Whiteness in Racial Dialogue: A Discourse Analysis

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Whiteness in Racial DialogueA Discourse Analysis

• Robin DiAngelo, PhD

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Presentation Overview

• Theoretical Overview
• The Problem
• The Study
• Findings
• Discussion Questions

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Theoretical Overview of Racism

• Racism encompasses economic, political, social,
  and cultural structures, actions, and beliefs
  that systematize and perpetuate an unequal
  distribution of privileges, resources, and power
  between white people and people of color
  (Hilliard, 1992)

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Racism

• Racism is relational and has two primary
  functions
• Oppression of people of color
• Elevation of white people(Roediger, 1998
  Razack, 1998 Sleeter, 1993 Sue, 2003)
• Whiteness Studies focuses on the latter function

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Whiteness Studies

• Whiteness scholars theorize racism as a set of
  relationships that is historically, culturally,
  and politically produced(Dyer, 1997
  Frankenberg, 2001 Hilliard, 1992 Kincheloe
  Steinberg, 1998)
• Racism exists today, in both traditional and
  newer, less explicit forms. It is unbounded and
  ever present(Apple, 1997 Bell, 1993
  Bonilla-Silva 2004 Tatum, 2001 Van Dijk,1992)

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Whiteness Studies

• The question is not did racism take place? but
  
• In which ways did racism manifest in this
  specific context?

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The Problem

• Demographic disconnect between teachers and the
  students they teach(National Center for
  Educational Statistics, 2002 Suarez-Orozco,
  2000)
• White student-teachers often have had limited
  opportunities to hear alternative racial
  perspectives

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the difficulty I always run into working
withwhite people is that they stop seeing some
things as racist. Its not necessarily someone
hanging from a tree or being beaten out in the
street, but an assumption, or all the white
people going first or all the white people
talking how people identify themselves or
present history, or the ways that they interact
in groups and how they discuss things things
that to me are more powerful because they affect
the situation that I'm in (facilitator of
color)
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How do white student-teachers talk about race
with students of color?

• How do they respond to racial perspectives
  different from their own?
• How do they respond when their perspectives and
  positions are challenged by alternative
  perspectives?

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Research Objectives

• Describe and analyze these processes and
  practices in active manifestation
• Make problematic inter-racial group dynamics more
  recognizable

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Methodology Discourse Analysis

• The study of language use in social contexts
  (Gee, 1999)
• Concerned with how ideologies are communicated
  (Evans, 2002 Gee, 1999 Van Dijk, 1993)

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Methodology Procedures

• 13 Participants
• 8 white students
• 5 students of color
• Interracial facilitation team
• Four 2-hour sessions
• Observed, audio and video taped

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Findings Key Discourses

• Individualism denies impact of group membership
  denies history (Flax, 2000)
• Universalism posits white perspectives as
  objective and representative (Dyer, 1997)
• Personal Experience posits racial perspectives
  as internal and private (Allen Cloyes, 2005
  DiAngelo Allen, 2006)

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Individualism
As a white person, I find it difficult to say
that Im white. I dont feel white. I think
its a really strange blanket term that doesnt
encompass anything about myself that I really
relate to. (white female)
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How does Individualism function?

• Denies the significance of race and advantages
  of being white
• Hides the accumulation of wealth over
  generations
• Denies social and historical context
• Prevents a macro analysis of the institutional
  and structural dimensions of social life
• Denies collective socialization and the power of
  dominant culture (media, education, religion,
  etc.) to shape our perspectives and ideology
• Functions as neo-colorblindness and reproduces
  myth of meritocracy
• Makes collective action difficult

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Individualism vs. Universalism

• Whereas Individualism denies race by positing
  that we are each unique and do not share a
  collective (racial) experience
• Universalism denies race by positing that we are
  all the same (under the skin) and united by a
  shared (non-racial) experience

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Universalism
There's another level, though, that's below
that, below the level of groups too, that's
human. I'm sort of a spiritual person, and I
guess I don't identify with being part of a
group... But I also think that there are ways to
transcend that - to be more in tune with what's
human instead of what's only white. (white male)
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How does Universalism function?

• Only accorded to Whites
• Sets White perspectives up as the reference point
  for humanity, allowing White experience to
  stand-in for human experience while setting up
  people of Color as defined by, and limited to,
  their racial location
• Denies the significance of race and advantages
  of being white
• Functions as a form of neo-colorblindness

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Personal Experience
I think it depends on the individual experience.
And since were all speaking from personal
experience its a personal thing and we know
what we have perceived... And so if thats what
you want to say, then thats what you should be
able to say. (white female)
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How does Personal Experience function?

• Positions experience as private, thereby
  de-politicizing racial interplay
• Closes off and protects racial positions from
  explication by invoking a sacredness to
  experience that blocks further examination
• Posits perspectives as the product of a discrete
  individual, outside of socialization, rather than
  as the product of multidimensional social
  interaction
• References the individual as the evidential
  warrant for racial realities. Since whites dont
  experience racism, we arent accountable for it

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Discussion

• What is one highlight for you from this
  presentation?
• How have you seen these discourses manifesting in
  your classroom discussions?
• How have you invoked them yourself?
• What is at stake in challenging these discourses?
  For you? For your students?

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LAURA (POC) I did notice that some White people
identify themselves with their class before they
said they were White. Not everybody, but I did
notice that with some. TIFFANY (W) As a White
person, I find it difficult to say that Im
White. I dont feel White. I think its a really
strange blanket term that doesnt really
encompass anything about myself that I really
relate to. And I think its really arbitrary and
strange, so I definitely have a hard time even
articulating that word sometimes. I guess I have
a hard time coughing that up. So I dont- I- I
say European-American because I feel more
European than I do American thats for
sure. LAURA (POC) Well, one thing I was thinking
was that you may not necessarily connect the word
White with your experience, but people of color
definitely think youre White. TIFFANY (W)
Right. LAURA (POC) And I notice your
Whiteness. TIFFANY (W) Mm-hmm. Right. Right.
I- LAURA (POC) And so thats part of, like,
taking ownership. TIFFANY (W) Im
uncomfortable with the label White based on
what I have learned that people of color perceive
White to mean and represent. Thats what makes
me uncomfortable with it. I dont want to be
classified as White when I know that with that
comes a whole lot of, uh, angry history toward,
you know, White people and- or, you know, crummy
stereotypes that I dont believe I fit into. So
Im uncomfortable being associated with what I
perceive to be the common perception of what
White is. RICH (POC) But European-Americans
are White. TIFFANY (W) I mean, I guess I feel
like- RICH (POC) Well, she said that she felt
comfortable identifying herself as a
European-American. European-Americans are White.
Columbus, Pizarro, all these guys that came from
Italy and Spain and all over, um, theyre all
White. Theyre all European-American. When I-
when I look at you, I see a White person.
TIFFANY (W) But the term White conjures up
different feelings, I think, in people who are
European-American, from my perspective.
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When white people say

• I dont see color.
• Or
• We should live in a colorblind society
• What theyre actually saying is
• I refuse to deal with how our culture and
  society treats people of color because it makes
  me uncomfortable. I dont want to understand how
  having a different skin color or ethnicity
  affects other people because that means I would
  have to think and consider other points of view.
  What I want is to not have to think. I prefer to
  believe I live in a fantasy land where no one
  ever pays attention to skin color, ethnicity,
  culture, or religion. I am part of the problem
  with race relations, not its great savior.
• Just so you know.
• the angry black woman
  (http//theangryblackwoman.wordpress.com)

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Thank you!
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Findings Future Research

• Depth and role of Individualism

Effect of multicultural education courses
The role of Personal Experience Discourse