nine - Out of breath: intersections of inequality in a time of global pandemic

Summary

Introduction

Breathing is a function so fundamental to life that most of the time its significance goes unrecognised; yet the absence of the ability to breathe freely is a reality for many. The recent global COVID-19 pandemic – which particularly affects the lungs – has exposed an intersection of pandemic and capitalism in which some bodies are affected more than others; research findings show that people of the global majority have been disproportionately impacted by coronavirus (University of Manchester, 2020). Simultaneously, the death of George Floyd, and the pain of his final words, ‘I can't breathe’, has shown how the life-breath of some humans is more valued than that of others.

This chapter draws on bell hooks’ (1994: 130) notion of critical dialogue; a practice that involves ‘individuals who occupy different locations … mapping out terrains of commonality, connection and shared concern’. For hooks coming together in the spirit of beloved community requires us to cross borders, thereby enriching each other's knowledge. As educators at either ends of the spectrum of privilege and oppression (Author A is a white female academic, and Author B an activist-writer of colour), we have used this dialogic space to explore the intersection of pandemic and inequality. By making the choice to write anonymously, we have also made a deliberate effort to detach from the ego associated with academic writing, and we invite others to adopt a similar dialogic model by which to converse as equals (privilege and structural inequalities notwithstanding).

We begin from a series of questions: Who is able to breathe? Why are some individuals afforded ‘breathing space’ and not others? What can we learn from the necropolitics of the pandemic (Mbembe and Corocoran, 2019), and how might we utilise this knowledge to take action for affirmative social change in education? We then explore the role of education in making change and conclude by reflecting on the role of dialogic processes in furthering and enriching understanding.