Racial Code Words, Re-Memberings and Black Kids’ Civic Imaginations: A Critical Race Ethnography of a Post-Civil Rights Leader

Abstract

This article uses the construct of racial code word to advance theory about unspoken, racialized expectations that accompany seemingly neutral historical concepts. Critical race ethnographic methods were used to examine how eight black teenagers made sense of the term “civil rights leader” and the assumptions that supported their sense-making. Data from this eighteen-month study reveals tension between ideals of whiteness in popular stories about black activism and the possible and desired civic identities of participants.