How White Supremacy is Embedded in Educational Organizations and How to Begin to Dismantle It

While the idea of race is ever-present in the field education, insufficient attention has been paid to the relationship between contemporary race theory and schools as organizations. Moreover, research often avoids focusing on the role of white racial actors in the perpetuation of racial disparities in educational opportunities and outcomes. In this talk, John B. Diamond will discuss how white supremacy is deeply-embedded in school organizational routines and how it is perpetuated through white opportunity hoarding. He then will discuss the implications of these processes for understanding racial inequality and highlight some potential approaches to creating more racially just educational institutions.

Diamond is the Kellner Family Distinguished Chair in Urban Education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis and a faculty affiliate in the Departments of Afro-American Studies and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. A sociologist of race and education, he studies the relationship between social inequality and educational opportunity through examining how educational leadership, policies, and practices shape students’ educational opportunities and outcomes.