Social & Cultural Geography, Vol. 9, No. 4, June 2008

Whitewash: and racialized landscapes at the University of

Joshua F. J. Inwood1 & Deborah G. Martin2 1Department of Geology and Geography, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA, jfi[email protected]; 2School of Geography, Clark University, 950 Main St., Worcester, MA 01610, USA, [email protected]

This paper examines racialized landscapes at the to better understand the ways that whiteness—or more specifically white privilege—is positioned in and uses landscapes. Given a history of segregation, violently contested desegregation, and a contemporary student body that is disproportionately white (compared to the population of the entire state of Georgia), we investigate the meanings and contradictions of the University’s historic ‘North Campus’. Using a multi-method qualitative approach—including open-ended interviews and ‘roving focus groups’—we argue that privileged, white landscapes operate through a kind of whitewashing of history, which seeks to deploy race strategically to create a progressive landscape narrative pertaining to ‘race’.

Key words: roving focus group, landscapes of memory, landscape studies, place identity, race, white privilege.

Whitewash: 1. means employed to conceal mistakes the display was a photograph of Ms. Hunter- or faults.-v. 2. attempt to clear reputation by Gault pushing her way through a crowd of concealing facts. (Thompson 1998: 1049) angry white students with a large caption that read: ‘Make way for the nigger’. Before the In the winter of 2005 the University of Georgia exhibit was unveiled the campus newspaper, (UGA) unveiled an exhibit in Myers Residence The Red and Black, ran several newspaper Hall honoring Charlayne Hunter-Gault and articles highlighting the significance of the Hamilton Holmes, the first African Americans exhibit. The articles included several quota- to integrate the UGA. The exhibit consisted of tions from University officials, including the photographs and small quotations that director of University Housing, Rick Gibson, chronicled the Civil Rights movement on the who stated ‘[the exhibit will be] a glimpse of a campus and the struggle that led to the window of time into the desegregation of the desegregation of the university. Featured in [university]’ (Pauff 2005).

ISSN 1464-9365 print/ISSN 1470-1197 online/08/040373-23 q 2008 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/14649360802033882 374 Joshua F. J. Inwood & Deborah.G. Martin

The exhibit met with disapproval from the should have anticipated. It represents one in a UGA students and campus organizations, series of conflicts about race and identity on including the UGA chapter of the National campus. The UGA has been the site of several Association for the Advancement of Colored contentious debates concerning race, including People (NAACP), for the prominence given to affirmative action (ultimately deciding not to the photograph of Ms. Hunter-Gault and the take race into account when making admission accompanying quotation. In explaining their decisions), the meaning of diversity (how do position, the NAACP stated they were not poor rural whites fit in with the UGA’s desire to objecting to the exhibit as a whole, just the increase diversity on campus) (Markman 2004: offending phrase ‘Make way for the nigger’. An A1), and the school’s ties to several prominent NAACP press release stated: ‘There are ignorant Confederate political leaders1 (Jacobs 2004: people on campus who will see it and think it’s 1A). These tensions bring to the surface all right to say it’ (Simmons 2005: 1D). They important questions about how identity is noted that soon after the display opened the constructed and made visible on a university UGA launched an effort to recruit more African landscape. Schools, after all, are important American students to campus and the NAACP sites in the production of cultural meaning felt the display would hinder those efforts (Alderman 2002: 604) and have played a (Simmons 2005: 1D). crucial role in fights over desegregation and After a period of intense debate in the discrimination. Utilizing a series of historical campus newspaper and several university markers on the UGA’s North Campus we meetings, the offending quote was replaced examine how these landscape cues indicate a with a sign that read: racialized and privileged landscape. Specifi- cally, we argue the UGA North Campus As the result of students’ feedback concerning the landscape memorials simplify or ignore race presence of a racial epithet in the display, the section as a social mediator, thereby obfuscating will be covered until further notice. Decisions will deeply embedded racialized identities and be made in the near future concerning what course tensions on campus. Drawing on notions of of action or changes need to occur to address these whiteness and white privilege, we use the UGA concerns. Apologies are extended to anyone who North Campus landscape complex to confront may have been negatively impacted. and challenge everyday taken-for-granted memorials to show how they are both part of Ms. Hunter-Gault proposed a compromise and representative of the process of creating a position in which the phrase was contextualized white, privileged (and therefore always a and its prominence in the display was reduced. racialized) landscape. University officials and the NAACP agreed and Memorialization on the UGA North Cam- the original quotation was replaced with a sign, pus landscape is indicative of ongoing struggles taken from Ms. Hunter-Gault’s autobiography, in American society to recognize and fully which reads (as quoted by Grayson 2005): ‘As embrace contested racialized histories and students call out “Nigger go home” and a identities. Thus our examination of race in the variety of other unoriginal taunts, I find myself historic campus landscape highlights the more bemused than angry or upset’. contradictions in the history of the USA, The above incident is interesting, and in which a progressive narrative denies pre- perhaps less surprising than University officials sent-day racial injustice (Marable 2002). White privilege and racialized landscapes 375

