#interest convergence

[soulakuarian]

Case in point: Affirmative Action.

[keylae]

Why Equality May Never Happen

In Uses of the Underclass in America, Herbert Gans claims that the role of lower class, under educated citizens benefit the upper-class in many ways. Gans explains “perhaps the most important economic function of the undeserving poor today is that their mere presence creates jobs for the better-off population, including professional ones” (Gans, 1994: 317). Basically, under educated people, who happen to mostly be minorities, are needed to fulfill jobs that require less educational experience. Without them the elite cannot profit and get jobs that have a higher yearly salary.

Another reason why educational equality may never happen is because of interest convergence. The theory suggests “because racism advances the intersects of both white elites (materially) and working-class Caucasians (physically), large segments of society have little incentive to eradicate it” (Delgado and Stefancic, 2017: 8). Not much is done in terms of attempting to eradicate discrimination because the use of it benefits white upper-class citizens. Keeping low-class minority students in impoverished areas with bad school systems will make it harder for them to for them to go to a four-year college. Inevitably, the students will fall behind and fill the roles of lower end career such as jobs in the service industry. Sadly, this will disable them to advance economically and socially. Overall, educational inequality will be hard to abolish completely when it is deeply rooted in the advancement of one specific race. Since America is ruled by the white upper class, they would not genuinely attempt to close the educational gap since it benefits them so much.

[periferieproject]

Interest Convergence

[insupdates]

Interest Convergence

[socimages]

Interest convergence, FSU, and the Seminole tribe of Florida.

By Adrienne Keene, PhD

Cross-posted at Native Appropriations.

Florida State has been the “Seminoles” since 1947, and have had a “relationship” with the Seminole Tribe of Florida for many years, but it was solidified more recently. In 2005, the NCAA passed a resolution, calling Native American Mascots “hostile and abusive,” and prohibiting schools with these mascots from hosting post-season events. The Seminole Tribe of Florida then officially gave their permission to use Osceola as the mascot, letting FSU get a waiver from the NCAA rule.

Disclaimer, and a big one — I am not Seminole, and I don’t want to speak for the tribe. I am offering my interpretation and perspective, but it’s just mine. I am going to be up front and say that I don’t agree with the choice to give the university permission to mock Native culture (see the billboard and video I posted earlier), and I don’t find a “stoic” dude in a wig and redface throwing a flaming spear“honoring” (see photo above), and I definitely don’t think that the “war chant” is respectful in any way. In fact I find it quite “hostile and abusive.”

I do want to put the decision of the tribe into context, however. From what I understand, prior to the formalized relationship with the tribe in the 1970′s, the image of the university was not Osceola (who is a real person, in case you didn’t know. Though the image is the profile of a white faculty member), but a stereotypical mis-mash named “Sammy Seminole” who was accompanied by “Chief Fullabull,” both of whom wore cartoonish and stereotypical outfits and clowned around at games. Trying to be more “sensitive” they changed “Fullabull” to “Chief Wampumstompum.” I’m not kidding. Osceola and Renegade (the horse) were introduced in the late 70′s.

So, by entering into a relationship with the university, the mascot now represents an actual Seminole figure, and wears (close to) traditional Seminole regalia, made by tribal members. In addition to control and “collaboration” over how the image is used and portrayed, I’ve heard the tribe gets a cut of the merchandising profits, which I’m sure is no small amount of money. The president of the university also established full scholarships for Seminole students (though only 8 Seminole students have graduated in the history of the school), a Seminole color guard brings in the flag at commencement, and the tribe was recently honored at homecoming. The Seminole of FL are also one of the most successful gaming tribes in the US, and my personal opinion is that keeping the state happy on the FSU front can only be good for relations around gaming contracts.

In summary, while the mascot is far from being respectful in my opinion, at least the tribe is gaining both economic and social benefits from engaging in this relationship. At least, at the games, as the student section is tomahawk chopping and yelling “scalp ‘em”, they can look down at the field and see a real Seminole every once and awhile to counter the image of Osceola. But is it perfect? Of course not. In a lot of ways it is similar to Derrick Bell’s theory of Interest Convergence — the idea that whites will only consent to racial progress when it benefits them directly — but turned around. The tribe is consenting to this, because they benefit directly. The interests of the two parties converge.

