Abstract
In this conceptual essay, the author argues that bad faith is a valuable concept in understanding and challenging racism in higher education. The philosopher Lewis Gordon argues that racism is a manifestation of bad faith. For the actor who sees Black people as less than human, for example, no evidence will allow the actor to see otherwise. Bad faith is the disavowal of any disconfirming evidence which allows actors to maintain their worldviews. The author draws from high profile examples of racism in higher education as conceptual cases to make his argument. Specifically, the author demonstrates how attacks upon Critical Race Theory in education, the currency of critiques of microaggressions research, and the perennial difficulty to name racist violence on campus as hate crimes operate upon a logic of racism through bad faith.
Highlights
Through volumes of rigorous scholarship, the eminent sociologist and advocate for racial justice, W.E.B
I provide three examples of racism as a form of bad faith in higher education: (1) the right-wing attack upon Critical Race Theory (CRT), (2) popular critiques of microaggressions research, and (3) the struggle of naming a crime as racially motivated in the higher education context
I use the concept of bad faith to briefly analyze (1) the right-wing attack upon Critical Race Theory, (2) critiques of microaggressions research, and (3) the difficulty of finding a crime racially motivated in higher education
Summary
Through volumes of rigorous scholarship, the eminent sociologist and advocate for racial justice, W.E.B. The rhetorical questions he poses urge the reader to face the herculean task, if not impossibility, of generative conversation with someone who is stubbornly, and incorrectly, certain of their own beliefs In this unique moment of virality, the echo rooms of social media, and suspicion of the news media, no shortage of examples exist of those who believe that they see, but do not see. I build upon this foundational work to apply the concept of bad faith to the study of racism in the higher education context. I provide three examples of racism as a form of bad faith in higher education: (1) the right-wing attack upon CRT, (2) popular critiques of microaggressions research, and (3) the struggle of naming a crime as racially motivated in the higher education context. I use these examples as conceptual cases to demonstrate bad faith’s usefulness in naming racism and understanding the hold of dominant, racist stories on society
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