Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope by bell hooks Reflection Finding bell hooks as allowed me to continue to learn at the intersections of antiracism, feminism, justice, education as a political act, and love. I need to keep the Habits of the Heart and Mind in the forefront of my mind as I attempt to develop community both within and outside of the classroom. I still have a lot to learn and will be seeking other books by bell hooks. Below are quotes that I found meaningful as I read. Pg 42-43 “The best thing for being sad is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails...Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you. Parker Palmer in T.H. White’s The Once and Future King Pg. 73 “To successfully do the work of unlearning domination, a democratic educator has to cultivate a spirit of hopefulness about the capacity of individuals to change.” bell hooks Pg. 91 “The teacher who serves continually affirms by his or her practice that educating students is really the primary agenda, not self-aggrandizement or assertion of personal power.” bell hooks Pg. 92 “Committed acts of caring lets all students know that the purpose of education is not to dominate, or prepare them to be dominators, but rather create the conditions for freedom. Caring educators open the mind, allowing students to embrace a world of knowing that is always subject to change and challenge.” bell hooks Pg. 111 “This is why progressive educators, democratic educators, must be consistently vigilant about voicing hope and promise as well as opposition to those dominating forces that close off free speech and diminish the power of dialogue.” Ron Scapp Pg. 136 “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word love here not merely in the personal sense not as a state of being, or a state of grace—not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring growth.” James Baldwin Pg. 137 “Love will always move us away from domination in all its forms. Love will always challenge and change us. This is the heart of the matter.” bell hooks Pg. 167 “Yet today’s frantic need to push towards deadlines, covering set amounts of material, allows very little room, if any, for silence, for free-flowing work. Most of us teach and are taught that it is only the future that really matters.” bell hooks Pg. 173-174 “Thay describes being in touch as being ‘aware of what is going on in your body, in your feelings, in your mind.’ This state evokes in us an awareness of interbeing. When we practice interbeing in the classroom we are transformed not just by one individuals’s presence but by our collective presence. Experiencing the world of learning we can make together in community is the ecstatic moment that makes us come and come again to the present, to the now, to the place where we are real.” Thích Nhất Hạnh (Thay) and bell hooks Ann Petry - The Street - protest novel June Jordan Parker Palmer’s essay “The Grace of Great Things: Reclaiming the Sacred in Knowing, Teaching and Learning.” Pg. 179 “He [Palmer] explains that education, teaching, and learning, is about more than gathering information or getting a job: ‘Education is about healing and wholeness. It is about empowerment, liberation, transcendence, about renewing the vitality of life. It is about finding and claiming ourselves and our place in the world. . . . I want to explore what it might mean to reclaim the sacred at the heart of knowing, teaching and learning—to reclaim it from an essentially depressive mode of knowing that honors only data, logic, analysis, and a systematic disconnection of self from the world, self from others.’ Many students come to schools and colleges already feeling a profound sense of disconnection. Schooling that does not honor the needs of the spirit intensifies that sense of being lost, of being unable to connect.” Parker Palmer and bell hooks Pg. 181 “The assumption seems to be that if the heart is closed, the mind will open even wider. In actuality, it is the failure to achieve harmony of mind, body, and spirit that has furthered anti-intellectualism in our culture and made our schools mere factories.” bell hooks Rachel Naomi Remen’s essay “Educating for Mission, Meaning, and Compassion” Pg. 197 The Habits is Heart and Mind, essential for creating and maintaining community
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Chapter 18 - Survival "The history of racist ideas is the history of powerful policymakers erecting racist policies out of self-interest, then producing racist ideas to defend and rationalize the inequitable effects of their policies, while everyday people consume those racist ideas, which in turn sparks ignorance and hate." Pg. 230 Policy needs to change before mental change can happen. "Our world is suffering from metastatic cancer. Stage 4. Racism has spread to nearly every part of the body politic, intersecting with bigotry of all kinds, justifying all kinds of inequities by victim blaming; heightening exploitation and misplaced hate; spurring mass shooting, arms races, and demagogues who polarize nations; shutting down essential organs of democracy; and threatening the life of human society with nuclear war and climate change." Pg. 234 "But before we can treat, we must believe. Believe all is not lost for you and me and our society. Believe in the possibility that we can strive to be antiracist from this day forward. Believe in the possibility that we can transform our societies to be