‘What could I say?’ A critical discourse analysis of the construction of race in children’s literature

Abstract

This article analyzes the construction of Whiteness in children’s literature that intentionally brings Whiteness to the surface. We wondered: do the authors re‐center Whiteness in their attempts to racialize White people? What literary strategies and linguistic techniques do the authors call on to present Whiteness and, subsequently, Blackness? Using a combination of critical analyses including intertextual and hermeneutical analyses as well as critical discourse analysis, we foreground the reconstructive and deconstructive aspects of White people talking about race. Our empirical analysis also relied on transactional theories of reading informed by cultural criticism and Whiteness studies. We focus on four themes that cut across the books in our findings: White talk, colorblind theories of race, historicizing racism, and the privileging effect. We demonstrate the ways in which the talk in texts between White characters sometimes recenters Whiteness and other times disrupts Whiteness as the center. We discuss our cooperative reflexivity as an inter‐racial research team conducting this inquiry.