Your Heroes Are Our Monsters: Black Lives Matter and the Impact on School Communities

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Division G Roundtable Session 4

Abstract

In American history, persons who identify as White have overwhelmingly been positioned as dominant while everyone else have been positioned as other. It only makes sense that the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement/ideology as situated in school settings as it is a movement grounded in giving a voice to the voiceless. Education researchers should use the BLM movement in order to unpack and address the systemic oppression interwoven in American school systems. Far too often when BLM is mentioned, most people immediately conjure images of urban students (because people consistently equate urban with Black). However, we must expand the paradigm and examine, critique and challenge the ways Black students are marginalized in all school settings.

Author

• Adell Cothorne, Loyola University Maryland