[Xmca-l] Re: Black Underachievement, etc.

["Dr. Paul C. Mocombe" <pmocombe@mocombeian.com>]

Andy,

The question you raised is directly tied to my theoretical framework.  It is my recognition that the black academic achievement gap can be resolved through teaching standard english and mentoring, which made me realize my own embourgeoisement, which simply further ties blacks to the status quo as opposed to offering a counterhegemonic solution to it.  I have begun to question my own methods...and it is my research into the situation facing haiti which has enlightened me ..the pro-US government is pushing education and the masses are pushing education on the island for the same reasons, economic gain, status, and upward mobility within a world threatened by overproduction, consumption, etc.  Both positions are bourgeois and do not offer solutions facing haiti within the context of the limits to growth metaphysics of the earth itself.  In essence I have come to realize that bourgeois education does not liberate one from the status quo, but ties them to it.


Dr. Paul C. Mocombe
President
The Mocombeian Foundation, Inc.
www.mocombeian.com 
www.readingroomcurriculum.com 

-------- Original message --------
From: Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> 
Date: 11/05/2013  6:24 AM  (GMT-05:00) 
To: "Dr. Paul C. Mocombe" <pmocombe@mocombeian.com> 
Cc: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>,Cecile.Wright@nottingham.ac.uk,carol Tomlin <info@caroltomlin.com> 
Subject: Re: [Xmca-l] Re: Black Underachievement, etc. 
 
None of these changes are either lytical or critical, Paul, (or rather 
they are both), since these concepts simply mark alternating phases in a 
developmental process.

Unfortunately, while my interests are mostly in the domain of 
social-theoretical fundamentals, your article was undoubtedly voted for 
discussion on xmca because people wanted to learn what you say about 
Black underachievement. So let me make a seguey by pointing out that 
your Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mocombeian says that "The 
Mocombeian Foundation is a Literacy Foundation founded by Dr. Paul C. 
Mocombe that offers Mocombe's Reading Room Curriculum to help inner-city 
youth close the achievement gap." But surely this runs somewhat counter 
to the gist of the views you have expressed in this exchange. You 
clearly do think that Black underachievement can be overcome evidently 
without a global catastrophe and have launched a project to that end.

Could you elaborate on this? I.e., first of all, on how to tackle the 
problems highlighted in your paper whilst avoiding the traps you see in 
the kind of approaches most valued by xmca members?

Andy

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
http://home.mira.net/~andy/


Dr. Paul C. Mocombe wrote:
> The problem with that assessment andy is that it makes the assumption 
> that amidst lytical changes, which I am assuming come from praxis, 
>  the ideological structure remains oblivious to the processes taking 
> place...it does not.  It incorporates, refutes, etc.  I think 
> polanyi's double movement is appropriate here.  The ideological 
> superstructure frames lytical changes within the dialectical 
> contradictions of its discourse rendering them innocuous. ..would you 
> say homosexuality, pan-africanism, transgenderism, are lytical 
> changes?  If they are, what would you say about gay marriage, or the 
> death of pan-africanism amongst black americanism?
>
>
> Dr. Paul C. Mocombe
> President
> The Mocombeian Foundation, Inc.
> www.mocombeian.com 
> www.readingroomcurriculum.com 
>
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>
> Date: 11/04/2013 7:25 PM (GMT-05:00)
> To: "Dr. Paul C. Mocombe" <pmocombe@mocombeian.com>
> Cc: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" 
> <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>,Cecile.Wright@nottingham.ac.uk,carol Tomlin 
> <info@caroltomlin.com>
> Subject: Re: [Xmca-l] Re: Black Underachievement, etc.
>
>
> I think the fundamental flaw of this approach, Paul, is that it takes as
> its fundamental units, entities which are unchanging. Yes, an ideology
> is by definition, self-sustaining and self-justifying. But, while it is
> true that history is littered with disasters, and the critical periods
> of social change are indeed marked by catastrophe, these crtitical
> phases are prepared and constituted by phases of lytical change and are
> inseparable from them. This general character of development teaches us
> that it is a mistake to separate lytical and critical phases of
> development. I think that in order to grasp social life as essential
> lysubject to change, development and transformation, one must take as a
> fundamental unit of analysis something which is inherently a process of
> development. I use "project", others simply call it "an activity".
>
> Andy
> http://www.academia.edu/2365533/Collaborative_Project_as_a_Concept_for_Interdisciplinary_Human_Science_Research
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *Andy Blunden*
> http://home.mira.net/~andy/
>
>
> Dr. Paul C. Mocombe wrote:
> > Andy,
> >
> > Unfortunately, I am in agreement with althusser.  I cannot think of
> > one historical case to prove the contrary.  It is necessary for one
> > historical frame to replace another via catastrophe and revolution.
> >  Can we truly say that the middle class represents an alternative to
> > the dominant ideology of the upper-class of owners and high-level
> > executives?  I do not think say.  Just the same, the argument you
> > raise is tantamount to the hybridity discourse of homi bhabha...and I
> > am in agreement with spivak, hybridity is not an alternative to the
> > discourse of the colonizer...it is using the discourse of the
> > colonizer to convict them of not identifying with their logic, which
> > the colonized accepts and reproduces.  This is not liberating, nor
> > does it offer an alternative to the discourse of the colonizer.
> >
> >
> > Dr. Paul C. Mocombe
>
>