DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2016.v04i07.005

Pages: 774-784

Education on race is typically concerned with preserving safety, especially when facilitating dialogue between students. The current study takes its cue from research that problematizes the implementation of safety on the grounds that, without critical alertness, safety risks truncating interrogations of whiteness. This, in turn, inhibits the possible trajectories of race dialogue, shifting talk away from exposing contemporary manifestations and effects of racism. The article aims to contribute to extant work on classroom discussions of racism by applying this critique of safety to a set of reflective journals created by undergraduate students. These journals offer personal contemplations on classroom discussions of post-colonial literature, especially with regards to the perceived relevance of this literature to the racial climate of the campus in question. Based on a discourse analysis that draws from critiques of safety and whiteness, recommendations are offered as to particular conceptions of racism and non-racialism that should be problematized.