It is impossible to affirm BIPOC language practices within a white supremacist society. Conservatives condemn racialized language practices in overtly racist ways. Liberals claim to affirm racialized language practices but when push comes to shove don't really mean it.
Liberals say that racialized language practices are valid at home but not at school. When they receive pushback about how this stance reifies white supremacy they argue that they are preparing students for the real world. Here is the thing. The real world is white supremacist.
Hence my original claim. It is impossible to affirm the language practices of BIPOC students within a white supremacist society. There is nothing affirming in preparing these students to accommodate white supremacy.
It is not empowering to teach BIPOC the codes of power. We can debate whether this work is necessary from a practical standpoint but it is not empowering to build bridges to white supremacy. This work is, by definition, a racist endeavor.
If we want to truly affirm the language practices of BIPOC what we need is a fundamental transformation of school and society.
It is impossible to do so in a white supremacist society.
That's not to say that pedagogy doesn't matter and that the work of critical pedagogues is not important. It is just to say that the root of the problem is structural and that these structures constrain what is pedagogically possible.
This shifts the conversation from what we can do tomorrow (certainly an important to prioritize in education) to what we can do to lay the foundation for structural change that may not be enacted in our life time (an equally important conversation that often gets overlooked).
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