Acceptance and the Culture of Power
2. One student asked, “Why do we have to discuss teaching minority children the language of power? Why not just teach everyone acceptance?” Respond.
This question targets the wrong people; teaching everyone acceptance is indirect, and does nothing to address why power is unfairly distributed in the first place. Delpit understands that the power status quo will remain intact, and that it isn’t going anywhere. However, she encourages minority students to learn the “power game,” because if they “act as if power does not exist [it will] ensure that the power status quo remains the same” (496). If minority students acknowledge the culture of power, but learn how to operate within it, they can elicit change. So, yes, the idea is to teach everyone acceptance, but until the power base of society has a “diversity of style,” brought on by minority viewpoints, this will not happen. Ultimately, I think Delpit’s envisions a society in which a culturally heterogeneous power base makes acceptance the norm.
posted by Zac @ 7:53 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
This is a very interesting response--you sum Delpit's ideas up so eloquently, I feel like I have nothing to add. I think it's interesting how Delpit believes that minority students not only need to be aware of the system, but they need to be able to use it in order to change things from the top down.
"This question targets the wrong people; teaching everyone acceptance is indirect, and does nothing to address why power is unfairly distributed in the first place."
Agreed. Teaching people "acceptance" is impossible when they don't know what that actually entails. The indirect approach is useless in this case.
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