Racelighting in Utah education: counterstories across contexts

• Date: 05 December 2023
• Pages: 495-515
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-11-2022-0328
• Published date: 05 December 2023
• Author: Maeve Wall,S. Shiver,Sonny Partola,Nicole Wilson Steffes,Rosie Ojeda

Racelighting in Utah education:

counterstories across contexts

Maeve Wall, S. Shiver, Sonny Partola, Nicole Wilson Steffes and

Rosie Ojeda

Department of Education, Culture, Society, College of Education,

The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Abstract

Purpose –The authors suggest strategies for addressing and combating these attempts at racelighting.

Design/methodology/approach –The authors of this article–five anti-racist educators working in various

educational settings in SLC–employ the Critical Race Theory counter-story methodology (Delgado and

Stefancic, 1993) to confront resistance to educational equity in Utah. They do so by first providing a historical

context of race and education in Utah before presenting four short counterstories addressing the racelighting

efforts of students, fellow educators and administrators when confronted with the complexities of racial

injustice.

Findings –These counterstories are particularly important in light of the recent increasein color-evasive and

whitewashed messaging used to attack CRT and to deny the existence of racism in the SLC school system in

K-post-secondary education, and in the U.S. as a whole.

Originality/value–These stories are set in a uniqueenvironment, yet they hold national relevance. The racial

and religious demographics in Utah shed light on the foundational ethos of the country –white, Christian

supremacy. They reveal what is at stake in defending it and some of the key mechanisms of that defense.

Keywords Critical Race Theory, Teacher education, Racism, Racelighting, Educational equity

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Don’t be racistagainst white people. Thiswas a course review response receivedby the authors

of this paper–Dilman and Claire –after they taught a criticalmulticultural educationcourse in

Salt Lake City(SLC), Utah [1]. Responses like theone above indicate how racelightingsubverts

effortstoward racial justice in educationin Utah. Utah’s white Latter-DaySaints (LDS) citizens

represent a hegemonic majority with a 73% white and over 60% LDS population (Canham,

2018)[2].This demographic compositionhas yielded significantresistance to racialjustice. The

authorsof this article –five anti-racisteducators workingin various educationalsettings in SLC

–employCritical Race Theory’s(CRT) counterstorymethodology (Delgadoand Stefancic, 1993)

to illuminateand unpack therole that racelightingplays in this resistance.Following Kishimoto

(2018),we understand anti-racistpedagogy and our commitmentsto anti-racismas educators to

be multifaceted processes, requiring that we intentionally incorporate race and conversations

about racism into ourcourse content, approaches to teachingand self-analyses regarding our

pedagogical methods, and that we actively contribute to anti-racist action throughout the

broadercontext of our roles on campusand in our lives as a whole. We unpack racelightingand

the resistance towardanti-racist efforts in education by first providing a historical context of

race and education in Utahbefore presenting four counterstories addressing the racelighting

effortsof students, fellow educatorsand administrators when confrontedwith the realitiesand

complexities ofracial injustice. The discussion notes how these counterstories underscore the

complex, layered function of racelighting as both an outcome of various white supremacist

structuresand a way of distractingfrom those structuresto maintain them.This sleight of hand

shields whitesupremacist structures from acknowledgment and scrutiny and compoundsthe

Racelighting in

Utah education

495

The authors would like to thank the editors of this journal for their constructive feedback.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 26 November 2022

Revised 22 July 2023

22 September 2023

Accepted 4 November 2023

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 43 No. 3, 2024

pp. 495-515

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-11-2022-0328

already extant harms perpetuated via white supremacy onto People of Color. Finally, the

authorssuggest strategies for addressingand combating attemptsat racelighting in education.

Literature review

Race and education in Utah

It is helpful first to examine the unique context for discussing race and education in Utah

while also noting how the narrative arc of Utah’s history follows ongoing national trends of

white resistance to racial equity. Utah is the site of the headquarters for The Church of Jesus

Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). Though it was Mexican territory at the time, Utah was

further colonized by white Mormon leaders in 1847. The area remained predominantly white

throughout the 20th century, though SLC as the state’s urban center became a space for racial

and cultural diversity. By the second half of the 20th century, significant cultural and

demographic changes in the city often instigated white segregation, racism and fear (Steffes

et al., forthcoming). Parker and McKinney (2015) state that the Utah region “has its own form

of resistance to equality and diversity acceptance that is tied to the Church and to the Book of

Mormon”(p. 15). Indeed, until 1978, the LDS Church barred Black individuals from speaking

at the LDS Tabernacle and from priesthood within the Church and considered them inferior

within certain readings of religious texts (Green, 2017). LDS folk culture believed that Black

people descended from Cain, the evil brother of Abel in biblical literature, and were “cursed”

by God. Although the LDS Church has published an essay on their official website disputing

these once-thought, official claims (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 2021),

LDS Church leaders have not publicly clarified Church teachings, and many members still

believe Black people to be inferior based on their religion’s claims (Jones and Knox, 2020).

The LDS influence has exacerbated racial tension in SLC. For example, in 1970, over 400

Black and Mexican-American citizens confronted the School Board, composed of twelve

white, Mormon citizens, for over-representing the city’s white and LDS interests or what one

Black SLC resident called “the Mormon syndrome”(Cummins, 1970, para. 2). Many students

and families still attest to the existence of a “Mormon syndrome”in SLC as religion is

ingrained in Utah’s ideologies including those that influence public education. For example,

due to the LDS Church’s opposition to sexual activity outside of marriage, Utah’s public

schools rely on abstinence-only teaching and do not teach a comprehensive sex education

curriculum (Pence and Hubbard, 2000). Furthermore, in 1996, the local community and SLC’s

School Board entered a series of debates about the potential harms of a newly founded Gay-

Straight Alliance at East High School. Adults opposing the GSA employed religious doctrine

to bolster claims that gays and lesbians were of low morals and a threat to children

(Burrington, 1998). Although Utah has seen growth in culturally/linguistically diverse (CLD)

communities (Hollingshaus et al., 2019), marginalizing these families and students has been

an ongoing issue in education. Public school districts throughout Utah’s Wasatch Front are

also made up of predominantly white student bodies (See Appendix). However, schools on the

city’s lower-income west side remain overpopulated and disproportionately diverse, while

many schools in the SLC’s wealthy and white areas are under-enrolled (Sanders, 2022).

Additionally, Delgado Bernal and Alem

an (2017) found that schools met parents and

children from this historically marginalized area of SLC with deficit beliefs. For example,

although Parents of Color were highly invested in their children’s education, schools did not

recognize familial efforts as valid forms of parental involvement. They thus assumed that

CLD parents and communities did not value education. Delgado Bernal and Alem

an (2017)

also found that Children of Color were disciplined more harshly than their white peers in

school. Researchers have also illuminated the marginalization of undocumented and

immigrant communities in Utah, along with how these youth, families and community

members attempt to resist anti-immigrant sentiments and educational exclusion (Alvarez

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