Defining and finding an endgame in education on race

Abstract

Long regarded as the “great equalizer” across all social identity categories, including race/ethnicity, class, and gender, the education system plays a pronounced role in the curation and dissemination of knowledge on social stratification. In contemporary times, this role is perhaps no more evident than in academia’s gatekeeping role in discussions of race and racism. Contemporary racial injustice in the U.S. provides raw material for consideration of how the American education system in particular has articulated the forces that give rise to racial injustice and, in turn, how academia shapes--and also places itself inside and outside of--these conversations. Examining the pedagogy of “education on race,” this piece explores whether academia can be expected to meaningfully set a course for addressing systemic and structural racism, or indeed directly address it. Considering Foucault, Freire, and Bonilla-Silva’s interlocking arguments about the persuasive nature of power, we contextualize the emergence of corrosive academic "love languages" on race to explore how educational institutes produce and reproduce systems of oppression through gestures of racial solidarity that stop purposefully short of substantive action. We close with a proposal for using indigenous, empathy-focused interventions to generate impactful dialogue and action towards anti-racism in educational spaces and beyond.