Teaching about White Supremacy and Privilege in 2020’s Wake
Topics: Ethnicity and Race
, Ethics and Justice
, Feminist Geographies
Keywords: Racism, White Supremacy, White Privilege, Education
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 50
Authors:
Wairimu Ngaruiya Njambi, Florida Atlantic University
William Eugene O'Brien, Florida Atlantic University
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Abstract
We relate the experience and outcome of team-teaching a university course called Honors White Supremacy & Privilege in spring 2021. The course commenced in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and US presidential election, and just days after the January 6th 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol. As events prompted reflection on the paradigm and privileges of whiteness, we attempted to discuss white supremacy and privilege to understand how whiteness operates as a social norm, as the presumed exemplar or paradigm of appropriate being in the world. While white supremacy is violent and deadly, it works insidiously through its everyday qualities, operating largely in unspoken assumptions and expectations. Events of 2020, however, particularly the police and vigilante killings of George Floyd and others, had widened existing cracks in this paradigm, shaking the presumptions of many whites (people of color for centuries have resisted white supremacy and racism) that race was largely a non-issue, overstating civil rights progress and promoting illusions of colorblindness. The five-week course included reading and discussion of writings from an interdisciplinary set of authors, including geographers, as well as podcasts and documentary films. Sources ranged from historical works of W.E.B DuBois and Anna Julia Cooper to contemporary feminists bell hooks, Sara Ahmed and writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. It also included the podcast series Nice White Parents and 1619 Project, among others. Our presentation emphasizes course themes and student reaction to the material.
Teaching about White Supremacy and Privilege in 2020’s Wake
Category
Virtual Paper Abstract
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