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ERIC Number: EJ1141551
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 18
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0748-8475
EISSN: N/A
The Ways of White Folks: A Love Letter to the National Education Association
Lyne, Bill
Thought & Action, p29-46 Win 2017
In July 2015, on the recommendation of the NEA Executive Committee and the NEA Board of Directors, the NEA Representative Assembly unanimously passed New Business Item B (NBI B), in which NEA declared itself ready to combat "institutional racism." The organization declared the existence of institutional racism and committed to spend more than $250,000 to combating it through "internal dialogue" and the preparation of plans of action. In this article, Bill Lyne argues that as well-intentioned as it is, NBI B does not recognize race as a tool invented to divide labor and deployed to perpetuate and protect inequality. It feigns toward radicalism with the introduction of the word "institutional," but it ignores U.S. racial history and continues to view racism as a disease in an otherwise healthy body. The big insight of the concept is that the disease has spread from individuals to institutions, and must be eradicated with the medicine of programs, actions, and trainings around clichés of cultural competency, diversity, and social justice. Lyne contends that at NEA Board meetings and conferences, most of this medicine has been delivered by the anti-racist consultants and companies who have emerged to exploit the growing diversity market. The primary job of these usually well-paid consultants is to, shift race from the public sphere to the psyche and make it safe for the prevailing political order.
National Education Association. 1201 16th Street NW Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 202-833-4000; Fax: 202-822-7974; Web site: http://www.nea.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A