De Colores Means All of Us by ELIZABETH MARTÍNEZ

Author:ELIZABETH MARTÍNEZ
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Verso Books

In all our schools, all our institutions, the issue is still power. It’s not just a struggle to get a course added here or there. Any challenge to the existing educational system eventually means challenging the kind of faculty on hand at a given institution; the criteria for recognition and scholarship; the administrative structure—the entire package of power relations on a given campus. In the end it means challenging the ruling class’s position on whose interests education should serve.

So don’t expect a national education policy that challenges the idea of “Western values” as the basis for our educational norms. Don’t expect curricula that recognize racism as a pillar of U.S. society. The concessions made thus far represent recognition by the corporate elite that its interests are best served by adding a measure of non-white cultures to the mainstream. (The essay “Whose Chicano History Did You Learn?” on page 31 describes the role of right-wing think tanks in this process.) Similarly, the academic elite may recognize that campus turmoil is undesirable. The issue continues to be power.

In that light, many people of color distrust the concept of multiculturalism. Many see it as an attempt to co-opt our demand for decentralizing whiteness, and that may indeed be its goal. Many say, “We want an end to racism, and access to the corridors of power—not another brand of corporate cosmetics.” Others feel the concept liquidates the particularities of each community of color.

But the ferocious attempt to block any non-Eurocentric, non-traditional educational effort has shown the need to expose the attack on multiculturalism, while insisting that it be defined as anti-racism. Interpreted that way, and not simply as additive, it is truly subversive, for it defies the centrality of a Euro-dominated nationhood. Let us define multiculturalism, then, as a united front against White Supremacy.

Anglo teachers, students and activists should recognize that today’s reactionary opposition to a genuine multiculturalism signifies a chilling repression of independent thinking in general. It signifies a readiness to curb any systemic critique of U.S. society. Yet even those apparently concerned about social justice seem indifferent to such threats as compared to the perceived threat of diminished race-power. One wants to holler: “Yo, gringitos—wake up! They’ll be coming for you in the morning, if you don’t stand with the rest of us tonight.”

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