Facing Racism in Education.

Abstract

Facing Racism Education (2nd Edition), edited by Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant and D. Smith Augustine. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Review, 1996. 407 pp. $21.95, paper. Reviewed by John M. Taborn, University of Minnesota. In their introduction to the second edition of Facing Racism Education, the editors' simple but poignant statement, Talking about racism is never easy, is a segue to understanding the purposes of the publication. First, the editors' goal was to continue the dialogue about racism that was generated by the first edition; thus, 8 of the second edition's 16 articles are repeated from that earlier work. inclusion of 8 new articles and the organization of this most recent edition were influenced by Beauboeuf-Lafontant and Augustine's assessment of the nation's current orientation to the subject of racism. Whereas the first edition, published 1990, sought to kindle a dialogue to counter a pervasive national silence about this subject, the second edition seeks to counter the recent change this orientation from silence to outright of racism's existence. Part one, The Experience of Racism, contains articles authored by African American, American Indian, and Chicano contributors, all of whom discuss the stresses associated with being subjected to an educational agenda that has as its goal the assimilation of minority students into a European American cultural definition of success. American Indian experience is presented two complementary articles. first, by Carol Locust, introduces readers to 10 basic American Indian religious beliefs and demonstrates how these beliefs conflict with common U.S. educational practices. Locust's conclusion that the continual experiencing of such conflicts wounds the spirit and adversely impacts the educational success of American Indian students is supported by an informative article by Donna Deyhles. In that article, Deyhles shares her findings from participant-observer research conducted during a decade of living on a Navajo reservation. While the above-mentioned works emphasize the negative effects of American schooling on American Indian students, the four other articles this section (by Jacquelyn Mitchell, Maria de la Luz Reyes and John Halcon, Beverly McElroy-Johnson, and Lisa Delpit) focus on the experiences and problems of African American and Chicano professional educators. Each relates these educators' struggles to cope with the conflict between the external pressures to conform to European American standards and their own internal commitment to presenting their groups' cultural perspectives as they conduct research, publish, teach, and establish collegial respect. Notably, Mitchell describes her experiences as an African American social science researcher as functioning a state of double marginality. This is followed by Reyes and Halcon's article, which the Chicano faculty experience of racism is depicted as functioning a climate of academic colonialism. However, this section's coverage of its topic is somewhat limited, partly due to space limitations and partly to the acknowledged lack of relevant published information concerning Asian Americans and racism. section would have benefitted as well from an prefacing discussion of the meaning of racism to assist those readers who are in denial about it to label that which they are denying. In the absence of such a discourse, readers are left with the task of developing their own personal conceptualizations of racism, the results of which might, some instances, limit the intended impact of these excellent articles and lead to their being misconstrued as related more to culture than to race. Part two, The Dimensions of Racism, focuses on the often-hidden and disclaimed political nature of education, which has as its goal the maintenance and continuity of dominant group privilege. Thus, by implication, if minorities want to become successful students, they must reject their own cultures and assimilate the normative behavior and values of the dominant culture. …