“OH NO! Communism”

“OH NO! Communism” The Rhetoric of Change

In the first three chapters of, Critically Conscious Research, the authors provide an overview of the history of Critical Consciousness.  They not only give their readers a framework of the different theories, but they also briefly discuss the contributions of many different scholars (Kantz, Freire, Fannon, Marx, and many more!).  For the purpose of this post, I will be concentrating on Karl Marx.

What’s more negative in this country then mentioning the works of Marx?  Probably mentioning the works of mass murders (Bundy, Hitler, etc.) would be exceedingly worse.  However, to mention the political ideologies of Father Communism is appertaining to punching Uncle Sam in the face.  The world of capitalism does not readily call for the social considerations of Karl Marx; instead, it constantly fights against his works and ideas and labels him as “EVIL”. 

To clarify, I am not agreeing with Marx (completely); instead, I want to identify how the idea of Critically Conscious research and pedagogies are in danger of this same label.   The world we live in has norms and cultural mores that are present from birth.  Marx believed this to be a social phenomenon, “Marx believed that consciousness, as an idea, was formed in response to social and economic contexts” (7).  In other words, a person’s level in society (economically and socially) informs his or her critical mind.  And while Marx believes in this ideal, he moves further to explain how it is a true social occurrence, “He observed that ‘the world’ was in the stage of capitalism, where the work of the lower classes is used by the wealthy upper classes to obtain and maintain wealth” (7).  In the world he explains, the knowledge and norms of the dominant class is superior.

Douglas, Dubois and other African American activists utilized and refined Marxist theory to battle the seemingly normative thoughts of racism (25).  His ideas are represented through Frederick Douglas’ many public speeches.  Douglas, being an African American, was not part of the domineering ideologies of his time. Although his critical views are now considered to be the foundations of equality, his concepts during the time they were presented were not considered to be at the forefront of social change.  For example, Because of the eloquence of his speeches, which fought against slavery, Douglas’ works were often assumed to be ghost-written by a white man.  Frederick Douglas moved to alter the Status Quo; the dominating class moved to oppress his ideas and labeled him as unequal.

The idea of critical consciousness is very important to me; in fact my research focuses on social change.  Although I label my approach to a particular social problem as “social action,” the ideas of CC are still present.  Like Freire’s explanation of critical pedagogy in chapter 3, my research promotes the idea that “…people should be taught how to help themselves or educate themselves about their reality” (42).  The point I start to worry is how the representation of my ideas will be seen as fighting against the dominating theories of PTSD. Because I am not a psychologist, will my concepts be viewed as unintelligible or unequal?  What will my label be?