White Privilege in the College Classroom: Toward Pedagogical Strategies.

This paper addresses the problem of teaching about race and ethnicity in a context where white students are generally unaware of and frequently resistant to the role that race plays in the life chances of individuals in American society. Using data from a convenience sample collected at a primarily white college in the Western United States, we investigate the attitudes of students toward race and ethnicity in general and more specifically, the attitudes of students toward the coverage of issues dealing with race and ethnicity in the college classroom. Our focus is on the attitudes of white students who do not believe that race impacts life chances, who we analyze from a perspective of white privilege. We present preliminary findings in this paper and begin a discussion of pedagogical strategies to address the need to break through the resistance of many white students to learning about race and ethnicity. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]