Rethinking Resistance Theory through STEM Education: How Working-Class Kids Get World-Class Careers

Many of us in the environmental justice movement have wanted to create green collar jobs, and not just jobs but world-class careers that are actually promoting environmental protection, jobs that are actually reducing pollution, and have that happen in our communities. We’re bringing in people who are from here, from our own communities. People who want to create their own businesses together and do it green. And so those are the members of the cooperatives that we will be starting and that we’re starting now. We saw it too often . . . we saw companies come in all the time promising jobs and at the end of the day what we get is a fraction of what was promised. And what we get are the dirtiest jobs and the most dangerous jobs. And what we get more than anything is really pollution, dirty air, dirty water, dirty soil. We think it’s important to fight back. To resist this stuff. So we’re fighting for the planet and jobs that create opportunities for all. We think this is the most important kind of resistance. We want world-class green collar careers for our communities and a lot of those require training in Science, Tech, Engineering and Math. We get it. You ain’t really free unless you own your community and we want to be free. (Educational leader, Oakland, CA)Living in areas of concentrated ghetto poverty and toxic waste, burdened by the legacy of slavery, servitude, and second-class citizenship, too many Black and brown youth are dying of unnatural causes (Akom, 2011). They are vanishing, or in the classic metaphor of Ralph Ellison, being rendered invisible to such an extent that dysfunctional schools, dilapidated housing, food deserts, brown fields, unemployment, prison, violence, pollution, disease, and early death have now become part of the expected social trajectory for many of youth of colorfrom low-income communities. When youth of color, particularly Black and brown youth resist, when they speak out and make their insightful institutional and social critique through mechanisms including being identified with disruptive behavior, adopting a nonconformist style of dress, talking back, and devaluing educational achievement, they are labeled as social problems by the police, schools, and employers (Dance, 2002; Majors & Billson, 1992). Further, some research suggests that many contemporary youth of color are caught between the natural affinity for their home culture, language, social networks, families, friends, and community and conforming to mainstream culture, or the “white washing” required to complete formal education and assume professional occupations. The resistance to being “white washed” has led many youth of color to adopt what some have called oppositional behavior against “the burden of acting white,” thought to result in decreased identification with formal schooling (Akom, 2003; Fordham, 1996; Fordham & Ogbu, 1986; Ogbu, 1978; Ogbu & Simons, 1998). While these examples of oppositional resistance are prevalent, there are also examples of more proactive forms of resistance which demonstrate resiliency within societal structures and are associated with positive individual or community outcomes.