Race Ethnicity and Education: White Teachers, Latino/a Students, and Racial Battle Fatigue

Jul 15, 2026

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This article examines how and why Latino/a high school students identify and explain racism differently during an 18-month participatory action research (PAR) project. It analyzes racial microaggressions within the Post-Racial America public school context, using interview, focus group, and classroom discussion data. The study contrasts teachers’ talk and conceptualizations about racism, cross-racial relationships, and misunderstandings with students’ discursive work to interpret how those views become visible in school, finding racial battle fatigue may drive shifting labels.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

Abstract

Introduction

Race Ethnicity and Education ISSN: 1361-3324 (Print) 1470-109X (Online) Journal homepage: [http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cree20](http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cree20) ‘ It wasn’t racism; it was more misunderstanding.’White teachers, Latino/a students, and racial battle fatigue Meagan Call-Cummings & Sylvia Martinez To cite this article: Meagan Call-Cummings & Sylvia Martinez (2016): ‘ It wasn’t racism; it was more misunderstanding.’ White teachers, Latino/a students, and racial battle fatigue, Race Ethnicity and Education, DOI: 10.1080/13613324.2016.1150830 To link to this article: [http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2016.1150830](http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2016.1150830) Published online: 09 Mar 2016. | Submit your article to this journal | | --- | | Article views: 11 | | View related articles | | View Crossmark data | Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at [http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=cree20](http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=cree20) Download by: [University of Tennessee, Knoxville] Date: 14 March 2016, At: 21:36 Downloaded by [University of Tennessee, Knoxville] at 2 1:36 14 March 2016 Race ethnicity and education, 2016 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2016.1](http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2016.1)150830 | ‘It wasn’t racism; it was more misunderstanding.’ White teachers, Latino/a students, and racial battle fatigue Meagan Call-Cummings and Sylvia Martinez education Leadership and Policy Studies, School of education, indiana university, Bloomington, in, uSa | | | --- | --- | | ABSTRACT This article explores how and why a group of Latino/a high school students identify and explain racism differently over the course of an 18-month participatory action research (PAR) project. To do this we examine what recent scholarship has termed racial microaggressions in what is thought of as the Post-Racial America public school system. Pulling examples from student and teacher interview, focus group, and class discussion data we first examine how these students’ teachers conceptualize and talk about racism, cross-racial relationships, and racial misunderstandings, and then we juxtapose that with students’ discursive work to make sense of the ways their teachers make their conceptualizations known and/or seen in school. Focusing on the K-12 context, this study finds racial battle fatigue may be why students switch between how they label these aggressions. | ARTICLE HISTORY Received 12 october 2014 accepted 13 november 2015 KEYWORDS Racial microaggressions; racial battle fatigue; participatory action research (PaR); K-12; Latino education | | Introduction I1 was sitting in the midst of 52 Latino/a high school students, uncomfortably aware of my own unawareness as a relatively privileged, white, female scholar. And we were discussing race. I was familiar with critical race theory (Delgado and Stefancic 2012; Ladson-Billings 1998, 2009); I had read books and articles on critical race methodologies (Bernal 2002; Solórzano and Yosso 2002) and participatory inquiry (Kindon, Pain, and Kesby 2007; Torre and Fine 2006; Torre et al. 2011); I had even written papers and given talks and presentations on these topics. So why did I feel so supremely unprepared and unsure how to help these students ask and answer the questions about race and racial relationships between teachers and students that weighed so heavy on their minds? They were asking good, hard, important questions that so often go unanswered – even unasked – in today’s public schools: Okay, so you how when we say the flag, the Pledge of Allegiance, why does it say, ‘justice for all’? Like it’s not really how it is in my life. People are treated like, like if they were born here then they get more opportunities than ones that come from different places. And it says, ‘justice for all.’ So, why would it say that, if it’s not? (Sussy, SS

FAQs

What is the main focus of the study in the K-12 context?

The study focuses on how and why Latino/a high school students explain racism differently over an 18-month participatory action research project in public schools.

Which data sources does the article use to analyze students’ and teachers’ views?

The analysis draws on student and teacher interviews, focus groups, and classroom discussion data.

What finding is highlighted about why students may change how they label racial aggressions?

Racial battle fatigue is presented as a possible reason students switch between different ways of labeling these aggressions.

Jul 15, 2026

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