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

by Bettina L. Love

But dark people still fight, hope, love, believe, and freedom-dream despite obstacles prepacked and tightly wrapped in racism, hate, and rage.

Beacon Hill is an example of what people can do when the ideas of abolitionism turn into a way of life; a way of seeing the world that does not normalize hate, White rage, and the inferior conditions for dark people; a way of life that relentlessly pursues and protects Blacks thriving. Beacon Hill also demonstrates that you do not have to be Black to be an abolitionist.

The educational survival complex has become so rationalized and normalized that we are forced to believe, against our common sense, that inadequate school funding is normal, that there is nothing that can be done about school shootings, that racist teachers in the classrooms are better than no teachers in the classrooms.

Maxine Greene once said, “To commit to imagining is to commit to looking beyond the given, beyond what appears to be unchangeable. It is a way of warding off the apathy and the feelings of futility that are the greatest obstacles to any sort of learning and, surely, to education for freedom. . . . We need imagination.”17

Abolitionist teaching on a wide scale requires the willingness of teachers and school administrators to address systemic racism and its effects on dark children while loving Blackness enough to see its assets so that dark children matter.

Ally-ship is working toward something that is mutually beneficial and supportive to all parties involved. Allies do not have to love dark people, question their privilege, decenter their voice, build meaningful relationships with folx working in the struggle, take risks, or be in solidarity with others. They just have to show up and mark the box present; thus, ally-ship is performative or self-glorifying. This type of ally-ship still centers Whiteness in dark spaces. Too often, though not always, our allies are eager White folx who have not questioned their Whiteness, White supremacy, White emotions of guilt and shame, the craving for admiration, or the structures that maintain White power.

“Until you can recognize that you are living a racialized life and you’re having racialized experiences every moment of every day, you can’t actually engage people of other races around the idea of justice.”44 When speaking about White guilt, Dow adds, “I could do something inside and that would change things. It kind of eliminated guilt for me. It made me feel incredibly empowered and really enriched my world.” Dow is describing the inner work that is needed when you are White and fighting for justice in solidarity with dark folx.

Yes!!

This is the work of challenging Whiteness in your community so you can challenge it at school. The work is not a onetime conversation; it is who you must become in and outside the classroom.

White folx can also embrace Black joy by helping, advocating for, and wanting Black folx to win. Recognizing and acknowledging White privilege is cute, but what does it mean without action? Dismantling White privilege is giving something up so Black folx can win. If folx with privilege are not using their privilege to demand justice and advocate for dark folx and all their identities, then they are complicit in White rage or male rage and thus are condoning injustice, violence, and the educational survival complex. By winning, I mean White folx ensuring that people of color are being paid equally or more than their White peers. White teachers demanding that schools hire more teachers of color. Silencing your White voice so dark folx’ voices can be heard. White folx bringing dark folx in on all decision-making and dark folx having equal or more weight, and not just on issues about injustice or education but on issues that impact all of us, regardless of the color of our skin. White folx embracing Black joy is loving seeing dark people win, thrive, honor their history, and be fully human.

Educators, and especially those with privilege, must be responsible for making sure dark children and their families win.

Research has shown that teacher preparation programs have been largely ineffective in preparing White teachers to teach diverse student populations.2

The sad truth is that White people can spend their entire lives ignoring, dismissing, and forgetting dark peoples’ existence and still be successful in life. The latter is not the same for us.

So, how can teachers be culturally relevant when they have not studied culture? Culture does not simply fall from the sky. Traditions and ways of being are intentionally created and crafted because culture reflects the educational, social, economic, political, and spiritual conditions of people.

If we, teacher educators, are going to ask teachers to be culturally relevant and culturally competent—which I wholeheartedly believe are fundamental to challenging inequities and develop critical perspectives—then teachers should be required to study culture.

In order to survive, they had to let go of their language, cultural traditions, and spiritual practices: cultural genocide. Cultural genocide through education is also another tactic for land invasion.

Simply put, “interest convergence” argues that White people will support civil rights legislation only when it’s in their interest to do so.

White folx cannot be coconspirators until they deal with the emotionality of being White. A cofounder of Black Lives Matter, Alicia Garza, says, “Co-conspiracy is about what we do in action, not just in language.” She adds, “It is about moving through guilt and shame and recognizing that we did not create none of this stuff. And so what we are taking responsibility for is the power that we hold to transform our conditions.”37 Studying Whiteness, White rage, and violence is a fundamental step to moving from ally to coconspirator.

To be clear, neoliberalism is making inroads all over the world. The main thrust of this idea is that competition is good for the economy, that the free market will solve all of our financial and social problems, and that deregulation is best, regardless of how it impacts the environment or job safety. Neoliberalism has put our banks, roads, schools, hospitals, waterways, and highways at risk. We no longer care about the common good for everyone; we leave everything up to the free market and people’s so-called merit/hard work. Neoliberalism ensures that the rich get richer and the poor get disposed of.

Is BP contributing to this?

James Baldwin said, “A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled.”43

Both Eli and Velma experience the everyday trauma of being dark but also the historical trauma that has been passed down from their ancestors; they cannot heal without addressing their ancestors’ trauma and sacrifices, and then their own. Thus, healing must be intergenerational, and healing is different for different people.

Those who cling to their Whiteness cannot participate in abolitionist teaching because they are a distraction, are unproductive, and will undermine freedom at every step, sometimes in the name of social justice. Being an abolitionist means you are ready to lose something, you are ready to let go of your privilege, you are ready to be in solidarity with dark people by recognizing your Whiteness in dark spaces, recognizing how it can take up space if unchecked, using your Whiteness in White spaces to advocate for and with dark people.

Being well and White is rejecting Whiteness for the good of humanity. The same goes for patriarchy, homophobia, sexism, transphobia, Islamophobia, classism, ableism, and xenophobia.

Teacher wellness is critical to creating schools that protect students’ potential and function as their homeplace. Educators, students, and parents need to be on a path to wellness together for schools to be sites of healing. Schools cannot be doing just alright; they have to be well by putting everyone’s mental health as the first priority and understanding how systems of oppression spirit-murder children.