The Same Old Jim Crow: Race, Education, and the (Patho)logic of White Supremacy

• In Event: "What Would Freire Do?" Pursuing Critical Theoretical Scholarship's Radical Possibilities at AERA's 100-Year Mark

Abstract

Within educational discourse, African American students are often positioned as intellectually inferior, anti-intellectual, culturally deprived, at risk, and clearly unable to achieve at the same levels as White peers. Much of this language coalesces around a focus on the now infamous Black-White achievement gap. As recent as May of 2014, the National Assessment of Educational Progress indicated that the gap in reading and math scores between Black and White high school seniors was now 30 points, up 5 points since 1992 (Nation’s Report Card, 2014). There have been a host of empirical studies intended to explain and or find solutions to this persistent gap. They have involved investigations of everything from student experiences to teacher experiences and biases, to curricular and pedagogical issues, to community factors, to school desegregation processes, to school leadership, to school culture, to poverty and more. While many of these efforts have afforded greater understanding of the circumstances of African American students, few if any have resulted in a significant or systemic change in the achievement gap. More recently, some scholars have begun to reframe the dialogue on the achievement gap by accurately identifying it as a “testing gap” (Jencks & Phillips, 1998) or even more boldly as a “debt” owed African American children (Ladson-Billings, 2004).

While educators continue to seek effective solutions, I follow the lead of those who have sought to challenge the very meaning of the gap, by advancing an even more radical perspective. Drawing on critical race (Gilborn, 2005; Harris, 1993; Mills, 2007; Prendergast, 2003; Rodriguez,2011) and decolonial (Castro-Gomez, 2002; Ferreria da Silva, 2007) theories, I argue that the proverbial gap cannot be closed, given the current social and political dynamics that govern schooling in the US. The achievement gap, I suggest, is a rhetorical strategy in a controlling narrative governed by a white supremacist (patho)logic, which continues to reinforce the idea that good schooling is still fundamentally white property. Moreover, empirical studies guided by scientific rationality that are not part of an effective counternarrative, often work within the controlling narrative and as such reinforce rather than dismantle the gap. Thus under the mistaken belief that empirical studies offer clear paths to solutions, the controlling narrative actually works to sure up rather than disengage the same old jim crow politics, that situate whiteness as the standard against which all else must be measured.

I pursue this argument as follows: 1) I provide a brief history of achievement gap rhetoric; 2) drawing on critical race and decolonial theories of whiteness, rationality and power, I provide an explanation of white supremacy, map its logic, and demonstrate how it pervades educational discourse; 3) I provide an example of how meaningful research targeted at closing the gap ends up reinforcing the logic of the controlling narrative; 4) finally, I offer some thoughts on how scholar-activists might enact rhetorical resistance through effective counterstorytelling strategies.

Author

• Denise M. Taliaferro Baszile, Miami University