• Home
  • About
  • Research Interests
  • Blog
  • Educational Trenches
  • PSDW Reflective Journal
  • Live In The Discomfort
  • Poetic Enactments
  • Culture & Music
  • Guest Features
  • Collaborative Explorations
  • The Aquarian Project
  • Blog’s Featured Artwork: Artist’s Bio

Patrick S. De Walt, M.B.A., Ph.D.

~ Communal Conversations for the Promotion of Active Critical Engagement

Patrick S. De Walt, M.B.A., Ph.D.

Tag Archives: Law(s)

Victim Blaming Rationalization: Why Trayvon Martin is Symbolic for and of African American/Black Experiences in the United States.

30 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by Patrick S. De Walt, MBA, PhD in Blog, Racialization Impacts

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Blackness, Culture, Diversity, Education, expression, Florida, George Zimmerman, Identity, Inequity, Law(s), Race, Racial identity, racism, social critique, Trayvon Martin, victim blaming rationalization

Over the course of the many days, weeks, and months since the tragic death of a seventeen year old teen, much has been debated and said about what is justice in today’s United States. Color-lines have been drawn in many cases, as reactionary as they were during the Jim and Jane Crow Eras in this country. Sentiment remains mixed with an output of social consciousness and outrage. Protests in the streets and even a Presidential Address about race and its lingering effects on society have taken place. With all of this being said, there still seems to be something absent from the conversation. Something that is as systemic as the endemic racism that encapsulates this country even when many emphatically attempt to deny its existence.

“What is this item that I speak of?” you may now find yourself puzzlingly asking. It is the way that many of us have, due to the reality that “race” and “racism” are as “American” as “apple pie?” How dare I make such suggestions when we now have a “Black” president elected for not only one term, but two. Not when we post pictures of a “Black” First Lady and praise the couple’s two beautiful and charming “Black” daughters. We are in a post-racial society where we all need to be “color-blind” and just see each other as only human. Furthermore, we see only the “human race” as we are all “Americans,” so the story goes.

And let us not forget our Constitutional rights that are also at stake when we critically engage the tragedy that was not solely Trayvon Martin, but dare I say, George Zimmerman. For many who are of African descent and/or are starch allies, this utterance by one of their very own will seem outright blasphemous or a betrayal on the legacy of our shared struggle. Continuing to hide behind the scapegoat of the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms as some continue to champion. Since and even before 9/11, we remain fed heavy doses of fear through all forms of media. A land built on propaganda continues to manufacture reasons to shape and craft the thoughts of a society and the globe. What is this fear that I am now speaking of? The same fear that endured the antebellum plantations, the uprising of darker-skinned property, for at the time still not viewed as human. That task is still a work in progress; if you look hard enough you’ll still see measures of hatred and thoughts of superiority for no other reason than social dogma propagated for generations.

As history has told us, as it has been crafted within our educational textbooks, that the legacy of wrongdoing is still not ready to be fully addressed. We’ve had apologies and offered reparations for instances for select members of our Union yet we still find ways to avoid fully addressing the wrongs done to our Native community members. They, as the rest of “the minorities” must have done something wrong, right? They must not want to be successful? They don’t care about education? Why don’t they want to learn to speak proper English? Why don’t they… (I’ll let you fill in the blank). In each instance, one thing remains clear. We often will acknowledge there is a problem but how we perceive it beyond that is what I really want to address.

We call it, “victim blaming rationalization. A response to a social problem—such as injustice toward a minority group—that identifies the problem as a deficiency in the minority group and not a societal problem, as in ‘If poor people want to escape poverty they just have to be willing to work harder” (Koppelman & Goodhart, p. 42). In a similar vein, this is what often happens when race and racism are at the center of public debate. We don’t want to acknowledge the legacy that has driven the nation’s politics and social norms. We have short-term memories on who were discriminated against based on existing notions of privilege and whiteness within the society. Because by doing, so this often causes us to have to challenge or relinquish our own interests.

In a nation that politically and morally does what is in the best interest of itself– well, actually in the best interests of the wealthy and/or powerbrokers–in most that it does, we are confounded with fundamental issues. So when we see poverty, we blame the poor. When we see ignorance, we blame the uneducated. Yet we rarely make headway when we blame the system in which all of the social malfunctions are perpetuated and maintained. Because it will cause us to have to own the possibility that we have to sacrifice, have to struggle, have to actively become a part of the larger community without guarantee that we will get everything that our hearts desire. Interest theory explains why we discriminate and/or justify not supporting our community in the ways that we want the community to support us.

Why does any of this matter when it comes to victim-blaming rationalization and the tragedy that are the circumstances that envelope the death of Trayvon Martin and the public outcry about George Zimmerman’s acquittal? Simple, it is indicative of the legacy that is seamlessly embedded within the laws that govern this country. It is born out of the enterprise of Capitalism and globalization that fosters the extension of a set of cultural norms and values that some say only sees green. We see it in the manner in which a hoodie has become a symbol that, for some, can be likened to sad a day back in Mississippi when a young teen was kidnapped and killed for whistling at Carolyn Bryant outside of the Bryant Grocery and Meat Market. We see it in other cases that have been highlighted since the verdict across the country. Culturally, instances like these resonate with the past and current experiences people of African descent have within the United States.

