They Schools: Educational Narratives, Resistance, and the Perpetual Distance Separating Equity from Equality
They Schools: Educational Narratives, Resistance, and the Perpetual Distance Separating Equity from Equality
by Wilfredo Gomez | @BazookaGomez84 | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
“American is woven of many strands...our fate is to become one, yet many.” These were the words spoken by Princeton President Chris Eisgruber in the recent keynote conversation had with Aspen Institute President and CEO, Dan Porterfield. In invoking that which was constructed as both haunting and beautiful, Eisgruber spoke to an audience convened on behalf of advocating, advancing, and sharing the experiences of first-generation, low-income students at some of our nation’s most selective institutions of higher education.
The words taken from Ralph Ellison’s seminal read Invisible Man were poignant and powerfully recited towards the end of the discussion, a clarion call to those present (both in person and via livestream) that a commitment to excellence, and educational excellence more specifically, rests at the nexus of the personal and political, where collaboration exceeds the boundaries of educational institutions, and political ideologies, to imagine a utopian space of learning, cross-cultural cultural exchange, and rigorous dialogue; this is a site where unity and diversity become by-products of policies, practices, programs, initiatives, habits, and cultures that seek to transform institutions and shift conversations from equity to a focus on the nuances of equality. In keeping with one of the central themes of the conferences convened (at Princeton University) from Feb 15-19, this was to usher in not solely a moment, but a movement, an entrenched commitment on the part of administrators, students, and collaborators to gather as one, with the sole purpose of exacting the future they awaited -- collective efforts to envision and enact -- A Hope in the Unseen to echo the educational narrative told by Ron Suskind.
While a phenomenal dialogue filled with many gems, that invocation of Ellison’s work was equal parts eerie and rather necessary, for in the haunting and beauty of Ellison’s prose, the specter of Ellison’s democratic imaginings was very much present -- a haunting of collective pasts and actions we have yet to reckon with. Thus, in thinking about our character, Invisible Man, our omniscient and nameless narrator (protagonist), there is an established reference point for thinking through the experiences of being othered in society, and what the implications might be, when those others enter institutions that were not built for them.
At one end of the spectrum, the marker of invisibility is a best case scenario. At worst, it is the feeling and internalized nature of feeling abject -- addressing questions of institutional access without recognition or awareness of intersectionality, inclusion, or the set of experiences that make each and every student truly unique. A counter to such an argument exists as selling points that speak to the quality of life present on college campuses throughout the CONTINUE READING: They Schools: Educational Narratives, Resistance, and the Perpetual Distance Separating Equity from Equality | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
