Colluding, Colliding, and Contending with Norms of Whiteness
Analyzing experiences of white mothers of daughters and sons of color across the United States, Chandler provides an insider’s view of the complex ways in which whiteness norms appear and operate. Through uncovering and analyzing whiteness norms occurring across motherhood stages, Chandler has developed a model of three common ways of interacting with the norms of whiteness: colluding, colliding, and contending. Chandler’s results suggest that collisions with whiteness norms are a necessary step to increasing one’s racial literacy which is essential for effective contentions with norms of whiteness. She proposes steps for applying her model in education settings, which can also be applied in other organizational contexts.
Bio
Jennifer L. S. Chandler is a faculty member in leadership and interdisciplinary studies in ASU's College of Integrative Sciences and Arts. She is also the leadership advisor for the Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics, an NSF-funded engineering research Ccenter that ASU leads with partners UC, Davis; New Mexico State University; and Georgia Tech.
Praise for this book
Chandler has developed an analytical approach to understanding the ways in which white social actors navigate and negotiate norms of whiteness that does not make for simple or easy classifications of the white women she describes. This is not a project working to identify ways in which its participants are/were racist, but rather to allow for generous and nuanced interpretations of the complex ways these white mothers make meaning of their whiteness, the racial identities of their children, and their complicity and conflict in a white supremacist social reality.
Zachary A. Casey Teachers College Record
Chandler takes on the difficult task of unpacking whiteness within interracial family structures. She is both empathetic and critical, generous and harsh, insider and outsider in her task to portray the myriad experiences of white women who knowingly or ignorantly enter into hostile racial contexts in their families, neighborhoods, and schools. Chandler's book opens the door for further conversations about how educators can support white female teachers to address their complicity with racism as a step toward becoming better teachers and advocates for students of color in their classrooms.
Thandeka K. Chapman, Nicholas D. Hartlep, and Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner Foreward to "Colluding, Colliding, and Contending with Norms of Whiteness"
