Dancing With Bigotry : Beyond the Politics of Tolerance

They also examine why it is essential to take on the sources of 'mass public education.' Academia needs to understand that the popular press and mass media educate more people about issues regarding ethnicity and race than all other sources of education available to U.S. citizens.

One of the most pressing challenges facing educators in the US is the specter of an "ethnic and cultural war"--a code phrase that engenders our society''s licentiousness toward racism. In Dancing with Bigotry, Donaldo Macedo and Lilia Bartolome use examples from the mass media, popular culture, and politics to illustrate the larger situations facing educators and how this type of argument is ignored in much of the academic research and rhetoric. They also examine why it is essential to take on the sources of "mass public education." By shunning the mass media, educators are missing the obvious--more public education is done by the media than by teachers, professors, or anyone else. This book sheds light on the ideological mechanisms that shape and maintain the racist social order, while moving the discussion beyond the reductionist of white versus black impasse.