antiracist from this day forward. Racist power is not godly. Racist policies are not indestructible. Racial inequities are not inevitable. Racist ideas are not natural to the human mind." Pg. 238 Self-Reflection. What policies am I learning about and promoting change or implementation. I have a hope that this country, this world, will be better for my children. I plan on to continue learning to capture and eliminate my racist ideas and policy position so that I can be an antiracist. I will strive to listen to those who are impacted by racist ideas and policies. I vow to use my privilege to build others up in love. I now understand that this is an everyday process and new ideas and new policies will be introduced that need to be evaluated. I want to be held to the standard of being an antiracist in my ideas and actions. Chapter 17 - Success ”Policymakers and policies make societies and institutions, not the other way around. The United States is a racist nation because it’s policymakers and policies have been racist from the beginning.” Pg. 223 Being an antiracist is going to be a lifetime journey because there will always be policies that have to be checked and ideas evaluated as being racist. Being an antiracist is supporting antiracist policies or expressing antiracist ideas. Self-Reflection. Success is my learning and gaining new perspectives in becoming a better person for those around me. Recognizing my racist ideas and policies that I have supported is good but it will not stop there. This is an ongoing process that will never be complete. Chapter 16 - Failure Activist: One who has a record of power or policy change. Civilizing programs will fail since all racial groups are already on the same cultural level...Healing symptoms instead of changing policies is bound to fail in healing society." Pg. 202 "Challenging the conjoined twins (racism and capitalism) is bound to fail to address economic-racial inequity." Pg. 202 "The problem of race has always been at its core the problem of power, not the problem of immorality of ignorance." Pg. 208 "To fight for mental and moral changes after policy is changed means fighting alongside growing benefits and the dissipation of fears, making it possible for antiracist power to succeed. To fight for mental and moral change as a prerequisite for policy change is to fight against growing fears and apathy, making it almost impossible for antiracist power to succeed." Pg. 208 "Self-critique allows change. Changing shows flexibility. Antiracist power must be flexible to match the flexibility of racist power, propelled only by the craving for power to shape policy in their inequitable interests." Pg. 214 Protest = organizing people for a prolonged campaign that forces policy change Demonstration = mobilizing people momentarily to publicize a problem "Unless power cannot economically or politically or professionally afford bad press--as power could not during the Cold War, as power cannot during election season, as power cannot close to bankruptcy--power typically ignores demonstrations." Pg. 215 Self-Examination. How can I use my position as an educator and sponsor of my schools Black Student Union? How can I remove barriers for the students to protest racist ideas and policies that they encounter during the school day and school year? I need to continue to learn strategies and solutions to racist ideas and policies. Chapter 15 - Sexuality Queer Racism: A powerful collection of racist policies that lead to inequity between race-sexualities and are substantiated by racist ideas about race-sexualities. Queer Antiracism: A powerful collection of antiracist policies that lead to equity between race-sexualities and are substantiated by antiracist ideas about race-sexualities. I cannot be an antiracist if I am homophobic or transphobic. ”To be queer antiracist is to serve as an ally to transgender people, to intersex people, to women, to the non-gender-conforming, to homosexuals, to their intersections, meaning listening, learning, and being led by their equalizing ideas, by their equalizing policy campaigns, by their power struggle for equal opportunity.” Pg. 197 Self-Reflection. I am cisgender straight white male and with this comes privilege. Cisgender means I identify by the sex I was assigned at birth. I need to reflect on how these areas affect how I am accepted in the spaces that I enter. Chapter 14 - Gender Gender Racism: A powerful collection of racist policies that lead to inequity between race-genders and are substantiated by racist ideas about race-genders. Gender Antiracism: A powerful collection of antiracist policies that lead to equity between race-genders and are substantiated by anti-racist ideas about race-genders. To be antiracist is to reject not only the hierarchy of races but of race-genders. To truly be antiracist is to be feminist. To be antiracist (and feminist) is to level the different race-genders, is to root the inequities between the equal race-genders in the policies of gender racism. To Read/Research List Dorothy Roberts Angela Davis Alice Walker's "The Color Purple" Combahee River Collective and Statement Maria Stewart Sojourner Truth Frances Harper Ida B. Wells Anna Julia Cooper Frances Beal Nikki Giovanni Audre Lorde Toni Cade Bambara Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw Self-Reflection. I am living with three strong women. I am the husband of a strong, determined and loving woman. My wife has worked so