What If We All Wore Hoodies? Teacher Silencing of Black Male Voices

• In Event: (Re)Teaching Trayvon Martin: Critical Pedagogy for Racial Justice and Human Freedom

Abstract

Shortly after the Trayvon Martin murder, I asked Juquon, a high school senior, what would happen if we all wore hoodies as protest. He responded: “We – all the young Black men – would be shot just like him, but your White ass would probably be fine.” The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a critical race theory-framed study of three African American high school students and their experiences with urban teachers. In particular, after the ruling on the Trayvon Martin murder justified the killing of yet another young Black man, these three young men indicated that they wanted to research the role of urban teachers in silencing their cultural voices, in contributing to the context that devalued their very lives.
As such, these co-researchers and the author developed interview questions and writing prompts that elicited responses that were then collaboratively framed within the context of critical race theory. Using voice-centered research methods that reflect Derrick Bell’s (1998) modeling of critical race theory method as storytelling, and Paulo Freire’s (1973) modeling of liberatory practice, this paper centers the voices of three African American male high school students and their interactions with teachers.
Through initial discussions, we agreed to use four Critical Race Theory (CRT) assumptions as a guide to make sense of student responses (Knaus, 2009; Ladson-Billings, 1999):
1) Racism is everywhere and all the time
2) The purpose of schools is to silence students of color
3) Storytelling and voice are the way to transform 1 and 2;
4) White interests will attempt to colonize every effort to center students of color
Findings suggest that these students learned through critical pedagogy how to survive global violence, and recognize, navigate, and dismiss the institutional negativity framed as “good teaching.” Using tools from critical pedagogy, these students co-analyzed their own narratives and interviews and applied the above CRT lens, finding that their teachers interact with them through three lenses (exoticism, special education, and fear). They additionally found that their voices are continually exoticized and colonized by their teachers, who ultimately use their voices against them or justify that they are unique, unlike their peers.
This paper is significant because it demonstrates student-initiated youth participatory action and critical race theory-framed research methods, and suggests the transformative nature of critical pedagogy. In addition, these student researchers suggest that CRT in educational research must recommit to grassroots community activism committed to not only exposing racism and other forms of inequality, but also establishing innovative youth-led practices for combating institutional and interpersonal racism and other forms of subjugation. Implications for educators include challenging racist notions of effective teaching, valuing affirming teachers that nurture Black youth, and an institutional focus on teaching navigational skills.

Author

• Christopher B. Knaus, University of Washington - Tacoma