White resentment in settler society

Abstract

Teaching about the history and culture of aboriginal peoples in schools of white settler societies can serve as a counter to the dominant story that serves as the national narrative. Even though the actual teaching may well be among the least political and least disruptive type of curricular knowledge on offer, the inclusion of counter stories can meet with resistance and resentment. This article offers that the politics of resentment enacted in a white settler society complicates the potential for equitable schooling for aboriginal and racial minority students. Public acts of resentment on the part of white settler parents mark schools as white spaces even in the midst of claims of multicultural inclusion. The politics of resentment are used to normalize emotional belonging on the part of a white settler society that sees itself as beleaguered by its excessive generosity and inclusivity. This article examines the ways that white supremacy and white racial knowledge are reasserted through the effects of emotional belonging and resentment.