Moving Beyond the Binary?

Hank Willis Thomas’s 2013 sculpture “Raise Up” is a striking embodiment of black social death. Ten brass figures reach out of a white pedestal, facing the wall with their hands held up. While each differing slightly, all ten are presumably men. Why are their faces obscured? Perhaps it is a lineup (but none of the hands are flat against the wall). They could be at a prayer service (though that is not reason enough to face them away from us). After the Michael Brown shooting of 2014, it would certainly be easy to imagine it paying homage to the activist “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” We can only see one’s set of shoulders. The rest are submerged so deeply in the white base that torsos, necks, mouths are sliced off. Some sort of inhumanity has occurred – these are incomplete people; not only have we been cut off from them, but they are have been separated from themselves. In spite of everything, the figures are still somehow active. It is not as if the heads and arms have been carelessly strewn about or arranged in a stilted attempt to unnaturally pose them.

Against the Dark: 

Antiblackness in Education Policy and Discourse

Providing readers with an explanation of the focus of antiblack scholarship as a framework for the article, Michael J. Dumas looks at the concepts of antiblackness through racialized educational policies, the signification of Black bodies in educational spaces, and the perceived threat of the Black body to non-Black students. Like Leonardo, Dumas operates within an understanding that whiteness is a social construct, employed as a method of negating “others,” to which Blackness is oppositional. That Blackness, however, is constructed as a “racialized social group that shares a specific set of histories, cultural processes, and imagined and performed kinships,” that the various white (European) ethnic groups do not share. (Dumas, 2106, p. 12) Dumas makes the point that his capitalization of Black is used “to signify the imagined representations of the physical Black body.” (p. 13) His usage of this signification is particularly important, not only to the message of the essay, but also to the greater historical understanding of Black bodies. We are again living through a period in which white supremacists are attempting to use imagined representations of the physical Black body as ideological scare tactics. Such ideologies support Dumas’ argument that the Black body is not recognized as human. Following the argument that Blacks are not considered fully human citizens in our society, then it is understandable to see why Afropessimists believe that there are no true methods for Blacks to petition for reparation.

Compounding the argument that this is truly an antiblack society is the embrace of capitalistic multiculturalism, which Dumas argues is more profitable global economy that ignores Black experience, justified as anti-racist because it’s inclusive beyond the white/Black binary. This movement beyond the binary represents a “social death” of Black people and further contributes to the concept of the Black problem, thus again underscoring the removal of Black humanity. (p.15) Perhaps most aptly illustrating the thesis of the article is this statement, and also the result of historical anti-Blackness, “And this, then, is the essence of antiblackness in education policy: the Black is constructed as always already a problem-as nonhuman; inherently uneducable, or at the very least, unworthy of education; and, even in a multiracial society, always a threat to what Sexton (2008, p. 13) described as ‘everything else.’” (p. 16)

The whole article was engrossing, but one passage caught my eye. “Antiblackness allows one to capture the depth of suffering of Black children and educators in the predominantly white schools and connect this contemporary trauma to that of the longue dureé of slavery from bondage to its afterlife in desegregating (and now re-segregating) schools.” (p. 16) This is an especially intriguing conceptualization, and I wish that Dumas had dedicated more space within the article to expand on this topic. 

BEYOND BLACK AND WHITE: 

The Model Minority Myth and the Invisibility of Asian American Students

Jean Yonemura Wing addresses the negative effects resulting from the stereotype of the Asian American Model Minority student through a case study of a diverse group of Asian American students attending Berkeley High School in California. In American culture, Asian American students are believed to be naturally hard-working, smarter than non-Asian students, and excel in mathematics. According to Wing, these students are often “lumped together, with no distinctions regarding such basic differences as national origin and history, class background, immigration status, language(s) spoken, or parent’s educational levels and occupations, or what classes they are taking.” (Wing, 2007, p. 457) This reductive lens thus ignores the diversity of Pan-Asian representation, as well as the academic and economic struggles that these students may encounter. Of the six students interviewed, we meet: students with working-class parents and students with a more middle-class upbringing; parents with no education and college educated parents; and students who have navigated the traditional gender expectations in different manners.  

