. (2004). A white side of black Britain: The concept of racial literacy. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 27(6), 878–907. https://doi.org/10.1080/0141987042000268512 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0141987042000268512
Wise, T. (2015) Awareness, sensitivity and checking our privilege are not enough: Reflections on whiteness and American Higher Education. Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity, 1(1), 82-100. https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2642-2387.2015.1.1.82-100
Wray, M. & Newitz, A. (1997). White trash: Race and class in America. Psychology Press.