But the hard thing about FSU is that it always gives fodder to the mascot defenders. “But the Seminole approve of Florida State! They don’t care!” Hopefully I’ve made a bit of a case as to why they’ve consented to have their image used, but I also want to point out that just because one faction of a marginalized group believes one thing, it doesn’t mean that everyone feels that way. Can you imagine if we expected all white folks to feel the same about a controversial issue… like gun control, for example? Not gonna happen. I also think that it ties back into the dilemma I’ve brought up again and again — is it better to be completely invisible as Native people, or be misrepresented? In the case of the Seminole tribe of Florida, they took the step to at least try and gain some control and power over how their people and community are represented.

For more, check out this awesome resource pulled together by Rob Schmidt of Blue Corn Comics/Newspaper Rock — offers more history, counter-arguments, quotes from news articles and Native scholars, and more: Why FSU’s Seminoles aren’t ok.

Adrienne Keene is a Cherokee doctoral candidate at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, where she studies access to higher education for Native students.  She blogs about cultural appropriation at Native Appropriations.  You can follow her on Twitter andFacebook.

[racebending]

"It’s very rare to see the Chinese male actor in Hollywood movies, which is something I take great umbrage with. You know, my son is Asian. He may want to direct one day; he may want to be an actor like his father -- and I want that to be open to him. So I want to make some kind of effort to see more of that happen in Hollywood.”

- actor Nicholas Cage, acknowledging the lack of opportunities his own industry offers to Asian actors and Asian Americans like his son, Kal-El.

[erichnpitcher]

SB 1070 Interest Convergence--Critical Race Theory

One of the central tenets of Critical Race Theory is the idea of interest convergence or material determinism. This is the idea that advances for people of color must align with whites' material interests in order to advance. Currently I am puzzling on the interest convergence of a potential repeal of SB 1070, its connection to education policy, and the DREAM Act. From what I know about the bill, SB 1070 represents a legalization of police practices that were likely already occurring. The stop and search of brown peoples on the basis of the potential of their being a migrant eligible for deportation is a clear example of how this policy is a white supremacist policy. 

Entities like popular musicians and other performers, athletic teams, and potential conference planners boycotted Arizona with the hope that the governor and/or legislature would overturn the law. Despite these massive protests and negative press, interest convergence  did not occur. It was more advantageous to maintain a racist, white supremacist law, than to risk a potential loss of revenue for the white owned businesses in Arizona. This leads me to the idea that there must be some threshold of interest convergence that tips elite white power from siding with existing policy and economic interests to alignment with people of color. I propose that the more adamant the white power structure is about a certain issue, the stronger the interest convergence must be. 

Considering education now, the persistence of the achievement gap has been hotly debated. Ladson-Billings (1998) might say the measures that are used, or the curriculum are part of the problem, others argue for economic reasons (Reardon, 2011). But if you follow the tenets of critical race theory, more likely it is about the endemic nature of racism on behalf of teachers, administrators, education policy makers. But the achievement gap is also about interest convergence. Is it in the interests of whites to create a measure that shows blacks and Latin@s achieving at higher levels than whites? Is it in whites' interests to educate people for social justice?  Not really. In order to remain in power, there must be subordination. In order to remain supreme, there must be the deficient. 

Connecting back to SB 1070 and migrant related education policy, I have wondered why wouldn't the US pass the DREAM Act or other measures that ensure the education of Latin@ migrants? It is in the economic interests of the US to educate, to ensure the success, or is it? Our economy requires the massive and easily exploitable migrant worker population, is white economic interest in maintaining these low wage workers?  It seems to me that white interests could align with the goal of accessing education through provisions like the DREAM Act. But when education is considered a private good, maintaining unbridled access to education by whites does not convergence with POC interests. 

References:

Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Just what is critical race theory and what's it doing in a nice field like education? International Journal of Qualitative Research 

Reardon, S. (2011). In whither opportunity? Rising inequality and the uncertain life chances of low-income children. Duncan & Nurname (eds.)