Multiculturalism, Teaching Slavery, and White Supremacy

This article argues that multiculturalism, especially when it is led and controlled by Whites, and in the absence of collective anti-racist struggles, can reproduce the ontologies, epistemologies, and practices of white supremacy. I use a case study of a reenactment of Atlantic black slavery, produced by white teachers to investigate whether multiculturalism can be more than a technology of white supremacy. I conclude that by employing the restored behaviors of slavery, the reenactment failed to add to an interrogation of whiteness and anti-racism. Instead of contributing to the reformation of whiteness and the empowering of Blacks, it reinforced anti-blackness. I end with a discussion of how to teach slavery ethically.