The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious, one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions… But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry, which will simply obey the rules of society. If a society succeeds in this, that society is about to perish. The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it – at no matter what risk. This is the only hope society has. This is the only way societies change.
– James Baldwin, 1985
Ferguson
On Monday, November 24, 2014, a St. Louis Grand Jury voted not to indict Officer Darren Wilson, a White police officer, for the fatal shooting of unarmed Black teenager, Michael Brown. Numerous eyewitnesses say Michael Brown was fatally murdered on a residential street in Ferguson as he stood with his hands in the air.
The killing, which took place more than 3 months ago, sparked weeks of civil unrest in Ferguson, as well as major cities across the United States, as protesters called for greater attention to be placed on a widespread pattern of police brutality within a racialized justice system that disproportionately targets black and brown people, relegating them to a form of second class citizenship.
Various national civil rights organizations, including the NAACP and ColorOfChange, have initiated calls to action in response to the grand jury decision, as the litany of fatal encounters between the police (or policing entities) and people of color continues to grow, morphing from one innocent life to another.
Michael Brown, Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Eric Garner, Andrew Gaynier, Ezell Ford, Jacinto Zavala, Patrick Dorismond, Akai Gurley, Aswan Watson… The list of innocent lives lost under the guise of justifiable homicide goes on and on. And, in the absence of justice for all, the very fabric of democracy, and ultimately, our humanity, continues to be trampled upon.
The reality is, law enforcement kills Black Americans at nearly the same rate as Jim Crow era lynchings1 and in some States, make up more homicides than gang related and drug related violence combined.2
Undergirding these acts of violence and repression are dangerous ideologies that justify the marginalization and sub-classification of human beings, legitimize existing hegemonic structures, and subsequently, reproduce the status quo over and over again.
However, systemic forms of oppression and dehumanization saturate every sector of our society, from the courts, to public healthcare, to education. The New Jim Crow, as coined by Michelle Alexander, is alive, thriving on a constituency that continues to deny the vestiges of White supremacy and circumvent meaningful dialogue about racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia; and in its perverse, prejudiced quietude, promote an intellectual, emotional, and physical ineptitude.
Education as the Beginning and End of Humanity
Our county’s glaringly racialized and economically stratified caste system may not exist in spite of, but because of, our education system. Schools, which are microcosms of society, tend to be hubs for dis-intellectual regurgitation and reproduction of knowledge, where both students and teachers, are expected to passively accept directives and information, no matter the form and without question, so long as it stems from a certified authority. This top-down pedagogy of poverty promotes indifference, discourages active inquiry, encourages obedience and dependency, and uniformly disengages human beings from their own humanity.
Schoolhouses are becoming more reminiscent of prisons, guarded and gated from the outside world. Teachers perceive themselves as depositors of information, swiftly “handling” students who defy or question their authority. Uniform desks fall into rows promoting conformity and allowing for easy surveillance, while students march in straight lines from class to class with a military-like cadence. Whereas, dialogue about racism, sexism, classism, ageism, ableism, heterosexism, privilege and homophobia, are strictly avoided, if not, completely nonexistent in school-wide curriculum.
What happens in the absence of such dialogue?
When our schools and teachers abdicate responsibility to teach about the controversial, the uncomfortable, the unconventional, we risk reproducing existing hegemonic structures that privilege the few at the cost of the many. And in doing so, we limit students to a dis-integrated, dis-oriented, un-empathic, un-questioned, un-derstanding of the world. Is it really a surprise that systemic forms of oppression find their way back into our tomorrows?
Paulo Freire, whose watershed work continues to form the basis for progressive, emancipatory education and critical pedagogy, wrote:
Any situation in which some individuals prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence. The means used are not important; to alienate human beings from their own decision-making is to change them into objects.3
To be human is to be creative, to think critically, to cross cognitive borders through infinite and elaborate forms of communication and collaboration. To be human is, essentially, to be curious, which unavoidably invites provocation. Yet, this is not our current education system, despite the fact that our entire humanity rests on it.
If You Want Social Justice, You Must Teach Social Justice
Schooling is both an intellectual and ethical enterprise. To reduce schooling to the technical without concerted and considerable integration of the moral and the human, we risk reproducing, reinforcing, and revitalizing, dangerous ideologies that continue to plague our country and legitimize social injustice. We will not change the status quo unless we, as educators, as administrators, as program directors, as principals, as superintendents, have the courage to question it with (not for) our students, and stand in solidarity (not charity) with all human beings.
Social justice begins with us, with a mini-lesson on love, a classroom service project, an after school social justice program, a freedom school, a critical teacher education. Our humanity rests in our hands, and as educators, it is our privilege and utmost responsibility to ensure that Ferguson, and the countless examples of oppression and dehumanization before it, are artifacts of and not archetypes for humanity.
For more information on integrating social justice into your classroom or after school program, visit:
Teaching Tolerance
Institute for Humane Education
Amnesty International
Teach Kind
Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District: ASES Prep
For breakfast I had quinoa and fruit.
Author: Sue Jim Kim
Educator, Writer, Performing Artists
Los Angeles, CA
Sue Jin Kim is an educator, writer, and performing artist from Los Angeles, California. She has performed on both television and radio and is an Associate Artist for Tuesday Night Project. As an artist, her goal to broaden the lens of Asian American talent as portrayed in mainstream media, while representing positive alternatives to female images that currently serve as models in society.
Sue Jin was the Associate Program Director for ASES Prep, an award-winning intervention program in the City of Norwalk, CA, providing at-risk youth the knowledge and skills to make positive changes in their communities through social justice education and non-violent civic action. She is passionate about non-traditional forms of education and space-creation, grounded in humanity, respect, and love and has trained hundreds of educators in the field.
Sue Jin’s current project is called Love and Pedagogy, which explores restorative justice movements in schools and provides a framework for restorative education.
Sue Jin received her BA in Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles, went on to receive her MA in Teaching as well as her Ed.D in K-12 Leadership at the University of Southern California.
References:
1″Mike Brown’s shooting and Jim Crow lynchings have too much in common. It’s time for America to own up,” The Guardian, 08-25-14 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/3985?t=27&akid=3921.1829011.s-ZXVM
2″Killings by Utah Police Outpacing Gang, Drug, Child Abuse Homocides,” The Salt Lake Tribune, 11-24-14. https://www.sltrib.com/news/1842489-155/killings-by-utah-police-outpacing-gang
3Freire, P. 1970. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.