This narrative situates ‘race’ in the past. Yet as Conceptual background the dispute over wording in the residence hall Landscape studies exhibit demonstrates, ‘race’ and loom over contemporary social relations and The study of landscapes has been a corner- understandings. Scholars, too, have argued stone of American geography since the early that the concept of whiteness is central to part of the twentieth century (McDowell contemporary American racialized identity 1994). Throughout that period, landscapes formation (Dwyer and Jones 2000; Hoelscher have been viewed not simply as ‘scenes’ into 2003; Kobayashi and Peake 2000). Thus we which humans are inserted, but rather as the argue embedded within the cultural landscape products of human activity, shaped through of the UGA, and indicative of a larger cultural and shaping cultures (Sauer 1983 [1925]). An truth, is the ability of whites to frame the scene important development in the study of the and the shape of landscapes and place- cultural landscape is the incorporation of discourses, thus making visible only a limited social theory (Mitchell 2000). The use of African American experience. Schein argues social theory to examine the landscape fits that the materiality of landscapes ‘serves to within the broader context of contemporary naturalize or concretize—to make normal— cultural geography, which conceptualized social relations’ (1997: 676, italics in original). culture as a complex process relying on The UGA’s North Campus landscape, particu- unstable and shifting systems of meaning larly its historical markers, makes and nor- (Hubbard, Kitchin, Bartley and Fuller 2002: malizes a racialized past in ways that simplify a 59). This conception of culture recognizes that complex story, erasing some elements of racial social meaning and stories derive from conflict and their possible links to ongoing context, and are not immutable. For analysts, struggles of racialized identities on campus. then, ‘the thrust of the new landscape studies Exposing these seeming normalcies, and [was] to consider landscapes as part of a people’s reactions to them, helps us to articulate process of cultural politics, rather than as the key tension points in these ongoing struggles. outcome of that process’ (Hubbard, Kitchen, In what follows, we first describe the Bartley and Fuller 2002: 141). Thus the scholarly tradition of landscape studies as a cultural landscape is representative of both a framework for examining memorial spaces, process and a thing that can be analyzed and examine the meaning and significance of (Crang 1998; Schein 1997). Further, recog- ‘whiteness’ as a cultural norm. We then nized within landscapes are particular sites— examine the UGA North Campus, by focusing monuments or markers—which facilitate and on the discourse memorialized in historic direct the process of ‘collective memory’ and markers, and the reflections and experiences through which social groups situate their of a group of African American undergradu- identities in time and place (Till 1999: 254). ates. We explored the perceptions of these students through open-ended interviews and through two ‘roving focus groups’. We use these approaches to highlight the progressive Creating race narrative of integration, which conceals a more complex understanding of and contested American collective identify has from the debates about racial history and social identity. nation’s genesis been plagued by racialization 376 Joshua F. J. Inwood & Deborah.G. Martin and racial separation. The process of creating While these systems of racial distinction race and imposing racial separation has taken were different, a unifying characteristic was the many forms, but we identify roughly three reliance on racial hierarchy with whites in periods that predominated in the southern positions of power and people of color below. states. The first period, commonly referred to This hierarchy permeated national racial as the Ante-Bellum period, occurred while consciousness, not just southern race-relations slavery was legally sanctioned and protected as (Marable 2002). As a consequence, ‘race’ or both a social and national institution (early racialized identities often remain hidden unless 1600s–1865) (Tyner 2002). The second period explicitly highlighted. The unveiling of ‘race’ is known as ‘Jim Crow Segregation’ when black exposes whiteness as implicit in racialized and whites were legally and socially segregated hierarchies. Kobayashi and Peake explain: (1865–1960s). The final period covers the ‘whiteness is a historically constructed pos- Civil Rights era to the present, a time of official ition’ (2000: 394). Marable argues that non-discrimination. Each of these periods is ‘interwoven [in US history] was the reality of evident in historical markers on the UGA whiteness, a privileged racial category justified campus, and they serve as referents in a by negative stereotypes, passed down from national and campus discourse about ‘racial generation to generation so as to become progress’ and integration (as in Marable 2002). acceptable, normal and part of the public While these periods of US history are common sense’ (Marable 2002: 34). Marable complex, it is useful to identify some key (2002: 11–12) describes white privilege and features of each for understanding how they whiteness in general as ‘the social expression of function discursively in the landscape. During power and privilege, the consequences of the Ante-Bellum period, racial exploitation discriminatory practices of inequality that often took the form of slave codes which exist today’. The historical trajectory to restricted African Americans ability to travel, which Kobayashi and Peake (2000) and organize in large numbers, and be educated Marable (2002) refer illustrates a singular fact (Grant 1993: 55). in US history: While the structures of race and Following the Civil War, racial distinction may have evolved from slavery to became more confused (Tyner 2002: 444). The legalized segregation and finally to official period after the Civil War eventually gave rise equality, the common thread of whites as to legalized racial segregation (Delaney 1998). privileged has never changed. This system grounded the races in particular- If the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950s and ized spaces. Segregation placed African Amer- early 1960s had truly achieved full success, icans in an ‘elaborate system of regulations’ ‘whiteness’ as privilege should have become that controlled their access to ‘public spaces’ sundered. It was, after all, the first time in US (Tyner 2002: 445). This system attempted to history when people of color were granted full make racial identity ‘visible in a rational and citizenship rights. However, for the gains that systematic way’ (Hale 1999: 165) and this the Civil Rights movement has made, for all system was the dominant paradigm for racial the rhetoric of equality, whiteness remains formation in this period of formal segregation entrenched in its privileged position. The which remains the most invisible on UGA’s social, political, and economic processes that campus, except in references to its end, as in create the racialization of whiteness and the Charlayne Hunter-Gault exhibit. ‘other’ also construct meta-narratives and White privilege and racialized landscapes 377 worldviews that legitimize racial inequality. requires a broader treatment of the ways the Witness recent events at the UGA. cultural landscape is racialized, and specifically The UGA in the late 1990s was subject to a the ways the institutional landscape of North lawsuit brought by a group of eight (white and Campus draws attention to white identity. By female) students who sued UGA in a class examining the UGA North Campus landscape action lawsuit over its admissions policy which we can begin to see and understand how awarded points on an application for a variety UGA—or indeed, any institution—is a reflec- of factors, most contentiously awarding points tion of a particular racialized history and how to applicants who were ‘non-Caucasian and that history is remade and reinterpreted not-males’ (Stroer 1999). Ultimately the through the process of memorialization. University settled the court case allowing the eight students to enroll in the university, paying them $66,000 in lost tuition, and agreeing not White privilege to take race into account when making future admissions decisions (Shearer 2000a, 2000b). Within the USA, schools have often been the The admissions lawsuit and its outcome sites of intense struggle over the issue of Civil were significant for admissions policy and Rights, particularly the integration of public debates about race and identity. The case school districts and universities, and schools garnered national attention and was seen as a play a vital role in shaping public memory and test case for future challenges to admissions historical identity (Alderman 2002: 605). Of policies at other public universities (Associated importance to UGA’s institutional landscape is Press 2003). As such, the conflict illustrated the concept of white privilege. White privilege that the UGA is just one manifestation of an is a cornerstone of white identity and acts as a ongoing national struggle about individual and bridge that translates the social construction collective identity construction, challenge, and of whiteness into the realm of praxis. White (re)enforcement. Although the case focused on privilege is about concealing ‘race’ to build a admissions, it also addressed the cultural ‘color blind’ society (Grillo and Wildman meaning of the University, especially for 1997; Marable 2002: 13). White privilege is collective identity in the state of Georgia, for not a monolithic construction encompassing what it said about who ‘belonged’ to or in the the experience of whites equally. It is University, and how (or whether) to broaden important to note that the concepts of white- that identity. By examining the material, ness and white privilege intersect with class, physical, and cultural landscape of the UGA, gender, and other socially constructed differ- we can understand more about its collective ences that influence the kinds of privilege identity, and the ways that ‘highly ideological whites enjoy. As such we should avoid seeing and political messages [are] written into and white privilege as an essentialist category, but read from, specific landscape[s]’ (Hubbard, instead as contingent on and operating with a Kitchen, Bartley and Fuller 2002: 60). In other variety of factors. words, the landscape itself connects to—or Recognizing whiteness as a source of privilege even—inscribes the broader significance of the requires introspection and inquiry into its institution, and to the individual and collective material effects. McIntosh (2002) describes her identities that develop in and through it. experiences of white privilege (of which she Understanding those political messages became aware through her examination of male 378 Joshua F. J. Inwood & Deborah.G. Martin privilege) as a kind of ‘invisible package of To fully comprehend these larger