Abstract
This article presents a qualitative dialogic poetic response in the form of a critical social justice inquiry circle and a critical reading of Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds as poetry and as an intentional gesture of listening as activism. This discourse is one of resistance to the acritical/apolitical nature of schooling and to prepare hegemonic/White educators to become culturally responsive (ala Milner) and to devise a new critical methodology, we embark on this radical proposition. Our use of critical social justice inquiry circles using poetic dialogue is inspired by Denzin’s conception of Critical Performance Pedagogy.
Keywords
Introduction
This article presents a qualitative dialogic poetic response in the form of a critical social justice inquiry circle, as well as a critical reading of Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. Our anchor text, a young adult (YA) novel written in verse, forces the reader to address grief in the span of one elevator ride taken by Will, the protagonist. Will represents a counter-narrative of the Black male as criminal, thug, and/or gangster. We write both in dialogue and poetry, as a creative and critical response to literature, and as an intentional gesture of listening as activism. Poetry, as response, ensures engagement as emotions are allowed to evoke and be expressed (Rosenblatt, 1934/1995). Ultimately, this discourse is one of resistance to the acritical/apolitical nature of schooling. For the purpose of preparing hegemonic/White educators to become culturally responsive (ala Milner) and to devise a new critical methodology, we embark on this radical proposition. Our use of critical social justice inquiry circles using poetic dialogue is inspired by Denzin’s (2006) conception of Critical Performance Pedagogy, which have included “die-ins” to protest police brutality. We too take to critical performance to protest brutality within our schools, perpetrated on our children—to reeducate the populace regarding the lived experiences of the stigmatized.
This essay represents Part 1 of a two part inquiry. Part 2 (forthcoming) will consist of the researchers conducting similar, critical social justice inquiry circles, with urban middle school students using the same anchor text. We are inspired by Pedraza and Rodriguez’s (2018) Freirean counter-narratives and rhetorical literacies to encourage student voice for social activism. Our goal in Part 2 is to determine how students will respond to this type of co-constructed pedagogy, where students and teachers are partners in knowledge construction, as opposed to the scripted language arts curriculum that they typically experience based on district mandates.
Question: Why is it important to expose our students and colleagues to counter-stereotypical exemplars within ELA classrooms so that readers (a) have the opportunity to relate to the characters, often different from themselves, and (b) communicate a sense of empathy for counter-stereotypical characters in general.
Why is this important?
Question: Can our critical social justice inquiry circle (poetic dialogue) open ourselves to critical conversations about race/racism within our classrooms, schools, and curriculum?
Answer? Our dialogue in verse attempts to answer these and many other questions, and to hopefully bring to mind additional questions in the minds of our readers, and to challenge them to engage in their own critical social justice inquiry circles on topics or texts of interest to them.
Disrupting the Quo. . . . and Marginalia Is the Status No More. . . . 1
We were talking about teaching—talking about our students—and talking about books. The conversation was about books that transform, and several titles by Jason Reynolds were mentioned. I intentionally introduced the Long Way Down (Reynolds, 2017) as transformative literature. In the book, the main character Will is mourning, “because the day / before yesterday, / Shawn was shot / and killed” (Reynolds, 2017, pp. 3-4). In his grief, Will decides to “follow the rules” and retaliate. He finds his brother’s gun, places it into the back of his jeans, and walks to the elevator of his apartment building. Along the way down to the first floor, Will is visited by some folks from the past and formulates his plan. As we prepared to read the Long Way Down and meet for dialogue, we decided instead to write our dialogue so that we were intentional about listening to the text. Moreover, we decided that our dialogue should be in verse, hence, the term poetic dialogue.
Listen. I knew it was Meant To Be When My copy of
Long Way Down
By Jason Reynolds Arrived on my Front porch On the same day that We spoke about Poetic Dialogue. This book Needs To be Read, Discussed, Pondered. This Book Needs To be Heard. And, so I picked it up, upon your recommendation. But, I had to put the book down at a particular moment. I felt too much to read any more. “Feel = Flee”
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I needed a break from the sadness of Dani, and the shorts underneath her flower dress On the day she, wanting to “jump outside of herself,”
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Died. Eight years old— “Bubble gum and blood.”
