Official for whom?

One of my favorite things that Dr. Dyson has written is "The Pine Cone Wars."  When I read it was the first time I learned to think about what happens in the classroom within and across "official" and "unofficial" frames.

It's mind-boggling at the moment to try to sort out what's official and what's unofficial in a prison classroom that critically approaches the GED as a bullshit gatekeeper to parole through instruction by a team of incarcerated and free teachers.

I swear, as soon as we get our shit together, I want to write about what we're doing.

Come at me, bro.

I just sent Nola this book:

When I got her a feminist coloring book for Christmas, she asked me to explain what feminism is.  Eoin was sitting there, too.  I told them that, basically, it's believing that girls are just as good as boys even though some people act like they're not.  

Nola said, "Oh, then I'm a feminist."

And Eoin said, "I'M NOT!"

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Occasionally, I'll post something on Facebook that somehow invites attacks from White folks -- almost always dudes.  Usually it's a post that has to do with race.  Today it's one about race and gender, this clip of Michelle Obama's speech at Tuskeegee.

This men get so fucking worked up.

And it occurred to me, because I was texting with Johnny about that book:

This is the "grown-up" version of "Girls go to Jupiter to get more stupider." It was funny and endearing when Eoin resisted feminism.  But these grown ass men...

citation

My friend posted this about the #citationchallenge today.  I liked it.  (Both FB-style and in real life liked it.)

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A few years ago, another friend posted something on FB about citation from a piece he was reading.  I can't remember what and it would take me forever (and a lot of time on his page... which feels like a violation) to go back and find it, but he basic idea was that citing is like a way of saying a quick "thanks" before moving on.  Like, 

"A riot is the language of the unheard" (Thanks, Dr. King).  Moving forward...

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Last night at the prison, we were teaching in-text citation conventions, and one of the students, building on the direction to include page number, observed, "Oh, like when you're quoting the Bible.  Like Psalm 7, verse so and so..."  

YEAH.

It struck me as such a great example of connecting cultural resources, like the literacy practices involved in Bible study, to academic literacy practices.  The teacher leading the lesson affirmed the observation really sincerely, and it made me think about another potential thing that could come out of our work.

It made me wonder if it's easier for teachers to recognize and affirm students' cultural and linguistic resources when the students are grown ass people.  There may still be a racial divide between teacher and student in our context (and for now, that's what we're working with in public education -- lots of White lady teachers and increasing numbers of students of color), but the exacerbation of that power differential by age difference (i.e. adult teacher and little kid) isn't.  Maybe by studying how students get respected in this context, teachers can learn how to respect (and I mean meaningfully respect, like expecting brilliance, and seeing it in them all the time) students in other classroom contexts.

WWBW

When we were getting ready for a public presentation once, my students were super concerned about what I was gonna wear.  They just did not get me.  Their sincere advice: "When you open your closet, look at your clothes and think, 'What would Beyonce wear?'"

I feel like I killed it this week because I wore this gold skirt (Thanks, Kase.):

And Beyonce wore this:

some more questions I got

Why do youth have to be "the future"?  Why don't the material conditions of their lives matter right now?  What if they do some cool-ass activist shit now and then sit on the couch for the rest of their lives?  Is that okay?

What are the emotional effects of all these videos of violence against Black people going viral?  One thing I know for sure about myself is that I cannot watch a rape scene in a movie.  I also cannot watch a scene where the dude beats the shit out of his wife or girlfriend.  I also can't read those kinds of scenes.  I have a physical reaction; that body could be my body.  Honestly, even though I have an intense emotional reaction, I don't have the same physical reaction to all these horrible videos on my newsfeed.  A reminder that I need to be real with myself about the distinction between empathy and solidarity.  I don't, I'll never, know what it's like to experience racism -- from a microaggression to continuous state violence.  So again, what are the emotional effects of all these videos of violence against Black people going viral? Both on an individual and on a systematic level?

What's the difference between destruction (of property) and violence (against bodies and minds)?  Does inconveniencing folks -- making it so weddings have to be rescheduled, Orioles tickets have to go to waste -- by participating in a large collective demonstration of righteous anger count as violence?  Even broken windows, do broken windows delegitimize the non-violent cred of a protest?  My instinctual answer is a resounding, "Hell no, come on."  But I spent a lot of time last year writing about Bourdieu's notion of "symbolic violence."  I contended that school dress codes could enact a kind of symbolic violence on the bodies of students from oppressed classes -- girls, kids who participate in Hip-Hop culture, etc.  So do I call things "violence" when it suits my political sensibilities but not when it doesn't?  I guess so.  So does that mean that for me, "violence" is only possible when it's enacted by a person with privilege on or toward a person from an oppressed class?  So what's all the other stuff then -- when women beat on each other, or when a woman sexually assaults a man, for example?