social unearned assets’ she was able to cash in on, but processes it is necessary to discuss the was not totally aware of (McIntosh 2002: 94). demographic makeup of the UGA campus. In addition, her definition situates the concept of Since the integration of the University the white privilege in everyday and mundane number of African American students at the actions. Whiteness also operates in and through University has remained relatively small. Data space; that is, in the landscape (Dwyer and Jones for the 2006 incoming freshman class indicates 2000), a ubiquitous and often unrecognized part that of the 5,658 students enrolled at the of the everyday.Since the concept of landscape is University, only 480 (8.4 per cent) were African both a process and a thing (Schein 1997) it is Americans (UGA 2006). While this constitutes necessary to think about the ways that white an increase from previous years it still is small privilege is both manifest in the landscape and given the state of Georgia’s African American used to construct whiteness, and racialization population (29 per cent of the state’s popu- more generally (e.g. Anderson 1987; Delaney lation; US Census 2000). Given this small 1998; Hoelscher 2003). percentage, and in light of continuing struggles Some landscapes embed their cultural norms by the University to appeal to greater numbers and messages more deeply than others. In the of African American students, landscapes and case of the UGA, the historic North Campus memorials such as those on North Campus and includes a series of historical markers that the exhibit in Myers Hall are significant help to ‘frame’ the interpretation of, and discourses about racialization and identity at consequently discourses within, the cultural the UGA. landscape of North Campus. Duncan and Duncan (1988: 123) argue that one of the ‘most important roles that landscape plays in the Methodology: focusing in the landscape social process is ideological, supporting a set of ideas and values, unquestioned assumptions Tyner (2002: 443) argues that confronting about the way a society is’. North Campus at racialized society and white privilege requires UGA is full of historic buildings and spaces, an ontological and epistemological shift replete with layered economic, social, and through a focus on individual life experiences racialized stories. Historical markers and and meaning. Schein writes (1997: 663), ‘we memorials serve as a guide to this broader interpret landscapes through the ideas we space, highlighting specific people, places and bring to the project [of interpretation] ... the acts which make visible an official history and cultural landscape can itself capture different, collective memory (Till 1999). Memorials direct even competing meanings’. Tyner and Schein the interpretation of landscape, and the UGA argue for a nuanced approach to under- memorials are no different. As Ladd (1997: 11) standing race, racism and the intersection points out, ‘Monuments are nothing if not with landscape which relies on individual selective aids to memory: they encourage us to stories and events to draw larger conclusions remember some things but to forget others’. By about the social reproduction of identity and investigating these cultural markers we may difference. Consequently, we utilize a multi- better understand the different ways discourse method approach to incorporate a number of operates, particularly the ways that the Univer- individual and institutional perspectives on the sity has explicitly attempted to ‘frame’the UGA. landscape of the UGA campus. Specifically, White privilege and racialized landscapes 379 we draw upon archival resources, open-ended step further, by expanding on the individual interviews, and two roving focus groups that experiences that were discussed in interviews brought individuals and the North Campus into group dialogue and analyses of a roving together. Through this combination of focus group. In order to understand the methods, we provide insight into the complex insights of this method, it will be useful to workings of racialized landscapes; thus exam- discuss the roving focus groups in more detail. ining the ways the landscape ‘naturalizes’ Anderson argues (2004: 258) that talking particular kinds of racialized discourse. whilst walking with research participants From the summer of 2003 until the summer offers a way to ‘open a dialog between the of 2005, the first author conducted sixteen [research participant] and places’. He notes open-ended interviews with African American that as his interviewees passed key landmarks current and former students.2 The participants and places incidents and feelings seemed to were identified through UGA geography flood back in a way that helped to reconstitute classes and through word of mouth partici- the ‘individual’s understandings of the life pation. The interviews lasted from one to one world’ (Anderson 2004: 258). In a similar vein, and half hours and were conducted on the our use of the roving focus group fostered UGA campus. The interviews explored several conversation and sharing among the partici- broad themes including: students’ experiences pants that could not have happened in other of racism on campus; familiarity with North formats, providing us with additional perspec- Campus and the memorials on campus; the tives, and offering the participants a way to students’ experiences of being African Amer- forge common understandings. Our approach ican on a predominantly white campus; and to differed from Anderson’s in that we combined what extent the hidden history of African an explicitly geographically-immersed Americans should be incorporated on campus. approach to the landscape with the methodo- Over the course of the interviews it became logical advantages of focus groups (not unlike apparent (after several students offered to take Burgess 1996, but we focused on the cultural the first author around campus) that an landscape rather than the natural environ- opportunity existed for a campus tour with ment). the interviewees in which we could explore the Focus groups are basically group interviews, campus landscape as a group. Given this with an emphasis on interaction within the opportunity, we organized two focus groups group (Morgan 1997; Wilson 1997). The term that involved a tour and discussion of race and ‘focus group’ combines focused interviews (in space on North Campus. We utilized this which the interviewer keeps the respondent on roving focus group to explore the a topic without the use of a structured relationship between the UGA and the questionnaire), and group discussions (where perceptions of the interview respondents. a carefully selected group of people discuss a Anderson (2004) suggests that walking with series of particular questions raised by a interviewees (‘talking whilst walking’) moderator). What makes focus groups unique, prompts the discovery of incidents and feelings however, is not the degree of structure, but the about the landscape that interview partici- interaction among the group members (Mor- pants did not recall or find worth mentioning gan 1997). This interaction allows partici- during the formal interview. This research pants to compare each other’s experiences and takes the ‘talking whilst walking’ one opinions, thereby giving the researcher 380 Joshua F. J. Inwood & Deborah.G. Martin insights into complex behaviors, motivations, Our first roving focus group tour, mapped and understandings (Wilson 1997). In our out cooperatively between the participants and case, the roving focus groups helped us to the researcher, started at the intersection of expose and understand how people situate campus and downtown Athens, at the historic themselves in a landscape, and the inter- arch, a defining symbol of the UGA campus. It relations of identity and place. continued through campus, stopping first at the The first author conducted the two roving Holmes-Hunter Building, progressing to the focus groups, one in the fall of 2004 and the Chapel and some historic buildings surround- other in the summer of 2005. The first focus ing Herty Field (adjacent to the Law School). group consisted of six undergraduate students, The roving focus group then moved further who had also participated in the interviews, into the North Campus complex and came to and they led the first author through a tour of an end at the main library (see Figure 1). North Campus, which lasted approximately Through this tour the focus groups were able to an hour and forty-five minutes (Figure 1). share common experiences of racism on Only two of the students had previously campus and simultaneously highlighted par- known each other. During the tour the ticular absences—or racialized presences—on students were encouraged to consider and the landscape of North Campus. discuss how ‘race’ is characterized or absent in The second roving focus group followed the the landscape of the North Campus with same path as the first. It consisted of five special attention to the memorials on North undergraduate students, all of whom knew of Campus. Generally, the first author did not each other before the tour started. The roving attempt to direct the conversation, but rather focus group followed the path laid out by the took notes as the students talked about a wide first roving focus group. In this way we differ range of topics. Anderson (2004) termed this from Anderson’s less formalized bimbling approach as ‘bimbling’ (Anderson 2004: 257) approach. While Anderson adopted a random, a word taken from Evans (1998), who defines wandering approach, we were interested in bimbling as, ‘[t]o go for a walk or wander specific memorials and places on the UGA around aimlessly. Like “amble” but sounds campus. Thus the route adopted for the roving more twee’ (Evans 1998: 205, as quoted in focus group was done in consultation with the Anderson 2004: 257). For Anderson the point initial interview respondents. Recall that the of bimbling is to connect the places and spaces roving focus group emerged from conversa- environmental activists were trying to protect tions with interview respondents and the desire but in a less formal manner than a directed to show the first author specific sites on campus tour. According to Anderson, ‘bimbling where race was inscribed into the landscape. afforded the opportunity to reminisce and be Thus, the route was a collaborative effort reminded of [connections to a wider land- between research participants and the first scape]’ (Anderson 2004: 257). Bimbling author and it followed a prescribed, focused emerges from the collective experiences of route. In order to fully compare the conversa- activists, from the need to ‘blow off steam and tions between the first and second focus group, to get a break from the monotony and stress of the second group followed the same path as the site life’ (Anderson 2004: 257). The strategy first. This more structured approach was useful we adopted differed from Anderson’s less in that it provided a baseline from which to formalized approach. compare the two focus groups. White privilege and racialized landscapes 381