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But, white women’s tears fix nothing, Nor do they exempt us. . . . The next day, after Dani, Will learned the rules. But I never had any rules “. . . meant for the broken to follow”
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But, I also didn’t have a hug that felt like a headlock, or many hugs at all. What do the spaces in between even mean? And why do so many believe the blood made on the “outside of them,” The slipping into empty spaces, is of their own desire and creation? Jason’s words— Anagrams and all— Make me feel, too. Feel in a way from which I can’t flee. Truth, as seen Through Will, But also through Those powerhouse Females— Dani; Felicia, Screaming from “deep down in the deepest part of her downness”;
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And his mom, With her Shrieks. We hear the Cries from Our sisters, Our mothers, Our aunties. What of the tears From our Young men Who grieve? Angered = enraged And I am! Angered and enraged, and so I insert myself here. “Don’t feel sorry for me” (I imagine Will to say) And, in my hypothetical conversation, I want to know: What would you want from your teachers, Will? I know it’s not: Their pity, their fear, their tears. . . their sorry feelings, For being “Nice is Not Enough,”
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But how many confuse pity for care, sorrow for understanding, dismiss you to hide their fear? Push out, straighten up, “look me in the eye!” Defeated. Conquered. Thwarted Education is a matter of life and death. Especially here. Forreal. Soforreal. The cigarette choke within the “steel cube” softens the question “what you reachin’ for?” Ever so slightly, But the excuse for so much blue blood to open the red of the Black is glaring Mike Brown Tamir Rice Cameron Tillman “Six foot four, Six foot five. (Six feet deep.)” Too. Many. Times. “. . . why are you here?” This fruit is still strange. “Forreal. Soforreal.” Reverse! “This fruit is still strange.” Reverse! “This fruit is still strange.” Reverse! “This fruit is still strange.” You said so much in so few words, Got me (re)thinking Class, Students, Learning, Yearning, For a teacher Giving more Than lessons, Commands, Grades. Giving an ear, maybe? Education is a matter of Life and death. What should that look like? What is my role? Tell me more about Nieto. Now, please. Well, to paraphrase: “But, I’m a nice person!” Translation: “I don’t see color,” Translation: “I treat all my students the same,” Translation: “I’m not racist, but. . .” Translation: SILENCE! Screaming silence. “All this talk about race makes me [white teacher] feel uncomfortable, so we don’t need to do it. Shouldn’t do it.” “I’ll just be super nice to my Students of Color, and all will be well; I know how hard their lives are. . .”; “I am not complicit. I feel guilt, but I do not deserve this, so I shall push it down/repress it.” “My ancestors did not own slaves!” “I will do my best to accommodate the deficiencies of my Students of Color. For I am nice, and doing the right thing.” Translation: I am racist. But, as Nieto tells us, “Racism involves the systematic failure of people and institutions to care for students of color on an ongoing basis”
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“Forreal. Soforreal.” Can [white] teachers who read this, understand Nieto better? Understand Will better? BTW, how does it feel to be, less than parenthetical: bracketed? As if you do not matter? Fenced in by punctuation? This is why we are Writing in verse. Free verse. Free. Verse. To sever The ties (lies). As we Listen, Seek, Learn, Let’s Break apart Brackets, Barriers. You said, “Education is a matter of Life and death.” This is what high-stakes Really look like. “This is only a test” Will not fly. We must Press pause On the Pulse of Punitive Pedagogy, Pedagogy of Poverty
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Nieto
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explained that We are “Situated within a Racially unequal structure That we often Unwittingly Perpetuate”
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My color-blindness And inability (to wit, unwillingness) To see Has Added bricks To the wall That must come Down. In the past, I have chosen Not to see. “And we never ask them Who they are And where they want to go”
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Finally, I am listening. The persistence of “Yellow tape flags” in any community Should not determine the quality of a school But history is circle, closing us in. The Hood over Will’s head [Why is this a problem?] Does not make him anything than what he is Turning anyone’s “bang-bang into hush-hush”
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But: “The rules are the rules”
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And, all the doors are closing. What Will you do? The yellow tape flag reigns Ubiquitous But I don’t believe in flags Will called out for help, “But couldn’t see no one”
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Instead, just the trigger-pulling fear When we were just trying to fly. . . . I could put the book down, But you couldn’t It is your life. BELIEVE IN ME YOU COMING?
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I’m with you. . . . I’m with you. I’m with Tatum
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Too. He discusses some findings From a research review. When it comes to our students, Especially male, It’s the students of color We continue to fail. In literacy instruction Our kids are missing out They need bona fide books That are worth checking out. It’s a “glaring omission”
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A literacy lack. They’re not going to care If it doesn’t mean jack. A “productive shift” As Tatum promotes Requires relevant reads With affective notes. “Enabling text” Is the term he uses. The bottom line is We need to cut the excuses. Sure, reading is cognitive That’s part of the deal, But an “enabling text” Has deeper appeal. Political, spiritual, Cultural, and social. Literacy must address themes Economic and emotional. Fortunately, some writers have Have busted through, Myers, Alexander, Reynolds, Just to name a few. It is clear that we need more authentic tales Told from within As opposed to outside Tales of love Teach of love With love Even when there is none But it is more. . . . What happens without counterstory? Happenings within this still segregated space: “The School” White washed with fire hoses Can what was beneath ever be revealed? Can we scrape away the layers? Why are even “diverse schools” still white spaces? Forget sentimentality. Let’s be real. Soforreal. I agree with you School is a white space, for sure. Have you been to a white church? A Black church? One is stifled with silent, Passive listeners. Are they passive Or prisoners? Are they even awake? The other is lively, Alive, organic. Is everyone paying attention? “Yessir!” “That’s right!” “You know it!” Liberated folks Listening Responding
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And Being Transformed Right there In the moment. School is Not like that. Instead Voices off Worksheets On The desks in rows While oppressions Seep around Sleepy Punitive Pedagogy “Did you just speak out while I was talking?” “You are expected to be silent when . . .” School is A white space Filled with Regulations And guidelines That make Shame and fear The rule. So, the question: What is this preparation for silence? For compliance? For pushout? Oh wait, we already know. . . . Yes, and our students know. They are (re)reading
The Long Way Down.
