3.4: Reflections from the Authors - Susan Rahman
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- Susan Rahman, Prateek Sunder, and Dahmitra Jackson
- CC ECHO
As they say, the personal is political. This statement evokes in me the fact that my mere existence and what I do on this planet is a political statement. In some ways that is a lot of pressure but in others, it's a call to action. As a first generation Palestinian woman, my existence has been about resistance. Resistance to patriarchy, resistance to false narratives about my homeland, resistance to white supremacy, all the while knowing that the path of least resistance would have made things alot smoother. And I admit, sometimes I took that path,blended in, and participated in maintaining the status quo, all the while knowing I was complicit in something that felt wrong. As I matured, became more rooted in my social justice agenda,and was privileged to earn more occupational security, I began to feel obligated to make racial justice front and center in my teaching, activism and scholarship.
This book is a lifetime of thoughts and ideas generated by the authors and other anti-racist scholars who have been screaming from the rooftops that their existence must be seen, and that the disciplines they have developed an expertise in and a love for, need to show up for them. Scholars like the late great bell hooks taught me that it is ok to both be critical of and care for something, that’s the human condition, and it’s complicated.
When deciding to work on this reader, a lot was going through my mind. I love being an educator, I love working with students, and I feel compelled to create a space where students can critique culture and push for change. I am fortunate that Sociology affords me the latitude to talk about issues surrounding structural racism, and that students have the chance to share their lived experiences with me about being othered by faculty. I wrongly imagined that since I am having these types of conversations, others across disciplines were as well. It turns out that it is not the norm to do so and that both faculty and the resources they employ often fail to address the effect of structural racism on their fields, or acknowledge what students of color are experiencing.
The discovery of Open Educational Resources (OERs) for me began as a financial equity measure. The idea that we could eliminate a financial barrier for our students was something I really felt drawn to. So I began my Open journey. Attending conferences, writing grants, trying to build a community of faculty that believed in this and wanted to build the availability of classes using open content. As I dug deeper, I saw various other reasons for why OERs could solve other equity issues present in higher education. The dynamism of the content, and the overall philosophy of OER eliminated some of the issues I found with many traditional publications. The lack of diversity in traditional authorship was one barrier I saw for students connecting with content. Let’s face it, when most texts are written from the white male perspective, it leaves a lot of others out of the creation of knowledge. I see the potential of OERs to add others to the conversation as a huge benefit. As discussed throughout this book,this shift in voice is a powerful tool in diversifying academic fields.
I want to share my experiences with you here, because when I began this project I failed to consider pushback. Sometimes my Northern California higher education bubble prevents me from realizing what is at stake to some people, who may not feel like there is any benefit of diversifying fields or speaking truth to power. I realized early on that my identity has an impact on every project I work on, rather than the simple merit of that project and that in and of itself is a gate that needs not be kept.
As a part of this book project, I began inviting peer editors. I selected 8 colleagues at my institution to begin with and asked them if they would be willing to read their discipline’s section for accuracy. I explained that these sections were drafts written by myself and students, and none of us were experts in the fields so please fact check us and help us get it right. I sent off the email and within 5 minutes I got a response from one faculty very eager to help. I sent the section to them explaining the project. Again within minutes a pretty unkind email was sent back to me unclear about the purpose of the book or the expanding so much about the Black scholars discussed in the sections sent. The faculty member asked not to be associated with the publication. I explained the purpose of the book again and assured this faculty that they would not be associated with the book. This faculty then sent an email to a selected portion of the faculty in the original email I sent out. Below is the email edited to leave out identifying details:
I read what has been sent to me by Susan about and I found it lacking a lot of fundamentals and knowledge of the fields, but also very limited in providing a comprehensive picture of how anti-racism efforts have grown to overcome past wrongdoings.
I would be more than happy to chat with any of you on this because I do not see any value in such work as has been presented to me.
I provided references, comments and critics on the 2-pages.But maybe is me [sic]....or maybe is my[sic] grading...
There was no editorial critique included, which was what I was seeking in the first place. Rather than help produce content that would be a good addition to their field, they chose to attack the project and me. As stated above, the personal is political. Aside from having my work summarily discounted as not worthy of this faculty member's attention, I have been called audacious for wanting to take on projects that some felt were above my pay grade. This is not the first time I’ve been dismissed or minimized because of who I am by men in higher education who think they know more than me. It left me wondering, how many stories like this have prevented important research from being done? The end result for me is that I continue to do the work I feel must be done, in order to see a better future in higher education for the many who continue to be marginalized by the status quo. My audacity and desire to be outside of the lane given to me has allowed me the fortitude to apply for and receive multiple grants and ultimately fund this project. So for all of us who have felt left out, audacious or not,we are not staying in our lane.