Adopt an Education Philosophy Centered on Black and Brown People
To help those who need change the most, stop trying to reform the reforms.
washingtonmonthly.com
Let’s create a system rooted in the people who need change the most. Let’s adopt a philosophy centered on black and brown people.
Freire believed that transformation requires an educational system rooted in the people who need change. The choice movement, for instance, will always fall short in urban areas because the system of thought wasn’t centered on black or brown worldviews.
Adam Smith, forefather of the political economy, might appreciate the choice- and standards-based curriculum movements that emphasize competition, productivity and rugged individualism. Filtered by the works of Milton Friedman, the educational-choice movement in particular has been applied so loosely that basic ethics and notions of fairness have been trumped by stereotypical corporate values that fly in the face of what black, brown and girl students need.
The inefficiencies of white privilege cost us so much more than dollars. With every reform from the choice frame, we add to the bureaucracy of white institutions built to help black communities. Consequently, each institution and approach attempts to reform the prior without questioning the bedrock on which they were all built upon: white supremacy and patriarchy. After every iteration, the only remaining factors are the base ideology and system of oppression.
Audre Lorde said, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”
Let’s stop patching the previous error. If we can build a reform approach and invest billions around a white male, we should be able to do so around Afrocentric people and philosophies.
Black and brown folk don’t need “reform.” We need an alternative that we define.
