Re: [xmca] UCSD protest: You tube

[Richard Beach <rbeach@umn.edu>]

Mike, one perspective to adopt on these events relates to the emotions
associated with White college students¹ resistance to framing these issues
as a reflection of institutional racism evident in the fact that so few
Black students can even attend UCSD, particularly low-income Blacks, due to
reductions in support for public higher education not only in California,
but nationally where ³public² universities are now primarily ³private.²

>From a 3-g CHAT perspective, one way to connect the dots related to how
different systems (real estate values <---> racial segregation <--->
resistance to taxes supporting the ³other²/Prop 13 <---> cuts in
state/higher education budgets) in California created this situation is
Sheryll Cashin¹s The failures of integration: How race and class are
undermining the American dream.  New York: Public Affairs, 2005 (For her
publications: http://tinyurl.com/y9w3a7f).

Cashin argues that while neighborhoods in the past were often integrated in
the first part of the 20th century, they became increasingly segregated
later in the century as the real estate industry, in conjunction with local
governments, as a means of creating a hierarchy of ³desirable² versus less
³desirable² neighborhoods according to the racial demographics of those
neighborhoods.  In some cases, government housing/zoning policies prohibited
African Americans or Latinos from living in certain neighborhoods.

These policies sparked the ³white flight² exodus from urban neighborhoods
into the suburbs (Weis & Fine); then, when even inner-ring suburban
neighborhoods became more diverse and therefore less ³desirable,² whites
moved to exurban neighborhoods, leading to the fact that a city like LA is
highly segregated.  These policies also resulted in inflated housing prices
simply given the perceived value of living in ³desirable neighborhoods.²
This also led to resistance to ³tax revolts² to paying taxes for support of
the ³other² in the perceived less ³desirable² neighborhoods.²

Unfortunately, as Bonilla-Silva¹s (2001; 2003) survey data indicates, many
college students resist framing these issues as a matter of institutional
racism.  

In her work as a composition/rhetoric researcher, Jennifer Trainor seeks to
explore the emotions related to that resistance constituted by ³systems of
privilege.²   You might consider using her essay, ³The Emotioned Power of
Racism: An Ethnographic Portrait of an All-White High School,² College
Composition and Communication, 60(1), 82-112, 2008.  In that essay, she
notes:
racist assertions do not always or even often originate in racist attitudes
or belief. Instead, racist
language functions metaphorically, connecting common racist ideas to
nonracist feelings, values, beliefs, and associations?emotioned positions
that
are learned in school. I suggest that racist discourses are best understood
as
psychosocial rhetorical phenomena?forms of persuasion that need to be
understood
not only for their political meanings and implications but also for
their persuasive subjective and affective coherence?and that racist
discourses
structure feelings sometimes linked to, but surprisingly rarely reducible
to, the
racial politics such discourses forward. I then extend this argument to the
infrastructure
of schooling?those tacit, taken-for-granted practices and rituals
that scholars have linked to the teaching of social class identities?to show
how school scaffolds the emotioned frameworks within which racist discourses
become persuasive. I suggest that part of what makes racist discourses
cohere
and thus what makes them persuasive is school itself?its infrastructure,
which
exerts a powerful, but largely unacknowledged, pedagogical and persuasive
force.3 Finally, I turn to materials gathered from Laurel Canyons?students
narratives of their first memories of learning about race, transcripts of
class
discussions, and interviews with students conducted informally in the
classroom
and more formally, in the private setting of the library. These materials
are used to illustrate the argument above, and as such they suggest
provocative
new directions for those interested in whiteness studies and anti-racist
pedagogies, particularly those that conceptualize white privilege as a
property
(as Peggy MacIntosh does in her widely used essay ³Unpacking the Knapsack
of White Privilege²). Indeed, my argument here raises questions about
privilege-
as-property metaphors in anti-racist education; these may not be effective
tropes with which to explore racism with white students. Consider, for
example, Laurel Canyons¹ contradictory demographics: at the time of this
research,
the school was moderately high-achieving, with slightly higher than
statewide average scores on state standardized tests. The median home value
in the district was above the state average, and fewer than 7 percent of the
students qualified as ³low income.² The population of adults in the district
who had college degrees was nearly 40 percent (above the national and state
percentages). Yet most of the students in Elizabeth¹s classes had no college
plans. Indeed, the overall percentage of the state¹s population who had a
bachelor¹s degree was 16 percent at the time of this research, a fact I had
to
repeat several times as I talked to colleagues about this research. Many
students
in Elizabeth¹s classes hailed from ambiguous class backgrounds: one student
had a parent with a college degree and another who worked as a beautician,
for example; another had college-educated parents who themselves doubted
the value of a college degree and pushed their child instead toward
community
college; another lived in a mobile home with her family but took, and
excelled
in, all the high-track classes in school. In these ways the students
problematized the economic metaphors of white privilege. Their lived
experiences
suggest a view of whiteness as a dynamic, emotioned, rhetorical process
rather than a ³property²?metaphoric or actual? that gives way to racism as
a rational way to hang on to what one owns or as a compensatory ³wage² paid
to working-class whites. This is not to suggest that privilege and racism
were
not at work at Laurel Canyons, in the choices available to the students and
parents, and in the educational and social power they wielded. This is power
that is not accessible, or not accessible to the same degree, to students of
color
and their families. I do not, that is, want to lose sight of the very real
system of
whiteness in place in public education and elsewhere. However, I do want to
suggest here that the metaphor of whiteness as property and the conception
of
racism as a response to the need to protect that property do not adequately
capture the complexity of systems of privilege as they are affectively
experienced. (pp. 85-87).


