Performing Blackness: Disrupting ’race’ in the classroom

Abstract

This paper looks at the experience and performance of ‘race’ in the classroom, through the narrative of a young Somali man; Ahmed. The paper explores the notion of Blackness and primarily draws on Fanon’s (1967) work on the ‘doubled’ self, Althusser’s (1971) ‘interpellation’, and makes some reference to Judith Butler’s (1990) work on ‘subjection’, to examine the function of racial performativity in the classroom. The paper examines the role of White privilege in the construction of imposed ‘Blackness’ in the classroom, and through an analysis of Ahmed’s narrative, disrupts the racialised discourses of the classroom.