Zeus Leonardo

The Color of Supremacy: Beyond the discourse of ‘white privilege’

(2004). The Color of Supremacy: Beyond the discourse of ‘white privilege’. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 137-152.

The Souls of White Folk: Critical pedagogy, whiteness studies, and globalization discourse

At the turn of the 1900s, W. E. B. Du Bois argued that the problem of the color line was the twentieth centurys main challenge. The article argues that critical pedagogy benefits from an intersectional understanding of whiteness studies and globalization discourse. Following Du Bois, it suggests that the problem of the twenty-first century is the global color line. As capitalism stretches across nations, its partnership with race relations also evolves into a formidable force. Appropriating concepts from globalization, the author defines a global approach to race, and in particular whiteness, in order to argue that the problem of white racial privilege transcends the nation state. Using concepts such as multinationalism, fragmentation, and flexibility, a critical pedagogy of whiteness promotes an expanded notion of race that includes global anti-racist struggles. Finally, the article concludes by suggesting that educators consider seriously the insights of the neo-abolitionist movement.

Critical Social Theory and Transformative Knowledge: The Functions of Criticism in Quality Education

Critical social theory is a multidisciplinary knowledge base with the implicit goal of advancing the emancipatory function of knowledge. It approaches this goal by promoting the role of criticism in the search for quality education. Through critical social theory in education, quality is proportional to the depth of analysis that students have at their disposal. As a critical form of classroom discourse, critical social theory cultivates students’ ability to critique institutional as well as conceptual dilemmas, particularly those that lead to domination or oppression. It also promotes a language of transcendence that complements a language of critique in order to forge alternative and less oppressive social arrangements. A critical social theory-based movement in education highlights the relationship between social systems and people, how they produce each other, and ultimately how critical social theory can contribute to the emancipation of both.

Pedagogy of fear: toward a Fanonian theory of ‘safety’ in race dialogue

In education, it is common to put the condition of ‘safety’ around public race dialogue. The authors argue that this procedural rule maintains white comfort zones and becomes a symbolic form of violence experienced by people of color. In other words, they ask, ‘Safety for whom?’ A subtle but fundamental violence is enacted in safe discourses on race, which must be challenged through a pedagogy of disruption, itself a form of violence but a humanizing, rather than repressive, version. For this, the authors turn to Frantz Fanons theory of violence, most clearly outlined in The Wretched of the Earth. First, the article outlines the basic assumptions of Fanons theory of revolutionary, as opposed to repressive, violence. Second, we analyze the surrounding myths that an actual safe space exists for people of color when it concerns public race dialogue. Third, we critique the intellectualization of racism as part of the concrete violence lived by people of color in the academy, which whites continually reduce to an idea. We pedagogically reframe the racial predicament by promoting a ‘risk’ discourse about race, which does not assume safety but contradiction and tension. This does not suggest that people of color are somehow correct by virtue of their social location. In addition, it does not equate with creating a hostile situation but acknowledges that violence is already there. Finally, we consider the practical import of intellectual solidarity, where understanding racism becomes the higher good rather than whether or not one leaves the dialogue looking more or less racist than before.

The War on Schools: NCLB, Nation Creation and the Educational Construction of Whiteness.

The study of whiteness in education is receiving increased attention. This essay argues that the No Child Left Behind Act is an example of color‐blindness par excellence. NCLB’s hidden referent of whiteness makes a casual pass at racial explanation that sidesteps race as a causal explanation for educational disparities. In this sense, NCLB is an ‘act of whiteness’ and perpetuates the innocence of whiteness as a system of privilege. It is a form of whiteness as policy. Its white common sense deems racial disparities as unfortunate outcomes of group competition, uneven social development, or worse, as stubborn cultural explanations of the inferiority of people of color. The essay argues for a color‐conscious perspective that problematizes the otherwise race‐neutral discourse of NCLB. It ends with a discussion of the future of whiteness by engaging the debate between the abolition and rearticulation of whiteness.

