James Baldwin’s essay, “A Talk to Teachers” (1963), encourages teachers to consider America’s structural racism and how it affects both white and Black people. Believing inaccuracies about their superiority, American society advocates complacency over change (679). Therefore, education must be disruptive and educate both white and Black students of America’s history – a purposefully oppressive history that upholds white hegemony. In doing so, the stage will be set for effective conversations about racism and for dispelling American grandiosity (684-685). Further, systemic oppression is a mental health issue, as marginalized people must forcibly “accept it with an absolutely inarticulate and dangerous rage inside–all the more dangerous because it is never expressed” (681). As a contemplative pedagogue, I would be doing my students a disservice if I did not consider their mental health and did not challenge white hegemony.
Undoubtedly, not all wounds are visible. As a contemplative pedagogue, I must consciously consider these wounds’ existence – especially for those targeted by systemic oppression, for those who “know instinctively–that none of this is for [them]” (Baldwin 680). This is not to imply marginalized people require saving, or are broken and must be fixed, but serves as a reminder that some policies are purposefully exploitive (682) – issues white Americans do not experience. Addressing these policies as oppressive weapons, along with their detrimental mental consequences, in the classroom not only validates experiences and feelings but disrupts a system that would otherwise perpetuate an obedient society (679).
Further, disrupting white hegemony involves telling the truth. In a courtroom, the adage asks if the witness will tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So too must teachers tell the whole truth. As Baldwin points out, many Americans live under the delusion America was “founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free” (684); as if rugged individuals came to North America and raised a society from the mud. Nothing could be further from the truth, and canons of Black and Native-American literature serve as a testament. These voices, unfortunately, are primarily treated as elective classes. The American literary canon is overwhelmingly white, implying all other experiences are secondary. Therefore, breaking this hegemony requires lessoning the white literature focus – as white literature cannot possibly encompass the struggles Black and other students of color face.
Ultimately, the classroom is a battleground for the fight against oppression. Education should not serve as a medium for a comfortable, careful existence. Education illuminates oppressive darkness. Moreover, education must exist holistically – examining the mental health issues that surround oppression and its manifestations. Mindfulness implores regarding our students as whole human beings, neither requiring fixing nor saving. What our students require, however, is the whole truth and nothing but the truth – especially if it disrupts a hegemonic status quo.
Works Cited
Baldwin, James. A Talk to Teachers. The Library of America, 1998, pp. 679-86. Collected Essays.
Kevin P. Coogan 