The right to define: analyzing whiteness as a form of property in Washington state bilingual education law

Biliteracy as Property: Promises and Perils of the Seal of Biliteracy

“…The authors further demonstrated that schools with high populations of students of color are less likely to have access to SoBL-oriented programming. Chávez-Moreno (2021) and Snyder (2020) researched these dynamics—both also drawing on the lens of whiteness as property—to demonstrate how various iterations of language-education policies reinforce and privilege whiteness through policy and programmatic discourse. In our own research (see Colomer & Chang-Bacon, 2020), we documented students’ keen awareness of these racialized dynamics.…”

“…Importantly, our purpose is not to undermine the significant gains the SoBL represents in regard to the recognition of biliteracy as an asset. Nor is our goal to document the specific implementation of the seals in individual state, district, or school contexts, as has already been done in a range of studies (e.g., Heineke & Davin, 2020;Schwedhelm & King, 2020;Snyder, 2020;Subtirelu et al, 2019). Instead, this article takes a step back from the specific implementation of the SoBL to analyze the legal and ideological foundations of the policies through which the seal has been established.…”

“…have equal access to the SoBL or its benefits, with white, English-dominant students of the upper and middle classes deriving disproportionate advantage in many contexts (Snyder, 2020;Subtirelu et al, 2019).…”

Dual Language as White Property: Examining a Secondary Bilingual-Education Program and Latinx Equity

“…Prendergast (2003) suggests that institutions have treated literacy as white property by empowering some with control over the recognition of literacy, thus upholding policies that disadvantage racialized Others. Bilingual-education scholars have employed whiteness as property as a framework to study the effects of whiteness on DL policy (Freire et al, 2017;Snyder, 2019) and program practice (Burns, 2017;Palmer, 2010); still, this scholarship has not accounted for one of Harris' central arguments connecting racial identity and property, which undergirds this study: how DL may conserve the value of white racial identity, and thus maintain whiteness, to the detriment of Latinxs.…”

“…Of note are two policy analyses that use the framework of whiteness as property. Snyder (2019) examined Washington state laws, and Freire et al (2017) analyzed the (dis)inclusion of Latinx interests in Utah DL policy. Both found that because of power differences between White and Latinx communities, DL was marketed to Whites, subverting equity goals.…”