Shaun: “Why you keep Checking that book out When you already read it?” Me: “We don’t listen to A song One time And refuse to Listen again. We can listen Over And Over.” Demarius: “Yeah, And this book? This book Is my Song.” We must Listen (Re)read Our students— Their words Their hearts Their minds. Listen. Over And Over.
A Counter-Hegemonic Project
Question: How does Will, and the novel in general, represent a counter-story, a counter-stereotypical examination of one African American protagonist?
Since the election of 2008, many White Americans believe that we are living in a post-racial society: where race no longer matters, where everyone “gets what they deserve” as long as they work hard enough. Many see Barack Obama as the norm, as opposed to a counter-story masking the real oppressions that still exist for many minoritized persons that hegemonic persons are unwilling to see. These perceptions constitute the phenomenon of colorblindness. Samuels (2014) defines colorblindness, “. . . also known as oppression-blindness. . . or identity-blindness. . . [as a situation where] [m]any white Americans believe that if they pretend not to see a person’s race, then they cannot be racist” (p. 12). Colorblindness also carries the added benefit of metaphorically absolving hegemonic persons of their White guilt and privilege, and it reinforces the validity of the meritocracy: for to acknowledge inequities means that success is unearned.
Instead of an uncritical acceptance of colorblindness, we actively engage our students and our colleagues to work for anti-racism. According to Singleton and Linton (2006), “Anti-racism can be defined as conscious and deliberate efforts to challenge the impact and perpetuation of institutions White racial power, presence, and privilege. . . To be anti-racist is to be active” (p. 45). Likewise, anti-racist pedagogues do not ignore the history of oppressed peoples, as do so many of our schools (Loewen, 2010). To be an anti-racist pedagogue means not only to address the difficult and complicated conversations of race and other forms of prejudice in our society but also to be mindful of the differences between minoritized and non-minoritized students sitting within the same classroom. For example, particularly for hegemonic professors, we must ensure that our curricula, when detailing the experiences of various minoritized populations, do not simply and always deal in atrocities; we must examine our hidden curricula (Eisner, 2001), in its explicitness and in its omissions. It is disheartening and spirit murdering to only hear of one’s own culture or race through the lenses of oppression, horror, and genocide. The notion of “spirit murdering” conceptualized by Williams (1991), and later explicated by Love (2017), is “. . . ‘the personal, psychological, and spiritual injuries to people of color through the fixed, yet fluid and moldable, structures of racism, privilege, and power’” (p. 199). Those possessing little to no power within the classroom may be subjected to spirit murder, particularly those who are curricularly underserved. This term refers to students, typically non-hegemonic students, who have, over time, failed to recognize themselves: their language, their history, their people, in the school curriculum; additionally, the few times such students do recognize themselves within their curriculum, they only see atrocities, so best not to look.
The critical pedagogue must simultaneously be culturally responsive and able to provide counter-stories to balance oppressive histories and realities; these pedagogical decisions will be beneficial to both non-hegemonic and hegemonic students, but for different reasons. For the hegemonic student, counter-stories and counter-histories can work to undermine stereotypes that dominant students hold for minoritized populations with which they may have little contact, thereby potentially reducing implicit bias. For the non-hegemonic student, counter-stories and counter-histories can provide validation for and pride in one’s own culture and increase engagement in school when they can relate to the curriculum as opposed to always being “othered.”
Lai and colleagues (2014) found that high engagement with counter-stereotypical counter-stories can be effective in reducing implicit biases. For example, participants being presented with a case where they envision being assaulted by a White man and rescued by a Black man was found to reduce implicit biases about the stereotype of Black male as violent (Lai et al., 2014). Direct participant involvement with a counter-story, one that intentionally dismantles stereotypes, can impact how messages are processed, thus reducing implicit biases.
Utilizing critical social justice inquiry circles where counter-stereotypical stories are shared can do much to change school expectations, to engage critical empathy, and to remove sentimentality from the notions of care and love for our students.
The notion that education is equitable is rooted in colorblindness and perpetuates school as White space. The institution of education claims to prepare children for “the real world.” Until we recognize that our children are confronted with “the real world” daily, schools will fail to provide what our students really need. They need to be seen and heard. It is time to change the rules, and become actively anti-racist. This requires radical listening. We need to stop herding our students, hurting our students, and, instead, start hearing our students. They are singing their songs. Songs of pain, songs of fear, songs of independence, songs of empowerment, songs of resistance, songs of hardship, songs of resilience, songs of “the real world,” and songs of their future. Are you listening?
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
