College Composition and Communication Sep 2008

The Emotioned Power of Racism: An Ethnographic Portrait of an All-White High School

Jennifer Seibel Trainor

Abstract

This article explores the emotioned dimensions of racist discourses at an all-white public high school. I argue that students’ racist assertions do not always or even often originate in students’ racist attitudes or belief. Instead, racist language functions metaphorically, connecting common racist ideas to nonracist feelings, values, beliefs, and associations that are learned in the routine practices and culture of school.

Journal
College Composition and Communication
Published
2008-09-01
DOI
10.58680/ccc20086752
Open Access
Closed
Topics
race and writing

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (0)

No references match articles in this index.

CrossRef global citation count: 9 View in citation network →

Related Articles

  1. Literacy in Composition Studies Feb 2026
    Refusal of Translation: Unsettling Writing Studies ↗
    Hockaday, Jason
    race and writing multilingual writers
  2. Literacy in Composition Studies Feb 2026
    Literacy Sponsorship, GenAI, and the Entangled Economies of Experiential Learning ↗
    Girdharry, Kristi
    service learning literacy studies multimodality race and writing multilingual writers
  3. College Composition and Communication Feb 2026
    Crying Censorship Wolf: Prefiguring Contemporary Realities through Disciplinary History ↗
    Holly Hassel; Kate L. Pantelides
    race and writing multilingual writers
  4. Rhetoric Review Jan 2026
    <i>Radical Advocate: Ida B. Wells and the Road to Race and Gender Justice</i> ↗
    Matthew Edor
    race and writing multilingual writers
  5. Rhetoric Society Quarterly Jan 2026
    Truth Be Told: White Nostalgia and Antiracist Queer Resistance in “Post-Truth” America ↗
    Caddie Alford
    race and writing