 







On 2/26/10 5:07 PM, "Lois Holzman" <lholzman@eastsideinstitute.org> wrote:

> Hi Mike,
> I just read about the events in the last week or so at UCSD.
> I don't know of a reading on this specific topic...but peripheral might be
> something Joshua Aronson has done and/or this  interview Derrick Bell did with
> Lenora Fulani a few years ago.
> Sounds hard,
> Lois
> 
> 
> December 21 , 2004
> 
> Professor Derrick Bell interviews All Stars Project
> co-founder, Dr. Lenora Fulani
> by KARLA KEFFER
> 
> 
> Drs. Bell and Fulani
> 
> ³The Miracle of Motivation,² an invigorating three-part public interview of
> Dr. Lenora Fulani, co-founder of the All Stars Project, conducted by the
> distinguished civil rights activist-attorney and Visiting Professor of Law at
> New York University Law School, Derrick Bell, graced the stage of the Castillo
> Theatre, Tuesday, November 16, Monday, November 22, and Tuesday, November 30,
> 2004. The three interviews were hosted by Nathaniel Christian, Barry Mayo, and
> Beverly Parker, respectively.  A wine and cheese reception followed the
> November 16 interview, and Professor Bell was on hand after each dialogue to
> sign copies of his latest book, Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education
> and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform.
> 
> 
> Professor Bell kicked off ³The Miracle of Motivation² with a discussion of
> Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Having been a
> young lawyer involved in the desegregation effort, Bell recalled, ³The real
> evil was segregation, and if black folks were willing to let bygones be
> bygones, then white people would comply.²  That this did not follow, Bell
> concluded, illustrated that the real problem was white superiority, while
> segregation was only a symptom.
> 
> Dr. Fulani countered that the All Stars Project and its leadership training
> program, the Development School for Youth (DSY), picked up where the civil
> rights movement had failed, that the real problem was not white superiority,
> per se, but rather a failure to engage the experience of segregation ? a
> necessary step if real integration was to take place.  One of the DSY¹s
> workshops, Fulani explained, serves exactly that purpose.  Young people are
> encouraged to share their experience of disengagement from the mainstream,
> ³white,² culture, and are then challenged to grow and develop beyond that
> sense of alienation by learning to perform in new and different ways.  By
> gradually integrating into the business world, DSY students discover that
> professionals, black and white, are, in fact, quite sensitive and empathic
> toward the inner city black experience, in contradistinction to conventional
> wisdom.
> 
> Dr. Fulani challenged the conventional educational approach toward inner-city
> youth, which has tended toward consciousness-raising, largely in the form of
> focusing on teaching young people about their African roots, disputing both
> its effectiveness and its reliance on stringent ideology.  In Fulani¹s
> opinion, ³the black intelligentsia¹s inability to loosen its grip on cultural
> nationalist ideology has proven more detrimental to the advancement of
> inner-city youth than helpful.² Pigeonholing certain behaviors and thought
> processes as ³white,² Dr. Fulani believes, is a roadblock to development. ³I
> decided a long time ago,² she explained, ³to go where I had to go and do what
> I had to do in the interest of helping young people grow ? whether or not I
> was being ideologically correct.²
> 
> Part Two of the series began with a discussion of the non-acquisitional
> learning model of the Development School for Youth and the failure of the
> antiquated acquisitional-learning model on which the U.S. public school
> education system is based. Professor Bell displayed particular interest in the
> DSY¹s insistence upon punctuality, and how learning to be on time helps give
> young people a solid foundation. Dr. Fulani said that in inner-city
> communities, young people often don¹t learn the importance of being on time.
> Young people relate to being on time as a disciplinary measure, as something
> an authority tells them to do because ³those are the rules.² The DSY teaches
> young people that being on time is important because they themselves are
> important. Learning how to be on time teaches young people to take themselves
> seriously, to take others seriously, and to learn how to put forward their
> best performances. ³The kids who join the DSY self-select,² Dr. Fulani added.
> ³They want to be there. They¹re not assigned by teachers; their parents don¹t
> make them come. It¹s an agreement between them and us to participate in
> whatever we have to offer.²
> 
> ³Perhaps the most important component of the DSY,² Dr. Fulani continued, ³is
> the résumé writing workshop. Young people in the DSY have lived their whole
