We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2019

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

Racism and America’s Schools

Individual and systemic racism pervade America’s schools, according to Love. Over 80% of the nation’s teaching force is white (29). Teachers, regardless of their color, bring their biases into the classroom, including racial stereotypes. Studies show that white teachers are more likely to punish children of color than white students, and that these punishments are more severe. Black children in charter schools, for example, are 10% more likely to be suspended than White children (29). White teachers and staff are more apt to belittle and abuse children of color, both verbally and physically. Across the nation, Black students are punished for wearing natural hair styles and for minor infractions, such as cutting the lunch line and refusing to leave the classroom. Schools are increasingly relying on police officers and security guards to discipline students, which sometimes leads to arrests. When educators are called out for their racism, they tend to deflect responsibility by claiming to be misunderstood.

In addition to individual racists and racist acts, America’s schools suffer from systemic racism. White flight from urban centers has resulted in de facto racial segregation in schools across the country. American schools are also segregated by class. Most poor children of color are relegated to under-resourced schools, which prevents them from thriving. Neoliberal policies have also been detrimental to children of color, emphasizing standardized tests and character education. Love’s experiences as an elementary school teacher shed light on the problem of systemic racism in schools. Many of her students, for instance, were repeating a grade because their parents were migrants who frequently moved for work. The lack of stability and constant changes in schools hindered these children’s academic progress. Many of Love’s students also spoke English as a second language, which placed them at a distinct disadvantage during standardized tests, which are only administered in English. The racism in US schools robs children of color of their dignity and causes psychological and spiritual harm. In sum, the educational survival complex is spirit-murdering for children of color.

Community, Solidarity, and Abolitionist Education

Community and solidarity are central aspects of abolitionist pedagogy. Teachers, school administrators, parents, and students must work together in schools and in their communities to create a more just world. Love does not provide specific plans for dismantling the educational survival complex or for rebuilding schools, instead offering broad, flexible suggestions that would allow individuals to contribute in various ways. Some teachers might create homeplaces for their students, while others might fight for social justice in their communities. The former might teach courses on intersectionality, while the latter might lobby their local governments for greater equity in healthcare and housing. Love envisions a long, complex process filled with setbacks and disagreements. The work, however arduous, must be done for the sake of social justice.

Love’s childhood experiences speak to the importance of solidarity and community. Although grit helped Love to overcome many obstacles, it was her close-knit community that nurtured and protected her. Love’s protectors included family members, teachers, coaches, her mentors at FIST, her boss, and coworkers at a local recreation center, as well as friends and neighbors. The protection Love received from her community allowed her to thrive. Her experiences as a student, a public-school teacher, a parent, and a board member of a charter school taught her that change requires collective effort. Communities must come together to determine school budgets and goals and to confront neoliberalism, whiteness, racism, and other forms of discrimination head-on. Communities can protect students’ potential and safety, even in neighborhoods plagued by drugs, gangs, and violence.

Communities across the country have experimented with abolitionist education. Teachers, students, and parents in Tucson, Arizona lobbied for the reinstitution of ethnic studies courses after the state banned them in 2010. Student survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School staged walkouts and protests calling for gun reform in 2018. The same year, educators, students, and parents across the nation participated in Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Our Schools to bring an end to racism and discrimination. Such examples of collective action, rebellion, and visionary thinking are key to ending the educational survival complex.

Abolitionists must address the multitude of problems facing American schools, including toxic stress, the teacher education gap, overly harsh methods of discipline, standardized testing, and character education. They must lobby for social justice for all students and provide better health services, healthy food programs, career planning guidance, paid internships, and classes about social change. Schools must also love Blackness and strive to end the school-to-prison pipeline. Providing trained counselors to address student and teacher trauma is also key. For teachers, the counseling might focus on interrogating whiteness and White emotions, such as guilt and anger. Only after confronting whiteness can white people become coconspirators and stand in solidarity with communities of color.

Theory and Abolitionism

Theory provides a language for interrogating and understanding inequality. Without theory, racism, sexism, classism, anti-gay prejudice, ableism, and other forms of discrimination are normalized. Love likens theory to Polaris, the North Star. It serves as a moral compass for abolitionists seeking to create a more equal society. Moreover, it is an enabling and necessary facet of social justice work. As imperative as theory is, however, it is not without its limits. Theory cannot end injustice; only action and solidarity can accomplish this.

Love explains key theories relevant to abolitionism. Settler colonial theory presents the colonization of the Americas and the destruction of Native American communities as a structure and an ongoing project, rather than a discrete event or events that occurred in the distant past. At different points in time, settler colonialism entailed genocide and ethnic cleansing, displacement, land development, and resource extraction. Settler colonial theory helps contextualize current events. The construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, for example, is of a piece with past acts of violence against Native Americans. Energy Transfer Partners ran the pipeline under Standing Rock’s water supply and ancient burial grounds against the wishes of the Native American community. This unsanctioned appropriation of land is part of a structure that began in the late 15th century when the settlers first colonized the Americas. Indigenous elders led a protest against the Dakota Access pipeline, attracting international activists to Standing Rock. They were met with anti-riot police, armed soldiers, water cannons, and other forms of state violence. Energy Transfer Partners built its pipeline, which has leaked five times since 2017.

In addition to settler colonial theory, abolitionists draw on CRT to provide a framework for understanding systemic racism. CRT focuses more on systems and institutions than on individuals and groups. It interrogates racism across institutions, helping explain why inequities persist despite laws promising equality. Critical race theorists explain the shortcomings of older social justice theories, such as Queer Theory, which historically ignored the concerns of poor, non-white queer people. CRT also critiques feminism because the movement largely benefited white middle- and upper-class women, while neglecting poor women of color. CRT underscores the importance of intersectionality in ending inequality.