"Anchoring" white community: White women activists and the politics of public schools

This article discusses the political clout wielded by a group of white wome n who participate in "Presidents' Committee," an organization of Parents As sociation presidents in a New York City Community School District. The scho ol district, like many urban areas, is experiencing an exodus of white fami lies to the suburbs, which are seen as offering better resources and a safe social distance from blacks and other non-whites. In this context of socia l change, white mothers who participate in Presidents' Committee push at ge nder boundaries in the public sphere by professionalizing motherhood and wa tching over potentially corrupt political practices. At the same time, thei r activism can be understood as a key component of local efforts to reprodu ce "white" community. Through this ethnographic analysis, "whiteness" is un packed as a construct that is fractured by gender, class, and place of orig in, while remaining a resilient idealized resource with which to reproduce a black / white racial binary.