Reopening Racial Wounds: Whiteness, Melancholia, and Affect in the English Classroom

Abstract

This article critiques a classroom encounter between a Black student, Richard, and a white student, Nick, that complicated the white English teacher, Mr. Turner’s, attempt to facilitate a discussion about racial progress in America. Students positioned their bodies on a continuum between 1, no racial progress since the 1930s, and 10, full racial equity. When Richard positioned himself at the low end of the continuum and Nick located himself on the high end, a disruption occurred after Mr. Turner moved his body toward Nick while verbally validating Richard’s perspective. I argue that the classroom’s affective register was altered by racial melancholia, reopening racial wounds and reproducing whiteness, evoking emotions I call “melancholic affects.”

Black Parents’ Perspectives on Instruction: Racial Realism at a Predominantly White, Independent, Urban Elementary School

“…There is a growing body of literature on how teachers enact and avoid critical multiculturalism (Blaisdell, 2019; King & Simmons, 2018; Milner, 2005; Vickery & Salinas, 2019; Warren-Grice, 2017; Wills, 2019), how students respond to multicultural and anti-racist instruction (Bolgatz, 2005; Grever et al, 2011; Grinage, 2019; Huynh, 2013; Martell, 2013; Thornhill, 2016; Wynter-Hoyte et al, 2019), and about curricular materials themselves (Busey & Walker, 2017; Patterson & Shuttleworth, 2019). King and Brown (2014) decry “typical” approaches to teaching Black history for being uncritical, not acknowledging White supremacy, and not championing Black agency.…”