Bringing Digital Discourses to Classrooms:
Why and How Schools Need to Support Marginalized Students
“We are constantly told to back away from our computers and do real work and form real community, but if you can’t respect us digitally what would make us feel safe enough to engage you in person?” Shaadi Devereaux asked in her piece in The New Inquiry. While I am not a twitter user nor a marginalized woman, I drew connections between Devereaux’s statement and so much of the online discourse I experienced on social media before coming to Brandeis. In her piece, “Why These Tweets Are Called My Back” Devereaux describes how marginalized women use twitter as a means of “yelling into the void”. Similarly, I found that marginalized high school students often engage in discourses (which often turn to fights) on social media regarding race, gender, sexuality and class but lacked response from our community at school. Through interviews with a collection of twenty recent graduates, current students and educators at my high school, I learned that many crave these conversations in a school setting in order to feel safer and more equal. I must make clear that while some students are marginalized because of race or sexuality, the group of students I am looking at specifically obtains a considerable amount of power and privilege as they attend/ed a private school in New York City.
SHOCKER: of all the people I interviewed, I found that only those who identify as white, heterosexual males feel that they have a positive, constructive and safe space to have discussions about race, sexuality, gender, and class at school. One white, heterosexual male student added, “if you can’t say what you would say on Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat [in person], then don’t say it at all.” It is clear that his opinion comes from a place of white male privilege. By declaring that online space is is equal to the non-virtual world he did not understand nor empathize with those whose voices are silenced and are marginalized by the institutions which perpetuate his privilege. Another student of similar background commented, “I often feel that my input would be inappropriate” while this student understands their privilege he lacks the understanding of how to be an ally to his peers. Many expressed that they did not feel like school made an effort to make a safe space. They explained when instances occurred the school did not do enough to facilitate an opportunity for discussion and learning. Another student who identifies as a biracial, heterosexual female disclosed an example, “there was a huge thread about the use of the n-word recently on Facebook and [the school] was informed about it and all that they did was make a brief announcement.” Another student who identifies as a black, heterosexual female also touched on this instance, “A meeting was made for the student body to talk about the heaviness of this word, but the meeting was optional. I felt like that wasn’t a space for conversation because the people who come to optional meetings aren’t the ones who needed to be there”.
The drawbacks of online discussion of topics such as race, gender, sexuality and class by high school students include harassment, coopting, and lack of progress. Many students felt as if people “ganged up on one another”. In addition, when partaking in online discussion students are not pushed in to “reflect” after commenting expressed another white, heterosexual female student. Another student who identifies as a female, heterosexual student of color explained, “Yes, I have participated in online conversation but my participation has lessened because I don’t feel like my voice on social media makes a ton of change.” While almost all students agreed that they thought online conversations were beneficial, many felt that they did not do enough to change the community. This puts the demand on schools to create a safer space for students who want to talk about issues but need the guidance, space and understanding to do so.
It is up to schools to broaden Eurocentric curriculums, create networks of support for students and faculty as well as to teach the meaning and importance of allyship in order to create a space that allows people to move discourse out of a virtual setting. As one student who identifies as a heterosexual, female of color stated to me, “the role of a teacher is to teach and even the most ‘woke’, educated student could still learn a thing or to. Not to mention, with a teacher acting as a mediator, conversations may be less likely to become ignorant and angry”. This of course is true as long as the teacher is prepared and educated enough to be the mediator. She concluded with, “[a school’s] job is to educate they should do so in every way possible”.
Christian, Barbara, “Diminishing Returns: Can Black Feminism(s) Survive the Academy?”. In New Black Feminist Criticism,204–215. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1994.
Devereaux, Shaadi. ““Why These Tweets Are Called My Back.” The New Inquiry. December 19,2014. Accessed April 12, 2016. http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/why-these-tweets-are-called-my-back/.
James, Carrie. ““Morality, Ethics and Digital Life,” in Disconnected: Youth, New Media, and the Ethics Gap, 1–22. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2014.
McGough, Beth L. and Danielle Salomon, “Engaging Students Through Social Media,” in Too Much is Not Enough: Charleston Conference Proceedings, 283–286.West Lafayette, Purdue University Press, 2014.
