Responding to a MAGA Hat on Campus

Towards Understanding the Interplay of Liberal and Right-Wing Racisms in Places of Schooling

Presenter: Theresa Burruel-Stone

Presenter Status: Faculty

Academic Year: 21-22

Semester: Spring

Department: English

Funding Source/Sponsor: RSCAP

Screenshot URL: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1o4jLTuAzqNS-aj96Np7OkEhsVnll9YCg

Abstract:
Studies of racism in places of schooling typically consider its various forms within silos of inquiry; colorblind racisms and Trump-era racisms are examples of separate objects of study. This paper examines youths’ intersecting experiences of liberal and incidental right-wing racisms within U.S. schools in liberal, racially diverse places. Using pláticas and interviews from an ethnographic study of a college preparation program for Latinx youth, it considers echoes of national right-wing, white supremacist discourses, represented by MAGA hats worn around a SF Bay Area high school; liberal and radical teacher responses to local and national racisms; and BIPOC youths' responses to right-wing terror as they reflected upon MAGA hat wearers towards the end of the Trump administration. It argues that socialization of Latinx youth into the liberal value of tolerance abandons youth to right-wing racisms, illustrated by youths’ dismissal of their own scared and angry responses to racial terror.