The social construct of the model minority, although seemingly benign, allows Asian Americans (more broadly) to be utilized as a political tool, providing white people a buffer between other, and potentially more threatening, people of color. (p460) Wing later provides further examples of discrimination against Asian Americans, such as Yellow Peril, “You all look alike,” inability and apathy toward correct pronunciation of student names, and selective exclusion from the school curriculum by focusing on select histories of select Asian immigrants. One of the more interesting foci of discrimination felt by the Asian American students in the study involved high school athletics. Where prestige sports are dominated by students exhibiting size and strength, the students in the study were involved in lower-prestige sports in which speed or agility were more beneficial. Similarly, the notion of relative functionalism as an explanation for the large percentage of Asian students in STEM fields was intriguing, but also disappointing that so-called “soft skills” such as reading, writing, and speaking, are neglected rather than addressed for improvement. (p. 479)

Cambodian-American education activists and members of the Khmer Parent Association discuss the struggles the community faces in schools, and why there is no “one-mold-fits-all” approach that can address the needs of all Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. (NBC Asian America)

Other Works Cited

1. Thomas, Hank Willis. Raise Up. 2013. https://anarchistwithoutcontent.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/the-black-radical-tradition/ Accessed 9/24/2018
2. Re-Examined: Cambodian-American Fights ‘Model Minority’ Stereotype In Education. NBC Asian America. https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=T2HQkQe9qVM. Accessed 9/24/2018

The Social Constructs of Power

It is almost impossible not to think of Foucault when thinking about power. In The Subject and Power (1982), Foucault argues “It is legitimate to analyse (sic) power by looking at institutions, but relationships of power are based in the depths of society, in the “systems of social networks”: There can be no society without some form of power relations.” With this in mind, we look at this week's readings, which consider systems of power and the frameworks constructed to support them.

In My Class Didn't Trump My Race: Using Oppression to Face Privilege, Robin J DiAngelo addresses her experiences growing up poor using two questions to lead her analysis: "how does internalized dominance function collectively for Whites, regardless of our other social locations, and how did I learn racism specifically through my class (or other) oppression?" (DiAngelo, 2006). DiAngelo shares an experience from her past in she learns that her family is truly poor and the shame that arose from such knowledge, but even as a child DiAngelo recognized that while she was poor, at least she wasn’t Black. DiAngelo thus utilizes her recognition of how class influenced her (racial) identity to examine how she had internalized the social construct of white superiority. 

Dr. DiAngelo speaks about deconstructing white privilege at General Commission on Religion and Race of The UMC (2017)

And her analysis shows that such superiority is, indeed, a social construct: living segregated lives at school, work, and often church; being catered to as the “norm” for humanity-deviations are thus “others”; and allowed to be thought of as individuals rather than representative of an entire race or ethnicity. These constructions allow White people to be secure in their dominance, even when taking class difference into account, as DiAngelo herself recognized as a child. Finally, DiAngelo importantly understand the value of using racism as a lens to view her analysis, providing recognition into the intersecting hierarchies built on a social construct.

 Dissatisfied with the disconnect between Critical Race Theory and Critical Disability Studies, Zeus Leonardo and Alicia Broderick critique each to offer a deeper understanding of the intersection of race and ability, as they delve into theories of social construction in their article Smartness as a Property: A Critical Exploration of Intersections Between Whiteness and Disability Studies. Here again we can see that like race and class, ability is relational to power. Using Harris’s example of how Whiteness functions as a form of property, it is possible to see how the construct of White/smart is relies on the dehumanization of those perceived as less than, (Black/disabled), reinforced by the dominant hegemonic culture (White/abled), thus creating a delineation (discrimination) that keeps out “others.” White cannot be constructed without Black, abled cannot be constructed without disabled. 

These terms act as signifiers of stratification, conveying meaning within our society, and allow the construction of the ideology of Whiteness. Using Althusser’s concept of ideology (Leonardo, p2213), the authors agree with the idea that realization of race makes bodies subjective to race. Applying this concept to society at large, we understand at one that the institutions founded by a White dominated culture are imbued with the power to engage in that same realization of bodies subject to race/ability. By engaging in these actions, the educational system reinforces the relationships of race/ability as a policy supporting, and supported by, society as a whole. 