Figure 1 The University of Georgia and the North Campus complex in context. Maps prepared by Matt Mitchelson, University of Georgia. 382 Joshua F. J. Inwood & Deborah.G. Martin

Our roving focus groups differ from Ander- wanted to show the researcher Herty field (an son’s approach in a second, more subtle way, open space with a fountain next to the Law which is none-the-less important. Anderson is School that until 1999 was a parking lot), a interested in exploring the inter-connectedness space students agreed was ‘white’ because of of environmental activists with a wider land- the students who gathered there. Through our scape (Anderson 2004: 257). The very nature more formal campus tour we were able to of our research, questions of race, place and explore the way social meaning and interviews power, often focusing on the ways African derived from specific spatial contexts and American students feel out of place, or perhaps experiences and the way those experiences more precisely, how the history of African formed a collective experience of race and Americans on UGA’s campus is outside of racism on campus. In this way the roving focus normative racialized discourse about UGA’s group was a window from which to explore the history and legacy, necessarily focuses on a way race is both made visible and remains disconnect between the memorial landscape hidden on UGA’s campus. and the experiences of African Americans on The use of the roving focus group allowed campus. Given the legacy and present-day participants to come together to share about racism on UGA’s campus, ‘bimbling’ is out of the experience of being African American on the question for many of the African American UGA’s campus. Students in the groups engaged students. These students are navigating a one another as they traveled the campus, landscape where race and racism are constant challenging one another’s viewpoints. This companions. African American students must dialogue illustrates how embedding partici- navigate a complex campus environment pants in the landscape that is the focus of where to ‘wander around aimlessly’ can have research may help to mediate the tendency for unwanted or unpleasant consequences.3 Thus ‘polarization’ among focus groups, in which our use of the roving focus group approach participants conform to extreme views (Mor- revealed subtle, yet powerful dynamics of race, gan 1997). Rather than polarization, we class, and gender that were only revealed as observed students actively referencing and research participants moved through the land- debating specific landscape evidence as the scape and engaged with places and spaces of focus groups walked the campus, relating the UGA’s North Campus. spaces to their individual views and experi- Elwood and Martin (2000) note that inter- ences. Some students expressed shared frus- view sites have an important role to play in tration at, in the words of one respondent, qualitative research as they ‘embod[y] and ‘being so outnumbered’ on campus. Thus the constitute[e] multiple scales of social relations focus group was an instance for students to and meaning’ (Elwood and Martin 2000: 649). reflect on and connect with others from Through the use of our roving focus group we around campus who had similar experiences. were able to explore social relations as they Finally, we utilized the roving focus groups, were literally embedded in particular spaces on interviews, and archival research in an effort to campus. By moving through the campus the ‘triangulate’ (Denzin and Lincoln 1998) our focus groups revealed the way particular research data to add rigor,depth and breadth to identities are inscribed in the campus in this research project. The focus groups pro- particular, and at times, surprising ways. vided an innovative approach to understanding Students in the first group, for example, had people’s connections to or discomforts in White privilege and racialized landscapes 383 particular landscapes, and to explore the a result of different life experiences. As the meanings of such reactions in light of our interviews and focus groups reveal, the North other data about racialization in the landscape. Campus complex is subject to multiple, Through the deployment of this research contested interpretations. strategy we address the complex ways the When visiting campus many travelers begin UGA has incorporated certain racialized dis- their tour across the street from downtown courses into the landscape while obfuscating Athens at the ‘arch’, the historic entrance to others. campus. The arch has three columns repre- senting the state of Georgia’s creed: wisdom, justice and moderation (UGA 2003) (Figure 2). The case study of the University of Located near the arch is a memorial plaque, Georgia’s North Campus which introduces the University history (Figure 3). It reads in part: The UGA is one of the oldest public universities in the USA. Founded in 1785 Endowed with 40,000 acres of land in 1784 and with a land grant from the state of Georgia, chartered in 1785, the charter was the first granted the first permanent building on campus dates by a state for government-controlled University ... from the early part of the nineteenth century. The first president, and author of the school charter, Most of the ‘historic’ buildings on campus are , resigned when the doors opened located on North Campus, the area north of and he was succeeded by . The the football stadium. North Campus is home University began to thrive under to most of the University infrastructure before who became President in 1819 ... During the war the post-war building boom of the 1950s and for Southern Independence, most students entered 1960s. With its old oaks and magnolia trees, the Confederate army. The University closed its and historic buildings, North Campus is doors in 1864 and did not open again until January something visitors and students almost always 1866. After the war many Confederate Veterans remember. Amber explains in our interview: became students ...

