"the function, the very serious function of racism, is distraction."
Nora Berenstain opens her paper Epistemic Exploitation with this quote from Toni Morrison. With it she is drawing attention to the very real impact of racism on its targets. Morrison continues: "It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being."
We cannot avoid the reality: if we are to teach students within their space and place, we must understand the role of race and racism within that context and work to overcome it. We must build inclusive learning communities.
This page focuses on two problems which frequently prevent the formation of such a community, as well as three proposed solutions that may provide hope for a brighter future.
We cannot avoid the reality: if we are to teach students within their space and place, we must understand the role of race and racism within that context and work to overcome it. We must build inclusive learning communities.
This page focuses on two problems which frequently prevent the formation of such a community, as well as three proposed solutions that may provide hope for a brighter future.
epistemic oppression
"Certainly, it is much easier to brand Williams a liar and paranoid than it is to face the persistence of racial prejudice in the United States, especially when an epistemic standard, like neutrality, can be used to maintain one’s willful ignorance."
- Kristie Dotson, A Cautionary Tale: On Limiting Epistemic Oppression (2012)
In her paper A Cautionary Tale: On Limiting Epistemic Oppression, Kristie Dotson highlights the impact exlusion from academic knowledge has on individuals and their communities. Dotson is mostly concerned with ensuring that theory is accessible to all perceivers. Not only should all people have access to learning communities, learning communities themselves benefit when all people have access to them. She discusses this in terms of oppression, exclusion, and agency.
The above quote refers to a story told by Patricia Williams in her book The Alchemy of Race and Rights. Williams tells of seeing patrons excluded from a Bennetton's shop for no other identifiable reason other than their race. Dotson compares this event to the system exclusion of individuals from academic discussion because of their race. She terms this epistemic oppression.
To understand what Dotson means by epistemic oppression, we must first understand the concept of epistemic exclusion. Epistemic exclusion is the "infrigement on the epistemic agency of knowers that reduces her or his ability to participate in a given epistemic community." In essence, it is not uncommon for members of historically marginalized communities to be excluded from academia, thereby limiting their ability to contribute to the production of new knowledge.
Epistemic oppression takes this idea a step further. Dotson defines epistemic oppression as "epistemic exclusions afforded positions and communities that produce deficiencies in social knowledge."
So - it is not just that individuals are excluded from academia. Individuals are excluded from academia in a systemic manner based on their race, creed, or color, thereby limiting their community's access to academia.
Dotson continues on to enumerate common forms of epistemic injustice, essentially engaging in a dialogue with the work of Miranda Fricker. Her work continues in a paper entitled "Conceptualizing Epistemic Oppression," which looks further into the systemic ways in which groups of people are excluded from the academic conversation.
The above quote refers to a story told by Patricia Williams in her book The Alchemy of Race and Rights. Williams tells of seeing patrons excluded from a Bennetton's shop for no other identifiable reason other than their race. Dotson compares this event to the system exclusion of individuals from academic discussion because of their race. She terms this epistemic oppression.
To understand what Dotson means by epistemic oppression, we must first understand the concept of epistemic exclusion. Epistemic exclusion is the "infrigement on the epistemic agency of knowers that reduces her or his ability to participate in a given epistemic community." In essence, it is not uncommon for members of historically marginalized communities to be excluded from academia, thereby limiting their ability to contribute to the production of new knowledge.
Epistemic oppression takes this idea a step further. Dotson defines epistemic oppression as "epistemic exclusions afforded positions and communities that produce deficiencies in social knowledge."
So - it is not just that individuals are excluded from academia. Individuals are excluded from academia in a systemic manner based on their race, creed, or color, thereby limiting their community's access to academia.
Dotson continues on to enumerate common forms of epistemic injustice, essentially engaging in a dialogue with the work of Miranda Fricker. Her work continues in a paper entitled "Conceptualizing Epistemic Oppression," which looks further into the systemic ways in which groups of people are excluded from the academic conversation.
epistemic exploitation
"Even generally treating the existence of oppressive systems as up for debate can require those who are oppressed by these systems to do the emotionally exhausting labor of justifying and substantiating their experiences."
-Nora Berenstain, Epistemic Exploitation (2016)
In her paper Epistemic Exploitation, Nora Berenstain builds Dotson's ideas to discuss the ways in which historically marginalized people, already excluded from the larger academic discussion, can simultaneously be taken advantage of. Epistemic exploitation, she posits, “occurs when privileged persons compel marginalized persons to educate them about the nature of their oppression.” Educators and students of color are often expected to do additional unpaid labor teaching white teachers and students how not to be racist. In addition, women and people of color are often expected to hold specific roles at schools based on the assumptions of others.
potential solutions
Adele Norris, a psychology professor and researcher at the University of Waikato, suggested three potential solutions for the problems presented by epistemic oppression and exploitation in a lecture at Victoria University of Wellington.
- White supremacy is not widely theorized. If we are to end its influence on U.S. American society, it needs to be actively studied and productively discussed in academic circles.
- Institutions must be consciously organized to limit epistemic exploitation. At Waikato, the sociology department reflected on its practices, then went through a reorganization to ensure lecturers did not lead courses assigned to them based on externally identified characteristics such as race, gender, and sexuality.
- We should not look at racism as a binary either/or. To be called out for being racist is a difficult thing, but it should not be the end of the world. If someone calls you racist, it is probably because you said or did something racist. It is a call to personal reflection and action. The trick is to learn from the experience instead of resorting to feelings of outrage and despair.
