Neoliberalism Close to Home

       Ironically, in terms of timing, I was reflecting on the neoliberal agenda from last week's reading in my previous post (see here), and I was amazed at my own shortcomings made so clear in the text. I have been making promises to students about their futures that simply do not exist. The system is designed so most of my students will live in poverty. Even if we overlook the incarceration rates of Black males or the way that arrest and criminal records haunt lives for generations which spout from a system designed to trip up and entrap as many people of color as possible, we cannot ignore the other economic factors growing through capitalistic forces. The micro-service industry (Uber, Lyft, shopping app-based employers) is subsidizing the job market in ways that disguise the reality of what it means to work for just over the wages of enslaved peoples. Service jobs, in general, are on the rise, and the high-paying jobs that we often think of are accessible to those who manage to beat the odds and graduate from college are reserved for those with graduate degrees, pedigree, and exceptional networks. The economy simply isn't making those kinds of jobs. The jobs they are creating are low-paying, service-oriented, customer service, and entry-level positions. These jobs are essential to maintaining the pyramid on which our economy is built, they do not offer much more (if you're lucky) than wages at the poverty level for a family of three.

        So while my last post got personal - I reflected on the forces of gentrification happening here in my school and home community, I didn't go into great detail about how I actively participated in the gentrification which is now shaping Lawrenceville, Georgia. My partner and I purchased a recently flipped home that had been originally purchased for $100k and sold to us for $200k. While we were so excited by this great deal, we are now a family of white people who existed in a space previously occupied by people of color. Additionally, I named this blog (and my website) coffee ring because of my affinity for coffee shops, and because when I created it I was sitting in an upscale coffee shop in Lawrenceville. This coffee shop, and much of downtown, is driving neoliberal gentrification efforts. Many of the businesses in this effort are global corporations seeking to reclaim the urbanized suburbs for those privileged enough to afford their services.

        All of these efforts put my students in the middle of this battleground. Many of my students are employed by Kroger - I see them bagging my groceries and running the register every time I go shopping on the weekends. They are clearing the parking lot of carts, and they wave to me and give me fist bumps as I pass them in the aisles. Kroger has recently come under great scrutiny lately as more people are waking up to the fact that more than 50% of employers who employ those in poverty are giant retail corporations that make up some of the richest companies in the world.

        Today, while teaching, representatives from the Work-Based Learning team came in to talk to my students about the "exciting opportunity that allows you to leave school early." "You get to skip out on those electives you don't want to take anyway and leave school early," they crooned. My students scooted forward in their chairs to hear more. "It's like skipping school, and you get paid! Think of all the extra money you'll earn."

        Work Based Learning (WBL), for those that don't know, is a program that allows students to be excused from their elective credits, or rather, fulfill them through working a job and completing paperwork about how they grew from the experience (along with other components).

        In my last post, I reflected on the way that we are doing little more than preparing students to be worker bees to fill in the bottom of the pyramid for the rich at the top - how a neoliberal curriculum cannot lead to liberation. Here, in my classroom, were two unwitting representatives of this movement, promising my students an opportunity to have less school and more minimum wage. Working at Dunkin Donuts their junior year, and only attending school until 10AM will allow these same students to prepare for an exciting career when they graduate in working at Dunkin Donuts, earning minimum wage.

Who funds the Work-Based Learning programs? The federal government.

Who doesn't fund those pesky electives no one ones to take? The federal government.

        All of this is starting to make me feel like a conspiracy theorist because I'm seeing a conspiracy against my students that no one else seems to notice (or wants to). After years of thinking I understood how white supremacy worked, I'm uncovering another layer I had never considered. The system is functioning exactly as intended.