Youth of Color in Suburban Schools

• In Event: Antiracist Student Activism in Suburban Schools

Abstract

While much is known about the experiences of youth of color attending urban schools, we know much less about their experiences traversing schools and communities in suburban neighborhoods. The last thirty years have brought significant changes to suburbs, primarily driven by non-White populations (Frasure-Yokley, 2015; Frey, 2018) and increases in poverty (Kneebone & Berube, 2013). Despite these shifts, antiquated understandings of suburban schools and communities persist. Narratives of suburbs continue to frame them as idyllic communities composed of White, heteronormaative, middle-class families (Lacy, 2016; Nicholaides & Wiese, 2016; Strauss, 2014; Tongson, 2011). Similarly, suburban schools are framed as “good” given the perceived resources they possess, yet this rendering is only partially accurate (Lewis & Diamond, 2015; Lewis-McCoy, 2014). This panel takes up the “good” suburban high school imbedded in “ideal” suburban contexts outside of Des Moines, Iowa to complicate what Rhodes and Warkentien (2017) call the “suburban package” to interrogate who benefits from and how youth of color are impacted and enact their agency to fight for socially just outcomes.

As youth of color continue to enroll in high numbers in suburban schools, it is important that we center their experiences to enact meaningful and transformative outcomes. It is important to center their voices and agency as much can be learned as educators grapple with the changing demographics of their schools. Current literature delineates the struggles of school district responses to demographic change (Holme, Diem, & Welton, 2014; Turner, 2020) and the ways in which those with privilege hoard opportunities (Frankenberg & Orfield, 2012; Lewis-Diamond, 2015; Lewis-McCoy, 2014). Moreover, when issues of social justice are considered, all too often reform efforts still conform to the needs and desires of white supremacy and ultimately continue to blame youth of color for their supposed shortcomings (Chapman, 2013; Turner, 2020; Welton, Diem, & Holme, 2015). These efforts fail, because they continue to adhere to white, middle-class ways of doing school and rarely consider what those on the margins can contribute, particularly in this current sociopolitical moment (Rodgers et al., 2017; Mirra & Garcia, 2020; Rodriguez & Gonzalez Ybarra, 2020) when it is important to remember that suburbs are not apolitical spaces (Carpio et al., 2011).The efforts of youth in and out of schools is evidence of that.

This panel seeks to learn from youth and how they mobilize and make sense of the tensions and contradictions of their work. It is important that in an effort to understand youth through asset-based frameworks, that we also do not uncritically glorify them (Clay, 2019). Moreover, little is known about how youth are engaged on social justice issues in suburban contexts. The work of the youth of this panel helps deepen our understanding in suburban locales.

Author

• Gabriel Rodriguez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign