Toward a Critical Race Pedagogy of Hope: A Rejoinder to Brian Schultz

“The idea that hope alone will transform the world…is an excellent route to hopelessness, pessimism, and fatalism. The attempt to do without hope, in the struggle to improve the world, as if that struggle could be reduced to calculated acts alone, or a purely scientific approach, is a frivolous illusion” (Freire, 1996, p. 8). Oprah Winfrey was interviewed recently by Newsweek regarding her forty million dollar Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. Winfrey justified launching the project in South Africa instead of in the States by adding: “I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn’t there. If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don’t ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school.