A Guise of Inclusion: The Survival of ‘Non-Ideal’ Students in White Supremacist Heteropatriarchal Systems of Education

Abstract

Since its inception, the United States (U.S.) education system has worked vigorously to stymie and subvert the needs of those deemed to be ‘non-ideal’ (Grumet, 1998; Apple, 2006). From maintaining exclusionary curricula to the manipulation of anti-racist approaches to practice, heteropatriarchal white supremacist structures of education ensure a label of ‘Other’ for those who fail to meet colonial ideals (Pinar, 1998). Marginalized students and practitioners—those who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual+ (LGBTQIA+), people with disabilities, and those with low socioeconomic status (SES), are, as Cathy J. Cohen (2005) suggests queer outliers throughout systems of education. To address exclusionary practices, this article underscores the guise of diversity in schooling and its material impacts on those deemed not ideal. By implementing Critical Race Theory (CRT) (Crenshaw, 1995) and Queer of Color Critique (QOCC) (Ferguson, 2004) within counterstorytelling (Crenshaw, 1988; Morris & Perry, 2016), the authors of this manuscript—both cisgender women: (1) heterosexual and Black, and (1) queer and white—share their respective experiences with(in) academic violence(s). The authors’ narrative explorations interrogate individual and aggregate relationships to educational heteronormative Whiteness (Ahmed, 2007; Love, 2019) and establish pathways for educational leaders to reimagine anti-racist, pro-queer, wholly inclusive educational practices.