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Black Skin, White Masks: Negotiating Institutional Resistance to Revolutionary Pedagogy and Praxis in the HBCU
Abstract
Spencer’s work chronicles the evolution of a Black female professor’s revolutionary and liberatory pedagogy and praxis in her work at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) and as a human rights activist. Through the utilization of the critical works of hooks, Freire, Fanon, and Frazier, Spencer celebrates the passion of engaging students in critical and revolutionary pedagogy. Simultaneously, the chapter analyzes the manner in which institutional resistance emerges from the situation of patriarchal and supremacist ideologies, that vilify “non-conformist” Black female scholars who engage “liberatory” and revolutionary approaches and action, within the HBCU academy.
Affirmative Action remains a controversial policy that incites a variety of reactions. Some believe it’s an unjust policy that discriminates against applicants, while others view it as a policy aimed at fighting against past inequalities and discrimination. Little is known about African American endorsement of the policy. Two hundred and seven Black students from a predominantly White institution (PWI) and a historically Black university (HBCU) participated in the current study to examine the impact of racial identity on affirmative action attitudes (AA). Results indicated that school type and race centrality significantly predicted AA attitudes. Students who attended a HBCU were less likely to endorse AA compared to students at the PWI and those higher in race centrality were more likely to endorse AA. This study is one of the first to investigate the impact of the educational environment on the affirmative action attitudes of African Americans.
With gendered organization theory and n = 201 Historically Black Colleges and Universities women faculty, the following is addressed: RQ1 Which Historically Black Colleges and University women faculty, those at schools with or without an anti-bullying policy, are more likely to report workplace bullying? RQ2 What is the relationship between workplace bullying intensity and time spent strategizing against bullying, health problems, and organizational distrust for Historically Black Colleges and University women faculty? RQ3 How does workplace bullying affect the experiences of Historically Black Colleges and University women faculty? The mixed methods findings confirm the need for preventative structural changes policies to empower women.
Lorde's 1979 essay, "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House" is a particularly useful contribution to academic discourse for scholar-activists seeking social justice within the academy. The ivory tower, as the name implies, can be seen as the concrete foundation of "the master's house" (Lorde, 2007), in which the majority of faculty, their pedagogies and curriculum, both normalize and privilege the white, Western, male, Christian, middle-class, and heterosexual human experience (Guy-Sheftall, 1997). This can be alienating and oppressive for both faculty and students that do not fit this model and can have insidious consequences that manifest within the classroom environment. Black women in particular are regularly confronted with a tripartite of student resistance related to our counterhegemonic and social justice-oriented curricula, frameworks, and pedagogies, as well as to our racialized and gendered bodies (Myers, 2002). In this essay, we will address the following themes: (1) the ways in which our raced and gendered bodies create challenges that inform our pedagogies, and (2) the pedagogical tools and strategies we employ in order to challenge some of the manifestations of white privilege/supremacy in the classroom, including our own oppression and experiences, and those of marginalized students.. Olivia
James Anderson critically reinterprets the history of southern black education from Reconstruction to the Great Depression. By placing black schooling within a political, cultural, and economic context, he offers fresh insights into black commitment to education, the peculiar significance of Tuskegee Institute, and the conflicting goals of various philanthropic groups, among other matters. Initially, ex-slaves attempted to create an educational system that would support and extend their emancipation, but their children were pushed into a system of industrial education that presupposed black political and economic subordination. This conception of education and social order-supported by northern industrial philanthropists, some black educators, and most southern school officials-conflicted with the aspirations of ex-slaves and their descendants, resulting at the turn of the century in a bitter national debate over the purposes of black education. Because blacks lacked economic and political power, white elites were able to control the structure and content of black elementary, secondary, normal, and college education during the first third of the twentieth century. Nonetheless, blacks persisted in their struggle to develop an educational system in accordance with their own needs and desires. © 1988 The University of North Carolina Press. All rights reserved.
The Black Revolution on Campus is the definitive account of an extraordinary but forgotten chapter of the black freedom struggle. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Black students organized hundreds of protests that sparked a period of crackdown, negotiation, and reform that profoundly transformed college life. At stake was the very mission of higher education. Black students demanded that public universities serve their communities; that private universities rethink the mission of elite education; and that black colleges embrace self-determination and resist the threat of integration. Most crucially, black students demanded a role in the definition of scholarly knowledge. Martha Biondi masterfully combines impressive research with a wealth of interviews from participants to tell the story of how students turned the slogan "black power" into a social movement. Vividly demonstrating the critical linkage between the student movement and changes in university culture, Biondi illustrates how victories in establishing Black Studies ultimately produced important intellectual innovations that have had a lasting impact on academic research and university curricula over the past 40 years. This book makes a major contribution to the current debate on Ethnic Studies, access to higher education, and opportunity for all.
