Have you ever wondered why knowledge is so Euro-centric? Did non-Europeans have no contribution to universal knowledge bank? Does this bias adversely affect a student's chances in US academy as s/he is not seen as bringing anything new to the table? How can we all challenge this Eurocentric bias in academy to make higher learning space truly universal?

1. Culturally Responsive Campus Climate (CRCC)
Symposium, Nov-7, 2017, Illinois State
University, Illinois, USA.
Session presented by
Arundhati Bhattacharya
Doctoral Candidate,
Educational Administration and Foundations
Illinois State University

2. Alienated
Knowledge, power and ‘education’ as a instrument of oppression

3. Part I: My story-Identity and caricature
• “ I want to visit your India one day. I want to visit your slums.”
• “I don’t know anything about India. Meh. I read about the caste
system.”

4. If you flip the picture-
• If all we knew of Europe and United States of America was their
greatest flaw? What would the story be about?
• Colonialism and Slavocracy
• Yet that is never the case. We know Europe and USA as advanced
spaces- we know about democracy, economy, research and
innovation. Slavery and colonialism are mere foot notes.

5. Why?
• Because the advanced spaces- control the narrative. They control
global media and education.
• Coincidentally (or is it?) the advanced spaces are White spaces. Those
spaces who do NOT control their narrative are mostly the ex-colonies,
also may be coincidentally.

6. Knowledge, education and Mythology
• We all know Education is enabling. And Knowledge is Power.
• Some of us know Education is delimiting and Knowledge can be
manipulated with power.

7. How is education delimiting and knowledge
manipulated?
Going back to my story
• I am reminded we were taught about Renaissance and how in World
History books we read only about Europe.
• When we were taught Physics lessons, we were told names of Scientists
who were Europeans (mainly) and Americans but none from any other part
of the world.
• We knew about Pythagoras as a Mathematician but Aryabhata belonged to
mysticism and Mythology. My school did not tell me Algebra was an Arabic
invention.

8. How is education delimiting and knowledge
manipulated?
My story-
We were told Indian History before Middle Ages was all Mythology.
None of it are substantial evidence, they are not knowledge- but
delusions and imagination.
Also, prior to colonization, India and the non-European world had no
Science, no History and no civilization. The colonizers ‘civilized’ us.

9. The internalized oppression
• As India was colonized, its education system got usurped and controlled. The purpose of
the education was create a servile class. The purpose of education was to miseducate.
• “If you can control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you
determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he
will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to
accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is
justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being
told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one.”
― (Woodson, 1933, p.21)
• And it is not only the story of India but the story of all colonized, non-Western, non-
white spaces.

10. The caricature
• Controlling our thinking was not the only way knowledge was
manipulated. An alternative narrative of our histories and civilization
was created. To justify colonization and slavocracy, the colonized and
the slaves were made into diabolic, beastly and, violent.
• All positive aspects of their civilization, knowledge and even physical
appearance were suppressed highlighting whatever was thought to
invoke the greatest revulsion.
• So- you read about ‘caste’ system in India but not the pluralism,
tolerance and resilience.
• This is again also true of all colonized people.

11. Part II: Euro-centricity in US education
• Euro- centricity of Knowledge
• If not much then how does an African-American, Latinx American,
and Chinese American then how much do they learn of their own
history?

12. Euro-centricity of Methodologies
• That Africa had a history, civilization and cosmic world-view has never been
accepted in white spaces…because oral tradition was not seen as
‘legitimate’ knowledge or evidence.
• Indians had codified ‘history’ but this was branded as fairy-tales and
mumbo jumbo as those did not follow the typical European tradition of
arriving at truth.
• Indigenous Americans were dismissed as their style of story telling was
NOT objective truth. Objective truth can only be achieved through
European mythologies.

13. Is it important…or an abstraction?
• I would argue it is vital.
• Why?- Woodson (1933) argued “If a race has no history, if it has no
worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of
the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.”
• If I belong to a community which had no or caricaturist
representation- chances of my being biased against, belittled and
stereotyped is high. Non-European students thus have a higher
chance of being victims of deficit thinking.

14. Politics of smartness
• “When teaching about smartness on a predominantly white campus, I ask my
students to tell me what a ‘smart’ person looks, talks, and acts like. I encourage
them to use stereotypes. I want them to see how we assign ‘smartness’ to people
through behaviors and artifacts such as clothing, books, or eye glasses, which are
all a part of performing smartness. Overwhelmingly, the students typically
describe the person as wearing glasses, dressing in a suit, reading the Wall Street
Journal, and listening to classical music such as Bach or Mozart. Additionally, the
person almost always speaks using so-called ‘proper’ English and ‘big’ words. We
then discuss how race/ethnicity, gender, and class play into these descriptions
and the schema they hold in their minds. Slowly, they begin to see how
smartness is overwhelmingly framed in the image of a white, wealthy man. They
begin to see smartness as a cultural trope in the US that is embedded in
whiteness and patriarchy – that notions of smartness and ability cannot be
separated from identity politics.” (P. 1141, Hatt,2016)

15. The Outcome- Alienation
“As we worked to build community, we found ourselves overwhelmed
and exhausted by the constant push and pull against various forms of
micro-aggressions and the pervasive presence of Euro-ethnocentrism.
Snide comments that inferred we were segregating ourselves, or how
our community was not appropriate or not the right type of community
were common. As we built relationships with colleagues and students
in our department or other departments, our community was viewed
as more suspicious and everyone associated with us were subjected to
hyper-surveillance.” (p. 3, Hoff and Martin, 2013)

16. Part-III. The counter-narrative, bridging the
gap
I once had an encounter with a colleague who told me that people like
me ‘‘told good stories’’ and later added that because I told good
stories, I might not ever be a ‘‘good theorist.’’ I was struck by the
seeming disconnect between community stories and personal
narratives and ‘‘theory.’’
My mother told me, ‘‘Baby, doesn’t she know that our stories are our
theories? And she thinks she’s smarter than you because she can’t tell
stories?’’ (Brayboy, 2005, p. 426)

17. Counter-narrative
• Renaissance gave the world a LOT. Undeniably. But it was also created
a false EAST-West binary. West (also white spaces) is seen as active,
taking life by it’s horns whereas non-West were passive, docile,
fatalist. This is OBJECTIVELY untrue.
• As an example,
“You are what your deep, driving desire is
As your desire is, so is your will
As your will is, so is your deed
As your deed is, so is your destiny.” Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 4.4.5

18. Counter-narrative
• For long Africans were projected as ‘half-child- half-beast.” (Rudyard
Kipling- The white man’s burden) having no civilization or world view.
That is OBJECTIVELY false.

19. Counter-narrative
The African world view.
• Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
• Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for
ourselves.
• Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our
brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.
• Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to
profit from them together.
• Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to
restore our people to their traditional greatness.
• Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community
more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
• Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the
righteousness and victory of our struggle.

20. Counter-narrative
• There is no ONE way of arriving at knowledge.
• Histories should be told by the communities- let us read history from
slave-journals and not from what colonizers wrote or thought.
• The story-teller is part of the story- so do not claim OBJECTIVITY.

21. Diversity-
• Diversity happens when everybody feels represented and not
caricatured.
• Representation creates belongingness…and fosters learning and
productivity.

22. References
• Hatt, B. (2016). Racializing smartness.
• Woodson, C. G. (2006). The mis-education of the Negro. Book Tree.
• Brayboy, B. M. J. (2005). Toward a tribal critical race theory in
education. The Urban Review, 37(5), 425-446.
• Hoff, P.T. ; Martin, K., Colonizing communities (2013): Smartness and
ideology of Domination.