"The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy." p. 12

Summary

A Revolution of Values: The Promise of Multicultural Change, p. 23-34

hooks opens essay three reflecting on her decision to attend her 20 year high school reunion and reminiscing about her friendships during her time in a segregated high school. She recounts her relationship with a white, male student, and how they saw their friendship as radical at the time, but reflects that they were actually doing very simple things. They came from a place of trust and committed to learning from one another, realizing that they would make mistakes. hooks expands to examine how academia has not risen to the challenge and meditates on some of the reasons why this idea, filled with promise and embraced, has since floundered.

Primarily, she sees that our country has lacked a "revolution in values." She cites Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (p. 27) who explained that our "thing" focused society prevents us from becoming a people oriented society. This privileges old forms of domination and makes it difficult for people to aspire to a new way of living. In some cases, they lie to themselves and believe that race is no longer an issue. In other cases, academics were quick to embrace multiculturalism, but society's dominant model left them without the resources to implement the ideas and created internal backlash. Now, the onus is on students and IBPOC to shift the paradigm, leading leaving many questioning whether or not it is the fight.

In the end, hooks believes that it is and that those internal and external struggles are features not bugs to this transition. Ultimately, we should shift to a place where there is more confrontation and dissent because it reflects an internal commitment to our values and creates an intellectual atmosphere for the co-creation of truth.

Embracing Change: Teaching in a Multicultural World p. 35-44

Embracing Change offers real world anecdotes and strategies that hooks' has implemented in her classroom to create a multicultural space. First, she acknowledges that this is a difficult process, providing evidence from her time at Oberlin. Many people in the academy are not taught how to teach and instead emulate the models that they had as students. Since they are rooted in oppression, they naturally replicate oppression. The old guard considered this to be a neutral approach, but through a series of workshops, hooks and her colleague Chandra Mohanty attempted to show them that no choice or decision is an apolitical one. The traditional model defaults to centering the West, patriarchy, racism, et. al., emulating it emulates oppression. Of course the decision to recenter IBPOC voices, feminist voices, etc. is also political.

The old model feels safe because it protects professors from having to go outside the knowledge they had banked and been taught how to dispense to others. While it might be safe for the facilitator, the ideas, information, classroom norms are actually hostile to marginalized voices. When professors take the time to care about "who speaks? who listens? and why?" they will find things in their traditional practice that need to be modified in order to be truly inclusive.

Instead of allowing the classroom to be a "safe" quiet place where people receive knowledge, her understanding of Freire's work has led her to view the classroom as a community where "there is a shared commitment and common good." She builds this community by requiring students to respond to and share their answers to journal prompts. Regardless of language, all students get the opportunity to be heard.

Next, hooks explains how it is just as difficult for students to shift their paradigms as it is for teachers. Although the conversations may be beneficial or have a long-term impact, educators must sacrifice any impulse for immediate adulation. They must also hold space for students pain. Change is not easy, and shifting lens on the world can leave students adrift. She allows class time to explore how the lessons are impacting her students, and sees it as a beneficial community building tool that allows students to know that they aren't in the process alone.

Finally, hooks emphasizes the need for educators to avoid allowing students or themselves from tokenizing other students. Professors should make it clear that this is not allowed from the outset, but must also do the internal work of learning different cultural codes and make meaningful efforts to learn the things they are not taught emulating the traditional model.

Discussion Questions

  1. hooks reflects on her the simplicity of her and her friends' desire in school to overcome segregation in school. Reflecting on their actions, she remarks,

    "Our notions of social change weren't fancy. There was no elaborate, postmodern political theory shaping our actions. We were simply trying to change the way we went about our everyday lives so our values and habits of being would reflect our commitment to freedom. Our major concern was ending racism" p. 26

    How does intellectualizing the problem of racism impact our ability to be less racist? What are the benefits and drawbacks? What are the implications for us as educators?

  2. How do you think COVID will effect the push for multicultural classrooms?

  3. How do we balance making mistakes (p. 33) with people's perceptions that we're making a mistake by teaching through a multi-cultural lens (p.42)?

  4. How do you feel about hooks and Mohanty's decision to exclude students from the discussion groups?

  5. Have you ever had a painful learning experience? What was its value? How did you learn? How would you teach those lessons learned to someone else?

  6. How do we balance student's desires for a more diverse curriculum with the lack of institutional support for multiculturalism?