Against the Dark: Antiblackness in Education Policy and Discourse

Theory Into Practice· 2015-12-07· article· 760 citationsclosed

Critical Race Theory in Education Race, Identity, and Education in Brazil Education Discipline and Inequality

Abstract

I argue that analyses of racial(ised) discourse and policy processes in education must grapple with cultural disregard for and disgust with blackness. This article explains how a theorization of antiblackness allows one to more precisely identify and respond to racism in education discourse and in the formation and implementation of education policy. I contend that deeply embedded within racialized policy discourses is not merely a concern about disproportionality or inequality, but also a concern with the bodies of Black people, the signification of (their) Blackness, and the threat posed by the Black to the educational well-being of other students. Using school (de)segregation as an example, I demonstrate how policy discourse is informed by antiblackness, and consider what an awareness of antiblackness means for educational policy and practice.

Cite this

Michael J. Dumas (2015). Against the Dark: Antiblackness in Education Policy and Discourse. Theory Into Practice. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2016.1116852

@article{j2015against,
  title  = {Against the Dark: Antiblackness in Education Policy and Discourse},
  author = {Dumas, Michael J.},
  year   = {2015},
  journal = {Theory Into Practice},
  doi    = {10.1080/00405841.2016.1116852}
}

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References

1988The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935

2010Represent and Destroy

2003Freedom dreams: the black radical imagination

2007Lose Your Mother: A Journey along the Atlantic Slave Route

2012Sites of Slavery

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