One of America''s most distinguished scholars of race shows us
how public education needs to be seen in the light of the influence
of "color-blind racism as a system of power." Drawing examples from
schools, media, and the workplace, Collins gives us a book of
social analysis that is also an energizing handbook for
change.--From the Trade Paperback edition.
內容簡介:
One of America''s most distinguished scholars of race shows us
how public education needs to be seen in the light of the influence
of "color-blind racism as a system of power." Drawing examples from
schools, media, and the workplace, Collins gives us a book of
social analysis that is also an energizing handbook for
change.--From the Trade Paperback edition.
關於作者:
Patricia Hill Collins is Distinguished Professor of Sociology,
University of Maryland-College Park, past president of the American
Sociological Association, and the author of several books,
including Black Feminist Thought and Black Sexual Politics.--From
the Trade Paperback edition.
目錄:
Preface: Another Kind of Public Education
1. What Does the Flag Mean to You? Education and Democratic
Possibilities
2. Social Blackness, Honorary Whiteness, and All Points in Between:
Color-Blind Racism as a System of Power
3. Would You Know It If You Saw It? Practicing Resistance in a
Seemingly Color-Blind Society
4. Somebody’s Watching You: To Be Young, Sexy, and Black
Afterword: The Way Forward: Remembering Zora
A Note from the Series Editor
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
內容試閱:
From the Preface
In Another Kind of Public Education: Race, Schools, the Media,
and Democratic Possibilities, I argue for another kind of
education, one that better prepares the American public for
democratic action in our contemporary social and political context.
Two core questions shape this entire project. First, what kind of
critical education might the American public need to picture new
democratic possibilities? Sec?ond, what changes can we envision in
schools and in other important social institutions that might
provide this critical education? Because these questions can never
be answered in any one book, I focus my discussion in this book on
four important themes.
First, I emphasize the persistent effects of race in a seemingly
color-blind society. Because of its history, race has been tightly
bundled with the social issues of education and equity in the U.S.
context. Moreover, in the current, seemingly color-blind context
where the next generation of Americans is increasingly of color,
the United States must find a way to build a democratic national
community with an increasingly heterogeneous population. Rather
than equat?ing excellence with elitism—the posture that encourages
keeping people out—we might define excellence as being compatible
with diversity. Only by involving a range of points of view in the
demo?cratic process will the United States get the kind of
innovation that it needs. I posit that grappling with this deeply
entrenched challenge to U.S. democracy should yield provocative
ideas and new directions for dismantling similar social
inequalities.
Second, I focus on schools as one important site where these
chal?lenges are negotiated. Because public schools in America are
vested with the responsibility of preparing each generation of new
citizens, schools are inherently political. I also focus on
pedagogy as a crucial component of democratic practice. Teachers
perform vitally impor?tant duties that go beyond simply delivering
job skills or acting as simple conduits for information. Rather,
teachers are frontline actors negotiating the social issues of our
time. Teachers are the ones whom black and brown youth turn to for
guidance for upward social mobil?ity. Teachers can be facilitators
or gatekeepers of fundamental demo?cratic ideals.
Third, I focus on the media. If you define public education as
public institutions teaching us about our place in the world,
schools are by no means the only institution educating young people
and the broader public. In this book, I would like you to watch out
for how kids get another kind of public education, beyond
school-based learning, from the media. Whether we like it or not,
for youth, the media provides an education that often contradicts
and supplants school-based learning. New technologies are the
currency of youth, and a critical education requires a media
literacy that prepares youth to be critical consumers of media as
well as cultural creators.
Fourth, I speak to and about youth. When I think about the
American public, I visualize a heterogeneous population of youth,
characterized by vast differences in wealth, religion, appearance,
sex?ual orientation, gender, linguistic competency, immigrant
status, abil?ity level, ethnicity, and race. Some are in schools,
others are not, and all are trying to figure out their place within
American democratic institutions. I see the talent and potential in
this heterogeneous pop?ulation as crucial for American democracy.
Yet I also see tremendous differences in opportunities that are
offered to youth. In this context, just as school is inherently
political, so is this youth population.
As young adults in early-twenty-first-century America, youth see
the challenges that face them—a deep-seated worry about the
uncer?tain future that awaits them in such volatile times; a
growing disen?chantment with the seeming inability of the United
States to provide equal opportunities to a sizable proportion of
its youth of color; their impatience with parents, teachers,
clergy, and others who struggle with the rapid technological shifts
that brought the wonders of the Internet and cell phones. But
mostly, the politically savvy among them see the significance of
themselves as the next generation of leaders.
Youth will not be following us. Rather, we will be following
them. I want them to be prepared to lead me in directions that
eschew com?placency and put some genuinely new ideas on the table.
I do not want to follow them down a path of hopelessness; rather, I
want to look to them to envision and take action for new
possibilities that I could not consider in my life. Therein lies
the critical significance of delivering another kind of public
education to youth. They will inherit not only social issues, but
also the responsibility for addressing them. To meet these
challenges, youth will need another kind of public education that
equips them with tools to take informed action.