A Justice Site
Program
The Workgoups grew from our actual classroom discussions as we discovered how similar our discussions were to the kinds of activities envisioned for professional conference meetings in which colleagues are given the opportunity to exchange views with each other, on topics of mutual concern to their work and interests. Our students were already presenting in formal professional conference meetings, as part of our Moot Court Program. Their experiences, combined with the experiences in our class discussions, convinced us that student academic discourse holds tremendous potential for shifting dominant discourse away from the structural violence of institutional bureaucratization and ritualization of learning outcomes. Introduction
The Workgroup also appeared to be a good vehicle for presenting the final reports of learning from our classes, in which students were permitted to respond to any essay question of their design to illustrate their learning in that class. The themes of this collection of essays, abstracted here, and accessible in their entirety on the Dear Habermas site, provided the structural framework for the Workgroup held by the class. The Workgroup, held on the last day of class, provided a forum in which their could be discussion, professional exchange, and sharing of substantive information that had been addressed in the course. This meant that students were able to formulate their thoughts orally, visually, and in writing, and exchange these communication modes in their final workgroup. We hypothesized that this might prove fruitful in eliminating the structural violence of "testing" in the academy, strengthening a healthier respect for learning.
The Workgroup Programs for each class permit students and teachers from any campus to access our "texts" for incorporation in their own studies and works.
Notes on distributive justice workgroup on Tuesday, December 5, 2000. Issues
- Dominant Discourse and Racism
- How hard it is to shake free of it - Caroline Ibekwe and Michael Planck
- How many of our responses were dictated by the dominant discourse? Why complain? Why not just work harder? Mary and Stacey. Why not just accept that this is the way it is? Reggie and Stacey. Why do you misunderstand our good intentions? We didn't mean to exclude. Alpha. Jaime. Jai Tee. Why do you think you're alone in the pain? Marlene Veliz (recognize that this can be said from adversarial perspective and from support perspective - but that the dominant discourse teaches us to use the adversarial approach)
- How easy it is to lose hope of transformation - Reggie and Stacey - sometimes people are just mean, and I'm bored with the excuse of "prejudice."
- But how hard it is to keep our apperceptive mass focussed on the present situation and not see connections to our past hurts - De'Laina and Disneyland, Dedra and the Supermarket.
- Reparations before conciliation. Berthena. Can't we forgive when it's over and the situation has changed? Matthew. Not while it still goes on. jeanne. And Berthen'as point is that it's still going on.
- Build relationships. But how do those who are denied access supposed to get to the places where those relationships can be built? Andre.
- Broaden the children's socialization to each other. Beverly Myers and baseball camps.
- Concluding remarks: We cannot "know" in relationships why things happen as they do. But we can, over time, and with good faith listening, get a sense of the range of experiences that lead to these apparently racist attitudes and behaviors. What then? Perhaps we could learn to forgive in the abstract, in the name of humanity, and then look for a way to not tolerate the behavior without assuming that we "know" why it occurred. We can look to each other for support in voicing our refusal to accept the behavior. But we can, at the same time, refrain from harming the Other through our assumption of guilt when a more innocent explanation might be possible.
Contributors and Abstracts
Latanya Britt and Valencia Ross. Respect for Learning and for Each OtherAbstract:Joanna Carillo. On Agency and Structural Context.Abstract:Kiesha Cheatham. On Reasoning Through the Definition of "Dominant Discourse."Abstract:Caroline Ibekwe. We Were Using Dominant Discourse While We Were Discussing It! Samara Kenney. Where Do I Even Start to Define "Dominant Discourse?"Abstract:Bobby Martin. Fellman's Text Provides a Base to Fall Back On.Abstract: Looking at theory in terms of adversarialsim and mutuality gives me a base on which to judge the theories. So Rambo and the Dalai Lama gives me something to fall back on, a toe-hold so I can explore further. (jeanne's rephrasing)Valencia Ross and Latanya Britt. Respect for Learning and for Each OtherAbstract:Marlene Veliz Don't we all bleed the same?Abstract: The pain of having even the "Other" split into groups which then ignore each other. When we inflict pain on each other we do the work of the dominant group for them.
Planning the Workgroup
Stuff we have to know for Workgroup on last day of class.