A Critique of Oppression

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

In preparing for an upcoming summit on politics in the classroom, I am reading an essay published on an online LA Progressive magazine. The algorithms pointed me towards this website presumably for my edification. I don’t always agree with the published essays as the dogma is strong and the slogan words flow like water in a righteous stream. I quickly read the captions and, sometimes, the full essays. Nothing captures me as a rule of thumb and I move on to more interesting essays and articles. One glaring exception has been Paulo Freire’s Legacy and the Necessity of Critical Pedagogy in Dark Times by Henry A. Giroux, (published October 4, 2024). As I read the essay, I felt like Captain Kirk and the Enterprise crew marooned on a parallel starship. The Parallel Universe

The written words of Giroux who lives in a parallel universe energized me this evening. I mean, how often does one catch a glimpse into a mind unburdened by reality? As my mind approached the mind of Giroux, it was like matter and antimatter co-existing. See one of my favorite Star Trek episodes. Star Trek — Two Realities When I used to teach future interests to my first-year law students, I would methodically break down the logic. My common refrain was Take it Phrase by Phrase, Clause by Clause. I can think of no better way to understand my reality and Giroux’s reality than to break it down phrase by phrase, clause by clause.

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“Education is the most powerful weapon…”

No, Mr. Giroux, education is not a weapon. An AK-47 is a weapon. A Glock is a weapon. A shot gun is a weapon. Observe, Mr. Giroux, the use of a weapon.

Where is your mind, Mr. Giroux, to refer to education as a weapon, “the most powerful weapon?”

Education is a covenant between what has been and students of today. Education is how we learn about the world, how to make sense of the world. Education is not a metaphorical shotgun. Within the first six words of a 17-page essay, Giroux perceives the world as a violent place. I have never perceived the classroom as a place of violence where education is weaponized.

I live in a different reality from Mr. Giroux. Not a good first impression, Mr. Giroux but let’s continue. I believe in redemption.

Which You Use to Change the World”

Well, no. Education is not about changing the world. Education begins as an individual act of study, of curiosity, of discipline, of understanding. 7 billion people on the planet earth will never be in the same classroom. Nor will 7 billion people ever subscribe to whatever Mr. Giroux is selling. To paraphrase a young podcaster, let’s be for real y’all.

Success in education is measured one student at a time. There is no global mass hypnosis or mass formation at place. Remember the old song Reach Out and Touch Someone’s Hand. Make the World a Better Place If You Can. Be more modest in your aspirations. No one can change the world. We all can look in the mirror and change ourselves. That’s more concrete and specific, less pie in the sky, Mr. Giroux. Listen to Diana Ross. Better yet, the late Michael Jackson. Man in the Mirror

Look at yourself and make a change, Mr. Giroux, but let’s continue.

Nelson Mandela

Did Nelson Mandela bless your essay, Mr. Giroux? Why cloak your essay with the noble legacy of Mandela? Unless you can offer some quote or attribution from the late Mandela crediting your idea of critical pedagogy, the quotation cite to me is off putting. I feel the whiff of manipulation as you pull at the heart strings of the reader to go along with your essay since you are quoting Mandela. That’s just me.

I am open to evidence that Nelson Mandela offered a full-throated applause of anything penned by Mr. Giroux. I have Chat GPT-4 in my corner. What do you have in your corner, Mr. Giroux?

Paulo Freier, the radical Brazilian educator, would have turned 103 on September 19, 2024.

I don’t like radicals but that is just me. Radical thoughts imprison us. Because of radical thoughts about a radical utopia, too many Black Americans are hypersensitive to the slightest slight and blind to in your face opportunity. I have had my fill of radicals. The mere mention of the name Paulo Freier is a thumbs down for me. Like I said in beginning this essay, Mr. Giroux and I live in different realities.

Freire was not merely an academic

Was Freire really an academic? From what I have read of his major work, Pedagogy of the Oppression, Freire seemed on fire with activism. I am not impressed with his “foundational text.” Let’s face it — the man lived for activism, blunt force and compliance to usher in the revolution. There is a time, and a place, for everything. The classroom is not the place for training revolutionary activists.

Do that on your own time.

He was a revolutionary.

On this point, Mr. Giroux and I agree. Freire was a revolutionary. I believe Black Americans need more pietas in their families and less revolution. Another phrase, another clause I find jettisoned from Giroux’s parallel universe. Is Mr. Giroux a black man? Just curious as he seemed quite convinced that he knows what is best for black people? Assuming Mr. Giroux is not a Black American and does not have the lived experience of a Black American, what might explain Giroux’s missionary zeal about Critical Pedagogy?

I think I have an answer.

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A Fierce Champion of the Oppressed

If one peers behind the curtain of these noble slogan words, one finds a mind that perceives Black Americans as Oppression. Over 40 million Americans are wiped clean of their individual humanity, their individual family histories, their individual life stories, their individual sagas. Of course, it makes no sense but dogma doesn’t require sense making, just compliance.

I will not recount the intimate and honest case I have made for no oppression today in my family. If over 500 essays have not convinced you, then we should just part ways. The reality of no oppression versus the reality of Blackness is Oppression. Nothing Else Matters cannot co-exist for long. Something must give.

Mr. Giroux has not lived one second as a Black American. I can log down over 60 years. Zero seconds versus 60 years of life — who might be more credible on the question of Blackness as Eternal Unyielding Oppression?

Nonetheless, Mr. Giroux from his perch in Canada deigns to write an essay about the compelling need for Critical Pedagogy (Blackness is Oppression) in the classroom today during these Dark Times. I counted twelve uses of the word Oppression in Mr. Giroux’s 17-page essay. Repeating slogan words is the sign of a stunted intellect, Mr. Giroux.

Is my essay feisty this evening? Why, yes it is, and for good reason.

Mr. Giroux is incapable to seeing me, or my family. He could not conceive of my reality as it would destroy his reality. Kind of like matter meeting anti-matter. I do not like it when intellectuals with big platforms cause black Americans to feel less than. Who wants to be affiliated with a loser racial group? Not me, that’s for sure. For me, Blackness has always been about enterprise, ambition, high aim, industry and pietas.

I am not oppressed. That is my reality.

And as for Mr. Giroux, put down the abstractions and theories. Are you writing from a distance? I come home every night to a Black American wife. Do you come home every night to a Black American wife? I grew up in an all-black neighborhood. Did you grow up in an all-black neighborhood, Mr. Giroux? I grew up in the black church of my ancestors. Did you grow up in the black church of your ancestors, Mr. Giroux? My Dad would take me to Jackson Ward in downtown Richmond where Dad banked at a black bank. Did your Dad take you downtown where your Dad banked at a black bank? My family has been buried by black funeral homes for generations. Has your family been buried by black funeral homes for generations? I became black by reading Black Enterprise Magazine in the 1970s. Have you ever opened a page of Black Enterprise Magazine? How about Ebony Magazine? Jet Magazine?

Conclusion: If the answer is “no” to the above questions, why should any Black American trust you as an outsider on the issue of Critical Pedagogy? I knew Dark Times of Jim Crow segregation in the South. Did you?