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

by Bettina L. Love

Therefore, I learned above all else to protect my dignity. My dignity was never to be compromised, which meant never compromising my voice and my connection to how I mattered in this world. When you compromise your voice, you compromise your dignity. No dignity, no power. Knowing I had a voice backed by common sense, which I understood was supposed to be used to protect myself, was one of the most powerful things I have ever been taught. To my mother, common sense was everything; that’s where you speak from and then education follows. When I called my mother to inform her that I wanted to go back to school to pursue a PhD, she simply told me, “Don’t be an educated fool.” That was it, but I knew exactly what she meant: earning a PhD would mean nothing to my mother if I forgot where I came from and how to relate to the people who protected my dreams and my education. What good is an education if you must shed who you are? Authenticity was a fundamental component to “giving them hell.” My mother desperately wanted her children to be themselves. I never once had a conversation with my mother about my sexuality. We both knew I was a lesbian, so there was really nothing else to discuss. To be honest, Patty knew before me.