Racial power in the lone star state: Using critical geographies of race to assess a local history, web-based curriculum

Although social studies education research has uncovered important insights about classroom-based learning, teaching, and curriculum, less attention has been paid to issues around web-based curricula outside formal classrooms, especially in seemingly “ordinary” places. Investigating such issues has the potential to clarify curricula’s messages about race and racial power, particularly in local history contexts where learning is deeply tied to race, place, and space. This study addressed how one local history website, Wacohistory.org, engaged these topics. From a social studies lens, we analyzed this website, composed of 200 discrete, encyclopedia-like entries about Waco, Texas. We examined what the website, which we situated as a curriculum, revealed about a city’s history and its residents’ relationship to the area. Engaging critical race discourse analysis as our method and critical geographies of race as our theoretical lens, we asked: How does Wacohistory.org characterize the city of Waco and its history relative to systemic racial power? Ultimately, we reveal that Wacohistory.org produced an overwhelming discourse of denial that refused to account for the role racial power has played in the city’s past, especially in discussions centered on white Wacoans, whom the website de-racializes. This contribution builds on scholarship related to critical geographies of race and critical race discourse analysis in social studies and curriculum studies research—powerful methodological and theoretical tools apt for excavating spatialized, discursive, and racialized messages. We conclude by offering implications for research and practice.