> lives ? gone to school, hung out ? within a twenty-block radius. They¹ve not
> been out into the world. Nobody talks to them about workshops or résumés. I
> think what¹s so important about the résumé workshop is that it makes them see
> that they¹ve done something in life that¹s worth putting on paper.²
> 
> ³One of the things that growing up poor does,² according to Fulani, ³is rob
> you of a certain youthfulness. So we allow the young students to be in touch
> with their youthfulness ? to play with things, to come alive and be excited
> about things. When they come here, we see an awakening of that youthfulness ?
> not of a ?lost childhood,¹ but the youthfulness that gives way to a sense of
> excitement ? something that the schools, unfortunately, don¹t promote.²
> 
> The series concluded with an in-depth analysis of the debate between the
> developmental learning model, which, as employed by the All Stars Project,
> Inc. and the Development School for Youth, focuses on growth, and the
> acquisitional learning model, which is the standard in most American public
> schools and has a devastating effect on inner-city children.  According to Dr.
> Fulani, the acquisitional model, which ³teaches kids to be knowers ? to
> manipulate and acquire information ? has failed the black community precisely
> because of its complete abandonment of development.² Having few or no
> opportunities to develop, Dr. Fulani believes, is why inner city black kids
> are ³dumber² than middle-class white kids. With only the acquisitional
> learning model at their disposal, black kids find it nearly impossible to
> learn.
> 
> The DSY¹s focus on performance, Dr. Fulani stated, serves as a way to initiate
> young people¹s development. The insular lives that many DSY students lead give
> them few opportunities to discover the world around them and other ways of
> doing one¹s life. The DSY provides young people with new opportunities to be
> in the world, as opposed to simply acquiring facts. Young people will not be
> able to grow if facts are all they¹re exposed to. DSY graduates perform better
> in their academic environments, because they¹ve learned how to perform.
> 
> One of the key components of learning how to perform in a corporate
> environment, said Dr. Fulani, is through learning how to be ³less reactive to
> all that¹s wrong with the public school system, and to prejudicial
> statements.² When Professor Bell asked if this would ³make blacks more
> passive,² Dr. Fulani responded, ³I think growing, along with making and
> responding to challenges, is much less passive than sitting around complaining
> about how white people treat us. In the DSY, kids learn to put ?unpleasant¹
> matters on the table and to ask for help.²
> 
> During the question-and-answer sessions that followed each dialogue, audience
> members proved just as spirited and thoughtful as their onstage counterparts.
> Many questioners inquired about Dr. Fulani¹s hopes and expectations for young
> people ? if she wished for them to merely fit into the system or to change it
> as well, to which Dr. Fulani responded that it didn¹t particularly matter to
> her what young people did with their lives, as long as they were able to take
> responsibility for their choices, and to find a measure of order amidst ³the
> madness.²
> 
> Karla Keffer holds a B.A. in English from Hobart and William Smith Colleges
> and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from New York University. She has been
> published in Limozine Magazine and the Baltimore, MD-based poetry journal,
> Smartish Pace. Ms. Keffer has been volunteering with the All Stars Project
> since March 2004.
> 
> Lois Holzman, Director
> East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy
> 920 Broadway, 14th floor
> New York NY 10010
> tel. 212.941.8906 ext. 324
> fax 718.797.3966
> lholzman@eastsideinstitute.org
> www.eastsideinstitute.org
> www.performingtheworld.org
> loisholzman.org
> 
> 
> 
> On Feb 26, 2010, at 7:49 PM, mike cole wrote:
> 
>> Some have asked me about the current conflict at UCSD. There are several
>> youtube videos,
>> the most recent of which is about an hour old. You can find hints about more
>> than I or anyone else knows about these events on youtube by typing in ucsd
>> protest(s).
>> 
>> I have not, unfortunately, gotten any suggestions of an essay to use
>> Thursday when the entire campus
>> turns out to confront the budget crisis, with which these events are
>> certainly connected in many ways.
>> 
>> mike
>> _______________________________________________
>> xmca mailing list
>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> 
> _______________________________________________
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca

_______________________________________________
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca