Knowing Is Half the Battle

Perhaps one of the greatest hurdles to get over in terms of racism is admitting the presence of racism.  My feeling is that my generation of immediate peers who will become my future colleagues (certainly not everyone within my generation) has been imbued with enough cultural conscience and empathy through the 80’s, 90’s and early millennium to understand that racism has no place anywhere, the university level very much included.  But that’s just the problem.  That’s how I feel, but that’s not necessarily the case.  Forms of racism may indeed exist in my pedagogy without my knowledge.  When Hooks points out all the old guard professors at Oberlin who refuse to acknowledge racism in their classrooms--how they teach, what they teach--it’s easy for me to objectively chastise them for their ignorance; however, I went to a liberal arts school very similar to Oberlin, cast in the same small Midwestern mold, and as I look back, I honestly can’t fathom racism on my campus.  I can’t imagine any students feeling uncomfortable to contribute for any reason in any of my previous classes.  I can’t imagine any student staying quiet if they did feel uncomfortable.  But that doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen and that as people, and especially as educators, we shouldn’t be aware of it.

Hooks suggests building a community (focusing on the positive), rather than concentrating on building a safe space (focusing on the preventative or negative) (Hooks 40).  I agree.  I felt this should be the goal of any classroom, particularly one where peer review is administered, and I feel this is a great way to create understanding and avoid ignorance.  Hooks also mentions some “concrete strategies” that math and science faculty at Oberlin had to be more inclusive (38), but doesn’t list any of them.  I’d love to hear some of them.

I can’t say that I completely agree with Hooks personal assessment of class at the university level.  Though I don’t doubt hers, and surely others’, experiences with classism at schools like Stanford, I found that I had a different experience at my small liberal arts school and I can only speak from my experiences.  My family is low-middle class and it was only because of a sizable scholarship that I could attend school there.  While some students were like me, others were wealthier and attended without scholarships.  Some were wealthy and had scholarships.  Some were lower class than I and had better scholarships.  At my school, I would say it was admirable if you were working class but intelligent enough to receive the necessary scholarship to attend.  I can't say I ever felt any pressure to act out of my class or that any of my values, experiences, or ideas were judged.  I didn't feel that I was pressured to judge others.  Those who were of higher classes and had to in essence pay for their educations (or whose parents had to pay for it) were looked upon less favorably.  Maybe this was just substituting classism for intellectualism and it's no better.  Maybe that was only at my school, and maybe that was only my impression, but that’s all I have to go on in terms of my views of class on college campuses.  I'd like to look at this as not naiveté but optimism for the future.