How to Take Class Action on April 13 (and Why You Definitely Want To)

I read earlier this week that the unemployment rate in North Carolina for high school grads is 17%; for college grads it’s 4%. That’s why higher education is important.

I find that students are also receptive to arguments which suggest that education is about other things than jobs, including helping the world to solve some urgent and rapidly-looming issues about the natural environment; social institutions; psychological drives toward consumerism, nationalism and war; the subsuming of governments to business, and (add your favorite save-the-world issues here). I myself am inclined to see as an underlying issue the relevance of what the millwright used to say when I was working in the mill: you need to be smarter than the equipment you operate. Administrators and trustees seem to me to be the dimmest crop in decades, and that’s our fault if they were educated by us.

Why are higher ed faculty groups, press and unions supporting and promoting April 13 Class Action but not showing much interest in March 2011 Month of Action to Defend Public Education? Wouldn’t it make more sense for groups to coordinate efforts?

As often as we can and with as many people as we can, we need to stand up for ALL teachers and not allow the government (state or federal) to blame teachers for the sad state of education. By mobilizing forces, by organizing and by finding ways for K-16 groups to work together, we might stand a chance of stopping the dismantling of public education.

A valid question. Personally, for this post, it’s because I have w-a-y more information about the Apr. 13 date . . . but that’s obviously an effect of the fact that folks are closing ranks around that date.

It’s also a hard thing: In a lot of these states, there’s so much effort that has to go to warding off truly dire proposals. That makes organizing/coordinating all the more important, of course, but it also means that calling for a day of action is an easier sell. (Again, speaking personally here & not in any of my official union roles.)

I thank the authors for bringing this up because situations like this one need to be brought to light. I was present when the discussant made these comments, the discussant also mentioned that Latinos don’t make education a priority as much as “us.” Who is “us”? As mentioned in the article, we are “those” families and students that the discussant was talking about, but we are also part of this academic world. Along with the comments, what was also disheartening to me were the head nods of agreement from some of the audience members when the discussant was making very stereotypical statements. This showed me that the discussant is not the exception, but that prejudice and racism are alive and well in academia. In that moment, this situation of being in a national conference, faced with comments like this made me question how it is that we should respond to these situations. What is generally accepted? I honestly didn’t know. How might I have reacted if this was not an academic conference and these comments were made? The comments by the discussant are indicative of power relationships that exist in academia and also the invisibility many of us feel in spaces such as this. The discussant chose not to acknowledge our realities and our presence, and instead helped to further stereotypes of communities of color. Once again, tremendous thanks to the authors, I really believe this is a step in the right direction for challenging this type of “academic” thinking.

 So true and well put!

I applaud Mexico for leading the way on abortion law. There are several provinces in Mexico now where abortion is appropriately defined as murder, and those who engage in the procedure will be sent to rot in jail where they belong.

Here is a military dictum which I would like to adapt slightly for this discussion: “One cannot show discipline in large tasks but not in small tasks. There is one kind of discipline which must be evident in all tasks.”

Replace “discipline” with “courage.” I think the key problem I see with the article above is the presumption that Latinos in junior faculty positions must be careful to protect their careers yet they do not want to feel offended. If you begin with the attitude that you are powerless and someone else is a towering god who controls your destiny, then you invite mistreatment.

In the scenario listed above, I would address the senior or powerful scholar the same way I would address anyone: Look at the facts and refute him logically and calmly. If he tries to lash back at you, then stand your ground. Get a lawyer when it’s time to go for review.

One of the most powerful professors in my current department demeaned me based on my Latino origins, bisexual orientation, and military affiliation for three years. I blogged about him by name and hung a letter of protest on my door — right across from his office. He rallied people around him and got my blog shut down, then got himself placed on my tenure review committee. I filed a complaint with the Equity and Diversity Office, and when they were moving slowly, I sent clear emails to the dean and chair about the situation. Failing to get a response from them, I filed a complaint with Sacramento and opened an investigation through the Whistleblower hotline. I wrote to gay organizations and Latino organization for assistance, but they were useless because I am conservative and Christian so they wouldn’t help me. I went to two conservative watchdog groups and they did give me assistance. My chair told me to take down the letter from my door, which I told him I would not do until the senior faculty member took down the flyers promoting his offensive antiwar play with a protagonist almost explicitly based on my life. 

I am not going to say this defiance was easy. It was gut-wrenching and painful, and I ended up gaining 30 pounds from stress eating over one semester. But I did not back down. I followed procedures and relied on reason and logical argumentation and professionalism. The hardest part was seeing Chicano Studies faculty and gay colleagues –even some who got themselves quoted in local papers praising Dan Choi for improving the lives of queer people in the service — hang me out to dry while I had to come to work for eight weeks with over fifteen flyers mocking me hung in a thirty-pace walk from the elevator to my office, and nowhere else on the entire campus. 

One gay man in higher administration finally showed up with a lesbian friend and they forced the posters to come down. Two months later, after excruciating showdowns, the university removed the professor from my review committee in order to avoid litigation.

You cannot complain about feeling offended and then at the same time expect to get all the professional ease and benefits that come with pandering to people in power. You must show courage in great and small ways, and accept the stress and tribulation, or else you must be cowardly and ingratiating in great and small ways, and accept the humiliation and powerlessness.

Ciao.

I know of a fellow once who verbalized racism at a group of Black men. They beat the h*ll outta him, not surprisingly. I wonder if the academic mentioned in the article has always been in a more powerful social position where she never encountered the reality of the hurt caused by abusing people through thoughtless discrimination practices? Come visit my neighborhood and make fun of people of color right to their faces. Then you can learn a lesson in reality: you only abuse in academe because you can, because people won’t fight back due to their own need to self-promote and “cya”.  Think what kind of person that makes you.

