#BlackEmotionsMatter Too: Learning From Black Students' Emotionalities to Deliberate Controversial Issues

• In Event: New Approaches to Humanizing and Relational Engagement With Public Issues in Social and Civic Education

Abstract

The purpose of this paper demonstrates how Black students associated their interpretations of emotions represented in pictures of the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) to emotions they currently experience when faced with racial oppression. By comparing, contrasting, and reflecting upon their interpretations of emotions from pictures of the CRM and the emotions they experience when faced with racial oppression, the students were able to deliberate about the viability of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement (BLM). Where the literature typically focuses on how to prepare teachers (Pace, 2019), or offers strategies to teachers (King et al., 2018) on how to facilitate controversial discussions, this study offers an opportunity to learn from how Black students relied on their understanding of their emotions to guide these discussions.

Findings from this study are grounded within two theoretical frameworks: Black affective responses to white supremacy (DuBois, 1965; Fanon, 1967/2008), and Lozada et al.’s (2022) Integrative Model to Black Adolescents Emotional Development (IMBAED). The former theorized the emotional responses of Black people living in a society built on white supremacy, as exampled through DuBois’ notion of double consciousness, which argues Black people are “always looking at one’s self” (p. 44) through the eyes of a racist white society which creates a complex set of feelings—a “two-ness”. IMBAED provides an understanding of how Black children’s emotions are shaped by their understandings and experiences with racial oppression.

This study was conducted with 20, Black, 11th grade high-school students in urban and rural high schools. Data sources included results from the photo interviewing of CRM pictures (Hurworth, 2004; Swalwell & Pellegrino, 2015), field notes, and focus group interviews. I transcribed and then analyzed the data using qualitative coding techniques as described by Creswell and Maietta (2002).

Though part of a larger study, this paper focuses on how students associated their interpretations of emotions displayed in pictures representing the CRM with the emotions they feel when faced with racial oppression. Overall, the students noted that the emotions in the pictures were “familiar” and “similar” to their own emotions. At the beginning of their discussions students’ opinions varied on whether a BLM was necessary, but as students deliberated on the similarities of emotions across time periods, they began to discuss and rationalize the necessity of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement. One student commented, “They feared then, and I fear now, so of course I still need to fight for my rights”. Another student questioned, “They so determined, and that’s how I be feeling too, but why do I have to be so determined about something that I am supposed to have?”

Scholars have noted that some teachers struggle with teaching controversial topics and some white teachers, in particular, struggle with teaching these topics when it relates to race and racism (Journell, 2018). This study offers a different way to hold controversial discussions by placing students and their emotions at the center of these discussions. Even more, this study expands the literature by amplifying the emotions and experiences of Black students.

Author

• Brittany Jones, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author