Jacqueline Battalora

Details

Biography

Topics

Economy/Economic Visions

Education

Faculty/Staff Development

First Year Read Programs

Multiculturalism

Prisons/Prison Industrial Complex/Police

Programs for High School Students

Racism/Racial Justice

U.S. History

White Privilege

Women & Feminism

Jacqueline Battalora Ph.D., is a passionate and engaging speaker addressing the complexities of what it means to be white within a nation that imposed whiteness as a matter of founding law. She is is the author of Birth of a White Nation: The Invention of White People and Its Relevance Today, an attorney and professor of sociology at Saint Xavier University, Chicago, and a former Chicago Police Officer.

An editor for the Journal of Understanding and Dismantling Privilege, Dr. Battalora is the author of numerous articles and appears in the documentaries "The American L.O.W.S." by Darnley Hodge Jr. and "HAPI" by Gerard Grant.

Dr. Battalora’s scholarship, lectures, and trainings describe how the group of humanity called “white” people was first asserted in law and worked to radically reorganize society. While she keeps the spotlight on racial constructs, the trade in women’s bodies and the workings of class oppression are retained in the telling of the invention of white people. With skill and rich detail, she takes participants through the inventive process and toward the society we confront today. The historical approach utilized helps to remove defensiveness and position white participants to be motivated for transformation, gaining confidence to be more open, mindful and understanding. Dr. Battalora’s work on the social construction of the white race makes absolutely clear the impact that whiteness has had on all people living in the United States.

Testimonials

“If we do not know our past and cannot trace it into the present, we are left with very problematic explanations for the conditions of inequality we see today. In her writings and presentations, Jacqueline Battalora provides us the foundational understanding of the historical roots of white supremacy. In so doing, she offers us an essential tool for addressing racism. She is a brilliant, engaging, and insightful speaker with years of practice behind her approach. Her work is foundational.
— Robin DiAngelo, PhD, Educator and Author of White Fragility and What Does It Mean To Be White?

“Jacqueline Battalora’s presentation of “Birth of a White Nation” was engaging and very enlightening. The work you have done can only benefit those in the quest for racial equity, and our doctoral students benefited immensely from talking with such an experienced professional. Additionally, community members were surprised and excited to have so many preconceptions about racial history unpackaged, and your book and lecture have sparked discussion throughout our community.”
— Larry E. Davis, Dean, School of Social Work, Founder and Director of the Center on Race and Social Problems, University of Pittsburgh

“Professor Battalora’s presentation on how American colonial elites deliberately constructed racial definitions to “divide and conquer” whole classes of people – creating a black underclass – answers many questions as to why our nation’s institutions and systems are inherently prejudiced and racist today. Battalora’s groundbreaking research and insights remind us to study history when trying to understand and unpack the present.”
— Patrick Keenan, Esq., James B. Moran Center for Youth, Evanston IL

“Jacqueline Battolora's research breaks new ground and provides important and new information. She reveals what life was like for everyone in the British Colony that later became the United States of America; the creation of "white people" and the changes that occurred after the founding of the United States of America. She further explains how these factors contributed to and resulted in the birth of a nation designed to protect the interests of the elite and created a permanent underclass by limiting and/or denying to some rights the elite enjoyed.”
— Nancy Travis Bolden, Coordinator, Anti-Racism Ministry, Province III, The Episcopal Church

“Do you want to understand the history of the term ‘white people’ in the United States and how it has shaped our laws and identities? Read the book, Birth of A White Nation by Jacqueline Battalora. A clearly written and illuminating book.”
— Rosemary Radford Ruether, Carpenter Professor, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley CA

Speeches

White Competency: A Blueprint for Racial Justice in a Global Pandemic
The crises brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic are a recipe for disaster for those already on the margins of U.S. society. The especially brutal impact for Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities is a result of centuries of health and economic inequities with Whiteness at its core. In this presentation, Dr. Battalora explains and examines Whiteness, the dynamic processes and practices linked to relations of domination that position those seen as white above all other people. The assumptions and expectations that Whiteness produces are used to illuminate pathways out of the division and domination it creates. Dr. Battalora, draws from her Whiteness Competency Course and Kimberle Crenshaw’s Intersectionality framework to help us better understand and strategize how we might achieve true racial justice within our daily work as well as institutional structures and practices.

Going Back To Go Forward
This lecture covers where, when, how, and why the human category called “white people” was first utilized in law and its role in radically reorganizing society. The history exposes race as a construct and reveals a mindset that is foundational to the United States shaping every institution and workplace. This lecture is has the greatest impact on the front end of diversity and inclusion efforts. It helps people stay rooted in facts, dramatically diminishes defensiveness, and advances shared understanding.

Behind the Blue Line: White Supremacy and Policing
In the wake of George Floyd’s killing last year, local and state governments have passed dozens of police oversight laws aimed at curbing the use of excessive force. Even with the conviction of Derek Chauvin in Floyd’s murder, police still mostly enjoy impunity as they continue to kill at the same rates since 2013, with Black and Brown people still targeted disproportionately. What will it take to stop the killings and create real accountability and community safety? Dr. Battalora is also a former Chicago police officer and she knows first hand that white supremacy and misogyny are at the root of the problem - within recruitment, training, and police culture and in police academies, departments, and associations. After all, a society steeped in racialized and gendered ideas about bodies, reflects them in its structures and systems, assumptions and expectations. In this powerful presentation, she traces how the problems with policing are rooted in U.S. colonization, slavery, the law of coverture, and capitalism, and takes a look at the state of law enforcement today and the calls to divest from deadly policing and invest in public safety.

How U.S. Law & Policy Divides Us
This lecture begins with a consideration of law created by the nations’ founders that gave unearned advantage and disadvantage ensuring that lives of people would be dramatically different. Immigration policy, marriage law, and naturalization are considered through the 19th and 20th Centuries for what they reveal about the range of experience in the U.S. for those seen as white and for various groups seen as not white. The material exposes the roots of the white = American equation. This lecture is intended to follow Going Back To Go Forward and advances a knowledge base well beyond an introductory level.

Sexuality & Race: Constructions of Difference
Learn about the similarities and divergences in the social construction of race and sexuality. This lecture draws upon the work of Johnathan Ned Katz and surfaces patterns in the constructive work of making human difference. This lecture is ideal for those seeking to draw connections between structures of exclusion and inclusion.

Anti-Bias Training
Training begins by laying down a historical record of the invention of “white people” and the investment of that invention within the United States. Through interactions, small group work and individual and collective processing, contemporary manifestations of this foundational history are explored and analyzed. Drawing upon institutional mission and the broader U.S. promises of equal opportunity and liberty, participants explore what must change, what should remain, and strategize concrete steps toward these ideals within daily work and institutional structures and practices.

Media

Birth of a White Nation

Epigenetics: Birth of a White Nation (The Invention of "White" People)