The landscape, the beauty on campus was one of the The memorial plaque situates the early history first things that attracted me here [UGA], because and experiences of the University. First, the when I first came here, well, before I came here on status of the university as the first land grant minority recruitment date, I didn’t know anything University (well before the Federal ‘Land Grant’ about UGA. So the first thing that attracted me was legislation that established the terminology) the campus, I figured any place with a campus like this places the university within a broader context of had some definite great curriculum, it was so beautiful a state institution providing for the betterment and so neat, the buildings were neat, we got to tour the of its citizenry. Further, it serves to draw buildings; North Campus was just beautiful. attention to the role that the University has played in the creation of an educated citizenry, Amber’s initial reaction to campus indicates its thus returning the state’s financial investment in beauty and instant appeal. Yet as Schein higher education. It highlights the special (1997) describes, every landscape has multiple relationship between the state of Georgia and meanings and individuals process and experi- the University, one in which the state of Georgia ence different meanings at different times or as is responsible for and trustee of the University. 384 Joshua F. J. Inwood & Deborah.G. Martin

Figure 2 The historic arch, University of Georgia. Photograph by Josh Inwood.

Yet other aspects of the plaque signal that war for the enslavement of African Americans despite the state’s role in creating and but as the South resisting Northern attempts to maintaining the university, it was not histori- subjugate the US Constitution (Hale 1999; cally an institution for all state residents. The Litwack 1999). characterization in the memorial of the Civil The framing of the University within the War, as a struggle for independence, focuses context of the Lost Cause is important for the conflict within a more politically sensitive understanding the experiences of many of the context and serves to keep the issue of slavery African American students on campus. A hidden from view. By referring to the war as theme that emerged during our research that for ‘Southern Independence’, the plaque concerns the idea that UGA is a ‘white school’. obliquely yet importantly draws upon what is In her interview, Eve explains: known as the ‘Lost Cause’ discourse (Hale 1999; Litwack 1999). The Lost Cause was a Well you can just see it, just from the ways the movement developed in the decades following lawn is manicured and the buildings are well taken the end of the Civil War (Hale 1999). Lost care of, also the way the history is laid out for you. Cause discourse couches the Civil War not as a I guess it is to prove a point to say that we have White privilege and racialized landscapes 385

Figure 3 The historic arch memorial, University of Georgia. Photograph by Josh Inwood.

been here since such and such, but I don’t know if the historical markers. However, as our it is a feeling or if it can be explained but you are discussion progressed several of the students like wow everything is big and I guess it looks nice. admitted to mixed feelings about the signifi- You just know that this place can’t happen without cance of the cultural landscape of North money, so you are like white wealth when you Campus. During the first focus group Sylvia get here. and Amber began to discuss the idea that UGA was a ‘Confederate school’. In this exchange, The idea that UGA evokes a particular we see Amber redefining her understanding of landscape understanding, namely that UGA the beauty of North Campus. She relates is in fact a ‘white school’, was something that during the tour: was taken up by both focus groups. What emerged was the idea that UGA is connected Amber: After reading this sign, and honestly I have to a Confederate past. When questioned about never really stopped to read it before, it makes me the implications of the arch marker, several of think this is a Confederate school, I mean they the African American students admitted that concentrate on that aspect a lot, everything is they had not previously thought much about framed as either pre-war or post-war. 386 Joshua F. J. Inwood & Deborah.G. Martin

The emergence of UGA as a Confederate indicative of a key feature of the memorial school was also a key moment during the plaques on UGA’s campus. The memorials are second focus group as well. representative of larger legacies of race and racism of which many students are aware even if Chris: When I read the memorial plaque the first they had not previously read the actual official thing I see is Confederate flags, that’s the first thing UGA history. Thus the memorial plaques serve that jumps out to me. to frame an understanding of that legacy and to make it visible in very particular and important Will: [interrupts]: It seems like they are changing the way. Just as stories filter back to African meaning of the Civil War, like it was a war to American high school students about the protect people’s independence. university, so too the memorials on campus Chris: It is like they are trying to keep a kind of filter history through a particular lens that Southern Spirit here. frames and makes visible a particular kind of racialized legacy. Thus the memorial plaques Delilah: Yeah, like they are pushing Southern Pride situate a formal interpretation of the place with because most of our students left to fight and we other more subtle clues and markers that serve had to make this big sacrifice. It makes it look like to produce a simplified racialized meaning of this place is for Southerners. the UGA campus landscape. In this way we can observe how the reading of the memorial It is interesting to see the parallels between the plaques serves to take students’ perceptions two focus groups. First, the majority of students and experiences and transforms those experi- in both focus groups admitted that they had not ences into a visible and permanent presence on paid close attention to the plaque before the campus; that the memorials on campus are roving focus group tour. Though they had not things that can be read and observed, but been aware of the memorial plaque, the they are also part of a process of constructing memorial itself seemed to confirm for them racialized places and spaces. what they had already known, that UGA is a school with a long and troubled history of racism on campus. Bill explains in our interview Holmes-Hunter memorial plaque that as an African American student he was aware of the University’s history even before he Interestingly not twenty-five yards away from decidedtocometoUGA.Heexplains: the plaque explaining early UGA history the Holmes-Hunter building and memorial rep- As a black person in Georgia you hear stories about resents a recent attempt at framing the UGA; things that go on here get back to people’s campus. The Holmes-Hunter Academic Build- hometowns. For example, the fraternity Kappa ing is a 169-year-old structure located next to Alpha holds a Confederate ball every year where the arch and just past the historical marker they have cotton on their fence posts and they dress that describes the early history of the up in Confederate uniforms and the girls are in big University (Figure 4). The UGA’s Board of hoop skirts. Trustee’s approved the renaming of the ‘Academic Building’ to the ‘Holmes-Hunter The perceptions and awareness of the students Academic Building’ in January of 2000 in with UGA’s Confederate history and legacy is honor of Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton White privilege and racialized landscapes 387

Figure 4 Memorial plaque located at the Holmes-Hunter building, University of Georgia. Photograph by Josh Inwood.

Holmes (Dendy 2000). In a news release On January 9th 1961 Hamilton Holmes and explaining the decision to rename the building, Charlayne Hunter became the first two African University President Michael Adams stated (as American students to enroll at the University of quoted in Dendy 2000): Georgia when they walked past the historic arch and into the building to register for classes. On this Their courageous act paved the way for the day, January 9, 2001, as part of the 40th University of Georgia to be an educational Anniversary and celebration of the desegregation institution that served all citizens. Naming the of the University we salute the courage and building for them ensures that their memory will be fortitude displayed by these students and their on campus forever. families in paving the way for others to follow.

