As teacher educators we have been struck by the consistency, urgency, and frequency in which students employ color-blind perspectives. This orientation has negative consequences in K-12 settings. In this manuscript, we lay out the multiple meanings of color blindness, drawing from legal, educational, and social science traditions, and offer arguments for color consciousness in education. In addition, we use this theoretical perspective to investigate interventions for countering color blindness in teacher education. Using a framework steeped in the tenets of color consciousness, we draw from scholars as well as our own work to provide interventions designed to challenge color-blind orientations in teachers.
AleinikoffT. A. (1991). A case for race-consciousness. Colombia Law Review, 91, 1060-1125.
2.
AleinikoffT. A. (1992). The Constitution in context: The continuing significance of race. University of Colorado Law Review, 63, 325-373.
3.
AllenR. L. (2004). Whiteness and critical pedagogy. Educational philosophy and theory, 36(2), 121-136.
4.
AngelouM. (1969). I know why the caged bird sings. New York, NY: Bantam.
5.
AngelouM. (1993). Gather together in my name. New York, NY: Random House.
6.
AyersW. (1993). To teach: The journey of a teacher. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
7.
BacaJ. S. (1994). Working in the dark: Reflections of a poet in the barrio. Santa Fe, NM: Red Crane Books.
8.
BambaraT. C. (1972). Gorilla, my love. New York, NY: Random House.
9.
BanksJ. A. (1993). Multicultural education: Historical development, dimensions, and practice. Review of Research in Education, 19, 3-49.
10.
BanksJ. A. (1994). An introduction to multicultural education. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
11.
BanksJ. A. (1997). Multicultural education: Characteristics and goals. In BanksJ.McGee BanksC. (Eds.), Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (p. 3-31). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
12.
BanksJ. A. (2001). Citizenship education and diversity: Implications for teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 52(1), 5-16.
13.
BatteyD. (under review). Access to mathematics education: A possessive investment in whiteness. Submitted to the Journal of Research in Mathematics Education.
14.
BellL. (2002). Sincere fictions: The pedagogical challenges of preparing White teachers for multicultural classroom. Equity and Excellence in Education, 35, 236-244.
15.
Bonilla-SilvaE. (2003). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield.
16.
BrodkinK. (1998). How Jews became White folks and what that says about race in America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
17.
CampJ.MorrisR. (1992). Unequal education: Failing our children [Videotape]. Princeton, NJ: Public Affairs Television.
18.
CarlsonD. (2004). Narrating the multicultural nation: Rosa Parks and the White mythology of the Civil Rights movement. In FineM.WeisL.PruittL.BurnsA. (Eds.), Off White: Readings on power, privilege and resistance (pp. 302-311). New York, NY: Routledge.
19.
ChubbuckS. (2004). Whiteness enacted, whiteness disrupted: The complexity of personal congruence. American Educational Research Journal, 41, 301-333.
20.
Cochran-SmithM. (1995). Colorblindness and basket making are not the answers. American Educational Research Journal, 32, 493-522.
21.
ConwayJ. K. (1989). The road from Coorain. New York, NY: Vintage.
22.
CrosbyF.Blake-BeardS. (2004). Affirmative action: Diversity, merit and the benefit of White people. In FineM.WeisL.PruittL.BurnsA. (Eds.), Off White: Readings on power, privilege and resistance (pp. 145-159). New York, NY: Routledge.
23.
DelpitL. (1995). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York, NY: New Press.
24.
Derman-SparksL.RamseyP. (2006). What if all the kids are White? Anti-bias multicultural education with young children and families. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
25.
DouglasF. (1845). A narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Garden City, NY: Anchor/Doubleday.
26.
FineM.WeisL.PowellL. C.WongL. M. (2004). Off white: Readings on race, power, and society. New York, NY: Routledge.
27.
FlaggB. (1993). “Was blind, but now I see”: White race consciousness and the requirement of discriminatory intent. Michigan Law Review, 91, 953-1017.
28.
Foundation for the Advancement of Science. (1993). Good morning, Miss Toliver [Videotape]. Los Angeles, CA: Author.
29.
FrankenbergR. (1993). White women, race matters: The social construction of Whiteness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
30.
FrykholmJ. A. (1997). A stacked deck: Addressing issues of equity with preservice students. Equity and Excellence in Education, 30(2), 50-58.
31.
