Over emphasis on injustice backfires. It discourages the personal responsibility that is so essential for meaningful change. Become convinced you are a powerless victim and you will behave accordingly.
For instance, African-Americans dealt with profound injustice in immoderate amounts for centuries. But over-emphasis on this injustice, (By excessively "woke" educators, for instance.) can initiate a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Thomas Theorem — well known among sociologists — explains how that works. Put simply, when a situation is defined as true, it is true in its consequences. That's because outcomes depend as much on the individual’s perception of the situation as they do on the situation itself.
Should a person believe that they are a hapless victim, they will behave accordingly. Human behavior is not defined by objective facts, but by how people view and make sense of those facts. As helpless victims, they discount their own agency; their own ability, even their own degree of responsibility for what happens in their lives. When that happens, no oppressor is needed. The oppressed become their own oppressor. Understanding themselves to be powerless, they impatiently await salvation. And that usually is a very long wait, indeed.
I spent over 50 years as an educator. And one of the saddest and most disheartening aspects was watching the above happen over and over again. Instead of availing themselves of this opportunity, many kids turned their back on it. And in doing so destroyed the very best life chance many of them will ever have. In 2025 providing them this opportunity cost the public an average of $17,000.00 per student per year. That's one hell of a gift. Yet many kids turn their nose up at it. Perhaps because accepting that gift has been made compulsory.
Clearly school curricula, policies and procedures sometimes are out of step with the world these kid's live in. Nevertheless, schooling still provides a precious means of life enhancement. For instance, many of the kids I saw rejecting it were African-American. That's particularly ironic. Slave owners rigorously opposed any attempts to school their "property." They also stifled any attempts by that "property" to learn on their own. These slave-masters knew that an education is potentially liberating. Yet descendants of these slaves too often reject the opportunity to gain an education via schooling. So much the worse for them.
Whatever our school's shortcomings, and they are many, they still offer one of the best opportunities many kids will ever have. But this opportunity can only by seized by youngsters who eschew self-pity, focus sharply on their own agency, and take full responsibility for their own behavior. Ironically, the well meaning sympathy of the excessively "woke" undermines that. In trying to be helpful, they do the opposite. How sad!
