Triple Consciousness and Black Female Students: A Literature Review

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-4 - How/Am I Different? Identity Construction Across Categories of Difference

Abstract

Historical and contemporary literature reveals that African American girls and women in education are operating within an intersection of race and gender politics. W.E.B. Du Bois (1903) argues that African Americans function within a double-consciousness. African American women arguably operate within a “triple consciousness” because of the added lens of gender oppression. (Gomez, 2007) As an institution that is not neutral of cultural messages, education presents a lens to explore this juncture.
This paper reviews the literature on the educational and broader social issues faced by African American female students. My analysis has revealed that representations of African American females fall within five themes: questioned humanity, questioned femininity, hypervisibility and hyperinvisibility, and attempts to revise the pathological narratives.

Author

• Alyssa Jeannine Elmore, The Ohio State University