[Organizational (Performance] of Race): The Co-Constitutive Performance of Race and School Board in Durham, NC

Abstract

This essay addresses the co-constitutive performance of race and organization through a close reading of two racially divided Durham, NC school board meetings that took place in 2005. The analysis is grounded in an analytical framework that treats performance as organizing and organization as performance. We demonstrate how conflict over the “proper” performance of a school board, as either a business emphasizing efficiency or a public service emphasizing efficacy, is simultaneously a negotiation of racialized subject positions. Our analysis illustrates how racial identities are made meaningful in a contemporary context, as racial identities are taken up, mapped onto, and resisted by individuals and their bodies.

Keywords:

• Race
• Organization
• Resistance
• Embodiment
• Discourse
• Communicative Constitution of Organization

Acknowledgements

Previous versions of this essay were presented at the 2008 annual conference of the National Communication Association and White Spaces Conference July 2009 in Keele, England. The authors would like to thank Patricia Parker, Heidi Rose, and the anonymous reviewers for their contributions to this essay.

Notes

1. To clarify, we assume no individual members of the school board sought office with the express goal of furthering racist practices in the school system, and yet, they end up doing so.

2. One of the limitations of our method is that we could not ask the audience how they identify racially. This person, Mr. Matterly, proved particularly instructive in the way race was performed in the context of the meeting. While one could interpret his skin color as White or Black, his performance undoubtedly broke with the performance of Whiteness, leading us to reconsider our original read of his physical skin color. Additionally, an article in the local newspaper identified him as a member of an advocacy group called “Concerned Black Parents.” His performance and our own equivocation in reading his racial identity reveal how constructed and problematic race can be.

3. It is worth noting that alliance with the board is demonstrated by White men, but not by White women. There is an argument to be made about the gendered risks of expressing emotion at this podium, particularly for White women whose access to privileged racial subject positions might be compromised by a feminized expression of emotion. Although these gendered dynamics are addressed in a separate essay, they are beyond the scope of this argument.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer J. Mease

Jennifer J. Mease is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University

David P. Terry

David P. Terry is an Assistant Professor of Performance Studies in the Department of Communication Studies at San Jose State University