Tensions Between Insider/Outsider Activism of Black and Brown Students at a Predominantly White Institution

• In Event: Working Within the Tensions: Exploring Dilemmas in Participatory and Humanizing Research With Young People

Abstract

This paper explores how 20 Black and Brown student activists negotiate their activist identity in and outside of formal leadership positions at a predominately white institution (PWI). We utilize the narratives of these activists to complicate and expand the sociological conception of “institutional activism” (Banaszak 2005; Pierson 1994; Pettinicchio,2012; Santoro and McGuire 1997; Tilly 1978) by pulling on the traditions of critical race education theorists (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002) and critical civic engagement scholars (Ginwright, 2002; Cohen, 2009; Kirshner, 2015). We argue for moving beyond binary distinctions that locate activism outside of formal institutional roles or that perceive officially sanctioned positions in student government as merely ameliorist or tokenistic. By pulling on both the normative sociological and critical educational frameworks to discuss insider/outsider activism of Black and Brown students operating in white dominate spaces, this paper seeks to expand the conversation about youth of color operating as political agents in contemporary social movements.
We draw on a combined civic engagement framework (Ginwright, 2002; Cohen, 2009; Kirshner, 2015) and sociological conception of activist insiders (Banaszak 2005; Pierson 1994; Pettinicchio,2012; Santoro & McGuire 1997; Tilly 1978) to situate and discuss the narratives of Black and Brown activists. We utilize the narratives of activists to explore and analyze where youth of color are pushing the boundaries of traditional activism and civicness in ways that are reflective of their passions, personal interest, and socio-political time in history.
This study is a descriptive qualitative study, which utilizes ethnographic methods of open ended interviews and participant observations, to center the voices and perspectives of the research participants. Therefore, we centralizing participant narratives as the starting point of our analysis (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007). Our commitment to amplifying, preserving, and centralizing the voices of Black and Brown students is driven by a CRT framework which we use to analyze the data and distill findings. We analyzed interview narratives before, during, and after transcription. Interview data is the primary source of analysis; however, information gathered from field notes documenting observations and digital artifacts is also analyzed.
We observed that some students operated as both insider and outsider activist for example by participating in formal positions such as student government while also participating in protests on the same campus. Similarly, we observed activism efforts that originated outside of formal spaces (such as protective policies for DACA and DREAMER students) also become the focus of insider activist operating in university sanctioned positions of leadership. These amongst other examples break down the boundaries between insider and outsider forms of civicness.
This paper pushes the boundaries of normative sociological research on social movements and the role of insider activists within those movements. Furthermore, by analyzing contemporary activism by Black and Brown college students, this work is significant for its timeliness and the ways it complicates narratives about youth of color as disengaged from civic life when in fact they are straddling multiple arenas of engagement.

Authors

• Ginnie Logan, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Brian A Lightfoot, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Ana Julia Contreras, University of Colorado - Boulder