I’m always amazed when I occasionally check in on such forums, and see certain names cropping up over and over again. Where do such supposedly busy academics find the time to sit and continually pontificate in their posts day after day? ROP Lopez, your lengthy post describing your discriminatory treatment was interesting. Too bad it contrasted so glaringly with your bigoted and close-minded post equating abortion with murder. As a military person, presumably you’re familiar with the rule of law?

With La Raza publically prescribing an outbreeding of whites in North America, California bankrupt from illegal immigration, and an quasi marxist administration hell bent on displacing “working class whites” through open borders, this jackass says,” Do the speakers of the comments realize the ramifications of their comments?”

But Mexico still discriminates against Guatemalans who enter Mexico illegally and then turn around and say the US is bad.  Hypocrites.  

I’ve seen it too often, and will not be silent any longer.  I must object to the suggestions–suggestions that too often become viscious assertions–that to believe something is wrong is synonomous with discrimination and bigotry.  For example:

I do not at ALL support homosexuality; nonetheless, I have not discriminated against anyone in this thread, by saying so (or living so).

I do not at ALL support the act of aborting a baby whose mother is not in danger of losing her life.  There is no insult that I have leveled.

Those who would impose discrimination by default on anyone who simply disagrees is employing the same invidious mindset described in the above article.
 

Getting back to the meat of this article, I haven’t yet read anyone addressing the assumptions that such obnoxious comments push us to make.

Understanding that the article made it clear that what we read was a paraphrase, I still see lots of commonly-heard pellets of mental rat poison whispered between the words:

‘when we work with those students, we can’t make them want to go to college even if we really want them to.’

“Those students”–(I invite you to believe that what I’m about to say is either exclusively disproportionately applicable to the group I just mentioned)

“We can’t make them”–(believe that the default is a shameful, despicable absence of desire on their part)

“even if WE really want them to” (wow.  do I really need to say anything?)

“Those” people have an inherent savagery that is averse to higher education.  It’s not that people that are averse to higher education happen to ALSO exist among that people group…oh, no.  It’s that this aversion DEFINES “Those people”. 

What do you all think of that?

The article I want to read is how to confront ignorance and prejudice in internet forums and comment sections. I’m a daily reader of the chronicle and I am astounded how absurd, closed-minded, and often down right offensive the comments on many of the chonicles articles here read.
 

“we must acknowledge that faculty, especially those with tenure, are largely white and male.”  

That is a racist statement right there.  The color of their skin doesn’t matter.  We can also use other groups such as most faculty were born above the poverty line.   How about seeing how many faculty come from the north east and the west coast.  If you are going to teach our future University students, I have no hope for the Higher education system in America.  Take your racism somewhere else.  

Blah blah blah.  

How many times have you said racist or discriminatory things about other people? And don’t lie.  Tell us the real number.  

You are “astounded” by people who have different experiences and opinions than you?  That truly is the main problem with US higher education.  

I have not seen ONE example of higher education in the US saying that ONLY whites can be racist.  Very easy to impose that, however.

Looks like I misunderstood you, Jason–I reread what you just wrote here, and appreciate what it took for you to speak up and say that!  I hope many people respond to that mindset responsibly (though I know many haven’t and will not).

Why should I or other families, the taxpayers, have to pay for someone else’s contraception or abortion? Government should NOT be involved with an individual’s sexual activity. If someone cannot afford contraception and chooses not use natural family planning then they should not be having sex. There are plenty of local non-profit organizations out there that help pregnant women and provide post abortion counseling. 
I am pro-life and I have been outside Planned Parenthood (which is now closed and the former director is now also pro-life). I can assure you that no one was foaming at the mouth-save your exaggerations for Hollywood.

Oh, come on. All this outrage is a bit much. I have to wonder if the people who are responding with angry mini-lectures about “institutionalized racism” have ever actually experienced what it’s like to teach in under-served communities. Usually the students who need the most support are exactly the students who NEVER come and talk to you, who NEVER ask for help or advice, who just don’t show up one day, and then the next day, and then the next, and then one day you see that they’ve dropped your course and you never get a reason why, unless you hunt them down and hound them for it (which feels weird, because they’ve rarely spoken to you). The most needy students are not coming up to you saying, “Oh, please, professor, tell me whether I should drop out. Are there any services I can access that will help me stay in school?” Nine times out of ten they just go completely AWOL. They vanish. And it’s precisely because that’s so frustrating that teachers are inclined to adopt attitudes like, “There’s nothing I can do when students want to drop out.” The reality is that Latinos often do have children at younger ages and drop out at a higher rate than many other groups. That’s something these teachers are observing on a daily basis. So if you want teachers to behave differently, don’t tell them they’re being racists. They’re speaking about what they observe, and they feel like it’s a cultural problem, and they’re frustrated and don’t know what to do about it. Why not frame the discussion like that, rather than saying, “Isn’t it shocking how prejudiced these academics are!” Shocking! Shocking! But not a single poster here can say what a teacher is supposed to DO for these students. That’s the hard part, isn’t it? You’re putting the cart before the horse, acting as if the reason a student gets pregnant is because her teacher suspected that she MIGHT get pregnant. I’m just not buying it.

I must agree that the tangents are taking over–to the destruction of productive conversation!  While any of us would agree that educated scholars should know that it is unacceptable to “otherize,” it would seem that the problem lies not with what the scholars know–but rather with the principles to which they are committed.  The committment wasn’t there.  At least not enough to provoke action.

Each of us needss to check ourselves, making sure that we are of the  type that will speak up for AL those that are truly being done wrong, not just the group that we want to push into the power positions.

This is one of the good articles you can find in the net explaining everything in detail regarding the topic. Chikmagalur