This is my response to reading this chapter:
Marx, S. (2006). Revealing the invisible: Confronting passive racism in teacher education. New York: Routledge.
One of the aspects of teaching in prison that I always struggle with is the fact that I’m white woman, teaching mostly men of color. The reason I struggle with this is because I know that my social positionality leads to a very different worldview than theirs, and, as Marx points out, us white people tend to hold this idea that we’re the neutrality in the color spectrum. This leads to imposition of our own beliefs and norms as “correct” and then we operate by the deficit model. As someone who spends a great deal of my time volunteer-teaching in an under-served community, I can certainly see how tendencies toward saviorism and the resulting perpetuation of oppression could be likely in that space. By (often unconsciously) assuming whiteness is “normal” and anyone of color is deficient in some capacity, we not only serve our own interests by imposing our beliefs on other communities as if they are absolute truths, but we maintain the status quo by feeding our egos and telling ourselves that we are simply being helpful. Our “helpfulness” often serves us more than anyone we’re supposedly serving.
How do I manage this? Well, first, it’s something that I’m consciously aware of, every day. Both in the classroom and in one-on-one conversations with my students, I remain aware of my purpose, which is to amplify the voices of the marginalized, in order to empower them. My purpose is not to speak for them, nor is it to tell them what to say; I am teaching in order to help students develop their voices and engage with the world in whatever way they find meaningful–the specifics are not my decision. I don’t get to define what is “right” or “important” for anyone else. I make mistakes in my assumptions all the time, but it’s my job to learn from those mistakes, and move on. It’s not the job of people of color to console me and ensure my ego stays intact, nor is it their responsibility educate me.
Marx’s article discussed the tension created between Michelle’s family and the Revnik family when Michelle’s family learned that Mrs. Revnik had been a dermatologist and that the family was indeed quite well educated. Of course, the tension was created because Michelle’s family was, at a least in part, doing service work in order to feel validated. I’m just speculating here, but I would guess that at least part of why they’re upset is that there is an assumption in our merit-based society, that educated people should not need help, and therefore do not deserve i; educated people should know how to provide for themselves, and if they can’t, clearly it’s their own fault. It frustrates me to no end when the motives behind “service work” are really to serve oneself in terms of validation, and not to actually help anyone else. There can certainly be a lot of ego involved in “giving.”
Finally, I want to point out that marginalized people are acutely aware of this assumed white neutrality and saviorism, and due to generations of racism and violence at the hands of white people, marginalized folks have learned that discussing race with white people only leads to further oppression. This is why critical approaches to education are so important–teachers have to be even more willing to continue learning that our students, because if we are not, we perpetuate all of the societal ills that we claim to be astutely against.
Alex Naeve 