GillbornD. (2009). Education policy as an act of White supremacy: Whiteness, critical race theory and education reform. In TaylorE.GillbornD.Ladson BillingsG. (Eds.), Foundations of critical race theory (pp. 51-72). New York, NY: Routledge.
32.
GilyardK. (1991). Voices of the self: A study of language competence. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.
33.
GotandaN. (1995). A critique of “our constitution is color-blind.” In CrenshawK.GotandaN.PellerG.ThomasK. (Eds.), Critical race theory: The key writings that formed the movement (pp. 257-275). New York, NY: New Press.
34.
GuggenheimC. (1995). The shadow of hate: A history of intolerance in America [Videotape]. Montgomery, AL: Teaching Tolerance.
35.
Haney-LópezI. (1996). White by law: The legal construction of race. New York: New York University Press.
36.
HoffmanE. (1990). Lost in translation: A life in a new language. New York, NY: E. P. Dutton.
37.
HollinsE. R. (1990). Debunking the myth of a monolithic White American culture, or moving toward cultural inclusion. American Behavioral Scientist, 34, 201-209.
38.
HowardG. (2006). We can’t teach what we don’t know: White teachers multiracial schools. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
39.
IgnatievI. (1995). How the Irish became White. New York, NY: Routledge.
40.
JohnsonL. (2002). “My eyes have been opened”: White teachers and racial awareness. Journal of Teacher Education, 53, 153-167.
KingJ. E. (1991). Dysconscious racism: Ideology, identity, and the miseducation of teachers. Journal of Negro Education, 60(2), 133-146.
43.
KingJ. E.Ladson-BillingsG. (1990). The teacher education challenge in elite university settings: Developing critical perspectives for teaching in a democratic and multicultural society. European Journal of Intercultural Studies, 1, 15-30.
44.
KingM. L. (1963, August28). I have a dream. Speech given during the march on Washington, Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC.
45.
King FarrisC. (2003). My brother Martin: A sister remembers. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
46.
KingstonM. H. (1999). The woman warrior: Memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts. New York, NY: Vintage.
47.
KivelP. (2002). Uprooting racism: How White people can work for racial justice. Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada: New Society.
48.
KohlH. (1991). I won’t learn from you: The role of assent in education. New Jersey: Milkweed.
49.
KozolJ. (1992). Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s schools. New York, NY: Harper Perennial.
50.
KozolJ. (2005). The shame of the nation: The restoration of apartheid schooling in America. New York, NY: Crown.
51.
Ladson-BillingsG. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
52.
Ladson-BillingsG. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32, 465-491.
53.
Ladson-BillingsG. (2000). Fighting for our lives: Preparing teachers to teach African American students. Journal of Teacher Education, 51, 206-214.
54.
LawrenceC. R. (1995). The id, the ego and equal protection: Reckoning with unconscious racism. In CrenshawK.GotandaN.PellerG.ThomasK. (Eds.), Critical race theory: The key writings that formed the movement (pp. 235-256). New York, NY: New Press.
55.
LeeH. (1960). To kill a mockingbird. New York, NY: J. B. Lippincott.
56.
LeonardoZ. (2002). The souls of White folk: Critical pedagogy, whiteness studies and globalization discourse. Race, ethnicity and education, 5(1), 30-50.
57.
LeonardoZ. (2007). The war on schools: NCLB, nation creation and the educational construction of whiteness. Race, ethnicity and education, 10, 261-278.
58.
LipsitzG. (1995). The possessive investment in whiteness: Racialized social democracy and the “White” problem in American studies. American Quarterly, 47, 369-387.
59.
LykesM. B. (1994). Terror, silencing, and children: International, multidisciplinary collaboration with Guatemalan Maya communities. Social science and medicine, 38, 543-552.
60.
MacLeodJ. (1995). Ain’t no makin’ it: Aspirations and attainment in a low-income neighborhood. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
61.
MarxS. (2006). Revealing the invisible: Confronting passive racism in teacher education. New York, NY: Routledge.
62.
MclntoshP. (1989, July/August). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Peace and Freedom, 10-12.
63.
McIntyreA. (1997). Making meaning of whiteness: Exploring racial identity with White teachers. Albany: State University of New York Press.
64.
McIntyreA. (2002). Exploring whiteness and multicultural education with prospective teachers. Curriculum Inquiry, 32(1), 31-49.
65.
