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EXPELLING PUBLIC SCHOOLS event at Emory University with John Arena
November 25, 2024 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST
John Arena will join Emory University on Monday, November 25, for a reading and discussion of his new book Expelling Public Schools: How Antiracist Politics Enable School Privatization in Newark, at 12:00 p.m. EST.
This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Lunch will be provided.
Examining the more than two-decade struggle to privatize public schools in Newark, New Jersey—a conflict that is raging in cities across the country—Expelling Public Schools is a critique of Black urban regime politics and the way in which antiracist messaging obscures real class divisions, interests, and ideological diversity.
“Expelling Public Schools offers a fascinating look into the racial politics of corporate school reform in Newark Public Schools. John Arena takes a long view—just over two decades—and examines the reform movements and countermovements in the district from the top down and the bottom up. In assessing corporate school reform efforts under mayors Cory Booker and Ras Baraka, this deeply researched book illuminates the mechanisms that maintain educational inequality.” —Rand Quinn, author of Class Action: Desegregation and Diversity in San Francisco Schools
“It is rare to encounter a work that treats actually existing Black life, an approach best articulated by Cedric Johnson, to critically address contemporary Black urban regimes. Thoughtful, careful, and incisive, Expelling Public Schools does just that. In this moment when antiracism (and surface critiques of antiracism) is rife, John Arena’s work provides a wonderful tonic.” —Lester Spence, author of Stare in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics
“Arena’s book asks why social movements collapse, and how liberal conceptions of racial politics, employed by a multiracial elite, have so often thwarted radical calls for change. Arena does an excellent job showing how the professional class’s tactics kneecap the ability of nascent movements to define themselves and their goals.” —The Nation
“Expelling Public Schools offers essential insights into much broader struggles to create a more just society.” —Jacobin
“[Expelling Public Schools] constitutes a serious case study of school reform efforts and a roadmap for educational activists opposing school privatization.” —CHOICE
