Racial Healing Collective: Healing, Equity, and Justice with BIPOC Youth in Virtual Spaces

• In Event: Together Apart: Online Community, Healing, and Racial Justice During the Pandemic

Abstract

While the dominant U.S. school narrative during the global pandemic is about "learning loss," BIPOC youth have many pathways to learning and education beyond the scope of schools that have a history of under-serving them. The Racial Healing Collective, a BIPOC affinity program for middle-school youth is an out-of-school intergenerational space rooted in deep listening for youth in an ever-changing reality that continues to act upon, but not with them. Grounded in Healing Justice, Transformative Justice, and YPAR, this paper explores how BIPOC youth are making meaning of racial justice, racial trauma, and racial healing in their schools and communities; and how traditional school norms are disrupted in our virtual spaces.

Authors

• Jamila Lyiscott, University of Massachusetts – Amherst

• Olivia McNeill, Brown University

• Sofia Meadows-Muriel, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

• Jayna Tavarez, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

• Keisha L. Green, University of Massachusetts - Amherst