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What Might Sustain the Activism of This Moment? Dismantling White Supremacy, One Monument at a Time
Author(s) -
PERHAMUS LISA M.,
JOLDERSMA CLARENCE W.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9752.12503
Subject(s) - white supremacy , sociology , racism , ideology , critical race theory , power (physics) , public sphere , critical theory , framing (construction) , social change , gender studies , environmental ethics , aesthetics , media studies , politics , law , political science , philosophy , physics , structural engineering , quantum mechanics , engineering
Defining monuments as “ideological powerhouses,” this article argues that the current dismantling of confederate monuments is a dismantling of white supremacy. More than symbolic destruction of representations, theses “acts of take‐down” are concrete, physically manifested interruptions of systemic racism. Drawing on Black radical feminist theory, Kristen Dotson's philosophic work on epistemologies, and current public media analyses, the article uses an activist‐philosophy frame to discuss how the current context of the Black Lives Matter movement is shaping contemporary societal demands for racial change. It argues that today's confederate monument topplings, which happen in the public square, constitute anti‐racist critical public pedagogies which engage the public(s) in bold interruptions of anti‐Black white supremacy and have a vision for change. Anti‐racist critical public pedagogies (1) critique the inequities proliferated by relationships of power in the public sphere (especially racial inequities); (2) resist and interrupt these inequities through embodied practices; and (3) offer a vision for equitable racial social change. In the confederate monument protests, anti‐racist critical public pedagogies leverage the “collective voice” of protestors as “public power” in public spaces and places to affect sociopolitical change. The article asks, “What might sustain the activism of this historical moment?” and proposes that to sustain social change, three elements need to be present: Racial Honesty; Culture of Praxis; and Radical Imagination and Love. The discussion does not aim to provide a prescriptive analysis but, rather, to engage with readers in a conversation about the kinds of questions that might keep today's activism fueled and visionary.