Works Cited

1.     DiAngelo, R. J. (2006). My class didn’t trump my race: Using oppression to face  privilege.    Multicultural Perspectives, 8(1), 52-56.

2.     DiAngelo, R.J. (2017) Deconstructing White Privilege. General Commission on Religion and Race of The UMChttps://youtu.be/DwIx3KQer54

3.     Foucault, Michel (1982). The Subject and Power. Critical Inquiry Vol. 8, No. 4 (Summer, 1982), 777-795.

4.     Leonardo, Z. & Broderick, A. A. (2011). Smartness as property: A critical exploration of intersections between whiteness and disability studies. Teachers College Record, 113(10), 2206-2232.

  

The Great Society, or, An American Dilemma

In The Only Valid Passport From Poverty, Dana Goldstein focuses on several themes as a way to analyze the historical effects of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which forced seventeen states with legally segregated public schools to desegregate. Prevalent in the essay are the concepts of conflict and resistance, expectation, intent, perception, and value. These concepts each provide a different and valuable lens, which allow us to have a more comprehensive understanding of the topic.

In the decade following Brown v. Board, state legislators engaged in what Goldstein calls "massive resistance," through the passage of highly racialized laws meant to undercut the intended spirit of Brown v. Board. The ruling also stimulated a backlash from many black intellectuals concerned about issues of employment and identity (Goldstein, 2014). President Lyndon Johnson's attempts to improve the educational outcome of the most vulnerable populations of the United States were just one area of policy design implemented to support his vision of a Great Society. Johnson’s personal understanding of how poverty and education are fundamentally tied recalled the groundbreaking 1944 study of Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal, which influenced the Brown v. Board decision. The American Dilemma delved into the moral contradiction felt by citizens between allegiance to the country’s founding ideologies of freedom and justice for all, and the awareness of the reality of racial discrimination. Myrdal believed that the American educational system was the solution to combat racist beliefs and increase economic opportunity and economic development.

Segregation was not immediately beneficial, and while there was notable cross-cultural bonding, Goldstein intimates that was exception rather than the rule. Institutional racism still meant black teachers were laid off at higher rates than white teachers and hired at lower rates. White parents considered black teacher unqualified to teach white students, white teachers had low expectations from their students, and fears of miscegenation were rampant. Differing perspectives, expectations, and values added to the resistance to, and affected the successful outcome programs like Joan Wofford’s Cardozo Project, which paired college students as interns to veteran teachers in impoverished schools. Although created with good intent, the program participants experienced challenges from the start. As discussed in class previously, the inclusion of community voices is instrumental to the success of any educational program, and this is where good intent led to conflicts between the numerous actors involved. Interns were better funded than teachers, had access to better material, newer technology, and sought to make changes to the curriculum. It is significant that in retrospect, Wofford is cognizant the mistakes she made by ignoring community voice when implementing the program, or by not attempting to understand the culture she sought to save. That’s problematic, and fundamental to the white savior complex that seems to motivate so many white people who are hoping to make a difference. http://blackyouthproject.com/its-not-just-we-got-yall-when-non-profits-frame-black-youth-as-deprived-in-need-of-saviors/

The results of the Coleman Report (1966), which revealed that black children who attended well-funded schools had higher grades and senses of autonomy, provide a neat tie-in to Jean Anyon’s Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work (1980). Anyon looks at public education through a Marxist lens, arguing that the American educational system is class-based; structured to replicate and support the labor needs of the industrialized, capitalistic society we currently live in. To support her argument, Anyon details her methodology, provides definitions for class and labor, and outlines the hierarchical structure for class and labor. Conflict and resistance prove to be a commonality between the two essays, and Anyon provides the example of working-class student’s resistance to the drudgery of low expectations, low cognitive engagement, and routine, tying that resistance of working-class laborers striking for incremental difference in their professional lives. The resistance doesn’t create monumental change, but it does provide momentary diversion, and occasionally the teachers (foremen) make temporal concessions that improve the docility of the students (workers). Such acts of passive resistance are enough to exhibit agency, but not enough to elicit a penalty. Like the segregationists of the south, teachers in the working-class district show a fundamental lack of respect for the humanity of their students, nor do they provide a sense of community within their classrooms. Students in middle-class and affluent communities are afforded degrees of autonomy and humanity based on that status, and the funding for more highly educated teachers, technology, and rigorous curriculums provide the necessary support for such students to succeed.