Jezebel's sexual lasciviousness, Mammy's devotion, and Sapphire's outspoken anger-these are among the most persistent stereotypes that black women encounter in contemporary American life. Hurtful and dishonest, such representations force African American women to navigate a virtual crooked room that shames them and shapes their experiences as citizens. Many respond by assuming a mantle of strength that may convince others, and even themselves, that they do not need help. But as a result, the unique political issues of black women are often ignored and marginalized. In this groundbreaking book, Melissa V. Harris-Perry uses multiple methods of inquiry, including literary analysis, political theory, focus groups, surveys, and experimental research, to understand more deeply black women's political and emotional responses to pervasive negative race and gender images. Not a traditional political science work concerned with office-seeking, voting, or ideology, Sister Citizen instead explores how African American women understand themselves as citizens and what they expect from political organizing. Harris-Perry shows that the shared struggle to preserve an authentic self and secure recognition as a citizen links together black women in America, from the anonymous survivors of Hurricane Katrina to the current First Lady of the United States.
Relates Black Freedom Movements to literacy education.
Evans chronicles the stories of African American women who struggled for and won access to formal education, beginning in 1850, when Lucy Stanton, a student at Oberlin College, earned the first college diploma conferred on an African American woman. In the century between the Civil War and the civil rights movement, a critical increase in black women's educational attainment mirrored unprecedented national growth in American education. Evans reveals how black women demanded space as students and asserted their voices as educators--despite such barriers as violence, discrimination, and oppressive campus policies--contributing in significant ways to higher education in the United States. She argues that their experiences, ideas, and practices can inspire contemporary educators to create an intellectual democracy in which all people have a voice. Among those Evans profiles are Anna Julia Cooper, who was born enslaved yet ultimately earned a doctoral degree from the Sorbonne, and Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of Bethune-Cookman College. Exposing the hypocrisy in American assertions of democracy and discrediting European notions of intellectual superiority, Cooper argued that all human beings had a right to grow. Bethune believed that education is the right of all citizens in a democracy. Both women's philosophies raised questions of how human and civil rights are intertwined with educational access, scholarly research, pedagogy, and community service. This first complete educational and intellectual history of black women carefully traces quantitative research, explores black women's collegiate memories, and identifies significant geographic patterns in America's institutional development. Evans reveals historic perspectives, patterns, and philosophies in academia that will be an important reference for scholars of gender, race, and education.
James Anderson critically reinterprets the history of southern black education from Reconstruction to the Great Depression. By placing black schooling within a political, cultural, and economic context, he offers fresh insights into black commitment to education, the peculiar significance of Tuskegee Institute, and the conflicting goals of various philanthropic groups, among other matters. Initially, ex-slaves attempted to create an educational system that would support and extend their emancipation, but their children were pushed into a system of industrial education that presupposed black political and economic subordination. This conception of education and social order--supported by northern industrial philanthropists, some black educators, and most southern school officials--conflicted with the aspirations of ex-slaves and their descendants, resulting at the turn of the century in a bitter national debate over the purposes of black education. Because blacks lacked economic and political power, white elites were able to control the structure and content of black elementary, secondary, normal, and college education during the first third of the twentieth century. Nonetheless, blacks persisted in their struggle to develop an educational system in accordance with their own needs and desires. |James Anderson critically reinterprets the history of southern black education from Reconstruction to the Great Depression. By placing black schooling within a political, cultural, and economic context, he offers fresh insights into black commitment to education, the peculiar significance of Tuskegee Institute, and the conflicting goals of various philanthropic groups, among other matters.
In this paper, the author challenges stakeholders (i.e., administrators, educators, students) of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to examine how HBCUs can continue to serve as sites of resistance against the prevailing cultural norms of materialism, Western masculinity, and spiritual malefaction. The author traces his evaluation back to the crucible of the civil rights movement and the ‘iconization’ of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., asserting that HBCUs must be intentional about accounting for the cultural and generational shifts in the Black community in order to continue to effectively produce students who are committed to service and social justice. Drawing on the narratives of personal resistance from six current students and graduates of an HBCU, the author contends that HBCUs can not only prepare a new generation of agents for what Bonilla-Silva (2006) describes as a “new civil rights movement,” but these vital institutions must account for the effects of the idolatrous, media-driven worship of civil rights icons, lest they indoctrinate the same individualistic ethos into a new generation that is already spellbound by the consumerist commodification of Barak Obama.
Research shows that an oppressive classroom environment impairs learning and academic performance for students with oppressed identities. Less research examines faculty perceptions of their classroom, but such research could reveal whether an oppressive environment impairs teaching effectiveness. Although the literature shows that women faculty of color spend a disproportionate amount of time teaching, researchers have not systematically examined their classroom experiences. My study relies on transcripts of 17 in-depth interviews with women faculty of color at a large, predominantly white research institution. Despite their legitimate authority as professors, these women describe gendered racism in their classroom interactions with students. Specifically, they depict white male students as challenging their authority, teaching competency, and scholarly expertise, as well as offering subtle and not so subtle threats to their persons and their careers.
This paper calls for a radical revolution in Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) grounded in the ideological conviction that racism in education is structural, oppressive to all, and distinctly harming to students, staff, and faculty of color. Deconstructing racism in the academy must be viewed as part of the institutional identity of HSIs. This work requires a coalition with those privileged and empowered by current structures and in whose name and shadow racism thrives—White people. We discuss how White professors at HSIs must join the radical revolution to fight against racism and for a cultural change outside the legalized consensus of counting Hispanics without ensuring that funding is utilized to serve them and their communities.
The authors consider the current need for faculty leadership, the motivation to lead, and the challenges and problems faculty encounter in their leadership roles and provide a sampling of leadership development initiatives across the nation.
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