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Literary Justice in the Post-Ferguson Classroom

2017; Oxford University Press; Volume: 42; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/melus/mlx058

1946-3170

Mary I. Unger,

Latin American and Latino Studies

The fall of 2015 saw a sharp rise in student activism across the country in response to state violence against black bodies and systemic racism in higher education.Student protests at the University of Missouri ignited a wave of marches, sit-ins, and other acts at colleges and universities across the nation. 1 Even at my own small, predominantly white institution, students, staff, and faculty held a "Die-In," launched an "It Happens Here" campaign to promote awareness of racial hostility on campus, and hosted a social justice retreat.These efforts and similar ones at institutions all over the country have not only put pressure on administrators to change structures of learning that reinforce white supremacy but also have served as an outlet for a powerful range of emotions-outrage, despair, and sorrow-that students feel when education complies with institutionalized racism, homophobia, and other forms of physical and representational violence.In alliance with efforts that originated outside the academy, such as Black Lives Matter and Say Her Name, student movements such as Concerned Student 1950 have sought to give voice to those emotions while demanding forms of justice continually denied in courtrooms from Ferguson to Cleveland, Waller County, and Baltimore. 2 In this moment of increasing student outrage over legal injustices, what kind of justice can the classroom offer?A rich archive of articles, blogs, websites, and initiatives already exists, advising educators on how to address recent events in school curricula at all levels.Marcia Chatelain's #FergusonSyllabus Twitter campaign is an indispensable resource, as is Frank Leon Roberts's Black Lives Matter online syllabus project.Other posts and stories by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR also directly engage the ethics of the post-Ferguson classroom.The release of Beyonce ´'s video album, Lemonade, in the spring of 2016 quickly inspired more projects in the name of social justice education, such as Candice Benbow's Lemonade Syllabus and Kinitra D.