"Pero yo pienso que You Can Be Proud": Exploring Counterstories From Latinx Youth in Wisconsin

• In Event: 21.037 - Centering Community Knowledge and Counterstories Across Community and School Spaces

Abstract

Purpose
Scholars have demonstrated the importance of grounding research and knowledge in the perspectives and lived experiences of People of Color to challenge racial marginalization and work towards social justice (Delgado Bernal, 2002; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). In today’s “post-truth” era, when facts have been dismissed and emotions have been manipulated to regularly scapegoat marginalized populations, such understandings have become all the more crucial. With the goal of “talking back” (Delgado & Stefanic, 2000) to the increasingly hostile discourses and policies towards Latinx immigrant populations, this paper examines counterstories from a group of Latinx emergent bilinguals in a small, postindustrial Wisconsin city. These counterstories demonstrate the immense resilience and resistance these students possessed in the face of bias and injustice and offer potential spaces for transformative change.

Theoretical Framework, Methods, and Data Sources
This paper uses Critical Race Theory (CRT) to analyze the experiences of Latinx emergent bilinguals in a mid-size high school in a small, postindustrial Wisconsin city. CRT uses historical legal cases involving immigrants, Native Americans, and African Americans to demonstrate the historical oppression of People of Color in the U.S. and to illustrate that racism is a “normal” and “not aberrant” part of American society (Delgado & Stefanic, 2000; Matsuda, 1991). In education, CRT has been used to provide voice to the inequitable educational experiences of People of Color and to “talk back” to dominant narratives of meritocracy (Dixson & Rousseau, 2005; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995).
Data for this ethnographic study was collected during the 2014-2015 school year and included participant observations, semi-structured interviews, and artifact analysis. Participants included six students, four teachers, and four administrators. Student participants ranged in ages from 15 to 18, were currently receiving English Language services, and either self-identified as Mexican or Mexican American. Data analysis involved a combination of thematic and inductive coding of field notes, interview transcripts, researcher memos, and artifacts (Saldaña, 2012).

Results and Scholarly Significance
Analysis of participant counterstories reveals a racially hostile environment that othered Latinx students. Students reported being bullied for speaking Spanish, being immigrants, or attending English Language classes. However, in response to these discriminatory practices, participants displayed resistance through asset-oriented understandings of bilingualism and immigrant bravery. I connect these findings to the rising tensions in the River City community over deindustrialization, demographic shifts, and school funding cuts, and argue that River City’s white residents used mechanisms of white supremacy to assert their dominance over the “undeserving” Latinx foreigners in response to economic struggles and social uncertainty.
While the 2016 Presidential election has drawn significant attention to the needs and experiences of poor whites in rural and postindustrial communities, the experiences of Latinxs and other People of Color in such contexts has been largely overlooked. This work adds to our limited understanding of the educational experiences of Latinx students in postindustrial communities, highlights the need to address racial marginalization and oppression in these contexts, and offers powerful mechanisms of resistance (linguistic and ethnic pride) as frameworks to contest marginalization and advance social justice goals.

Author

• Bailey B. Smolarek, University of Wisconsin - Madison