Robert Asen

Professing Equality, Protecting Inequality: Anti-Woke Publics, Race, and Education

This book project explores contemporary public debates over the appropriate treatment of issues of race and racism in US education. Investigating a network of legislators, judges, parents, media commentators, and others, I will focus on the rhetoric of advocates who claim that approaches to addressing issues of race and diversity in education have become too divisive, too critical of historical progress on these matters, and too beholden to “radical” theories of structural racism. These advocates retort that colorblindness and individualism should serve as guiding principles for education policy and pedagogy, racism appears in the speech and actions of specific actors, and equality consists of treating all students similarly. I develop a framework of “anti-woke publics” to organize my inquiries. This term refers to discourse collectives that represent themselves as fair-minded occupants of a political middle ground, reacting to what they regard as the extremes of left and right. Anti-woke publics draw on discursive strategies of abstraction, universalism, and ahistoricism that obscure their ideological orientation and divert public attention from the unequal, unjust, and anti-democratic consequences of their advocacy. Their public engagement exhibits a fundamental tension between professed commitments to equal opportunity and their public advocacy in defense of an unequal status quo. My case studies include the online discourse of right-wing think tanks, a Wisconsin legislative hearing over a bill seeking to prohibit pedagogy on “divisive concepts,” and a US Supreme Court decision prohibiting consideration of race in college admissions.

Robert Asen is the Stephen E. Lucas Professor of Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture and the Daniel C. Brouwer Professor of Communication and Democracy. Asen’s research and teaching focus on the areas of public policy debate, public sphere studies, democracy and deliberation, and rhetorical and communication theory. He considers how powerful groups use communication to maintain their privileges and advantages, and how marginalized people seek to overcome exclusions and inequalities to represent their needs, identities, and interests in the public sphere. He explores the fundamental role of communication in building and sustaining democratic cultures, norms, and institutional practices. Asen also investigates how communication practices may legitimate oppression and injustice by dividing and scapegoating people. His current work focuses on contemporary challenges to democracy like authoritarianism, as well as possibilities for renewing and reinvigorating democratic practice.

Robert Asen has held numerous leadership roles in the communication discipline. In 2022, the National Communication Association (NCA) presented Asen with a Distinguished Scholar Award, the highest honor offered by the association. He has received numerous awards for his scholarship by multiple disciplinary associations.