We, as we’ve been socialized through the prism of racism, tend to dichotomize things to the simplest way possible. What do I mean by this statement? Well if you’ve ever said, “It’s as simple as black and white” then you’ve done it. What many don’t really know is what they’re implying with this question is that they are acknowledging their own limitations in the situation. They are acknowledging that they are limited in their ability to see the complexity, which is at the heart of this tragedy. The intellectual prison is on display in the form of either/or mentalities that many of our public schools promote as part of the greater enterprise. The ignorance of this and other aspects of injustice are running prevalent in this country, some would expect to be said. Yet all of this is exactly why our society will continue to work in a disjointed fashion. We, as a society, are fragmented, splintered, lacking cohesion in the saddest of ways. We are apathetic unless, sheepishly, we are moved to action by our twitter, facebook, and/or other social media feeds. We click buttons as opposed to working to shape lives beyond our own doorsteps. We impatiently wait for the next person to do what we ourselves need to accomplish. We do what’s easiest and most natural– we yell, we talk, we pray, and then we ultimately forget. Until we all recognize that injustice to any one of us is injustice to all of us, we will continue to be reminded of inconsequence of being othered in this othering space known as the United States of America…

To be continued…

Advertisement

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

Moving Beyond the Polarized Debate – Bridging Differences – Education Week

27 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by Patrick S. De Walt, MBA, PhD in Educational Trenches

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Education, Educational Debate, Inequity, K-12, Law(s), Policy, Politics & Education, Poverty, Public Education, School Funding, Teacher Education

This contribution is by Dr. Pedro Noguera. As you read this entry courtesy of Education Week, please think about its message and the implications it has to you as a student who wishes to become a teacher, pre-service teacher, and/or veteran teacher. All of us who are in the educational trenches are seeking better solutions for enhancing the educational opportunities of future generations of learners. As you read this post, think about what side of the debate you are on. I look forward to reading your thoughts.

PSD~

Moving Beyond the Polarized Debate

Dear Deborah,

While the debate over the direction of education policy continues at national and local levels and the new administration begins to consider what, if any, new initiatives it might take to promote school reform, we know there are educators across the country who are thinking about what schools can do right now to meet the needs of the students they serve. I think it is important for us to weigh in on these matters for the sake of the educators who are on the front lines of school reform and their students.

This is clearly an area where your leadership in developing new ways of thinking about how schools might be organized and about how teaching and learning might be carried out has been so helpful to so many. The schools you have been instrumental in creating and leading—Central Park East in New York City and Mission Hill in Boston—have served as models of possibility for educators who have sought to create learning environments that are thoughtful, creative, and most importantly, humane. Education activist Sam Chaltain is using the experiences of Mission Hill to create a series of videos that will be aired nationally to encourage educators and the public in general to think about how we might educate children differently. This kind of work is essential because we can’t wait until we put the right policies in place or until our society becomes more just and equitable to figure out how to create schools that can succeed in educating all kinds of children.

Certainly, policy and politics matter. As we have seen and discussed, policy is shaping how assessment (i.e. high-stakes testing) is used, and increasingly, assessment is determining what children learn, how they learn it, and how schools and teachers are judged. Moreover, as we’ve pointed out before, the fact that education policy largely ignores the effects of poverty and inequality and the way they influence on child development and the performance of schools is yet another reminder that educators are working under major constraints.

These constraints—the political, the economic, and the social—are real and should never be discounted or minimized; otherwise, we end up sounding hopelessly naïve about possibilities for change. Yet, naming them is not good enough.

A big part of what is wrong with the current debate about reform is that it is dominated by what I think of as naïve optimists and radical pessimists. The naïve optimists are the ones promoting simplistic solutions like: “fire bad teachers,” “lengthen the school day,” “close failing schools,” or radically expand the number of charter schools without any real public accountability. What these so-called reformers have in common is that they seize upon a single idea or set of ideas to promote change and then assume that if we just follow this narrow prescription schools will improve. The record shows that they never do, especially not in the communities that suffer from the greatest economic and social challenges.

The radical pessimists largely offer critiques of policy. They remind us that the obstacles to school change on a mass scale lie in the structure of our society, in, for example, the way wealth is distributed, poverty is concentrated, and race continues to operate as a means to deny access to opportunity. They force us to acknowledge that hard-working teachers and visionary principals are insufficient if these are the only forces we rely upon to overcome the obstacles.

The problem with the radical pessimists is they typically have very little to offer in the way of advice to the hard-working teacher who seeks to use education to inspire and impart tangible skills to students. They are even less helpful to the school leaders who seek to transform struggling schools into safe and caring environments where children can be intellectually challenged and supported in their development.

