On Whose Authority? Issues of Epistemic Authority and Injustice in the Social Justice Classroom

Abstract

I recently assisted in a diversity course for education majors. The students enrolled were primarily middle class, white, and female. During one session, we watched a video, A Girl Like Me, created by a woman of color about how white standards of beauty impact black women. 1 A large portion of the video included a reenactment of Dr. Kenneth Clark's famous doll experiment, which demonstrated that young, black kids judge white-skinned dolls to be "nice" and black-skinned dolls to be "bad." In the reenactment, when the black children are asked which doll looked like them, the majority of the children point to the black-skinned doll they label as "bad." As soon as the video finished, Mary, a white, female student asserted that the woman of color was leading the children to specific answers. Recalling this moment, I know many members of the class were taken aback by her assertion. Quickly, the instructor stated that the filmmaker's doll experiment re-conducted Clark's research utilized in the Brown v. Board of Education case, which prompted the court to rule in favor of school desegregation. Immediately Mary began retreating from her original argument and gave the video authority. While the instructor provided additional evidence to support the credibility of the video, the few marginalized peers in the class also testified to the accuracy of the information.