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ABSTRACT
In this article, we examine how school district leaders bolster white supremacy by deploying white innocence, a discourse in which individuals or entities project a positive image of themselves while deflecting blame for racism. We focus on a school district that was the site of strategic and sustained advocacy from Black community members and their supporters, catalyzed by an egregious racist incident in 2018 and anti-Blackness in general. Through an analysis of videos of school board meetings, we demonstrate that district leaders projected white innocence by using four discursive strategies: denying blame, concealing racism, dodging responsibility, and glorifying the district. These form what we call the white innocence playbook among those who govern and lead school districts. Ultimately, we argue, the conceptual tool of the white innocence playbook can help disrupt white supremacy in district governance, thereby advancing equity and racial justice.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. All proper names used in our study are pseudonyms.
2. We assumed the superintendent’s and board members’ races based on publicly available photos online (Carroll Independent School District, Citationn.d.). However, we understand that a person’s racial identity is ultimately determined through one’s self-identification. According to the NBC podcast (Hixenbaugh & Hylton, Citation2021), one board member was a white-passing Cuban American.
3. This conceptualization of excuses aligns with one of van Dijk’s (Citation1992) forms of denial, called goal-denial. However, we chose to use Orozco’s (Citation2019) framing.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Melanie Bertrand
Melanie Bertrand is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Practice at the University of Arizona. Her research explores the potential of youth and community leadership to improve schools and challenge systemic racism and other forms of oppression in education.
Carrie Sampson
Carrie Sampson is an assistant professor in the Division of Educational Leadership and Innovation at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University. Her research focuses on educational leadership and equity from three interrelated perspectives: school board governance, community advocacy, and politics.