Abstract
This paper argues that antiracist solidarity in education remains urgent, but that in framing solidarity projects critical educators have not been sufficiently attentive to the shape and extent of racism as a global ordering of social life. We describe the paternalism that has determined historical efforts at solidarity between African Americans and Whites and then extend our analysis of whiteness to the contemporary context, outlining its expressions in schooling and the challenges they pose for solidarity projects. Drawing on recent work in cultural studies and philosophy, we describe whiteness as a basic ordering of human being as well as a system of material and cultural oppression, and suggest that antiracist solidarity has to involve a reorganization of ways of being and knowing as well as a vision of global coexistence that respects epistemological difference and autonomy. On this basis we identify several key principles that should guide projects of antiracist solidarity in the present. The paper describes the most important implications of these principles for teaching, focusing in particular on the differing costs to teachers of color and White teachers of participation in antiracist activism, and outlining a form of solidarity without guarantees that can orient critical work in schools.
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De Lissovoy, N., Brown, A.L. Antiracist Solidarity in Critical Education: Contemporary Problems and Possibilities. Urban Rev 45, 539–560 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-013-0235-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-013-0235-8