33.011 - In the Name of Justice: Actions for and Against Justice

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

In her critique of teacher education reform efforts that tend to reproduce the “same ole’
oppression,” Beverly Cross (2005) explicates the persistence of oppression as an outcome of the
ways in which power, white privilege and racism are reorganized in the “new racism.” She draws
on Fiske (1993) to outline the differences between “old racism” and “new racism” in this way:

Old Racism
System of prejudice and supremacy
Works when visible
Works through imperialized knowledge
Individual racism
Power applied to physical body

New Racism
System of power and domination
Works best when invisible
Works through privileged knowledge
Racism built into institutions
Power applied to social body

Within the invisible operations of new racism, “power [i.e., oppression] is no longer enacted
primarily through physical violence but is mostly achieved through more symbolic power”
(Cross, p. 267). Systems and institutions (e.g., courts, schools) play central roles in the
operationalization of new racism. Significantly, the invisibility of this power maintains and
perpetuates inequities, thus producing oppressions that are seemingly natural and a part of
“common sense” (Kumashiro, 2009; Lopez, 2009).

This presidential session explores the ways in which oppression insidiously reorganizes to
flourish in changing times and contexts. It explicates the contradictions and complexities of the
notion of working “toward justice” central to the 2015 theme of the annual meeting of AERA:
“Toward Justice: Culture, Language, and Heritage in Education Research and Praxis.” The
session will address policies and practices undertaken “in the name of justice” with questions
such as: What are the limits of inclusion as the end of justice? What are the effects of policies
and practices that target minoritized communities? How is the language of justice (e.g.,
constitutional rights) invoked to simultaneously argue for and undermine social justice?

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• Kimberly A. White-Smith, Chapman University

Papers

• Red Refusals: Beyond Liberal Theories of Justice and Other Settler Logics - Sandy M. Grande, Connecticut College

• Operationalization of Accountability in the P–12 Experiences of Immigrant Students - Angela Valenzuela, The University of Texas - Austin

• Fisher v. University of Texas–Austin and the Assault on Affirmative Action - Mitchell J. Chang, University of California - Los Angeles

• Conceptualizing Social Justice in Teacher Education: Focus on Diverse LGBTQ Youth, Families, and Educators - Steven Z. Athanases, University of California - Davis

• Race and Dis/ability: Working Margin to Margin - Beth A. Ferri, Syracuse University

Discussant

• Kevin Kumashiro, University of San Francisco