On Education

[tablesaw]

I've been meaning to post this for a while, and I'm going to do so now, if for no other reason than I won't have to keep looking for it. I think Bonilla-Silva may have rephrased this more precisely in later revisions, but this is the version I have.

This argument [racialized social structures] clashes with social scientists' most popular policy prescription for "curing" racism, namely education. This "solution" is the logical outcome of defining racism as a belief. Most analysts regard racism as a matter of individuals subscribing to an irrational view, thus the cure is educating them to realize that racism is wrong. Education is also the choice "pill" prescribed by Marxists for healing workers from racism. The alternative theorization offered here implies that because the phenomenon has structural consequences for the races, the only way to "cure" society of racism is by eliminating its systemic roots. Whether this can be accomplished
democratically or only through revolutionary means is an open question, and one that depends on the particular racial structure of the society in question.

—Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, "Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation.

Comments

[mswyrr]

Probably being all OBVIOUS REC IS OBVIOUS, but you've read Freire on the challenges of practicing forms of education that aren't merely another way to reinforce oppression and the critique/expansion of his work that bell hooks has done?

I truly do believe that education can be liberating both for oppressed people and privileged people along multiple axes of oppression. But I also believe that it's not enough by itself. I agree with Bonilla-Silva - knowing alone can change individuals, but those changes don't really matter as long as the structure remains intact. Racism is not individual belief. And the current way education is used in my experience tends strongly toward enabling the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy status quo with only cosmetic changes, like some mouth-service to diversity and meritocracy based blather.

[mswyrr]

...srsly, though, how can anyone fucking live in a world where things like "redlining" are common, systemic, and accepted practice and think that racism = personal beliefs? Not to mention all the many many other aspects of structural racism.

WTF

AAARRGGGGHH

[tablesaw]

I only know Freire very vaguely, and I don't know id it applies in this case. "Education" as Bonilla-Silva's using it is much more basic, trying to counter the idea that people just need to be made to understand that racism is bad. So it's not necessarily the gaining of knowledge but educating oppressors to not oppress.

One of the effects of Bonilla-Silva's theory is that it sidesteps oppressor-eduation completely. In tracing the progression of civil rights and race relations, it becomes clear that you make social changes first, and then everyone changes their mind to fit it later without ever admitting that there was a change. That's how you get that one politician who is convinced that he was BFF with the black student integrating their southern university.

[tablesaw]

As someone who redlines to work to redline, I will never see anything about this practice without tripping up on it.

[mswyrr]

"Education" as Bonilla-Silva's using it is much more basic, trying to counter the idea that people just need to be made to understand that racism is bad. So it's not necessarily the gaining of knowledge but educating oppressors to not oppress.

Ah! Okay. My bad.

One of the effects of Bonilla-Silva's theory is that it sidesteps oppressor-eduation completely. In tracing the progression of civil rights and race relations, it becomes clear that you make social changes first, and then everyone changes their mind to fit it later without ever admitting that there was a change. That's how you get that one politician who is convinced that he was BFF with the black student integrating their southern university.

Thanks for clarifying! It's an excellent point.