A Pedagogy of Anticapitalist Antiracism

Book excerpt: Winner of the 2018 Outstanding Book Award presented by the Society of Professors of Education Through an analysis of whiteness, capitalism, and teacher education, A Pedagogy of Anticapitalist Antiracism sheds light on the current conditions of public education in the United States. We have created an environment wherein market-based logics of efficiency, lowering costs, and increasing returns have worked to disadvantage those populations most in need of educational opportunities that work to combat poverty. This book traces the history of whiteness in the United States with an explicit emphasis on the ways in which the economic system of capitalism functions to maintain historical practices that function in racist ways. Practitioners and researchers alike will find important insights into the ways that the history of white racial identity and capitalism in the United States impact our present reality in schools. Casey concludes with a discussion of "revolutionary hope" and possibilities for resistance to the barrage of dehumanizing reforms and privatization engulfing much of the contemporary educational landscape.