‘Losing an Arm’: Schooling as a Site of Black Suffering

Item

Title

‘Losing an Arm’: Schooling as a Site of Black Suffering

Abstract/Description

Drawing on data from a historical-ethnographic study of the cultural politics of school desegregation in Seattle, USA, the author explores suffering as a recurring theme in the narratives of four black leaders, educators and activists involved in the struggle for black educational opportunity in that city during the post-Civil Rights Era. As these black subjects reflect on the historical trajectory of racial desegregation policies and practices, they offer us a unique view of the confluence of racial melancholia, a heavy, deeply-felt awareness of the history and persistence of racial disregard and subjugation, and school malaise, a form of what Pierre Bourdieu has called la petite misère, or ordinary suffering. The author’s analysis of these narratives highlights how these school and community leaders reflect on the meaning of black suffering in schools, what they understand as the source of that suffering, and how they imagine that suffering might be alleviated. The article concludes with recommendations for research at the nexus of race, education and social suffering.

Author/creator

Dumas, Michael J.

Date

2014

In publication

Race Ethnicity and Education

Volume

17

Issue

1

Pages

1-29

Resource type

en Background/Context

Medium

en Print

Background/context type

en Conceptual

Keywords

Black education

cultural politics of education

school desegregation

Open access/free-text available

en No

Peer reviewed

en Yes

ISSN

1361-3324

DOI

10.1080/13613324.2013.850412

URL

Official Publisher's Webpage (Taylor & Francis)

Citation

Dumas, M. J. (2014). ‘Losing an Arm’: Schooling as a Site of Black Suffering. Race Ethnicity and Education, 17(1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2013.850412

Cited in

The Work of Improvement

Item sets

Handbook Chapter 2 Citations

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