ethnoelbaum

knowledgeequalsblackpower:

Has anyone read this?
Being White, Being Good: White Complicity, White Moral Responsibility, and Social Justice Pedagogy by Barbara Applebaum.

Barbara Applebaum began her journey, which became the premise for this book, by asking the question, ‘Do I implement what I argue for theoretically?’ (p. 197). She was referring to her belief that teaching for social justice requires more than good intentions, but in fact requires a strong dose of ethical responsibility and accountability. She found that her own ‘well-intentioned’ white students had a difficult time understanding their personal investment in complicity as it related to undoing racism. This disconnect led her to the idea that a pedagogy which addresses this dilemma needs to be explicit and from this she birthed ‘white complicity pedagogy’. Applebaum makes the case that complicity may in fact be unavoidable due to unearned privilege, but that does not denote the necessity of responsibility.

Applebaum offers a strong review of the literature on whiteness and critical white studies. One of the primary concepts she addresses is the concept of being ‘whitely’ which is essentially unwillingness on the part of white people to be challenged, even when they attempt to disrupt racism. This is referring to whiteness as a ‘performative way of being’ (p. 17) and is essential to her argument that complicity is unacceptable and not a neutral state of being but in fact an active tenet of racist behaviour. She specifically references examples of this in her own teaching practice, when ‘good’ white students have a difficult time understanding the difference between ‘benefiting’ from racism (an unequal system that privileges white people) to ‘contributing’ to (everyday behaviours that reinforce this system unintentionally) (p. 46). She makes a very important distinction that often times white people prefer to detach from whiteness and often assume they are somehow morally superior, making them ‘neutral’ regarding conversations about race or other ethical questions. This reinforces the idea that somehow whiteness, and therefore white people, are the unspoken norm for others to measure themselves against (i.e., non-white as a term for people of colour).
…

Read the rest of the review from the Journal of Moral Education

Has anyone read this?

Being White, Being Good: White Complicity, White Moral Responsibility, and Social Justice Pedagogy by Barbara Applebaum.

Barbara Applebaum began her journey, which became the premise for this book, by asking the question, ‘Do I implement what I argue for theoretically?’ (p. 197). She was referring to her belief that teaching for social justice requires more than good intentions, but in fact requires a strong dose of ethical responsibility and accountability. She found that her own ‘well-intentioned’ white students had a difficult time understanding their personal investment in complicity as it related to undoing racism. This disconnect led her to the idea that a pedagogy which addresses this dilemma needs to be explicit and from this she birthed ‘white complicity pedagogy’. Applebaum makes the case that complicity may in fact be unavoidable due to unearned privilege, but that does not denote the necessity of responsibility.

Applebaum offers a strong review of the literature on whiteness and critical white studies. One of the primary concepts she addresses is the concept of being ‘whitely’ which is essentially unwillingness on the part of white people to be challenged, even when they attempt to disrupt racism. This is referring to whiteness as a ‘performative way of being’ (p. 17) and is essential to her argument that complicity is unacceptable and not a neutral state of being but in fact an active tenet of racist behaviour. She specifically references examples of this in her own teaching practice, when ‘good’ white students have a difficult time understanding the difference between ‘benefiting’ from racism (an unequal system that privileges white people) to ‘contributing’ to (everyday behaviours that reinforce this system unintentionally) (p. 46). She makes a very important distinction that often times white people prefer to detach from whiteness and often assume they are somehow morally superior, making them ‘neutral’ regarding conversations about race or other ethical questions. This reinforces the idea that somehow whiteness, and therefore white people, are the unspoken norm for others to measure themselves against (i.e., non-white as a term for people of colour).

…

Read the rest of the review from the Journal of Moral Education