Academic Profiling: Latinos, Asian Americans, and the Achievement Gap

6 “Breaking the Mind- Set”: Forms of Resistance and Change

C H A P T E R S I X “Breaking the Mind-Set” Forms of Resistance and Change The stereotypes are so rigid here about what Hispanic students can accomplish versus what Asian students can accomplish, and you know the Asian students, even though they’re the ones who perhaps have the more positive stereotypes, they feel just as confined by them as the Hispanic students feel confined by the stereotypes that plague them. —Michelle Mesa, teacher The dominant discourses, institutional structures, and everyday practices detailed in the preceding chapters converge to reproduce the stereotypes that teacher Michelle Mesa critiques. In spite of the power of these stereotypes and the exclusionary practices that accompany them, not all at SCHS are passively accepting others’ dictates. Some students and teachers are engaged in everyday and organizational forms of resistance to the very discourses and practices that shape schooling, relationships, and opportunities. Scholars have written about many forms of students’ resistance. Most have focused on what has been considered “self-defeating resistance,” where students may critique schooling, but they engage in activities such as classroom outbursts or leave school, which does not help students transform their positions in society or alter exclusionary school practices (for a critique of this scholarship, see Solorzano and Delgado Bernal 2001). Rather than focus on these types of activities, I center the everyday perspectives and organizational activities aimed at what high school junior Ashley Cordero refers to as “break[ing] that mind-set, that stereotype type of thing” that is so entrenched at SCHS and in the larger society. These types of resistance are intimately connected to the conditions at the school and students’ varied experiences based on race/ethnicity, class, and 206 “ B R E A K I N G T H E M I N D - S E T ” gender. They include (1) everyday perspectives and actions, such as affirming identities and playing with and defying stereotypes, and (2) creating transformative spaces. While some students adopt perspective and actions that reflect a critical awareness and affirmation of self and community, others carve out politicized and conscious-raising spaces. These two forms of resistance—everyday and organizational—are complementary, overlapping , and convey the importance of considering the multiple and nuanced forms of individual and collective agency. Together, they also reveal students ’ resilience and navigational skills as they make their way through the educational pipeline (see Yosso 2006). While the examples of resistance included in this chapter are aimed at “break[ing] that mind-set,” given how entrenched exclusionary images and practices are, some of these acts occasionally reinforce binaries, divisions , and hierarchies. For example, even when students contest others’ mandates and play with stereotypes, their strategies and justifications are so constrained by the dominant discourse that their articulations may perpetuate exclusionary thinking, oftentimes inadvertently. In other cases, as in the student organization MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán), students and even their supporters encounter additional policing and barriers as they contest dominant stereotypes. Nevertheless, even in these contexts, students continue to persist. Thus the following examples reveal the complexities involved with resisting the discourses, divisions, and disparities at schools such as SCHS. Everyday Forms of Resistance While excluded from traditional conceptions of activism and resistance that focus on visible and public activities such as elections, strikes, and demonstrations, for many marginalized or excluded groups, claiming a sense of self is a form of resistance. As social critic bell hooks (1989) writes, For many exploited and oppressed peoples the struggle to create an identity, to name one’s reality is an act of resistance because the process of domination—whether it be imperialist colonization, racism , or sexism oppression—has stripped us of our identity, devalued language, culture, appearance. (109) At SCHS, where power-evasive discourses, racial/ethnic hierarchies, and an assimilationist imperative prevail, some students are claiming their identities, affirming their backgrounds, and striving to prove people wrong. Within the context of externally imposed categorizations, these techniques of saying who they are, playing with stereotypes, and defying “ B R E A K I N G T H E M I N D - S E T ” 207 typification are all individual acts of resistance. They are grounded in strategies for survival and perseverance. Claiming Identities: Self-Definition Students provide nuanced descriptions of themselves. Their identities are based on multiple and at times intersecting factors, including ancestry, culture...