MilnerH. R. (2006). But good intentions are not enough: Theoretical and philosophical relevance in teaching students of color. In LandsmanJ.LewisC. (Eds.), White teachers/Diverse classrooms (pp. 79-90) Sterling, VA: Stylus.
66.
MooreW. L. (2008). Reproducing racism: White space, elite law schools, and racial inequality. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
67.
MorrisonT. (1993). On the backs of Blacks. Time, 142(21), 57.
68.
NarodeR.Rennie-HillL.PetersonK. (1994). Urban community study by preservice teachers. Urban Education, 29(1), 5-21.
69.
NietoS. (1992). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education. New York, NY: Longman.
70.
PaleyV. (1979). White teacher. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
71.
PaleyV. (1995). Kwanzaa and me. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
72.
PollockM. (2005). Colormute: Race talk dilemmas in an American school. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
RodríguezL. J. (1993). Always running: La vida loca. Gang days in L.A. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press.
75.
RodriguezR. (1982). Hunger of memory: The education of Richard Rodriguez. New York, NY: Bantam.
76.
RoedigerD. R. (1992). The wages of whiteness: Race and the making of the American working class. New York, NY: Verso.
77.
RoseM. (1989). Lives on the boundary. New York, NY: Penguin.
78.
RosenbergP. (2004). Colorblindness in teacher education: An optical delusion. In FineM.WeisL.PruittL.BurnsA. (Eds.), Off White: Readings on power, privilege and resistance (pp. 257-272). New York, NY: Routledge.
79.
RosensteinJ. (1997). In whose honor? American Indian mascots in sports [Videotape]. Ho-ho-kus, New Jersey: New Day Films.
80.
Sapphire. (1997). Push. New York, NY: Random House.
81.
ScheurichJ. (1993). Toward a White discourse on White racism. Educational Researcher, 22(8), 5-10.
82.
SchmidtP. R. (1998). The ABC’s cultural understanding and communication. Equity and Excellence in Education, 31(2), 28-38.
83.
SchmidtP. R. (1999). Know thyself and understanding others. Language Arts, 76, 332-340.
84.
SchofieldJ. (1997). Causes and consequences of the colorblind perspective. In BanksJ.McGee BanksC. (Eds.), Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (pp. 251-271). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
85.
SleeterC. E. (2001). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools: Research and the overwhelming presence of whiteness. Journal of Teacher Education, 52(2), 94-106.
86.
SleeterC. E.GrantC. A. (2007). Making choices for multicultural education: Five approaches to race, class, and gender. Columbus, OH: Wiley.
87.
SolorzanoD.YossoT. (2009). Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an analytical framework for educational research. In TaylorE.GillbornD.Ladson BillingsG. (Eds.), Foundations of critical race theory (pp. 131-147). New York, NY: Routledge.
88.
SpringJ. (1994). Deculturalization and the struggle for equality: A brief history of the education of dominated cultures in the United States. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
89.
SwartzE. (2003). Teaching White pre-service teachers: Pedagogy for change. Urban Education, 38, 255-278.
90.
TanA. (1991). The joy luck club. New York, NY: G. P. Putnam.
91.
TateW. (1999). Conclusion. In ParkerL.DeyhleD.VillenasS. (Eds.), Race is . . . Race isn’t: Critical race theory and qualitative studies in education (pp. 251-271). Boulder, CO: Westview.
92.
TatumB. D. (1997). “Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?” And other conversations about race. New York, NY: Basic Books.
93.
TaylorE. (1999). Critical race theory and interest convergence in the desegregation of higher education. In ParkerL.DeyhleD.VillenasS. (Eds.), Race is . . . Race isn’t: Critical race theory and qualitative studies in education (pp. 181-204). Boulder, CO: Westview.
94.
TeelK.ObidahJ. (2008). Building racial and cultural competence in the classroom: Strategies from urban educators. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
95.
ValenzuelaA. (1999). Subtractive schooling: U.S.-Mexican youth and the politics of caring. New York: State University of New York Press.
96.
WahL. M. (1994). The color of fear [Videotape]. Oakland, CA: Stir-Fry Productions.
97.
WilliamsP. (1984). A class divided [Videotape]. Boston, MA: Public Broadcasting Service.
98.
XuH. (2000). Preservice teachers integrate understandings of diversity into literacy instruction: An adaptation of the ABC’s model. Journal of Teacher Education, 51, 135-142.
99.
YamanakaL. A. (1997). Wild meat and the bully burgers. New York, NY: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.
