Solidarity for Survival: The Literate Lives of Black Girls and the Curriculum They Resist

• In Event: 31.026 - Black Life and Its (Curriculum) Matters

Abstract

For this paper I ask, what role does school sanctioned curriculum play in the development of identities amongst Black girls? I contend that Black girls developed a solidarity with each other out of necessity. They needed to know that they were understood, cared for, valued, and loved—and it was through each other that these needs were affirmed. The solidarity they nurtured resulted in a sisterhood that was a necessary part of their identities. It was through the sisterhood (Mohanty, 2003) that they resisted curriculum, dominant perceptions of their race, culture, ethnicities, and their Black girlhood.

Author

• Donna-Marie Cole-Malott, Lebanon Valley College