A commemorative plaque was installed in front According to the Board of Regents of the of the building and was dedicated in January of University System of Georgia (BOR), the 2001, the fortieth anniversary of the historic genesis of the renaming was the ‘brain child integration of the University. The plaque reads: of Jane Kidd, Program Coordinator for 388 Joshua F. J. Inwood & Deborah.G. Martin

Development at the State Botanical Garden of explicitly mentions African Americans. Thus Georgia at UGA’ (BOR, 2001). Ms. Kidd is the it becomes one of the few sites on campus to daughter of former state governor Ernest interrogate the meaning and legacy of Vandiver. The BOR meeting minutes also African Americans on campus and to think note that President Adams was asked to speak about the history and legacy of the African about the rededication ceremony. In his American experience at the university. This remarks President Adams noted that recent fact came out repeatedly in the interviews, lawsuits (outlined earlier) concerning UGA’s such as in this comment by Eve in her affirmative action programs and the sub- interview: sequent publicity has had a ‘chilling impact on young African Americans who are looking I guess being here and being so outnumbered makes at the culture of UGA’ (BOR 2001) and that you tend to think of things differently. Like you the renaming of the Academic Building has think of the Hunter-Holmes [Holmes-Hunter] gone a long way in improving the situation Building as the only building that is labeled you and ‘helped unite everyone at UGA’ (BOR didn’t know that before. Once you are here you are 2001). In addition, State Representative like oh, that is it, ok, until Black History Month, Hudgens, who was also in attendance, then you hear some more stuff, I guess I experience thanked President Adams and the BOR for a different feeling about it. ‘their accurate depiction of history’ and noted that he was glad this issue was ‘behind us’ and During our focus group, Will and Delilah he noted ‘Georgia is a great place to live’ (BOR further explain: 2001) The rededication of the Holmes-Hunter It [the Holmes-Hunter memorial plaque] almost building and President Adams’ presentation seems like it’s a whisper, or an afterthought. Like before the BOR is significant for at least two you have this sign right here and nowhere else are reasons. First, the very location of the black people mentioned, nowhere else do you even Holmes-Hunter building next to the Uni- hear about it, nowhere else do you even mention versity’s historic marker and the arch ensures race on this campus. that this African American presence on Delilah stated: It’s like let’s write something real campus is visible. This is significant given quick about black people here, ok we got it, let’s that lawsuits aimed at undermining UGA’s move on. affirmative action policies were simul- taneously hindering the ability of UGA to Emerging from these comments is an acute recruit and retain high-quality African Amer- awareness about being a minority on campus; ican undergraduates. In addition, given including the ways race is compartmentalized President Adams’ BOR comments, it appears on campus and the ways the Holmes-Hunter that the Holmes-Hunter building was an plaque is used to try ‘to bring the campus attempt, in part, to counter UGA’s wider together’. After spending time on campus the image and the perception that UGA is students who took part in this research soon unfriendly to African Americans. Second, realized the Holmes-Hunter building is the and perhaps more geographically significant, only site that recognizes ‘race’, and to see that the Holmes-Hunter commemorative plaque black history is designated, literally, a specific is the only one on the UGA campus that time and place even though African Amer- White privilege and racialized landscapes 389 icans have always been integral to the nowhere on campus is any mention made of University. Sarah in our interview explains it this fact, nor to our knowledge has there been this way: discussion of incorporating this experience into a larger campus discussion on the role of On this campus you always know it is February African Americans on campus. These are because it is the only time that they [The powerful omissions and serve to minimize the University] talk about black people on campus. painful aspects of University history while Well you know they are not going to tell the parts serving to exonerate the University from that are not pretty, [but] until you get down to the being seen as profiting from the exploitation history of it you don’t know. You really have to of an oppressed people. The student’s com- know that it was slavery, cause there are always ments suggest that while the ‘official’ land- clues, and if you are interested in history you scape ignores these contributions, they are not always ask those questions. unheard of among some African Americans in the University community. Jan explains Sarah is alluding to the role that African- during our interview: American slaves played in keeping the University operating during the Ante-Bellum You look at the people who work behind the period. In one examination of the early counter [at Campus food service and cafeteria history of the University, Coulter (1983) locations] and it is all African Americans and that documented how slaves were instrumental in makes me uncomfortable. All my friends and I clearing land and building campus infrastruc- always talk about that, about how we wish they ture. Coulter (1983: 81) states that the only didn’t have to serve food to a bunch of white kids all way African Americans were allowed on day. It makes me uncomfortable to see. I’m not campus at this time was as slaves, and that saying that only African Americans are working in the University employed slaves as campus the cafeteria, but if you go to the library you only bell-ringers and servants. He also explains see students working there. It seems like certain jobs that the University ‘generally hired its are for black people and certain jobs are for servants from their Athens owners at students and it confirms a lot of stereotypes for the $100.00 a year’ (Coulter 1983: 81). white kids on campus. Perhaps more prescient is the fact that university presidents during the Ante-Bellum Jan’s comments are indicative of the work- period owned plantations near Athens. Pre- force makeup on the UGA campus. The status sident Waddel (1819–1829), for example, of African American workers on campus is who was mentioned on the first plaque by the another aspect of the racialization of place arch, owned a medium-sized plantation and it has meaning for current and prospec- (1,100 acres) and owned twenty-three slaves tive students. In the fall of 2006 African that were used to grow cotton and other cash Americans held just 5 per cent of all crops (Macleod 1985: 111). In addition to instructor positions (full professor to adjunct owning slaves Waddel’s diary entries indicate ranks) at the UGA, 15 per cent of clerical- that slaves were present in Athens and on the secretarial positions, and 56 per cent of all University campus when, as UGA President, unskilled service/maintenance positions (UGA he had to intervene to prevent slaves from 2006: 75). As Jan’s comments highlight and being abused (Macleod 1985: 113). Yet these numbers show, the UGA landscape has 390 Joshua F. J. Inwood & Deborah.G. Martin a division of labor which replicates historic to the UGA’s law school (Pratt 2002: 9). After divisions in Southern US society and is receiving the application and in an effort to reflective of the continuing legacy of race dissuade Ward from applying UGA offered and racism in US society. Ward financial aid to attend a law school out of state (Pratt 2002: 11). Thus began a multi-year legal battle in which Ward ultimately lost The ‘inclusive’ campus environment (only because he was drafted by the Army and left the state to serve in Korea at which time A second theme that emerges from the Holmes- his case was dismissed). Hunter memorial is the way the memorial Following Ward’s attempts to integrate the couches the experiences of African Americans, UGA law school the University instituted new and really the campus itself, as an inclusive rules that governed admission. Among these environment. As President Adams’ comments were a maximum age requirement that stated indicate, the Holmes-Hunter memorial was an one could not gain admission to UGA as an effort to bring the campus together. It does this undergraduate if over 21 years of age and by highlighting the positive aspects of inte- could not gain access to University graduate gration and ignoring the violence and threats to programs if over 25 (Pratt 2002: 71). In the African American students that addition, the University began requiring each accompanied and sought to thwart desegrega- application to have the support of at least two tion—violence which was depicted in the more alumni (Trillin 1991), a requirement that was private Myers Hall exhibit. Sylvia, during the designed to exclude non-white candidates interview, remarks upon key absences on the (Pratt 2002: 71). Thus in a similar vein to memorial plaque: Ward, Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter only were able to win admission after The sign [describing the integration of the a series of court cases tested these application University] makes you think it was all happy, no requirements and where they were ultimately mention of the struggles ... I have been on a lot of determined to be un-constitutional. After field trips to war memorials in the South and that is gaining admission and within days of register- where you get a more open environment for talking ing for classes Holmes and Hunter faced a about this kind of stuff. That is where you are mob of UGA students who ‘hurled bricks and supposed to think about those things, but in any bottles’ and who eventually had to be urbanized place I have never seen anything like that, dispersed with tear gas (UGA 2001). Citing you never see a sign that says slaves suffered here. safety concerns the University administration withdrew them from the UGA. It was only This quotation touches on a critical issue in after faculty protest and a second court order this analysis, that of omissions in the larger that Hunter and Holmes were allowed back cultural landscape. The integration of the on campus so they could attend class (UGA University in January of 1961 was actually the 2001). Perhaps not surprisingly, these violent culmination of decades-long struggle by and conflicted aspects of the racialized struggle African Americans in Georgia to be able to to integrate the University are not included in attend UGA (UGA 2001). The first African the fixed memorial in front of the Holmes- American application to the University was Hunter building, a fact picked up on by a submitted in 1950 when Horace Ward applied number of focus group participants. White privilege and racialized landscapes 391