Through the Multicultural Glass: Althusser, Ideology and Race Relations in Post-Civil Rights America

In 1996, an edited volume devoted to Stuart Halls work published the essay ‘Gramscis Relevance for the Study of Race and Ethnicity’. Central to Halls analysis was Gramscis deployment of the concept of hegemony. This article hopes to accomplish parallel insights on race and multiculturalism by going through the concept of ideology as theorized by Althusser. A thoroughgoing and critical theory of ideology is currently missing from multiculturalism. When ideology is invoked, it either goes through a Marxist refutation of the racial concept or it is posed as a problem that needs to be transcended rather than a constitutive part of the ideological struggle over race. Just as Hall reminds us that Gramscis theory of hegemony must be taken in the context of Gramscis Marxist problematic, this article notes that Althussers theory of ideology must be taken in the context of his commitment to historical materialism. However, in order to analyze the relevance of Althussers theory of ideology for the study of race and multiculturalism (something which did not appear in Althussers work), the author appropriates his insights sans his problematic of historical materialism. Althussers theory is useful for a study of race, which is as much a problem at the ideological as it is at the material level. Furthermore, Althussers discourse on ideology enriches debates about race and multiculturalism to the extent that his general insights on ideology are appropriate for such an analysis. In this explication, the author presents a brief introduction to the multiple levels of Althussers theory of ideology. Then, he appropriates Althussers general insights and relevance, determining the most pertinent moments in his theory for the study of race and multiculturalism. Last, the author poses the problem of color-blind discourses on race.

The Race for Class: Reflections on a Critical Raceclass Theory of Education.

This article is intended to appraise the insights gained from Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Education. It is particularly interested in CRTs relationship with Marxist discourse, which falls under two questions. One, how does CRT understand Marxist concepts, such as capital, which show up in the way CRT appropriates them? The article argues that Marxist concepts, such as historical classes, class-for-itself, are useful for race analysis as it sets parameters around the conceptual use of historical races and a race-for-itself. Two, how does CRT understand the role of capitalism, therefore shedding light on its position regarding the class problem? It is no doubt attentive to class power, but this is not the same as performing an immanent critique of capitalism. As a result, within CRT class achieves a color whereby class becomes a variant of race, better known as classism. Race becomes the theory with class vocabulary superimposed on it. Last, I suggest areas where CRT could combine with Marxism in order to forge a Critical Raceclass Theory of Education.

Whiteness as Technology of Affect: Implications for Educational Praxis

This article explores the embodiment and affectivity of whiteness, particularly as it implicates educational praxis and social justice in education, focusing on the following questions: In what ways are affect and whiteness constitutive of each other in race dialogue? How does emotion intersect with racial practices and white privilege, and what are the educational implications of this entanglement? In theorizing whiteness as a technology of affect, the authors hope to capture the mental, emotional, and bodily dimensions of whiteness in the context of racial dialogue. In particular, the authors introduce the idea of “white intellectual alibis,” or Whites’ attempt to project a non-racist alibi rather than aligning themselves with anti-racism. Finally, the authors discuss how whiteness as a kind of technology of affect has implications for pedagogical efforts to engage in equitable and anti-racist education. It is suggested that unless educational scholars engage with a theoretical analysis of how whiteness is manifest as affective technology in educational praxis, we will fail to appreciate the important implications of this idea for educational theory and praxis.

After the Glow: Race Ambivalence and Other Educational Prognoses.

The Right has a long history of questioning the importance of race analysis. Recently, the conceptual and political status of race has come under increased scrutiny from the Left. Bracketing the language of ‘race’ has meant that the discourse of skin groups remains at the level of abstraction and does not speak to real groups as such. As a descriptor, race essentializes identity as if skin color were a reliable way to perceive ones self and group as well as others, and questions the viability of a social struggle based on race. In other words, race is not real and discourses that insist on its objective status are ensnared in reification. The response—equally from the Left—has been to reassert the centrality and changing dynamics of race in education and society. They argue that we need to develop more, rather than less, complex discourses on race. Orientations that attempt to discredit race analysis are therefore unable to dismantle the racial system because they refuse its significance as an autonomous system of interpellations. In other words, race is real. This essay appraises the debate within the Left about the status of race, their projections about the future of race, and the kind of struggle they promote in order to realize a society freed from the chains of racism.

Interpretation and the Problem of Domination: Paul Ricoeur's Hermeneutics

Hermeneutics, or the science of interpretation,is well accepted in the humanities. In thefield of education, hermeneutics has played arelatively marginal role in research. It isthe task of this essay to introduce thegeneral methods and findings of Paul Ricoeurshermeneutics. Specifically, the essayinterprets the usefulness of Ricoeursphilosophy in the study of domination. Theproblem of domination has been a target ofanalysis for critical pedagogy since itsinception. However, the role of interpretationas a constitutive part of ideology critique isrelatively understudied and it is here thatRicoeurs ideas are instructive. Last, theessay radicalizes Ricoeurs insights in orderto realize their potential to disruptasymmetrical relations of power in education. To this extent, the author contributes to thebuilding of a critical brand of hermeneutics,or the interpretation of domination.