Puttin’ on ole massa: auto-ethnography, Afro-Pessimism, and imagining in the broadest sense possible in education

ABSTRACT

This article theorises and historically contextualises the racialised experiences of a Black male who has attempted to do racial equity work with white teachers in a suburban Minnesota school district. I use Afro-Pessimism as a theoretical tool and guidepost as I weave the journey to becoming a racial equity teacher and the systemic troubles of succeeding and failing in that kind of work.

KEYWORDS:

• Afro-Pessimism
• Whiteness
• Educational Equity
• Racial Identity Development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The word ‘master’ is a metaphor for both systems and people that structured and anchored by white supremacy. When I evoke the word ‘master’ I am speaking to those systems and those who uphold them.

2. I use Kiswahili specifically here because the ‘Ki’ denotes the language of the Swahili people. Whereas if I were to say in ‘Swahili’ then I would be talking about the actions of the people who are known as Swahili. That would be grossly misleading because that is only a small section of East African peoples. However, the majority of East African people speak the language of Kiswahili.