Getting slammed: White depictions of race discussions as arenas of violence

Abstract

For many educators who lead cross-racial discussions, creating ‘safe' spaces in which students can express their views is a familiar goal. Yet what constitutes safety is rarely defined or contextualized. In the absence of this contextualization, the goal of safety is most often driven by White participants who complain that they are (or fear being) ‘attacked' in these discussions. This article examines this specific complaint, which we term as the discourse of violence. We draw on data from a facilitated race discussion and identify five key effects of this discourse in cross-racial discussion about race: positions and re-inscribes Whites as racially innocent; positions and re-inscribes people of Color as perpetrators of violence; maintains White solidarity; stabilizes the ideologies of individualism and universalism; re-inscribes the narration of the ideal imagined community. The data reveal that White students draw on violent imagery to position contexts in which race and racism are under discussion as unsafe spaces; as arenas of violence. We argue that the discourse of violence ultimately functions to protect and reproduce White supremacy, specifically in a context in which the goal is to interrupt White supremacy.

Keywords:

• White supremacy
• anti-racism education
• safety
• discourse analysis