Investigates the ways that backlash pedagogy, a centerpiece of educational reform, accepts substantial inequality as a neutral baseline for educational practice and reform and, simultaneously, enshrines the status quo. The analysis draws on several theoretical lenses (cultural-historical activity theory, critical race theory, and ethnographic research), focusing on the impact of California's Proposition 227 (prohibition of the primary language in instruction) on bilingual and English-only education. (SM)