Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Civilized Oppression from the Cafeteria to the Classroom
The student researchers' “hot zone” maps also revealed that verbal bullying such as
hurtful ridiculing, teasing, and joking was pervasive, and was found nearly everywhere
throughout the campus but especially in hallways, by the lockers, in the cafeteria, even
in the classroom. The student and faculty researchers eventually came to understand
this pervasiveness as “the white noise of bullying” because of how widespread and
taken-for-granted it was at Rockport. However, much of what the student researchers
described as verbal bullying also seemed intertwined with friendship and fun; making
these forms of bullying particularly pervasive and invisible. Our analysis of the verbal
contentofthisbullyingrevealedittobewhatHarvey(1999)called
civilized oppression
.
Neither explicitly violent nor illegal, civilized oppression thrives in the unexamined
habits of conversation, the subtlety of many power relationships, nonverbal behavior,
and the tacit assumptions often found in such “neutral” places as humor and ridicule.
Through small, normalized, hidden, and cumulative acts, its victims are systemically
harmed while boosting the systemic privileges of others.
The student researchers acknowledged that competitive verbal bullying often existed
intheclassroom; however,likeSteve(SR),theybelieved wittycomments madeinclass
were often so malicious (and funny) because the students were “all really close to each
other, and know so much about each other, and like their everyday lives, and they take
out those funny things.” John (SR) spoke of the person taking the brunt of ridicule as
the sacrificial cost for the larger advantage of classroom bonding, “But what happens is
you bond.… The witty comments benefit the whole entire class except for one person,
and then that sort of—the bonding thing—you are adding something else to the class.”
And Steve (SR) agreed suggesting that traditional classes without ridiculing would not
beasconducivetobuildingrelationships, “Everyone iscomfortable witheachotherand
the environment is different and I just feel like a really structured class wouldn't be the
same.” The students made meaning from bullying; they built friendships even in the
midst of aggression.
The student researchers also recognized the way faculty contributed to both a culture
of competition and a culture of bullying. The student researchers used one of their
classes to exemplify how ridiculing could be closely linked to a competitive classroom
culture that the teacher helped to facilitate. They described a game played by a teacher
and her students, as Paul (SR) explained, to “chalk up on the board for rude comments
… to keep a running tally, like, anytime someone does a witty thing.” John (SR) added,
“It's like, malicious too.” Steve (SR) elaborated on this competitive classroom game of
put-downs, “We'll be in class, so like, the teacher will be teaching, and … if you say
something really funny, everyone is like, 'Oh put it up, put it up' and then some kid will
stand up.… Totally accepted.” Steve (SR) recalled one recent incident with a student
