ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how neoliberal education reform injured a Strong Black professor. Neoliberal education reforms have been most evident since the advent of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act in 2001. Neoliberal reforms have also oozed into the university, masquerading under names like, "consumer-driven", "move-on-when-ready", and "Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education for the global economy". Many of these reforms take precedence in public education, their usual guise involving claims of improving outcomes for marginalized students. For young Black males, life in the US often consists of traumatizing events that hinder the achievement of positive cultural identity and self-respect, and public education all too frequently results in failure. Psychologist Brett Litz and his colleagues have defined moral injury as an outcome of "perpetrating, failing to prevent, bearing witness to, or learning about acts that transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations".
