Responding to racist contempt with counter-contempt: Moral and pedagogical dilemmas

ABSTRACT

The goal of this paper is to explore arguments about the moral (in)appropriateness of counter-contempt as a justified moral and pedagogical response to racist contempt. Drawing on debates for and against contempt in moral philosophy, the paper suggests a contextual approach to contempt that pays attention to both the specifics of the concrete situation that agents are in when they are experiencing racist contempt and the context of the agents themselves, understood as the conceptual and affective tools that are available to them in order to discern and challenge the meaning of racist contempt. The paper discusses the moral and pedagogical dilemmas entailed in efforts to cultivate in the classroom (and beyond) the right kind of contempt—both as a pedagogical stance and as a political message—which does not backfire but instead inspires a productive engagement with racism.

KEYWORDS:

• Racism
• contempt
• incivility
• moral emotions
• pedagogy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. I clarify here that I am talking specifically about contempt as one particular form of racism (there are many other forms).

2. I am indebted to both anonymous reviewers for raising these questions.

3. I am thankful to one of the anonymous reviewers for suggesting this clarification.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michalinos Zembylas

Michalinos Zembylas is Professor of Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies at the Open University of Cyprus, Honorary Professor at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, and Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia. He has written extensively on emotion and affect in relation to social justice pedagogies, intercultural and peace education, human rights education and citizenship education. His recent books include: Affect and the rise of right-wing populism: Pedagogies for the renewal of democratic education, and Higher education hauntologies: Living with ghosts for a justice-to-come (co-edited with V. Bozalek, S. Motala and D. Hölscher). In 2016, he received the Distinguished Researcher Award in ‘Social Sciences and Humanities’ from the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation.