Countering White Conceit Through the Commemoration of Keyes

ABSTRACT

To mark the 20-year anniversary of the end of federal court-ordered desegregation in Denver Public Schools (DPS), the Front Porch newspaper gathered leaders in Denver's educational community for a roundtable discussion. In her role as a journalist, the author facilitated this conversation and wrote a newspaper article about the event. In her role as a scholar of rhetoric and race, she recognized that the memories warranted further analysis. Through a theoretical framework constructed from scholarship in collective memory, public deliberation, and critical Whiteness studies, she more fully engaged the educational leaders' discussion about both the desegregation era in DPS as well as the contemporary implications of their prevailing public memory. Pairing her analysis of the educational leaders' reflections about the desegregation era with a consideration of contemporary public discourse regarding the resegregation of DPS suggests how collective memory about the Supreme Court ruling Keyes v. School District No 1 continues to cloud public deliberation and overshadow policymaking within DPS. Beyond the specific example of DPS, the author's analysis builds upon the concept of “White conceit” to provide a useful theoretical framework for not only recognizing the ways in which Whiteness eclipses public deliberation, but also for potentially countering its overshadowing influence.

KEYTERMS:

• African American studies
• White/Caucasian studies
• rhetoric
• collective memory
• public school deliberation

Notes

1. The discussion occurred at the office of the Front Porch on April 30, 2015. Panelists included Dr. Evie Dennis; Allegra “Happy” Haynes; Laura Lefkowits; Chris Martinez, Director of Small Business Opportunity for the City of Denver, DPS grandparent, parent, and alumnus; Rita Montero; Mary Seawall, former Denver School Board President and Member, DPS parent, and Senior Vice President for Education at the Gates Family Foundation; Landri Taylor, then current Denver School Board Member and former President and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan Denver. I followed up with two leaders unable to attend: Reverend Aaron Gray and Sue Edwards by phone on May 6, 2015 and May 11, 2015, respectively. Biographical information not listed here is mentioned within the text of the article.