Ideologies of Oppression

In this week’s articles, our authors explored different facets of being White, and the responsibilities of dealing with Whiteness in regards to privilege and intelligence.  

In her article “My Class Didn’t Trump My Race: Using Oppression to Face Privilege”, Robin DiAngelo describes her experience growing up poor and white, and how this impacted her worldview as she moved into academia. She explored some of the “patterns of internalized dominance” (54) that Whites often share, which she discovered while reflecting on her past experiences. One that struck me was the idea that Whites often pretend that race is not important. White people tend to conflate the noticing of race with racism itself, and conversely think that if we don’t see race, racism doesn’t exist. DiAngelo argues that “If we don’t notice racism, we can’t understand or interrupt it in ourselves or others” (56).  This brings about the point that colorblindness, as it is often called, is actually harmful. 

Zach Stafford writes in his article that When you say you 'don't see race', you’re ignoring racism, not helping to solve it. He talks about a study in which it was found that many millennials argue that they are ‘colorblind’. Yet, another study, byDr. Osagie Obasogie, shows that even people who are actually blind can still pick up on non-visual cues that indicate race.

 In my life I have heard many times that it is important not to see race in the classroom. Yet if we deny that race exists we deny people their culture. If we say that there is no difference in the experiences of a person with light skin and one with dark skin, we ignore the systematic oppression that people of color have faced in the hands of Whites for centuries. I’ve often found myself asking, “why does race even matter so much?”. This is obviously a problematic question. When I reflect on it, I realize that I don’t mean that race doesn’t matter at all. To say this would be to say that people’s experiences don’t matter. I think that what I really mean is, “what’s the point of oppressing someone based on the color of their skin?”.  While I understand the history of slavery and why oppression has happened in a historical context, it seems like an antiquated idea. One would hope that we would be past it and moving towards a society where race (or any other feature, for that matter) is not used as a tool of oppression. DiAngelo’s article has made me consider my role, as a White woman, in perpetuating these systems even as I am aware that they exist and are wrong. 

 In 2018, we live in a society where people of all races and backgrounds are celebrated for their merits and abilities, yet this celebration is terribly disproportionate when you look at White vs. Non-White representation.  In “Smartness as Property: A Critical Exploration of Intersections between Whiteness and Disablity Studies”, Zeus Leonardo and Alicia Broderick explore the concept of Whiteness as it relates to schooling. They discuss the overrepresentation of minority students in special education programs. They also focus specifically on how students with disabilities are marginalized. 

One of their ideas that I struggled with is the idea that Whiteness “exists only as a tool for oppression” (2212). They are of the opinion that Whiteness is only an ideology, created by people with white bodies, for the purpose of stratification. It was difficult for me at first to separate the idea of having white skin and the idea of Whiteness. Skin color is scientific and observable, but the meaning of having a certain amount of melanin is a social construct. I’m still not confident that I totally understand what they are saying. 

As they related the ideology of Smartness I was also confused. Intelligence is observable and measurable. As a teacher, I give my students tasks and evaluate their ability based on the results they produce. Yet I see what Leonardo and Broderick mean when they invoke Borthwick and Crossley’s idea that “ ‘mental retardation’ may be…inadequate as an explanatory concept” (2217). Students who are classified as impaired as based on certain assessments are not given the chance to prove themselves in other ways. They are deemed to be one way because of a disability, which leads to people ignoring the abilities they have.  It reminds me of this comic and the accompanying quote:

I think we as teachers are often aware of the differences between students, and make many efforts to differentiate our lessons for those of varying abilities. Yet the authors also bring up the point that the “celebration of ‘multiple’ intelligences similarly fail to adequately address that some forms of “intelligence” are still more highly culturally valued than others” (2226). So here we see that in all our attempts, we are still falling short. Looking at where race, disability, and intelligence all intersect is an important and daunting task, but if we ignore these ideas, we continue to do a disservice to marginalized students.