Will: It seems to me that you have this huge, semi- the residence hall the University is replicating ornate building but then there is kind of this plain historic constructions about the role and place sign in front of it. It gives you a false impression of of black women in Southern society. Thus this what it was like here. Like if you look at the memorial situates Hunter’s contributions and desegregation of Alabama those folks had to walk presence on campus at her dorm room, rather through a huge crowd and this sign gives the than, for example, acknowledging her struggle impression that they [Hunter and Holmes] just kind at the site of the Grady College of Journalism of walked into the school and that was it. and Mass Communication (since her degree was in journalism), or in another, more visible However, to say that the University completely campus location. ignores the struggle and racial violence that greeted Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter on their arrival on campus would be Presence and absence incorrect. As the opening vignette described, this aspect of the UGA’s history is part of the There is, finally, a permanent and accessible campus, though it appears in a temporary and location for the history of desegregation: on a contested memorial in the residence hall where university website (UGA 2001), which was set Hunter lived on campus. While the residence up in conjunction with the fourtieth anniver- hall exhibit represents an attempt to ‘make sary. However, this virtual memorial raises visible’ racialized identities and African history even more questions about the role of African on campus, one aspect of it troubles us beyond Americans on campus. The website is open to the NAACP concerns that ignited the initial anyone with an internet connection and a controversy. The dorm site represents a hidden, computer. Nevertheless the discussion of private space for acknowledging the pain and desegregation at UGA is incorporated in a violence of desegregation. The dorm is not website link, and not included in the main open or visible to the public. Furthermore, the description of the history of the University. dorm location replicates historic gendered Further, the opening university history page divisions of labor that characterized Southern includes a large painting of the University society throughout the period of Jim Crow done by George Cooke in the 1840s. Bill in our segregation. As Hale (1999: 94) notes, middle- interview explains its significance: class home sites were important in the reproduction of segregated US society. Histori- There is this painting [on UGA’s website] of Athens cally among the few spaces open to African and the University of Georgia campus and there are American women were white homes where like slaves loading cotton in it. black women found employment as domestic servants. These women often worked for little The painting depicts slaves unloading cotton pay and in inhumane and degrading circum- bales from a train to a cotton-processing stances, often suffering physical and sexual factory which made Athens the center of the abuse. Historically the private spaces of the cotton trade in North East Georgia (Coulter white home were central in the replication and 1983), and other African Americans serving as making of race and in the transmission of the coachmen for their white owners. Inclusion of racial hierarchy from generation to generation the picture offers an opportunity for open (Hale 1999: 95). By locating the memorial in acknowledgment of a racialized and racially 392 Joshua F. J. Inwood & Deborah.G. Martin segregated history at UGA, but the image while at the same time couching the experi- appears without commentary. It thus both ences of African Americans on campus as a visually represents and simultaneously ignores largely latent or in most cases absent from the presence of African Americans at UGA theculturallandscape.Finally,whenthe from its inception. This virtual world histori- experiences of African Americans are brought cal narrative—the main history page and its to light, the memorial tends to erase the long link to information about desegregation— period of struggle to integrate the University functions to further situate the experience of and leaves the impression of a largely positive African Americans as either un-worthy of experience for African Americans on campus. comment, or as a rather insignificant sidebar Through its historical markers and other to the main history of the University, thus cultural clues, the landscape of the North whitewashing the presence and history of Campus of the UGA is both a reflection of past African Americans on UGA’s campus. It events, a material palimpsest (Crang 1998; demonstrates the persistent silences about Schein 1997), and also part of a larger process race and racialization in the present era, one of identity production on campus. It serves a of ostensible racial blindness and progress. dual purpose then of making visible a certain That blindness, it seems, extends to a silence landscape story, while at the same time about certain racialized histories. concealing a deeper understanding of the The absences and silences in the university’s racial history of the UGA. campus and discourse about African Amer- icans reflects the ability of dominant social actors—generally white males—to frame the Conclusion ways that landscapes are interpreted. The framing highlights a central tenant of white- The landscape of the historic heart of the UGA ness and the paradox for African Americans of situates and narrates meanings of the insti- experiencing an ‘integrated society’. For tution itself. Embedded within its old build- example, Kobayashi and Peake’s (2000) ings, green spaces and beautiful trees are work on whiteness indicates that the very implicit and explicit messages about who idea of whiteness frames issues about race in a created and belongs at the University. It is a particular kind of context. As they explain: story that acknowledges exclusion through the Holmes-Hunter building and plaque, but One of the reasons that whiteness is powerful is that which omits much by way of pain and struggle it promotes a re-articulation of the past. It about the process of desegregation and the incorporates some lessons from the civil rights wider history and legacy of African Americans movement, erases racial differences, and pretends on the UGA campus. The institution’s archival that its values apply to everyone. (Kobayashi and record recognizes desegregation by offering a Peake 2000: 394) progressive narrative about the University and its history of racial exclusion. This record Through the process of memorialization on conceals a more complex understanding of campus, the UGA is able to frame the racial history and identity production, hinted experience of campus within the cultural at in institutional discourse, but evidenced context that simultaneously seeks to positively most tangibly in the experiences of African frame the historical experience of whites; American students on campus. Our use of White privilege and racialized landscapes 393 roving focus groups offered a means to 2 We did not include white students, although doing so connect these disparate discourses, thereby would certainly enhance understandings about racia- linking theories of racialization with everyday lized experiences of campus. Our focus in this paper is life in specific landscapes. on African American students’ experiences. 3 In interviews prior to the focus groups, every individual In light of a continued debate and struggle recounted at least one experience of having had racial to include African American students in slurs directed at them on campus. greater numbers at the University, the land- scape meanings on North Campus offer a kind of ‘whitewashed’ collective memory, one that References simplifies desegregation while shunting more complex and painful aspects of the story to Alderman, D. (2002) School names as cultural arenas: the individualized daily experiences, private dor- naming of U.S. public schools after Martin Luther King Jr., Urban Geography 23: 601–626. mitory spaces, or a virtual world. This paper Anderson, J. (2004) Talking whilst walking: a geographi- illustrates the ways in which whiteness cal archaeology of knowledge, Area 36: 254–261. operates on the UGA campus, through its use Anderson, K. (1987) The idea of Chinatown: the power of of roving focus groups to openly examine place and institutional practice in the making of a racial landscape experiences. In doing so, this paper category, Annals of the Association of American both contextualizes current debates about Geographers 77: 580–598. Associated Press (2003) Study: UGA students largely access to the University, and leads to a deeper white, rich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2 Aug. understanding of the ways that racial identity Board of Regents (BOR) (2001) Meeting minutes: The is embedded in the cultural landscape, shaping University of Georgia Board of Regents, 13–14 Feb., new experiences and meanings of place and ,www.usg.edu/regents/minutes/2001/Feb01.phtml. collective memory. Burgess, J. (1996) Focusing on fear: the use of focus groups in a project for the Community Forest Unit, Countryside Commission, Area 28: 130–135. Acknowledgements Coulter, E. (1983) College Life in the Old South: As Seen at the University of Georgia. Athens: The University of Georgia Press. The authors wish to thank the UGA students Crang, M. (1998) Cultural Geography. London: Routledge. who participated in this research, and Steve Delaney, D. (1998) Race, Place, and the Law, 1836–1948. Holloway, Katherine Hankins, Sarah Inwood, Austin: The University of Texas Press. and three anonymous reviewers for their close Dendy, L. (2000) Registering historic steps: academic building to be named for Holmes and Hunter, reading of this manuscript and insightful The University of Georgia Newsletter,Athens, suggestions about it. In addition, we would , www.uga.edu/columns/001127/front2.html. like to thank Matt Mitchelson for his work in Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y. (1998) The Landscape of the cartography lab and the maps which are Qualitative Research: Theories and Isues. Thousand included, and Danielle Fontaine for her Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. assistance with the references. Duncan, J. and Duncan, N. (1988) (Re)reading the landscape, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 6: 117–126. Notes Dwyer, O. and Jones, J. III. (2000) White socio-spatial epistemology, Social & Cultural Geography 1 On ‘Confederate Memorial Day’ the University displays 1: 209–221. one of the few remaining copies of the Confederate Elwood, S. and Martin, D. (2000) ‘Placing’ interviews: States of America Constitution which was written by location and scales of power in qualitative research, several Georgia graduates (Jacobs 2004: 1A). Professional Geographer 52: 649–657. 394 Joshua F. J. Inwood & Deborah.G. Martin