This is one of the reasons why the radical pessimists are losing the reform debate and why the naïve optimists are winning. Ideas matter and if we can’t offer practical suggestions about what can be done to improve schools right now we make ourselves marginal to the debate over reform. Of course it helps to have private foundations and hedge fund managers behind you, and the so-called reformers are generally well financed, even when there is little evidence to support their change agenda. Clearly, the naïve optimists really aren’t that naïve. Some are quite clear that their goal is to dismantle teachers’ unions and privatize public education. If they win, you and I both know our entire society will be at risk.

That is why we need to weigh in on this debate. Not merely from the standpoint of making the case that new policies are needed, but also from the standpoint of practice. Let’s use some of our exchanges to assist the educators who are looking for help and guidance right now, as well as the parents and community organizers who know we can’t wait for the right policies to be enacted to create the schools our children deserve.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Pedro

Moving Beyond the Polarized Debate – Bridging Differences – Education Week.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

Supreme Court Hears Affirmative Action Case

15 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by Patrick S. De Walt, MBA, PhD in Blog

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Affirmative Action, Gender, Higher Education, Law(s), Policy, Politics & Education, Race, Reverse Racism, Supreme Court

The Juxtaposition of Race and Gender Within the Policy of Affirmative Action

The debate on affirmation action still continues and yet again, with the Supreme Court preparing to hear, in short, Abigail Noel Fisher, Petitioner vs. The University of Texas at Austin, et al.

What I find interesting about this case is that this time around, we see a juxtaposition between two of the central identities that are fought for in all affirmative action policy: gender and race. For now, I will just leave this video for you to begin drawing your own conclusions on this topic, if you haven’t already done so.

In the coming days, I will offer a more detailed post about three questions that come to my mind when engaging discussions on affirmative action in Higher Education: (1) What is affirmative action? (2) Who benefits from affirmative action? and (3) Why are these discussions on affirmative action viewing it solely on the basis of race?

So after watching the video, what are yours?

I look forward to reading your thoughts. More to follow…

PSD~

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

Contact Email

dewalt@patricksdewaltmbaphd.com

Recent Posts

  • Circling Footsteps April 25, 2023
  • In Search of Leadership April 6, 2020
  • She Calls April 24, 2018
  • She’s Crying September 3, 2017
  • Letting Go To Let Live June 26, 2017
  • Bipolar Nation June 18, 2017
  • The Casual Eye June 11, 2017
  • In Hopes of Tomorrow June 4, 2017
  • To Capture a Heartbeat June 4, 2017
  • Transient Echo June 4, 2017
  • The Reason June 2, 2017
  • Thoughts in Motion February 18, 2017
  • Assail February 18, 2017
  • Timorous Island January 29, 2017
  • From Beyond the Prism October 16, 2016

Varied Posts

Categories

  • Blog
  • Culture & Music
  • Educational Trenches
  • Guest Features
  • Identity Politics
  • Live In The Discomfort
  • Poetry
  • PSDW Reflective Journal
  • Racialization Impacts
  • Uncategorized

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Site RSS Links

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blogs I Follow

  • Mandisa R. Haarhoff
  • theotherclass
  • From The Desk of Dr. Seria
  • Resurgence: The Multidisciplinary Research Project (MRP)
  • MSNBC Top Stories
  • Education Week American Education News Site of Record
  • psicologiaeafricanidades.wordpress.com/
  • African American Policy Forum
  • School Finance 101
  • Cloaking Inequity
  • Michael Dixon's Adventures
  • DISSENTING JUSTICE
  • NewBlackMan (in Exile)
  • WordPress.com News

Blogroll

  • Applications of Culture

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 439 other subscribers
Copyright Patrick S. De Walt, M.B.A., Ph.D. (c) 2013

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Mandisa R. Haarhoff

theotherclass

Creating Equity within the Hidden Curriculum

From The Desk of Dr. Seria

Real Advice for Real People

Resurgence: The Multidisciplinary Research Project (MRP)

Fusing elements of the past with the pressing needs of today through the convergence of multiple disciplines

MSNBC Top Stories

Communal Conversations for the Promotion of Active Critical Engagement

Education Week American Education News Site of Record

Communal Conversations for the Promotion of Active Critical Engagement

psicologiaeafricanidades.wordpress.com/

Centro de Pesquisa e Formação

African American Policy Forum

Communal Conversations for the Promotion of Active Critical Engagement

School Finance 101

Data and thoughts on public and private school funding in the U.S.

Cloaking Inequity

A blog focused on education and social justice research

Michael Dixon's Adventures

Communal Conversations for the Promotion of Active Critical Engagement

DISSENTING JUSTICE

Communal Conversations for the Promotion of Active Critical Engagement

NewBlackMan (in Exile)

Communal Conversations for the Promotion of Active Critical Engagement

WordPress.com News

The latest news on WordPress.com and the WordPress community.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Patrick S. De Walt, M.B.A., Ph.D.
    • Join 153 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Patrick S. De Walt, M.B.A., Ph.D.
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.

    %d bloggers like this: