With the U.S. presidential election a mere 48 hours away, I want to take the opportunity to reclaim a piece of language that I feel has been wrongly taken from the American vocabulary by neo-liberals and neo-conservatives alike and used for the purposes of dividing people and closing conversations.  This kind of double-speak is not uncommon in U.S. society, and one need only consider the new connotations of words such as “freedom,” “patriotism,” and “democracy” to get the gist of how words can be distorted and appropriated by power-wielders for unethical purposes.  Lately, the word “bitter,” the focus of today’s blog, has gotten a bad rap in American society.  I find its recent appropriation to be similar to the ways in which “freedom” and “patriotism” have been distorted into terms that discourage folks from questioning the U.S.

Yesterday, as I was racking my brain trying to find the right words to express my sincere gratitude for all that Joe Kincheloe and his work have given me, my epiphany arrived in the form of an email from one of my doctoral students at UMass Boston.  It reads:

Last Friday, while visiting my parents in New York, I made a quick stop at my favorite clothing store (Ann Taylor Loft) while I was waiting for my folks to get home from work. Luckily, ATL was having one of its fabulous sales, and I found a beautiful, turquoise, empire waist dress that fit me perfectly AND had been marked down from $79.99 to $29.99. What a find! I brought it up to the register, the sales woman rang it up, and to my wonderous surprise, the dress rang up at only $11.19—BONUS!

Tomorrow I will go to the dentist for the third time in nine months. Why is this significant, you might ask?

Critical Pedagogy: Consciousness, Double-speak, and Contradictions in Daily Life

Greetings everyone! I’m so excited to be blogging among such a brilliant group of scholars. What an honor! Thank you Joe and Shirley for inviting me to pitch in my two cents.