How Does It Feel to Be a Crisis? Understanding the Reading Experiences of Black Boys

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Bringing Integrity Back to Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Education: CRT as Both Theory and Methodology

Abstract

Purposes
While the amount of research studying Black boys and their reading experiences is vast, not enough literature highlights racial biases inherent in literacy instruction. Early research attributed the achievement deficit (Ladson-Billings, 2006) to cultural deficits, believing that minoritized students’ achievement level was a byproduct of cultural deficiencies that placed minority students at a disadvantage (Deutsch, 1963; Hess & Shipman, 1965). Some scholars have attributed the achievement gap to socio-economic factors that deprive certain students of resources needed to succeed in school (Magnuson, K. A., & Duncan, G. J., 2006; Borman & Dowling, 2010), while others have identified the disparity in educational outcomes as a result of school segregation (Chetty, Hendren, & Katz, 2015; Reardon, 2015; Wodtke, Harding, & Elwert, 2011).
Drawing on critical race theory (CRT), this study examines the myriad of ways in which race, particularly anti-blackness, has shaped the overall landscape of literacy instruction. Suggested texts/novels and standards that are used to teach literacy and assess the reading ability of Black students are rooted in whiteness and Euro-centric values, ensuring that any student whose literacy practices conflict with standards are considered non-readers (Kirkland, 2011; Weilbacher, 2012).
Theoretical Framework
Critical race theory centers the experiential knowledge of minority students with respect to race and race relations (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001). This theory is used to critically examine how race and racism impact Black students (Yosso, 2005). CRT looks beyond racism as individual acts of discrimination, understanding that race and racism represent larger institutions and systems of oppression based on the social construct of race (Stovall, 2005). As Delgado and Stefanic (1993) note, CRT is ground on five core tenets: (1) racism is ordinary, (2) race is a social construct, (3), interest convergence, (4) the way we think about race should be intersectional and anti-essential, and (5) storytelling. I use the five tenets of CRT to guide this study and to understand how race and racism specifically impacts the reading experiences of Black boys, including shaping how they are viewed as non-readers and how they can use counter storytelling to reject essentialist narratives about how Black boys engage in reading.
In addition to the five tenets, this study relies on the three primary objectives of CRT, as noted by Parker and Lynn (2002): (1) to present stories about discrimination from the viewpoint of people of color; (2) to argue for the eradication of racial subjugation while simultaneously acknowledging that race is a social construct; and (3) to deal with other matters of dissimilarity, such as sexuality and class, and any injustices experienced by communities.
Significance
Using their stories and experience to foreground my understanding of Black boys’ reading experiences, I argue for a reconceptualization of the way reading experiences are viewed and interpreted, recognizing that current forms of reading assessment are racially and culturally subjective. CRT is used to explain how race, gender, and class have systematically created reading experiences and opportunities that are inequitable for African American males.

Author

• Mario Worlds, University of Florida