Education in unsettling times: Public intellectuals and the promise of cultural studies

The United States appears, for many of us, to be going through one of the most startling and potentially dangerous historical junctures it has faced since the tumultuous “Red Scare” of the 1920s. The signs are evident at all levels of society. At the local level, fear and racial hatred appear to be inspiring a major backlash against the gains of the civil rights movement as affirmative action is openly attacked and anti-immigration sentiment and legislation sweep the nation. At the state level, financial cutbacks and the restructuring of the labor force have weakened unions and vastly undercut social services for the most vulnerable, including the poor, women with infant children, and older citizens who rely on Medicare and other such benefits. Across the nation, we are witnessing increased discrimination and violence. This includes well-organized attempts by conservatives to limit the rights and gains made by women as well as increasing acts of violence against women, gays, lesbians, and racial minorities. Similarly, racial and gender discrimination are being accompanied by an increase in cultural censorship coupled with an attack on those public sites instrumental in fighting AIDS, poverty, and the destruction of the environment. One important subtext of this conservative backlash is the increasingly powerful attempt to decimate the public school system as part of a larger assault on the democratic foundations of political, social, and cultural life.