ABSTRACT
Guided by Critical Race Discourse Analysis and Grounded Practical Theory this paper analyzes interaction during classroom dialogs to examine how democratic inclusion is undermined by color-evasion. Too often color-evasion as a discursive technique perpetuates exclusion, inhibits democratic values under the guise of inclusion, and consequently, protects whiteness and puts undue burden on non-white participants. Thus, we argue that democratic facilitators who are concerned with inclusion should listen for and disrupt color-evasiveness. We offer a practical theory to guide facilitators recognizing and challenging color-evasion through questions that encourage the group to contend with why evading talk about race undermines democratic dialogue.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 We use non-white to describe racially marginalized folks that have been historically impacted by racism and white supremacy. Aware of the ways that ‘non-white’ can be interpreted as a way to ‘define groups of people in terms of what they are not’ (Tatum, Citation2017, p. 95), we use the term as a discursive practice that names and exposes whiteness and white supremacy in a context where both are deliberately rendered invisible. Furthermore, because ‘people of color’ implies the colorless-ness, and thus raceless-ness of whiteness, using non-white is one way to interrupt that line of thinking. We use ‘people of color’ when citing a scholar that uses that term.
2 When non-white facilitators decide not to challenge color-evasion we acknowledge that practice may emerge as a form of emotional and psychological protection due to the racial fatigue experienced in these conversations.