Missing White Space

I’ve written the producers of This American Life’s “If You See Racism, Say Racism” podcast to inquire about the mystery of the disappearing “white space” discussion. My notes from a previous time I assigned the podcast mention Nikki Jones talking about the concept of “white space,” so I know I’m not making this up or imagining things.

Nikki Jones, Novella Coleman, Jamie Almanzán, and Kadijah Means at a community forum on race. Photo: Pete Rosos

I did some Googling, which confirmed my conviction that this discussion took place—and must have been included in some earlier version of the This American Life podcast. In this article on the Berkeley forum, which was mentioned in the TAL podcast , Nikki Jones is quoted discussing “white space.”   Here’s another article reporting on the same forum, in which Jones discusses “shame” as well as “white space.”  And here’s another article reporting on the “Real Talk About Race,” which you can read or listen to.

Here’s a more detailed discussion of the concept, with an emphasis on “How Can We Share More Spaces Across Racial Lines?” with Kamau Bell and Nikki Jones.

Please read at least 1 or 2—or all!—of these articles — it won’t take long. Let’s talk about whether Davidson College is a white space, whether our classroom is, and what we can do about the racialized spaces we inhabit.