Sixth-Grade Latina/o Youth: Voicing Their Experiences and Responses to Racial Microaggressions

• In Event: Microaggressions in the Experiences of Chicanx/Latinx Students Throughout the Educational Pipeline

Abstract

Racial microaggressions are prevalent in today’s society and have the power to affect lived experiences of People of Color. Although previous studies have explored experiences and responses to racism, most have been done at the post-secondary level. Therefore, this study explores how Latina/o students in grade 6th experience racism. Utilizing a Latina/o Critical Theory analysis and racial microaggression analytical tool, this qualitative study explores how students experience and respond to covert racism and the effects it yields. It also seeks to explore whether class plays a role on these experiences and responses. The study revealed that: (1) regardless of social class, 6th grade Latina/o youth experience and response to racial microaggressions the same way, (2) children are able to describe an internalization of white supremacy, and (3) although students attempt to resist racial marginalization, their responses yield to subordination because they do not have the tools, or strategies, to help them resist in transformative and liberating ways.

Author

• Dolores Lopez, University of California - San Diego