RACE IS A VERB: AN EFFECTIVE HISTORY OF YOUNG ADULTS SUBJECTED TO RACIAL VIOLENCE By VIOLET. R. JOHNSON JONES (Under the Direction of: Elizabeth Adams St. Pierre, PhD.) Abstract: This study uses poststructuralism, Michel Foucault’s “Effective History,” and Africanist epistemology to examine ways in which scholars in k-16 schools perpetuate subjugation by using Eurocentric and other discourses. This study focuses on an interview study I conducted with three students I taught as a high school literacy educator. I use effective history to examine a racially motivated shooting event in which these one sixteen-year-old African-American male, three fifteen-year-old African-American females, and one fourteen-year-old African-American male shot at by a white security guard while attending a field trip in the southern United States. I examine reasons why these students were more afraid of revealing the fact that they were violated to their chaperones than in demanding the justice they deserved. As a participant as well as researcher, I enlist a qualitative researcher and university professor to conduct an intrasubjective interview with me. As a result of this interview, I discovered ways that my discourse as an African-American female educator reflected discourses characteristic of white supremacy. Using effective history, I examined events in the lives three of the young people involved and disclosed how their lives did not always circulate around race issues. This methodology revealed discourses participants used to resist effects of the shooting and other events in which they were raced or subjugated. Participants used Africanist, Eurocentric, and other discourses to negotiate their lives and challenges. I analyzed how discourses often oppressed them and spawned resistances or capitulation. In addition to the shooting, students experienced black-on-black violence, physical injury, abuse by collegiate athletic apparatuses, and efforts to diminish their scholarly achievements by professors. The methods of resistance they engaged in tandem demonstrated the array of discursive tools needed by young people of color in order to succeed in secondary and postsecondary institutions. It also shows how poststructuralism, particularly “effective history,” is used along with race theories, Africanist epistemology, and Eurocentric discourse for qualitative studies. INDEX WORDS: African-American athletes, African-American students, Africanist Epistemology, Bricolage, Discourse, Gossip data, Effective history, Eurocentrism, HBCU, Higher Education, Interviews, Panopticon, Postmodernism, Poststructuralism, Racial violence, Secondary schools, Student resistance, Subjectivity, Surveillance, Aristotle, Molefi Asante, Patricia Hill Collins, Jacques Derrida, Rene Descartes, Cynthia Dillard , Cheikh Anta Diop, Michel Foucault, Lewis Gordon, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Thomas Jefferson, Immanuel Kant, Abraham Lincoln, Fredrick Nietzsche. RACE IS A VERB: AN EFFECTIVE HISTORY OF YOUNG ADULTS SUBJECTED TO RACIAL VIOLENCE By VIOLET. R. JOHNSON JONES B.A., The University of Texas at San Antonio, 1991 M.Ed., Georgia College and State University, 1997 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2004 © 2004 Violet R. Johnson Jones All Rights Reserved RACE IS A VERB: AN EFFECTIVE HISTORY OF YOUNG ADULTS SUBJECTED TO RACIAL VIOLENCE By VIOLET. R. JOHNSON JONES Major Professor: Elizabeth Adams St. Pierre Committee: Joel Taxel Juanita Johnson-Bailey Tarek Grantham Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August, 2004 iv DEDICATION First, I dedicate this work to the ancestors. Ethel Jones Sr., my mother-in-law, was with me in spirit throughout though she departed this world in 1999. Other ancestors visited me in spirit during this journey. They include my father, Paul Johnson Jr., my grandmother, Julia Taylor, and her husband “Papa Sam” Taylor, my grandfather, Joe Franklin, and my uncle and sometimes surrogate father, John “Uncle Sonny Boy” Franklin. Secondly, I dedicate this to our future, my fifty-some-odd nieces and nephews, great-nieces and nephews, my cousins, and my young adopted family members, all of whom need someone to show them that we can do it. Finally, I dedicate this to my unborn blood who probably will one day talk about that crazy relative with the wild hair, the loud voice, and the genuine love for family, friends, and all things that live on the planet. