"Now We Have to Somehow Un-Fuck Everybody": The Hate U Give, Preservice English Teachers, and Activism in the Post-Truth Age

• In Event: 28.072 - Literary Study as Transformative Practice in a Post-Truth Age

Abstract

Purposes: Tupac Shakur's (1971-1996) street philosophy, "The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody" (THUG LIFE) provides the title and informs the storyline of Thomas's (2017) award-winning young adult novel The Hate U Give. This poster shows how preservice English teachers in an arts-informed, justice-oriented English methods course negotiated conflicting and widely circulating narratives about adolescence, activism, and race (and their intersections) in relation to the text, current events, and their future classrooms.

Theoretical Framework: We take as one aim of the Adolescent Literature course and our poster "to reimagine ELA classrooms as revolutionary sites that disrupt racial injustice while striving to transform the world and humanize the lives of Black youth" (Johnson, Jackson, Stovall, & Baszile, 2017). Three theories inform our research and practice: the Youth Lens (Petrone, Sarigianides, & Lewis, 2015; Trites, 2000), racializing assemblages (Weheliye, 2014), and arts-informed activism (Dewhurst, 2014; Greene, 1995). Dewhurst argued:
Throughout human history, art has been used to influence political and cultural understanding, attitudes, and behaviors....[A]rt-in all its multiple forms-has been a powerful tool for social critique and action. (Dewhurst, 2014, p. 1)

Modes of Inquiry: This is an arts-informed (Dewhurst, 2014; Greene, 2005), post-qualitative inquiry (Jackson & Mazzei, 2012; Lather & St. Pierre, 2013; St. Pierre, 2011) responsive to the wisdom of decolonizing and humanising research (e.g. Gerrard, Rudolph, & Sriprakash, 2016; Paris & Winn, 2013; Patel 2016). We focus on the emergence of racial justice activism with/for youth within an English methods course as participants engaged with literature.

Data Produced: Over two years of the study, we collected: audiotapes of all small and large group discussions focusing on The Hate U Give and/or activism; in addition, we collected all related course artifacts, including visual verbal journals, open mic performances, lesson plans, and essays.

Substantiated Conclusions: Most white and Black preservice English teachers across both years of the study came to the course with relatively narrow and often uninterrogated conceptions of youth, race, and activism fueled by media portrayals (see Sealey-Ruiz & Greene, 2015; Sleeter, 1993). Amidst their engagement with literary texts such as The Hate U Give, arts-informed methods, and critical lenses of youth, race, and activism, many participants demonstrated shifts regarding their place in material-discursive social relations. We demonstrate a few shifts in our poster.

Scholarly Significance: In our politically conservative area in the Deep South, challenging topics such as race are typically banned from the classroom and make their way in only through particular texts (such as To Kill a Mockingbird), frequently read without critical attention to race (see Patel, 2016) thereby reproducing the status quo of racial inequality. Discussions of police shooting unarmed Black citizens, widely reported in the news, rarely if ever make there way into public school classrooms in our area. Our poster demonstrates how interactions with texts such as The Hate U Give in conjunction with critical theories of youth, race, and activism can re-orient future teachers toward the possibilities of "unfucking everybody," starting with imagining that is possible to discuss these topics in schools.

Author

• Shelly Melchior, University of Alabama