White racial bonding-at-work in higher ed STEM

Abstract

White racial bonding has been defined in the literature as the communications and interactions between white people related to race, particularly those that are racist or disparaging toward People of Color. White Racial Bonding has been theorized and engaged in the research as both backstage and using raced or racially coded language. This paper uses portraiture to look at how white racial bonding as a form of whiteness-at-work is also enacted “front-stage” and without racialized language by white students bonding in their mistreatment against college Students of Color in a College Algebra classroom. This paper also draws on whiteness-at-work to examine the paradoxes that lie in the creation of gendered white racial bonding through white students’ mistreatment and distancing from Students of Color.

Keywords:

• White racial bonding
• whiteness-at-work
• college algebra
• portraiture

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 To symbolically shift the racial prioritization of white people, I use the lowercase to refer to ‘white’ and the uppercase to refer to People of Color and other referents (Nishi, 2020).

2 I identify as a white, cisgender woman and mother.

3 All names are pseudonyms and gender and racial identity were self-reported by participants.

4 Lululemon is a high-end brand of athletic apparel.

5 The asterisk following Trans* is meant to symbolize the expansiveness of Trans* identities (Stewart & Nicolazzo, 2018)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Naomi W. Nishi

Naomi W. Nishi is a scholar-practitioner with over 15 years in higher education. Her research focuses on issues of racial equity and social justice in adult education. She currently serves as the Assistant Dean of DEI in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University.