Losing an arm article review
The reading from the article “Losing an arm’: schooling as a site of black suffering” by Michael J. Dumas was very educative. The purpose of this article is to explore the recurring theme of suffering that the four black activists, educators, as well as leaders went through during their struggle for black people to get the educational opportunity. This reading equipped me with a comprehensive understanding of social suffering. I realized that the theme of suffering is purposefully meant for understanding ways through which people experience cultural and social forces acting against them. Moreover, it explores how that undergoing pain maintains their humanity despite increased suffering. Suffering entails gender-based subjugation, genocides, as well as abject poverty.
Often, today’s suffering goes undocumented since it does not appear apparent. I realized that today’s pain is rendered meaningless because attention tends to shift to the most tragic events as well as social trauma. For instance, the article suggests that the racial microaggressions narratives that existed in white desegregating schools are at the blink of being dismissed. Particularly, when compared to grand white snarling aggression towards black school children at Boston and Little Rock. The concept of petite and grande misère raised a lot of questions in class concerning the suffering to be considered. I think that both sufferings need to be addressed with the weight that it deserves. Minor afflictions should not be excluded for whatsoever reasons. This is because pain poses psychological torture to individuals undergoing suffering.
I feel that the ideas presented in the reading are educative. I think the author has highlighted the ills
That affected the black people in predominately white society. This reading gives an in-depth understanding of petite and grande misère, which relates to my school experience. Sometimes back, a student from minority groups are discriminated against by white students, but this tends to go unnoticed and unaddressed since it is considered as petite suffering.
References
Michael J. Dumas (2014) ‘Losing an arm’: schooling as a site of black suffering, Race Ethnicity and Education, 17:1, 1-29, DOI: 10.1080/13613324.2013.850412