Calendar

ABSTRACT

Many U.S. school district leaders released public statementsdescribing their commitment to addressing racism in the summer of 2020. Usingcomputational text analysis, I identify three racial equity frames in thestatements. Racial equity frames, or ways organization leaders think theyshould publicly discuss racism, align with commitments to differentorganizational approaches to addressing racial equity. The “Bad Apples” frameportrays racism as something caused by individual bad actors and which can be remediedby enforcing existing rules and structures. The “Let’s Talk” frame portraysracism as confusing and inscrutable and something that can be combatted bytalking and learning about racism. While the “Bad Apples” frame supports thestatus quo and the “Let’s Talk” frame suggests mostly performative changes,statements using the “All Hands on Deck” frame suggest some leaders have takenand/or planned to take significant steps to address racism in their districts,breaking with past organizational norms. These frames vary by the partisanleaning and income-level of the districts’ communities, suggesting studentsreceive different messages about race and racism based on who lives in thecommunity where they attend school. This research raises important questionsabout the perceived role of public schools in disrupting inequity and offersinsight into the subsequent, on-going backlash against efforts to addressissues of race and disrupt racism in schools and other kinds of organizations.