History, Social Justice Activism, Higher Education: 4 Articles I’ve Been Reading This Week

From The Atlantic: History Class and The Fictions About Race In America

“History classes often mislead kids with Eurocentric interpretations of the actors and events.

Currently, most students learn history as a set narrative—a process that reinforces the mistaken idea that the past can be synthesized into a single, standardized chronicle of several hundred pages. This teaching pretends that there is a uniform collective story, which is akin to saying everyone remembers events the same…. And rather than vainly seeking to transcend the inevitable clash of memories, American students would be better served by descending into the bog of conflict and learning the many “histories” that compose the American national story.”

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From The Conditionally Accepted Blog at Inside Higher Ed: Sick And Tired of Being Sick And Tired: How Faculty of Color Can Achieve A Good Work-Life Balance

“In higher education institutions, faculty of color are professionally and mentally stretched. Dwayne A. Mack provides practical strategies to achieve a better work-life balance and avoid burnout.”

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From Everyday Feminism: 3 Reasons It’s Irrational to Demand “Rationalism” In Social Justice Activism

“In the context of anti-oppression work, limiting ourselves to rational thinking means that we’re choosing to use the tools of our oppressors, which are usually tools made to hurt us.

Rationalism means we’re working within the framework of a system that was built to harm us in the first place.”

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From The Tattooed Professor: PC Culture Isn’t Killing Higher Ed (But Your Crappy Op-Eds Might Be)

“To see students calling out power inequalities and inequitable behaviors is not some sort of failure, but a triumph of critical thinking and intellectual agency.”

Ubuntu,

From Aspiring Humanitarian, Relando Thompkins-Jones, MSW, LLMSW

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