Social Justice Must Be Defended: A Raciolinguistic Genealogical Exploration of Social Justice Discourse

Social justice discourse permeates many institutes of higher education. In the current study, I examine how a graduate school within an elite university uses social justice discourse and promotional tactics to demonstrate its commitment to improving its social justice goals. Using a raciolinguistic genealogical approach, I show how the school creates a normative subject-position, or way of being in the world, around social justice (Flores, 2021). I analyze the data using a critical discourse analytic approach informed by Anaïs (2013) and reveal ruptures within the normative subject-position. I conclude that the continued promotion of the school’s progress to improve racial and social justice depends on the repeated subjugation of marginalized students. This research serves as a case study that supports the work of researchers in higher education and educational linguistics who confront the lasting impact of white supremacy and global capitalism as they are reproduced in institutes of higher education.