Colormute: Race Talk Dilemmas in an American School / Edition 1

by Mica Pollock

Overview

This book considers in unprecedented detail one of the most confounding questions in American racial practice: when to speak about people in racial terms. Viewing "race talk" through the lens of a California high school and district, Colormute draws on three years of ethnographic research on everyday race labeling in education. Based on the author's experiences as a teacher as well as an anthropologist, it discusses the role race plays in everyday and policy talk about such familiar topics as discipline, achievement, curriculum reform, and educational inequality.


Pollock illustrates the wide variations in the way speakers use race labels. Sometimes people use them without thinking twice; at other moments they avoid them at all costs or use them only in the description of particular situations. While a major concern of everyday race talk in schools is that racial descriptions will be inaccurate or inappropriate, Pollock demonstrates that anxiously suppressing race words (being what she terms "colormute") can also cause educators to reproduce the very racial inequities they abhor.


The book assists readers in cultivating a greater understanding of the pitfalls and possibilities of everyday race talk and clarifies previously murky discussions of "colorblindness." By bridging the gap between theory and practice, Colormute will be enormously helpful in fostering ongoing conversations about dismantling racial inequality in America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691123950
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	10/23/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mica Pollock is Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She previously also worked in the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction 1

One

WeDon't Belong to Simple Race Groups, but We Do 18

Two

Race Doesn't Matter, but It Does 44

Three

TheDe-Raced Words We Use When Discussing Plans for Racial Equality Can Actually Keep Us from Discussing Ways to Make Opportunities Racially Equal 74

Four

The More Complex Inequality Seems to Get, the More Simplistic Inequality Analysis Seems to Become 109

Five

TheQuestions We Ask Most about RaceAretheVery Questions We Most Suppress 147

Six

Although Talking in Racial Terms Can Make Race Matter, Not Talking in Racial Terms Can Make Race Matter Too 172

Moving Forward 210

Practically Speaking: Words for Educators in Particular 220

Note 227

Bibliography 251

What People are Saying About This

Charles Payne

This welcome book invites us to become more critically conscious of 'race talk' and thus more aware of how even our silences can reproduce racial hierarchies.
— Charles Payne, Duke University

Hugh Mehan

Professor Pollock attacks a vitally important topic with vitality and an engaging and very readable style. Displaying a keen ear, she has artfully picked up the nuances of 'race talk' from students she has taught and observed. Pollock presents a troubling, but significant finding: Talking in racial terms can make race matter; but so too, can not speaking in racial terms.
— Hugh Mehan, University of California San Diego

Newman

Pollock's profound insights about the dilemmas of race talk and silence will change the way Americans think about language, social categories, and the responsibilities we must face if we are ever to make headway against racial inequality.
— Katherine S. Newman, Princeton University

Michelle Fine

The scholarship is provocative, the text well written, and the argument clear and compelling. Pollock is a truly gifted writer.
— Michelle Fine, City University of New York

From the Publisher

"The scholarship is provocative, the text well written, and the argument clear and compelling. Pollock is a truly gifted writer."—Michelle Fine, City University of New York

"Professor Pollock attacks a vitally important topic with vitality and an engaging and very readable style. Displaying a keen ear, she has artfully picked up the nuances of 'race talk' from students she has taught and observed. Pollock presents a troubling, but significant finding: Talking in racial terms can make race matter; but so too, can not speaking in racial terms."—Hugh Mehan, University of California San Diego

"This welcome book invites us to become more critically conscious of 'race talk' and thus more aware of how even our silences can reproduce racial hierarchies."—Charles Payne, Duke University

"Pollock's profound insights about the dilemmas of race talk and silence will change the way Americans think about language, social categories, and the responsibilities we must face if we are ever to make headway against racial inequality."—Katherine S. Newman, Princeton University

Editorial Reviews

The dilemma at the heart of this book is the same dilemma at the heart of US society: practically no available form of public discourse about racial topics or issues actually engages with what race i. . . . This book's ethnographic setting, detailed observations, and transcripts provide a close-up look at a vexing everyday issue, demonstrating an important performative dimension in the generation of racialization.

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

The dilemma at the heart of this book is the same dilemma at the heart of US society: practically no available form of public discourse about racial topics or issues actually engages with what race i. . . . This book's ethnographic setting, detailed observations, and transcripts provide a close-up look at a vexing everyday issue, demonstrating an important performative dimension in the generation of racialization.

"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute nie Urciuoli

As an anthropologist and a teacher, Pollock (Harvard Graduate Sch. of Education) has studied adult and young people's everyday struggles over fundamental questions of inequality and difference. This book, the product of three years of ethnographic research in California, explores one of the most confounding questions of U.S. racial practice: when to speak about people in racial terms. It discusses the role race plays in everyday and policy talk about such familiar topics as discipline, achievement, curriculum reform, and educational inequality. Pollock explores the boundaries and dilemmas of racial dialog in the classroom and argues that both clumsy race talk and an insistence on avoiding race labels in schools have actually fueled racial disparities in educational opportunity and attainment. Pollock attacks the topic with strength, providing a clear, compelling, and well-written argument. She helps readers cultivate greater understanding of the pitfalls and possibilities of daily race talk. A necessary and important work in fostering ongoing conversations about dismantling racial inequality in the United States; recommended for academic libraries. Samuel T. Huang, Univ. of Arizona Lib., Tucson Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Winner of the 2005 Outstanding Book Award, American Educational Research Association

Winner of the 2005 Critics' Choice Award, American Educational Studies Association

From the Publisher