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Whiteness Interrupted

White Teachers and Racial Identity in Predominantly Black Schools

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Book

Pages: 264

Published: August 2021

Author: Marcus Bell

In Whiteness Interrupted Marcus Bell presents a revealing portrait of white teachers in majority-black schools in which he examines the limitations of understandings of how white racial identity is formed. Through in-depth interviews with dozens of white teachers from a racially segregated, urban school district in Upstate New York, Bell outlines how whiteness is constructed based on localized interactions and takes a different form in predominantly black spaces. He finds that in response to racial stress in a difficult teaching environment, white teachers conceptualized whiteness as a stigmatized category predicated on white victimization. When discussing race outside majority-black spaces, Bell's subjects characterized American society as postracial, in which race seldom affects outcomes. Conversely, in discussing their experiences within predominantly black spaces, they rejected the idea of white privilege, often angrily, and instead focused on what they saw as the racial privilege of blackness. Throughout, Bell underscores the significance of white victimization narratives in black spaces and their repercussions as the United States becomes a majority-minority society.

Praise

“A rich and insightful book, Whiteness Interrupted is an original contribution that will impact numerous disciplines—sociology, black studies, ethnic studies, whiteness studies, and education—while also appealing to a broader readership interested in the formation of racial identity.” - Victor M. Rios, author of Human Targets: Schools, Police, and the Criminalization of Latino Youth

“Whiteness Interrupted makes a crucial intervention by showing how whites are racialized when they are the minority. Marcus Bell's examination of white teachers in black schools raises important questions about racial asymmetry in all its forms. Framing the construction of race around spatial negotiation interrupts the theorizing of whiteness in much-needed ways.” - Freeden Blume Oeur, author of Black Boys Apart: Racial Uplift and Respectability in All-Male Public Schools

“Whiteness Interrupted is an important investigation on the contemporary ways in which White identity forms and reforms. Bell lays out a persuasive call for sociologists of race and ethnicity to pay more attention to locality.” - Matthew W. Hughey, Social Forces

“Whiteness Interrupted tackles the complex subject of racial identity among white educators and makes it understandable for many Americans. . . . This is definitely a must-read for all, particularly as the US becomes a majority-minority society. Essential.” - K. H. Jones, Choice

“Individuals who are interested in racial inequality within select institutions (education, government, the economy, etc.) will find this research stimulating, although graduate students, undergraduates, teachers, and professors should be particularly interested in [Whiteness Interrupted].” - Michael Parrish, Ethnic and Racial Studies

"All in all, Whiteness Interrupted is a fascinating read with rich insights about the power of space in shaping white identities. The concepts and explanations the book advances are useful now, and I suspect they will continue to be meaningful in the United States’ fast-changing racial landscape and in increasingly polarized national debates on race in schools." - Derron Wallace, American Journal of Sociology

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Author/Editor Bios Table Of Contents Rights Additional Information

Author/Editor Bios

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Marcus Bell is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Cortland.

Table Of Contents

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Preface and Acknowledgments  vii
Introduction: Whiteness in America  1
1. White Racelessness  17
2. The Color Line and the Classroom  38
3. Becoming White Teachers  63
4. The White Race Card  85
5. Colorblind  117
Conclusion: White Identity Politics and the Coming Crisis of Place  153
Appendix: Methodology and Research Design  166
Notes  179
Bibliography  219
Index  241

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Sales/Territorial Rights: World

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Additional Information

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Paper ISBN: 978-1-4780-1463-8 / Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4780-1370-9 / eISBN: 978-1-4780-2193-3 / DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478021933