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ERIC Number: EJ932464
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 27
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1071-4413
EISSN: N/A
The Intersectional Workings of Whiteness: A Representative Anecdote
Zingsheim, Jason; Goltz, Dustin Bradley
Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, v33 n3 p215-241 2011
In this article, the authors engage critical performance pedagogy scholarship on whiteness to both question and extend two persistent trends in the literature. Although intersectionality is commonly referenced in the literature, the larger impulse underscoring Crenshaw's (1991) concept is often footnoted, tangentially marked, or given mere surface attention in much pedagogical whiteness scholarship--often due to the imposition of word limits or the perceived risk of compromising the clarity of findings and implications. They argue that engaging whiteness through the isolated lens of race--rather than from an intersectional grounding--perpetuates the invisibility, elusiveness, and self-sustaining durability of whiteness. Their project here does not claim that race cannot provide a focused area of study, but rather--specifically within whiteness pedagogy--they argue the intersectional dimensions that animate whiteness require attention to interrogate, analyze, and come to an embodied understanding of its workings. To demonstrate and support these claims, they provide a series of pedagogical performance activities that highlight the uniquely elusive character of whiteness within racial discourses, expose the disconnect between the violences of whiteness and students' embodied knowledges of whiteness, and work to remedy this disconnect through intersecting axes of identity. Suggesting a representative anecdote of whiteness through intersectional investigation, they also question how certain forms of white student resistance has been characterized as reasserting white privilege, arguing that intersectional points of entry and affective responses of frustration and skepticism can provide productive avenues for critical whiteness pedagogy. Rejecting the notion that whiteness is productively taken up on faith, and thus supporting critical and skeptical engagements with whiteness through students' lived experiences, the authors argue that a representative--and thus intersectional--anecdote works to "(un)hinge whiteness" from isolated--and thus self-concealing--discussions of race. Through intersectional investigation, the complexity of whiteness is foregrounded and the invisibility and mystery of whiteness is challenged. (Contains 3 notes.)
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A