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Black Adolescents and Counternarrative Production

Sun, April 10, 8:15 to 9:45am, Marriott Marquis, Floor: Level Two, Marquis Salon 17

Abstract

The second presentation will discuss Black adolescents and their counternarratives. Solózarno and Yosso (2002) define counternarratives as a “method of telling the stories of those people whose experiences are not often told” in order to “shatter complacency, challenge the dominant discourse on race, and further the struggle for racial reform” (p. 32). The counternarratives of Black adolescents are important, since the master narrative on Black adolescents would have us believe they are uncontrollable inside and outside schools, and that they willingly sit by in silence as their personhood is run asunder. According to Allen (2015), the master narratives about Black adolescent males typically center on educational failure and “perpetuate deficit views of Black male culture, that erroneously portray Black males as lacking normative intellectual and behavioral qualities needed to be successful” (p. 210). Examples like Jaylen Bledsoe, a Black teen who started a technology company at just 12 years old, contest such popular, essentializing mischaracterizations of Black adolescents as uneducable, irresponsible, and inclined to criminality. Though the case of Bledsoe may seem exceptional, instances of Black adolescent brilliance abound. Thus, his example, as well as others, are important in demonstrating the valuable role of Black adolescents producing counternarratives to negative perceptions about who they are and what they can or cannot do.

Importantly, counternarratives can play a pivotal role in transforming manifestations of “race, racism, and power” in the United States (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012, p. 3). Although racism continues to shape the 21st century, Bell (1992) observed that, “the absence of visible [Jim Crow Era] signs of discrimination creates an atmosphere of racial neutrality that encourages whites to believe that racism is a thing of the past” (p. 374). This presentation follows the charge of Matsuda (1987) who encouraged scholars to look “to the bottom,” or to communities of people of color, for direction in the fight against racial injustice. By collecting, creating, and disseminating counterstories, we can learn from, and uncover valuable knowledge about, Black adolescents, who are often seen as “threatening, arrogant, disdainful of authority, and uncontrollable except by force or removal” (Love, 2014, p. 293). Black youth produce counternarratives across societal spaces--both in and out of school--and this presentation will address ways in which educators can seek out, celebrate, center, and facilitate the production of counternarratives in school and community. It will also highlight how the counternarratives of Black adolescents can demonstrate forms of “resiliency as resistance” (Allen, 2015, p. 219), or a determination to navigate and overcome racial barriers to success.

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