Anti-racist Work Zones

Anti-racist Work Zones

This is a thoughtful critique of anti-racist education. Using the free-ways metaphor Audrey Thompson notes the major ways in which anti-racism education is offered in the United States: Freirean Freeway; Hybridity Highway; Race Traitor tollway; Critical Race Theory thoroughfare; White State Theory turnpike; Exceptional Whites expressway. Students, she notes, will soon realize that all of these along with the rest stops are under construction. Thompson then discusses how anti-racism teachers give credence to this metaphor by offering mile markers, destination signs, scenic overlooks and car pool lanes and highlights the limitations of these approaches:

"The most obvious difficulty with the anti-racist freeway metaphor is that it misleads us into thinking of anti-racist awareness and agency in terms of a definite destination. According to the metaphor, some white people are closer to that destination than others, although most whites have yet to leave the comfort of home. People of color, apparently, are waiting with open arms at the other end. There is no
suggestion that struggling against racism is an emergent, relational undertaking without a clear-cut, happily-ever-after ending."

White exceptionalism is another problem.

Thompson recommends that anti-racism education should be approached relationally and discusses how this can be done.

Racial Justice

Audrey Thompson

Philosophy of Education Archive. In Philosophy of Education, 2003. http://ojs.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/pes/issue/view/15

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English

United States