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank my Creator in whom I “live, breathe, and have my being.” My “Renaissance Man,” Charles “Too Tall” Jones, supported me and made me stay the course. Likewise, Momma “Lil' Sista’” (Mattie Stinson), my grandmother, “Muh” (Mattie Snelling), my big sis, Judy Johnson Robbins, my big brother, Donnie Johnson, and his spouse Audrey Williams Johnson insisted that I fulfill my destiny. My daughter and son-in-law, Annetia Jones Alexander and Kevin Alexander, amaze and inspire me as they reach for new heights. My younger bloods and their spouses Teresa Johnson Howard, Garland Howard, and Michael and Jacque Johnson were equally encouraging. My sisters and brothers (in-law), Juanita Jones, Dot Stewart, Susan Jones, Florence “Snoops” Jones, Jackie Jones Brame, Jimmy Brame, Cellus “Buddy” Jones, Mary Jones, Alve “Big Al” Jones, and Joyce Jones prayed for an encouraged me throughout. Throughout this process, special friends were consistently by my side, especially Bettie St. Pierre, Wanda and Israel Small, Tara Richardson, Janice Fournillier, David Stinson, and Rachelle Washington. Additionally, Sharon Murphey literally bailed me out, and Dr. Juanita Johnson-Bailey provided a shoulder to cry on and was visionary in her support of my endeavors. Dr. Tarek Grantham mentored me spiritually through his prayers and encouragement and kept me true to myself and my folks. I thank Dr. Joel Taxel for providing feedback on early drafts of this document. Xingzhi Lou and Junyei Ma watched over me and fed my body as well as my spirit during one long lonely year in Athens. I hope my godchild Sophia “Rei Rei” Ma will return to a China that treasures girl babies as much as it does boys. I also hope my godson Corey will fly to the moon one day. In addition to my official committee, Bettie, Joel, Dr. Juanita, and Tarek, I appreciate the feedback of a host of “unofficial” committee members who invested themselves in my success and constantly encouraged me to keep the course. Most of all, I would like to thank my participants and the thousands of students I have taught over the years. They constantly teach me, and their spirit and tenacity keep me feeling young. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………………...……………v CHAPTER 1 SANKOFA…………………………………………………………………………………1 The Event………………………………………………………………………………….4 November, 1997- The Shooting………………………………………………….………..4 Statement of the Problem and Research Questions……………………………...............10 Overview…………………………………………………………………………………12 2 EPA……………………………………………………………………………...............14 Introduction: Race as Productive Verbal ………………………………………………..14 Discourse under Deconstruction ………………………………………………………...15 Africanist Epistemology…………………………………………………………………20 Eurocentrist Discourse and Its Creation of the “Other”………………………………….36 The “Final Solution” Continues………………………………………………………….51 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….58 3 FINDING PARRHESIA………………………………………………………………….59 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………59 Operationalizing “Effective History”……………………………………………………60 Research Schedule……………………………………………………………………….61 Entrée…………………………………………………………………………………….62 Types of Data…………………………………………………………………………….68 Racing Against the Panopticon…………………………………………………………..80 Validation………………………………………………………………………...............83 Transmigration to Decolonization of the Mind………………………………………….84 vii Sample Selection…………………………………………………………………………92 Contacting Participants…………………………………………………………………..96 Site of Research……………………………………………………………….................98 The School Site – Murphey East High School…………………………………………..99 Quiz Bowl at Murphey East…………………………………………………………….106 Site of the Event………………………………………………………………………...107 Psychic Sites…...……………………………………………………………………….109 Interview Site…………………………………………………………………………...111 Description of Participants……………………………………………………………...112 Analysis of Data………………………………………………………………………...114 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...128 4 NOMMO………………………………………………………………………………..129 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………..129 Discourse of Bitterness…………………………………………………………………133 The Guard, the Clerk, and “Petty Malice”……………………………………………...134 Savage Firepower……………………………………………………………………….136 White Supremacist Discourse in Place and Race………………………………………141 White Spaces……………………………………………………………………………143 Concerted Africanness………………………………………………………………….144 Ese Ne Tekrema………………………………………………………………………...153 Nsoromma………………………………………………………………………………155 Nyansapo ........................................................................................................................157 Inflaming Bodies………………………………………………………………………..165 Commodified Bodies as Capital………………………………………………………..169 viii Resistance at the HBCU………………………………………………………………...173 Digressive History: Resistance Is Buying a Gun………………………………………179 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...182 5 Sesa Woruba……………………………………………………………………………183 Revisiting the Quest(ions)………………………………………………………………183 Africanist