Spanish So White: Conversations on the Inconvenient Racism of a ‘Foreign’ Language Education

Explicit discussions of race and racial identity have traditionally been omitted from Spanish language education in the U.S. — especially in curricula designed for imagined ’native’ speakers of English. Consequences of this de-racialization of Spanish language learning include the perpetuation of institutional racisms and missed opportunities to build productive conversations about the ways race and power are enacted through language.

In this talk, Dr. Adam Schwartz (Oregon State University) will introduce Spanish So White, a book written specifically for secondary and post-secondary teachers eager to develop a language education that centers a racially dynamic Spanish-speaking world and challenges interpersonal and institutional forms of racism.