(Un)critical geographies of race: A critical race discourse analysis of an online local history resource

ABSTRACT

Websites that provide accounts of local history represent powerful curricular possibilities for K-12 history teachers and those of all ages who engage with historical narratives centered on place. The extent to which, however, such resources furnish explicitly racialized interpretations of place often determines how educators and learners can use them in social studies contexts. In this critical race discourse analysis, we examined the function of race in Wacohistory.org, a local history website comprised of 200 entries. Drawing on critical geographies of race as our theoretical lens, we found that the website de-racialized Waco’s geography and ultimately overlooked how racial power has shaped the history of this city, and we consider specifically what this oversight meant for Black Wacoans. Thus, we argue that Wacohistory.org discounted how race has historically determined placed-based access and experiences for Wacoans. This study offers implications and recommendations that speak to what was lost in failing to racialize a particular online history curriculum, contributing to the literature concerned with race-evasive spatial histories that ultimately thwart meaningful local historical inquiry and the theoretical prospects that critical geographies of race offer social studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical geographies of race
• critical geography
• critical race discourse analysis
• critical race theory
• historical inquiry
• local history
• Texas history

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. To subvert social ideologies and practices that glorify and embolden white supremacist domination, we elect to capitalize references to peoples of Color while maintaining the lowercase version of references to white people.

2. In 1930, the Census used Mexican as a race category, different from it’s the Hispanic ethnicity category to emerge later that century.

3. After 1960, this category included “Eskimo,” or Aleut options; see Humes and Hogan (2009).

4. US Census Bureau. 1913. 13^th Census of United States taken in 1910: Volume 3. Population, Reports by States, with Statistics for Counties, Cities, and Other Civil Divisions: Nebraska-Wyoming, Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Pico. Texas, Utah, and Vermont Section. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1910/volume-3/volume-3-p7.pdf, pp. 802, 833.

5. sUS Census Bureau. 1922. 14^th Census of United States taken in 1920: Volume 3. Population, Composition and Characteristics of the Population by States. South Carolina through Vermont. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1920/volume-3/41084484v3ch08.pdf, pp. 1005, 1015.

6. US Census Bureau. 1932. 15^th Census of United States Taken in 1930. Population, Reports by States Texas and Utah. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1930/population-volume-3/10612982v3p2ch09.pdf, p. 1014, 1083.

7. US Census Bureau. 1943. 16^th Census of United States: 1940 Population. Texas. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1940/population-volume-2/33973538v2p6ch9.pdf, p. 1090.

8. US Census Bureau. 1953. 17^th Census of United States: 1950 Population. Texas. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1950/population-volume-2/11027772v2p43ch2.pdf, p. 43–96, 43–104.

9. US Census Bureau. 1963. 18^th Census of United States: 1960. Texas. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1960/population-volume-1/33255142v1p45ch03.pdf, p. 45–111, 45–124.

10. US Census Bureau. 1973. 19^th Census of United States: 1970. Texas. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1970/population-volume-1/00496492v1p45s1ch03.pdf. P. 45–121.

11. US Census Bureau. 1980. 19^th Census of United States: 1980. Texas. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1980/volume-1/texas/1980a_txcs1–01.pdf, p. 45–76, Page 45–83.

12. US Census Bureau. 1992. 20^th Census of United States: 1990. Texas. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1990/cp-1/cp-1-45-1.pdf, p. 46, 132.

13. Office of the State Demographer. 2012. Texas and Waco: Demographic: Characteristics and Trends. Presentation for the Waco Business League on April 12, 2012. https://demographics.texas.gov/Resources/Presentations/OSD/2012/2012_04_10_Waco_Business_League.pdf, slide 8.

14. US Census Bureau. 2020. 224th Census of United States: 2020. Texas. https://data.census.gov/profile/Waco_city,_Texas?g=160XX00US4876000 and https://www.waco-texas.com/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/departments/housing/documents/fair_housing_combined_documents.pdf, p. 13.

15. For a visual of the winding history of these categories, see https://www.census.gov/data-tools/demo/race/MREAD_1790_2010.html.