Unhooking from Whiteness : a The Key to Dismantling Racism in the United States

The purpose of Unhooking from Whiteness: The Key to Dismantling Racism in the United States is to reconsider the ways and strategies in which antiracist scholars do their work, as well as to provide pragmatic ways in which people – White and of color – can build cross-racial, cross-communal, and cross-institutional coalitions to fight White supremacy. Employing the methodology of autoethnography, each chapter in this book illustrates the individual journey that the chapter contributor took to “unhook” him or herself from Whiteness. Unhooking from Whiteness explains Whiteness in ways never conceptualized before. The chapters suggest approaches to “unhooking” from Whiteness, while sharing the authors’ continual struggles to identify and eradicate the role of Whiteness in education and society in the United States. The contributors to Unhooking from Whiteness offer us the invaluable gift of their stories, humble reflections on commitments to racial justice and complicities with racial injustice. But they aren’t merely stories – and this is the brilliance of the book – they are invitations into a reconsideration of the “common sense” discussions about the nature of white privilege, the possibility of white anti-racism, and the pervasive tug of whiteness. This is the rare book that shifts the angle and changes the conversation. Paul Gorski, Coordinator of the Social Justice Concentration, George Mason University What happens to people when they choose to unhook from the rules and modes of thought whiteness requires and expects of them? Whiteness promotes a form of hegemonic thinking, which influences not only thought processes but also behavior within the academy. Working to dismantle the racism and whiteness that continue to keep oppressed people powerless and immobilized in academe requires sharing power, opportunity, and access. Removing barriers to the knowledge created in higher education is an essential part of this process. The process of unhooking oneself from institutionalized whiteness certainly requires fighting hegemonic modes of thought and patriarchal views that persistently keep marginalized groups of academics in their station (or at their institution). In the explosive Unhooking from Resisting the Esprit de Corps, editors Hartlep and Hayes continue the conversation they began in 2013; they and the chapter contributors are brave enough to tell a contemporary reality few are brave enough to discuss. "In this groundbreaking and revolutionary sequel volume to Unhooking from The Key to Dismantling Racism in the United States, Nicholas Hartlep and Cleveland Hayes and a group of fearless scholars-activists continue to manifest liberative counternarratives, counteraccounts, personal memoirs, poetry, and testimonios of 'humanity destroying crimes' of racism, white supremacy, and 'academic lynching' that pervade the academic psyche through epistemology, ontology, and axiology in the United States. This radical work poses a troubling challenge to humanity not only to unhook from, but also to contest, transgress, and liberate from, white supremacy to cultivate extraordinary human potential in a trembling and unjust world." - Ming Fang He, Georgia Southern University Nicholas D. Hartlep is an award-winning Assistant Professor of Educational Foundations at Illinois State University and co-editor of Unhooking from The Key to Dismantling Racism in the United States and Critical Storytelling in Uncritical Stories Disclosed in a Cultural Foundations of Education Course. He lives and writes in Normal, Illinois. (http://www.nicholashartlep.com) www.nicholashartlep.com Cleveland Hayes is an Associate Professor in the College of Education and Organizational Leadership at the University of La Verne. Dr. Hayes teaches Secondary and Elementary Science Methods in the Teacher Education program and Research Methods in the Education Management and Leadership Program. He lives and writes in Upland, California. "The purpose of [this book] is to reconsider the ways and strategies in which antiracist scholars do their work, as well as to provide pragmatic ways in which people--White and of color--can build cross-racial, cross-communal, and cross-institutional coalitions to fight White supremacy. Employing the methodology of autoethnography, each chapter in this book illustrates the individual journey that the chapter contributor took to 'unhook' him or herself from Whiteness. Unhooking from Whiteness explains Whiteness in ways never conceptualized before. The chapters suggest approaches to 'unhooking' from Whiteness, while sharing the authors' continual struggles to identify and eradicate the role of Whiteness in education and society in the United States. The contributors to Unhooking from Whiteness offer us the invaluable gift of their stories, humble reflections on commitments to racial justice and complicities with racial injustice. But they aren't merely stories--and this is the brilliance of the book--they are invitations into a reconsideration of the 'common sense' discussions about the nature of white privilege, the possibility of white anti-racism, and the pervasive tug of whiteness. This is the rare book that shifts the angle and changes the conversation"--Back cover The purpose of this book is to reconsider the ways and strategies in which antiracist scholars do their work, as well as to provide pragmatic ways in which people -- White and of color -- can build cross-racial, cross-communal, and cross-institutional coalitions to fight White supremacy. Employing the methodology of autoethnography, each chapter in this book illustrates the individual journey that the chapter contributor took to "unhook" him or herself from Whiteness. This book explains Whiteness in ways never conceptualized before. The chapters suggest approaches to "unhooking" from Whiteness, while sharing the authors' continual struggles to identify and eradicate the role of Whiteness in education and society in the United States. The contributors to this book offer us the invaluable gift of their stories, humble reflections on commitments to racial justice and complicities with racial injustice. But they aren't merely stories -- and this is the brilliance of the book -- they are invitations into a reconsideration of the "common sense" discussions about the nature of white privilege, the possibility of white anti-racism, and the pervasive tug of whiteness. This is the rare book that shifts the angle and changes the conversation Front Matter....Pages i-xii Toward a Lesser Shade of White....Pages 1-16 Too White to be Black and Too Black to be White....Pages 29-31 Learning to Take the Bullet and More....Pages 44-51 Privileging Privilege with the Hope of Accessing Privilege....Pages 53-56 I Refuse to be a Pawn for Whiteness....Pages 57-70 Repositioning the Hook....Pages 71-91 English Ivy....Pages 93-101 Our Journeys as Latin@ Educators and the Perpetual Struggle to Unhook from Whiteness....Pages 103-121 Interrupting the Racial Triangulation of Asians....Pages 123-131 Afterword....Pages 133-136 Back Matter....Pages 137-151