Whiteness as Technology of Affect: Implications for Educational Praxis

Abstract

This article explores the embodiment and affectivity of whiteness, particularly as it implicates educational praxis and social justice in education, focusing on the following questions: In what ways are affect and whiteness constitutive of each other in race dialogue? How does emotion intersect with racial practices and white privilege, and what are the educational implications of this entanglement? In theorizing whiteness as a technology of affect, the authors hope to capture the mental, emotional, and bodily dimensions of whiteness in the context of racial dialogue. In particular, the authors introduce the idea of “white intellectual alibis,” or Whites’ attempt to project a non-racist alibi rather than aligning themselves with anti-racism. Finally, the authors discuss how whiteness as a kind of technology of affect has implications for pedagogical efforts to engage in equitable and anti-racist education. It is suggested that unless educational scholars engage with a theoretical analysis of how whiteness is manifest as affective technology in educational praxis, we will fail to appreciate the important implications of this idea for educational theory and praxis.

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