You have to name the problem to fix it: White supremacy in Communication Education

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

1 Myers et al. (2016) use the term “quantitative” rather than “positivistic.” However, I use the term positivistic to denote the paradigm of positivism (i.e., supposed objectivity through the adherence to the scientific method), which overlaps, but is not interchangeable with, quantitative methodology. The critical paradigm can encompass any method as long as the research upholds the paradigm's ethics of challenging oppressive power and amplifying the voices of the oppressed (see Scharrer & Ramasubramanian, 2021 for an example of quantitative methods for social justice). Given my own reading of the journal, I am confident the 505 quantitative pieces are not critical, but instead uphold the paradigm of positivism.

2 Many scholars may argue that they are objective or value-neutral in their research and teaching; however, what they really espouse is political agnosticism (i.e., the idea that a lack of clear or easy answers to political-ethical questions justifies a rejection of taking any moral stands). Even a cursory glance at the current political landscape shows that right-wing extremism models many of the most authoritarian impulses of incipient White ethnostate fascism (see Eco, 1995). Right-wing legislatures have introduced laws to put cameras in classrooms to monitor lessons about race and racism; restricted access to information about the depth or pervasiveness of racism in the creation or maintenance of the United States; created school-to-prison pipelines that disproportionally incarcerate youth of color; siphoned public funds into private, predominantly White, Rightwing Christian schools in order to radicalize White youth; and subdued any opposition (e.g., academic freedom/tenure/unions) that may promote a true accounting of, and reconciliation with, racism in the United States. The ability to entertain the fiction of political agnosticism or equating calls for racial justice to right-wing extremism (i.e., both-siderism) is a product and producer of White supremacy.