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Wilson, V. (1997) Focus groups: a useful method for strate´giquement en vue de produire un re´cit sur le educational research?, British Education Research paysage tourne´ vers l’avenir et relatif a` la «race». Journal 23: 209–224. Mots-clefs: groupe de discussion itine´rant, e´tudes paysage`res, race, privile`ge des Blancs.

Abstract translations El privilego blanco y los paisajes racializados de la Universidad de Georgia Blanchir d’une accusation: le privile`ge blanc et les paysages racialise´sa` l’Universite´ de Ge´orgie Este papel examina los paisajes racializados de la Universidad de Georgia con el fin de mejor entender L’objet de cet article est d’explorer les paysages los modos en que la blancura—o especificamente el racialise´sa` l’Universite´ de Ge´orgie dans le but de privilegio blanco—se coloca y hace uso de los comprendre dans quelle mesure le fait d’eˆtre paisajes. Tomando en consideracio´n la historia de blanc—ou plus pre´cise´ment le privile`ge blanc—se segregacio´ n, desegregacio´ n violentamente dispu- situe dans les paysages et en tire parti. E´ tant donne´ tada, y el actual cuerpo estudantil que resulta l’histoire de la se´gre´gation, le combat acharne´ desproporcionadamente blanco (comparado con la contre la de´se´gre´gation, et un corps e´tudiant poblacio´ n de todo el estado de Georgia), investiga- compose´ aujourd’hui de manie`re disproportionne´e mos los significados y las contradicciones del de personnes de race blanche (comparativement a` la histo´ rico ‘North Campus’ de la universidad. population de l’ensemble de l’E´ tat de la Ge´orgie), Empleando un enfoque cualitativo de varios nous nous interregeons sur les significations et les me´todos que incluyen entrevistas abiertas y ‘grupos contradictions qui caracte´risent le secteur histor- de sondeo errantes’ sugerimos que los paisajes ique «North Campus» de l’universite´.A` partir blancos privilegiados operan a trave´s de un tipo de d’une de´marche multi-me´thode qualititive, repo- tapadera de la historia, la cual intenta utilizar la sant entre autres sur des entrevues a` questions raza de forma estrate´gica para crear una narrativa ouvertes et sur des «groupes de discussion progresiva del paisaje que concierne a ‘raza’. itine´rants», nous soutenons que les paysages privile´gie´s et blancs fonctionnent selon une sorte Palabras claves: grupo de sondeo errante, estudios d’histoire blanchie qui vise a` afficher la race de paisaje, raza, privilegio blanco.