Long before the popular aphorism, 'Beckyisms' have been discussed among Scholars of Color. Cheryl E. Matias provides courageous and fierce accounts of the social, political, and emotional trauma too often unleashed by Beckys-who are abundant in all spaces. This book is a mustread to decipher how whiteness operates in our education system and our society.
-- Rebeca Burciaga, San Jose State UniversitySurviving Becky(s): Pedagogies for Deconstructing Whiteness and Gender is revelatory in content, revolutionary in form. Stories of white supremacy and Beckys are powerful and nuanced-every one an ode to Derrick Bell's Faces at the Bottom of the Well. Their stories, woven with Cheryl E. Matias' unflinching analysis, make this an invaluable read for anyone hoping to more deeply understand the accumulative ravages of racism.
-- Paul Gorski, founder of the Equity Literacy InstituteLong before the popular aphorism, Beckyisms have been shared and discussed among Scholars of Color. In their new volume, editor Cheryl E. Matias and authors provide bold, courageous, and fierce accounts of the social, political, and emotional trauma and terror too often unleashed at the hands of Beckys - who are abundant in all social and professional spaces. Written from multiple perspectives and in different genres, these accounts prove to be woven from the same fabric. Indeed, despite geographic and racial/ethnic differences among the authors, there is a distinct constancy with the pervasive social construction of whiteness generally and Beckys in particular. These pages also contain the authors' rich dialogues around healing and hope. This book is both a must read to decipher our understandings of how whiteness operates in our educational system and our society at large; and serves to validate the experiences of anyone who has ever confronted Beckyisms.
-- Rebeca Burciaga, San Jose State UniversityCheryl E. Matias is full professor in the department of curriculum and instruction at the University of Kentucky.