Who Am I? Let Me Tell You

• In Event: Working Toward Racial Justice in Narrative Research: #RaceJusticeNarrativeSyllabus

Abstract

In what ways might narrative research ‘teach’ minoritized populations to further marginalize ourselves and contribute to systemic injustice by following a process that trains us to attempt to erase ourselves and strive to transcend our communities for survival only to be targeted regardless of our attempts? Current attempts to follow prescribed rules and protocols do not keep us unharmed by a murderous system designed to control the narratives about us. This paper attempts to interrogate practices of narrative research that exemplify disconnection from epistemology and pedagogy, and seeks to offer a model that explores a combination of Scholarly Personal Narrative (Nash, 2004) and ‘critical raced-gendered epistemology’ (Bernal, 2002).

The interrogation and offering of this paper is in direct response to the ways that women of color – Black women in particular – are erased from the mass production of narratives surrounding systemic violence. White supremacy and patriarchy are so deeply embedded in institutions of higher education that they train Black women to follow the rules of a system that teaches us to erase ourselves as valuable by contributing narratives that are not always our own (hooks, 2015). Bernal (2002) argues that methodological and pedagogical practices are connected epistemologically (p. 115). With that in mind, how do Black women engage in narrative research that critically engages our ‘being’ in the world? Raced-gendered epistemology, along with Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN), is also utilized to challenge the rhetoric of some narrative research that strives to ‘give voice’ and ‘allow’ people to speak – people who have their own voices. This is a culture that continues to oppress black women in the ability to be heard and speak on our own will and from our own locations.

While SPN values the connection of experience and subjective experience (Nash, 2004), this paper presents a merging of SPN with raced-gendered epistemology to additionally encourage the authority and freedom of self-positioning – Black women. Not only does this serve researchers engaging in narrative research, but it also provides educators with a classroom tool that challenges students to see, understand, and express their positioning in society in a subjective form from earlier in their academic pursuits. It is a hope that the merging of SPN and critical raced-gendered epistemology will contribute to the push for critical thinking within college classrooms and a more critical understanding of ways to utilize narrative research in methodology and pedagogy.

Author

• Ebony C. Pope, University of Oklahoma