hard and overcome so many barriers to provide for our family. Our two young girls are strong, smart, beautiful, funny, and compassionate. Whitney, my wife, has earned everything she has without the need for me. I have learned to check my patriarchy at the door and live being a feminist. I will help raise our two girls to know their power and abilities to accomplish what they desire. I will recognize the complete equality of not only the women in my life but all women. Chapter 13 - Space Space Racism: A powerful collection of racist policies that lead to resource inequity between racialized spaces or the elimination of certain racialized spaces, which are substantiated by racist ideas about racialized spaces. Space Antiracism: A powerful collection of antiracist policies that lead to racial equity between integrated and protected racialized spaces, which are substantiated by antiracist ideas about racialized spaces. To be antiracist is to recognize there is no such thing as the "real world," only real worlds, multiple worldviews. "Resources define a space, resources the conjoined twins divvy up. People make spaces from resources. Comparing spaces across race-classes is like matching fighters of different weight classes, which fighting sports consider unfair." Pg. 172. Use pages 173-178 to teach how the US Supreme Court has compounded racism within the US. To be antiracist is to support the voluntary integration of bodies attracted by cultural difference, a shared humanity. To be antiracist is to champion resource equity by challenging the racist policies that produce resource inequity. To be antiracist is to equate and nurture difference among racial groups. Self-Reflection. Chapter 12 - Class Class Racist: One who is racializing the classes, supporting policies of racial capitalism against those race-classes, and justifying them by racist ideas about those race-classes. Antiracist Anticapitalist: One who is opposing racial capitalism. "Whoever creates the norm creates the hierarchy and positions their own race-class at the top of the hierarchy." Pg. 153. Conjoined twins - capitalism and racism - were born together with the transatlantic slave trade of African people. "In the twenty-first century, persisting racial inequities in poverty, unemployment, and wealth show the lifework of the conjoined twins." Pg. 157. The history of capitalism --of world warring, classing, slave trading, enslaving, colonizing, depressing wages, and dispossessing land and labor and resources and rights--bears out the conservative definition of capitalism." Pg. 161. To be antiracist is to recognize neither poor Blacks nor elite Blacks as the truest representative of Black people. Self-Examination. To love capitalism can lead to a love racism. I will advocate to remove profit motive in areas such as education, healthcare, utilities, mass media and incarceration. I will advocate for policies that don't create hierarchy. Chapter 11 - Black Powerless Defense: The illusory, concealing, disempowering, and racist idea that Black people can’t be racist because Black people don’t have power. “When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him to stand here or go yonder. He wiki find his ‘proper place’ and will stay in it.” Carter G. Woodson “The powerless defense shields people of color from charges of racism even when they are reproducing racist policies and justifying them with the same racist ideas as the White people they call racist.” Pg. 140 No matter what position I hold I will have the power to be an antiracist. No matter the position anyone holds, they will have the power to promote antiracist ideas and policies. Self-Examination. Before reading this chapter and learning how to be an antiracist, I was promoting the racist idea of the powerless effect. Now, I understand how this has been used to mask the racism of those who in their positions promoted racist ideas and policies. Carter Woodson’s quote supports the idea that Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian and Middle Eastern people could hold and express racist ideas. I have learned that history is not a conflict between White and Black but between racists and antiracists. Chapter 10 - White Anti-White Racist: One who is classifying people of European descent as biologically, culturally, or behaviorally inferior or conflating the entire race of White people with racist power. “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the strength to do what is right in the face of it.” Anonymous Philosopher ”White racists do not want to define racial hierarchy or policies that yield racial inequities as racist. To do so would be to define their ideas and policies as racist. Instead, they define policies not rigged for a white people as racist. Ideas not centering White lives as racist. Beleaguered White racists who can’t imagine their lives not being the focus of any movement respond to “Black Lives Matter” with “All Lives Matter.” Embattled police officers who can’t imagine losing their right to racially profile and brutalize respond with “Blue Lives Matter.” Pg. 130-131 - Kendi Self-Reflection. I am a white antiracist. Not all white people are racist and non-whites can carry racist ideas. Racist ideas turn into racist policies. Racist policies hurt all of us, directly and indirectly. There are no biological differences between races that make one superior or inferior. |
Mr. Dylan Wince
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