"Racism is Taught": On the Cruel Optimism and Crisis Ordinariness of a Catholic School and a Viral Video
Type of Presentation
Individual presentation
Brief Description of Presentation
The study attempts to make sense of a racist viral video for its relation to Berlant's (2011) concepts 'cruel optimism' and 'crisis ordinariness', looking at the history of the school from which the video emerged--the author’s alma mater--and exploring possible answers to the question: “How could a school which seems so committed to racial justice produce such a racist student?” The author argues that the school’s vision of itself as committed to educational and social progress, and its optimistic responses to racial crises, though rooted in a nominal commitment to justice, undermine the difficult work of actually achieving racial progress.
Abstract of Proposal
This study attempts to make sense of a racist viral video (“OU SAE Racist Chant”), which has received more than three million views on YouTube and was widely covered by American and international news outlets, for its curricular and pedagogical implications. Complicating the investigation is the detail that the video’s protagonist—who leads his fraternity in the violent, slur-laden chant—is an alumnus of the author’s alma mater, a Jesuit Catholic high school in Dallas, TX which was the first school to initiate racial integration in the Dallas area and explicitly aspires to instill in its graduates a commitment to social justice. Drawing on Berlant's (2011) concepts cruel optimism and crisis ordinariness, as well as a critical history of school desegregation in Dallas, poststructural theories of race, and the author’s own autoethnographic accounts of racism at the school, the author seeks to answer the question addressed by both the school and media outlets: “How could a school—my school— which seems so committed to racial justice produce such a racist student? In thinking through this question, the author argues that the school’s vision of itself as committed to educational and social progress, and its optimistic responses to racial crises, though rooted in a nominal commitment to justice, undermine the difficult work of actually achieving racial progress. The author concludes, instead that it is impossible to answer the question of if/how racism is being taught without a critical turn backwards into the past and daily practices of the school.
Start Date
3-26-2016 9:50 AM
End Date
3-26-2016 11:20 AM
Recommended Citation
Jarvie, Scott, ""Racism is Taught": On the Cruel Optimism and Crisis Ordinariness of a Catholic School and a Viral Video" (2016). International Critical Media Literacy Conference. 1.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/criticalmedialiteracy/2016/2016/1
"Racism is Taught": On the Cruel Optimism and Crisis Ordinariness of a Catholic School and a Viral Video
This study attempts to make sense of a racist viral video (“OU SAE Racist Chant”), which has received more than three million views on YouTube and was widely covered by American and international news outlets, for its curricular and pedagogical implications. Complicating the investigation is the detail that the video’s protagonist—who leads his fraternity in the violent, slur-laden chant—is an alumnus of the author’s alma mater, a Jesuit Catholic high school in Dallas, TX which was the first school to initiate racial integration in the Dallas area and explicitly aspires to instill in its graduates a commitment to social justice. Drawing on Berlant's (2011) concepts cruel optimism and crisis ordinariness, as well as a critical history of school desegregation in Dallas, poststructural theories of race, and the author’s own autoethnographic accounts of racism at the school, the author seeks to answer the question addressed by both the school and media outlets: “How could a school—my school— which seems so committed to racial justice produce such a racist student? In thinking through this question, the author argues that the school’s vision of itself as committed to educational and social progress, and its optimistic responses to racial crises, though rooted in a nominal commitment to justice, undermine the difficult work of actually achieving racial progress. The author concludes, instead that it is impossible to answer the question of if/how racism is being taught without a critical turn backwards into the past and daily practices of the school.
