Communities of Difference: A Critical Look at Desegregated Spaces Created for and by Youth

Abstract

In this article, Michelle Fine, Lois Weis, and Linda Powell juxtapose three different school communities and the schools' various approaches to dealing with differences among their students. They use notions of equal status contact theory, supplemented by three literatures — those of community, difference, and democracy, to discuss three desegregated spaces on a continuum, from one in which racial differences are unquestioned and racist discourse uninterrupted by faculty or staff to one in which teachers are actively working toward creating a space where differences are acknowledged and respected. Through this contrasting of desegregated spaces, the authors challenge readers to "imbalance privilege, incite community, to both value of pluralize difference" — to create teaching and learning spaces that nurture multiracial and multiethnic communities.