Untangling Whiteness: Education, Resistance and Transformation [Hardback]

Untangling Whiteness: Education, Resistance and Transformation

by Jennifer Gale de Saxe (Victoria University of Wellington)

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Having entered an era of legislated anti-critical race theory and heightened white supremacist attitudes embraced by non-white holders as well, this book illuminates the complex dynamics of whiteness and the power it wields as an invisible force. The accessibility of clearly defined concepts will appeal to readers at different stages seeking critical tools for productive discussions on race, racism, and whiteness.

Adele N. Norris
Sociology | Social Policy Program
University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

Few scholars are able to theorise the dynamic and complex relationship between race and whiteness and bring these into meaningful conversation with students' lived realities. In "UntanglingWhiteness: Education, Resistance and Transformation", de Saxe does both. Her insight and passion to empower individuals to name and transform their conditions of oppression is courageous and timely. This book is a must-have for critical educators who are striving for a more just society.

Dr Liana MacDonald
School of Social and Cultural Studies
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

“Untangling Whiteness” provides ways to understand both how universities perpetuate caustic ideologies such as whiteness yet can also become the very spaces to unlearn, resist, and transform such destructive mentalities into sites of liberation. Grounded in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand, Jennifer de Saxe is an expert educator drawing from years of classroom experiences to impart an accessible text for students and teachers alike.

Aaron J. Hahn Tapper
Mae and Benjamin Swig Professor in Jewish Studies
Founding Director, Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice
University of San Francisco
Author of "Judaisms: A Twenty-First-Century Introduction to Jews and Jewish Identities"

In this important work, Jennifer de Saxe explores white supremacy as a global phenomenon that is as impactful in Aotearoa, New Zealand, as in the United States. By weaving together theory, student voice, and discussion of her university courses, de Saxe provides a model of racially-informed practice that invites us to be attentive, not only to our own racial identities, but to how whiteness and white supremacy are situated within classrooms, institutions, and ultimately, ourselves.

Alain Sykes
Dean of Equity and Social Impact
Drew School: San Francisco, California

“Untangling Whiteness” offers educators a vocabulary and method for engaging with discomforting conversations about race and whiteness in Aotearoa. In this book, Jennifer de Saxe deftly navigates the complex role of universities as both sites to resist and sites of resistance, offering a nuanced critique of how these institutions uphold whiteness and racial domination while highlighting the potential for liberatory education within university spaces. Having witnessed the transformative effects of de Saxe’s pedagogical approach on sociology and anthropology students at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, this book has a permanent place in my library alongside work by Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and George Yancy.

Dr. Lorena Gibson
Programme Director, Cultural Anthropology
Te Kura Mahinga Tangata | Social and Cultural Studies
Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

With the prominence of workshops, trainings, and anti-racist books popping up over the past few years, it may seem confusing as to what it really means to engage in deliberate and meaningful learning that challenges the many facets of racism and whiteness. Jennifer de Saxe writes this book directly interrogating the assumption that the teaching and learning about race and whiteness, particularly within the university context, can be condensed to one course, one workshop, or even a few trainings. It is a life-long process that may begin in one university classroom, but must continue as part of who we are as unfinished and undetermined beings. The inspiration and motivation for writing this book are based on a third-year sociology course she teaches at her current university in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Through a deep and multi-faceted interrogation of racism and white supremacy, this book untangles critical theories of race, whiteness and resistance in an accessible and dialogical manner. This book also situates whiteness in Aotearoa, New Zealand, demonstrating the importance of context and location when working to undermine and challenge it. As a theoretical provocation of existing scholarship on race and white supremacy, this book is underpinned by educating for critical consciousness, as well as a phenomenological engagement that aims to both interpret the world differently and transform it.

Jennifer de Saxe is a senior lecturer in sociology and social policy at Te Herenga Waka- University of Wellington. Prior to moving to Aotearoa, New Zealand, she was an Assistant Professor of Education at Lewis and Clark College. De Saxe also taught courses on race, whiteness, and education at the University of Washington, Seattle University, and Seattle Central Community College. Before receiving her PhD, she taught primary students at private and public schools in Chicago, Seattle, Seaside and Costa Mesa (the latter two cities in California). Presently, her teaching and research challenge hegemonic whiteness, white supremacy, knowledge production, and power relations in both schools and society. The lenses in which de Saxe examines such issues are embedded within critical race, feminist, and education theories and perspectives. Throughout her research, she reinforces the importance of paying close attention to the intersections of gender, race, class, and sexuality, among others, and the interconnectedness of these identifiers as they relate to the many facets of challenging, analysing and critiquing education and society writ large.

Ideologies of whiteness, racism, white supremacy, educating for critical consciousness