2. Rupturing the Black-White Binary

Abstract

Abstract The “binary” language in Black-White binary discourse is reductive, and as such, is potentially antagonistic to the project of racial solidarity needed to divine racial justice. Such language reads as exclusionary of non-Black people of color who are indeed impacted by white supremacy and the structural racism that establishes and preserves it. Building from calls by critical race scholars to specify understanding of racial suffering (e.g., LatCrit, TribalCrit, BlackCrit, etc.), this essay argues that a Black-White relations intellectual frame substantially enhances critical race education research analyses. In other words, comprehending the political function of blackness to catalyze production of whiteness is essential to better discerning how hierarchies of racial power are (re)produced. Moreover, “mourning” is offered in the paper as a site for both lamenting the enduring consequence(s) of white supremacy, as well as for discerning possibility for an emancipated future in higher education and beyond.