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The denial of racism in Latina/o students' narratives about discrimination in the classroom

Discourse & Society

Published online on

Abstract

This study examines how Latina/o students perceive and frame experiences of prejudice against them in the classroom through narratives told in informal interviews in Spanish. This project started as an inquiry about these students’ general perceptions and experiences in their Advanced Spanish-language classes and how these compared to their experiences in other classes on campus. Narratives are essential to understanding how speakers perceive and evaluate the experiences narrated and how they position themselves in relation to their group as well as to outsiders. The results show that, in most cases, when recounting narratives of discrimination or situations that can be considered instances of prejudice, students were hesitant to recognize that they were the subjects of discrimination or to qualify the story as an occurrence of racism. Different strategies were used to avoid this recognition, including assigning others the role of recognizing the situation as discriminatory and also using narrative evaluations or introductions to justify or mitigate the reasons that motivated these incidents. Discourses of prejudice and racism denial have been broadly documented, yet most studies focus on those who deny being racist themselves or being part of a racist group. This study shows how the underrepresented group might incorporate these discourses of denial and also how their discourses support or, at least, do not challenge the ideologies of majority groups about race, language, and immigration.