A theory of complicity

 It is the question that has in one form or another guided my life and research for more than four decades, and one which both theoretical and historical evidence indicates cannot be addressed through traditional rhetorical means.  

    Four more than four decades I have taught, researched and written about the rhetoric of racism while working in institutions of higher education across this country.    In my first book, The Rhetoric of Racism, I believed  that, as a problem of ignorance,  racism could be addressed through education.  In The Rhetoric of Racism Revisited,  I developed and refined the theories of complicity and coherence that defined my early work ,  In the decades since have witnessed and experienced repeatedly the complicity of educators and educational institutions in the perpetuation and protection of racial supremacy, superiority and privilege.  The promise of educare, to lead us out of ignorance, has instead  led us out of empathy.  

"The more I feel an American, the more this situation pains me.  I can escape the feeling of complicity in it only by speaking out."*