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Tapestries: Interwoven voices of local and global identities

Abstract

Using an interdisciplinary approach and a gear metaphor, I look at why an early 2000s school desegregation program in the Twin Cities was praised as revolutionary, but ended up resulting in greater segregation in the cities. This dissonance serves as an entry point for my greater project, in which I attempt to understand how doublespeak functions as a tool of white resistance to desegregation efforts in the North, and by extension, as a tool of white supremacy. Zooming out, I look at how the contradictions of liberalism harness the manipulation of language and the construction of whiteness to ensure that public schools serve as a site for the reproduction of white supremacy.

Author Biography

Gus Dexheimer (she/her/hers) is from Austin, Texas and is named for the main character in Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. She is a graduating senior at Macalester College where she has spent the past few years majoring in American Studies and Educational Studies. She is particularly interested in the role of race in public schooling in the United States – historically, politically, philosophically, and for individual classrooms, students, teachers, and families. She is also interested in holistic sex education and socioemotional learning. Finally, she is a fan of cooking for a crowd, doing digital illustration, and swimming in cold water. In spite of the fact that she is about to graduate from college, she has a sneaking suspicion that she will end up in a classroom again some day soon as an educator. That’s about all she knows for now. She thanks her mishpocha from Texas to Minnesota and beyond.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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