Viewed in comparison, it’s difficult to disagree with Anyon’s argument. It becomes quickly apparent that educational expectations for all parties involved, students, parents, and teachers, increase in correlation to students’ socioeconomic status. Applying this framework to the current educational system, we see that not only does educational segregation exist, but incorporates elements of class conflict in addition to racial conflict. The reliance of property taxes in funding formulas for school districts continues to increase the educational equity gap between cities and towns with high rates of homeownership and those with higher rates of rentals. This disparity continues into the workplace, perpetuating the hierarchy of class. If we as a nation are to move beyond our current state of stagnation, significant changes must be made to our public schools.

Education: The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

This week’s readings consider an educational system that embraces the cultural backgrounds of African-American students, recall the strength of the arts and humanities, reminds us of the value of dialogue within a community, and is steeped in the ideals of democratic and transformative education. In A Simple, Revolutionary Idea (2017), Goss recognized the school system she taught in was “…designed to ensure their compliance. I no longer wanted to be a teacher who perpetuated this psychic violence against my students.” As a result, she sought to create a curriculum based on the concept of communal education that mirrored the African-American cultural background of her students, and herself. Such a curriculum would be founded on a dialogue that mirrors the values and expectations of the school community, shaped and reinforced by increased parental involvement in school governance, curriculum, and assessments.  Communal education offers the potential to increase cultural understanding and appreciation within institutions, foster more positive teaching and learning relationships, and offer more effective consequences for students who have made poor behavioral choices. Goss’s goal to establish a more communal method of education for African-American students is could and should be applied to all students. Goss’s communal education curriculum is an elegant synthesis of the best of Dewey’s democratic educational goals and Friere’s transformative educational ideals, two concepts that echo throughout this week’s readings. [1][2]

In Imagining futures: the public school and possibility, Greene (2000) argues an arts-inclusive education is vital to the health of a society, particularly as we navigate a period of demographic, economic, and political shifts. This approach also relies on Dewey’s concept of democracy through community building, “Through the building of a community the ground may be laid for an articulate public empowered and encouraged to speak for itself, perhaps in many voices, within classrooms…people look forward to seeing, across spaces where there can be dialogue and exchanges of all kinds in which persons can speak in their own idioms, avoiding the formulaic, the artificial and the ‘sound-bite’” (Emphasis my own). Greene’s usage of heteroglossia includes a nod to Dewey and Bakhtin, and her diverse usage of poetry provides excellent examples of the value of multiplicity. It also neatly foreshadows her concerns of media’s hegemonic global dissemination of neo-liberal propaganda, which she considers a factor in the decline of critical inquiry and reflection in education, and its negative affect on education and economy.

Grace Boggs also touches on the effects of neo-liberalism in Education: The Great Obsession (1970). Structural racism in education has left black students deeply disadvantaged, unable to achieve economic prosperity. This is the unfortunate result of the traditional “sifting-mechanism” of education and the newer “mass custodial” role of schools that neo-liberal capitalism depends on to succeed. Revolting against this institutional apathy, the black community organized in agreement around the idea that “the function of education must be redefined to make it responsible and accountable to the community,” calling for a more culturally conscious education black students could relate to and participate in. Boggs’ prescient question, “Do we really want our children to end up…ambitious only for their own financial advancement and security, apathetic except when confronted by blacks moving into their neighborhoods or competing for their jobs, afraid of not only blacks but of their own children and indeed of any fundamental social change…acquiescing in the decisions of the Mayor Daleys, the Judge Hoffmans, the Spiro Agnews, and eventually the George Wallaces?” Boggs understands that many who work within and adjacent to the current educational structure hold a vested interest in maintenance rather than democratic transformation.  And like Goss and Greene, she recognizes the importance of dialogue and community involvement with curriculum.

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[1] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/852/852-h/852-h.htm

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1O7w2BfvOw