We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom

Chapter 2 opens with an anecdote about Love’s first teaching job at an impoverished South Florida school. Like many public schools in low-income districts, the school lacked the resources to help students thrive. This contrasts sharply with schools in high-income districts around the nation, which are well-resourced, retain high quality teachers, and support extracurricular activities and field trips. Families in Love’s school district were both racially and economically isolated. No teacher, no matter how well-meaning, can overcome the barriers of systemic racism, writes Love. However, grassroots organizing, alongside antiracist pedagogy, can prepare students and their families to fight to eradicate structural racism. To this end, educators must dedicate themselves to challenging racist structures by teaching intersectional social justice, rather than focusing on standardized tests.

White Rage

White rage refers to the anger Black advancement triggers in White people. According to Love, white rage erupts when people of color dare to matter. It leads to lynchings and police violence. It also leads to the enactment of laws to protect white people and harm people of color, such as Jim Crow laws, which enforced racial segregation in the South until 1965. Biases in the judicial system often shield white people from the consequences of acting on their rage. For example, in 2012, George Zimmerman killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin while he walked to a family friend’s house in a gated Florida community. Zimmerman’s lawyer used the state’s “stand your ground” law to defend his client. A jury acquitted Zimmerman of all charges in 2013.

In addition to the 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin, Love discusses other cases of racism in Florida in the 20th century; notably, the Ocoee massacre of 1920. White rage flared in Ocoee when Black people showed up at the polls to vote on election day. They were met by a rankled white crowd that forced them to disperse. That evening, a former Orlando chief of police led a lynch mob to ferret out the leaders of the Black community. Dozens of Black people were killed and their property destroyed, all for “having ambition, drive, and purpose: for mattering. [they were] lynched for daring to matter” (24). For the next 40 years, the KKK ruled Ocoee with little resistance. They hung a sign at the town limits that read “Dogs and Negroes Not Welcomed” (23). Ocoee was also a so-called sundown town in this period. A sundown town was an all-white enclave that prevented non-white people from moving there with a combination of discriminatory laws, intimidation, and violence. The name stems from signs alerting people of color that they had to leave town limits by sundown. The Ocoee massacre, the case of Trayvon Martin, and Florida’s low-performing schools are linked by the underlying problem of racism.

Educational Survival Complex

Bad educational policies fuel suffering in America’s schools. Among these policies are English-only instruction and No Child Left Behind, which Love argues disproportionately harm students of color. She refers to the American school system as the educational survival complex, which teaches students to survive, not thrive. Racism is endemic in American schools, a system that was built on white male supremacy, writes Love. American schools initially barred women and people of color, including Native American children who were sent to special schools for religious and cultural conversion. Similarly, Black children were placed in segregated schools under “separate but equal” policies, while Asian American students were barred from public schools in certain states.

According to Love, the desegregation that occurred after Brown v. Board of Education (1952-1954) worsened the problem. Before the landmark decision, Black schools were cohesive institutions that took pride in educating Black children, despite having poor facilities. Desegregation led to white flight to the suburbs, leaving inner cities racially and economically isolated. Studies reveal that white flight from urban centers has resulted in de facto segregation in cities across the nation, including New York City, Chicago, Detroit, and St. Louis. This shift in demographics has profoundly impacted schools. In Los Angeles, for example, nearly 30% of Latinx students attend schools where white children comprise 1% or less of the student body. 74% of Black students and 80% of Latinx students nationwide attend predominantly non-white schools (29). American schools are also segregated by class. The state of the country’s schools negatively impacts students of color, who are under-resourced, over-disciplined, and prevented from thriving.

Desegregation also led to massive job losses for Black people in the education sector. Most teachers today are white. These educators are not immune to racism and racial bias. Many are unaware of the history of their white communities and how these communities uphold white supremacy. Most Black students attend high-minority, underfunded schools. They have access to fewer resources, which hampers their social and economic mobility. Charter schools aggravate the problem by taking high-achieving students out of the public school system. Charter schools also fuel gentrification, according to Love, which leads to the displacement of Black Americans from their communities. The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) is the largest network of charter schools in the US. KIPP schools, writes Love, promote aggressive and paternalistic teaching practices. This “no excuses” model feeds the school-to-prison pipeline by punishing Black students more frequently and more harshly than their white peers. The testing and textbook industry similarly profit from Black suffering, claiming to help families but instead leaving them struggling to survive.

Spirit-Murdering

The racism that, according to Love, pervades America’s schools crushes the spirit of Black children. Teachers and staff regularly belittle and abuse Black students, both verbally and physically. Schools rely on law enforcement officers to discipline students for minor offenses, which sometimes leads to arrests. Across the country, Black students are punished for wearing natural hair styles, cutting the lunch line, or refusing to leave the classroom. Educators who are called out for their racism rarely take responsibility for their actions, instead claiming to be misunderstood. Racism has long existed in American schools, but the problem worsened after the 2016 election of President Donald J. Trump, according to Love. She cites many examples to argue that Trump’s presidency emboldened racists and spurred the growth of white nationalism. Videos of students shouting “White power” emerged. Schools were defaced with swastikas and anti-gay slurs, and students were slipped notes telling them to return to Mexico. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a principal locked a five-year-old girl in a closet. In Scottsdale, Arizona, a third-grade teacher suggested killing immigrants rather than deporting them. Racist incidents can physically harm children of color. They are also “spirit-murdering” because they rob children of color of their dignity and humanity.

Life

Students’ experiences at school mirror their experiences in society. The education system should engage with the community and support social justice movements. According to Love, teachers must recognize that schools are not neutral spaces, but rather they are places of white rage, white supremacy, and disempowerment for people of color—like society at large. School reform cannot end unemployment and poverty in diverse communities because the underlying problem is racism.