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The Epistemology of Racism and Community-Based THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF RACISM AND COMMUNITY-BASED ASSESSMENT PRACTICE By ASAO B. INOUE A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Department of English May 2005 © Copyright by ASAO B. INOUE, 2005 All Rights Reserved © Copyright by ASAO B. INOUE, 2005 All Rights Reserved To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of ASAO B. INOUE find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. ___________________________________ Chair ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Victor Villanueva, Dr. Rory Ong, and Dr. William Condon for their careful reading of earlier drafts of this dissertation. Additionally, I appreciate Dr. Peter Elbow’s gracious help and copious suggestions on an earlier version of chapter five, a version of which appeared in the journal Assessing Writing 10.1 (2005). Most of all, I thank kelly Inoue for supporting me, keeping my life in order, and making it possible for me to do the work required for this dissertation. iii iv THE EPISTEMOLGY OF RACISM AND COMMUNITY-BASED ASSESSMENT PRACTICE Abstract by Asao B. Inoue, Ph.D. Washington State University May 2005 Chair: Victor Villanueva, Jr. This is a discussion that theorizes the epistemology of racism and incorporates it into a critical writing pedagogy. It uses primarily a critical sophistic pedagogy, a set of community- based assessment practices, and a rhetoric of hard agreements, all theorized. This discussion draws primarily from three areas: (1) sophistic rhetorical and pedagogical theory, primarily discussions around nomos-physis, Protagoras’ man-measure doctrine and his antilogical heuristics for rhetorical invention; (2) cultural theory and theories surrounding the ideological and rhetorical construction of race, class, and power; and (3) composition theory, primarily assessment theory and critical pedagogical theory. The epistemology of racism attempts to reveal the consubstantial, social matrix that forms hegemony (like epistemology of whiteness) and personhood by connecting habitus (dispositions acquired historically through one’s life experiences engrained in the body), common sense (discourse and logics circulating in societal networks), and institutions (ministering structures that validate authority and agency to people, ideas, logics, and knowledge). This interconnection offers a set of concepts that aid in addressing race in the classroom by discussing racism as structural and epistemologically constructed in discourse and material practices. It shows how assessment can be a powerful way to critically interrogate knowledge in the classroom if reflection is used to help students theorize their practices.Sophistic antecedents of antilogic and Protagoras’ “measuring” are translated to contemporary v understandings of writing assessment, so that a community-based assessment pedagogy is promoted, one that incorporates writing for peers, focused peer assessment practices, class- constructed rubrics, a portfolio system, and public reflection that allows students to theorize their own practices in order to make these practices more critical, forming critical praxis. Finally, a rhetoric of hard agreements, one not based on notions of “consensus” but on conflict through discussions of epistemology and hermeneutics that are informed by the epistemology of racism, is defined. This rhetoric attempts to address some of the important objections and concerns that many may have about community-based assessment practice, the encouragement of conflict in the classroom (particularly surrounding race and the epistemology of whiteness), and the call for critical resolutions by students around race, writing, and assessment. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................................................................... VII LIST OF FIGURES......................................................................................................................................................X AN INTRODUCTION: ENLIGHTENMENT CATEGORIZATION AND RHETORICS OF RACISM....................1 A RECENT JOB INTERVIEW ........................................................................................................................................1 ARISTOTELIAN CLASSIFICATION AND TELEOLOGICAL METHOD................................................................................6 ENLIGHTENMENT DISCOURSES OF SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION..............................................................................11 THE ART OF RHETORIC AND THE ORDERING OF SOCIETY AND THE MIND ...............................................................28 WHATELY’S INFLUENCE ON CONTEMPORARY CLASSROOM RHETORICS .................................................................31 RHETORIC AND THE CONTEMPORARY CLASSROOM.................................................................................................44 CHAPTER 1: THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF RACISM ................................................................................................53 STRUCTURAL RACISM AND WHITENESS ..................................................................................................................60 HABITUS IN THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF RACISM............................................................................................................69 COMMON SENSE IN THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF RACISM ...............................................................................................79 STRUCTURAL RACISM AND HEGEMONY ..................................................................................................................91 CRITICAL PERSONHOOD ..........................................................................................................................................98 THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF RACISM AS PEDAGOGICAL IMPERATIVE...........................................................................108 CHAPTER 2: AN APPLICATION OF THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF INSTITUTIONAL RACISM .......................112 MCDONALD’S “I AM ASIAN” WEBSITE..................................................................................................................113 THE HOMEPAGE.....................................................................................................................................................117 THE “GREAT TO BE A PART OF MCDONALD’S” PAGE...........................................................................................127 PUSHING FOR PERSONAL AND SOCIAL IMPLICATION.............................................................................................133 CHAPTER 3: CRITICAL SOPHISTIC PEDAGOGY..............................................................................................138 vii NOMOS-PHYSIS, ANTILOGIC, AND DIALECTIC ........................................................................................................140 MAN-MEASURE AND THE TEACHABILITY OF ARÊTE ..............................................................................................159 CRITICAL SOPHISTIC PEDAGOGY AS A PEDAGOGY OF ASSESSMENT.....................................................................168 CHAPTER 4: COMMUNITY-BASED ASSESSMENT ..........................................................................................172 INSTITUTIONAL PRESSURE FOR GRADES................................................................................................................176 THE COURSE’S BASIC FRAMEWORK ......................................................................................................................180 THE RUBRIC AND ITS PROCESS..............................................................................................................................183 COMMUNITY-BASED ASSESSMENT PRACTICES .....................................................................................................194 ASSESSMENT AS “INSTRUCTIVE” PRAXIS ..............................................................................................................214 CHAPTER 5: A RHETORIC OF HARD AGREEMENTS ......................................................................................224 COLLABORATION AND NORMATIVE DISCOURSE....................................................................................................230 DIFFERENCE AND CONFLICT AS SOCIAL-EPISTEMIC ..............................................................................................247 CRITICAL HERMENEUTICS AS AN UNDERSTANDING OF RELATIVISM .....................................................................255 CRITICAL AGREEMENT AND RESOLUTION .............................................................................................................267 THE “HARD” IN A RHETORIC OF HARD AGREEMENTS...........................................................................................273 CHAPTER 6: THE DANGER OF UNCRITICAL WHITENESS IN THE CLASSROOM.....................................277 PHILOSOPHICAL RELATIVISM ................................................................................................................................280 RELATIVISM’S REJECTION OF TRUTH IN HUMAN EXPERIENCE ..............................................................................290 FAITH IN A WHITE-WASHED TRUTH......................................................................................................................304
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