Beyond “Post-Race Paralysis”

Abstract

The challenges of facilitating conversations on racial inequality, whiteness, and privilege in classrooms include student disengagement and students’ accusations of prejudice among instructors, particularly instructors of color. Moreover, the election of President Barack Obama in 2008 has promoted the claim that we are now “post-race” and thus no longer need to talk about race. Both students and instructors who believe otherwise and are committed to bringing up these topics in class risk facing ridicule or hostility and for instructors, even threats to their job security or life. However, in a public university where, ideally, racial inequality and privilege intersect, the classroom can be a space for critical dialogue and coalition building around racial justice. I discuss two pedagogical strategies that build opportunities to help students and instructors overcome “post-race paralysis”—the difficulty talking about race in the post-Obama era—and instead practice conversations towards anti-racism.