Educational Spaces at the Nexus of Black and Brown Families' Suburban Place-Making

• In Event: Reimagining Suburbia: Youth of Color, Family, and Community Activism for Educational Justice

Abstract

Purpose

Claiming re-districting a New Orleans suburban school district would not strengthen Latinx voice and could weaken African American power, the Jefferson Parish school board voted to turn down the proposed plan in November 2021. This decision came despite 2020 U.S Census Data which showed pre-existing districts and catchment zones were increasingly racially and socioeconomically segregated (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020). As suburban Black and Brown populations steadily increase (Boyles, 2015; Diamond et al., 2021; Lewis-McCoy, 2014; Posey-Maddox, 2017), suburban school districts shaped by White supremacy and racism face contestation through Black and Brown placemaking via resistance and organizing (Boyles, 2015; Hunter et al., 2016). Focusing on community and parent organizing around Jefferson Parish’s redistricting plan, this paper explores how Black and Latinx families claim educational spaces as a form of suburban placemaking.

Theoretical Framework

This paper brings together two concepts of ‘place’ (hooks, 1989; Hunter et al., 2016) and is guided by critical theories of race and space (McKittrick, 2011; McKittrick & Woods, 2007). I conceptualize Black and Brown families advocating for re-districting as engaging in suburban homeplace-making (hooks, 1989; Hunter et al., 2016). Hunter and colleagues (2016) state that ‘Black placemaking’ emphasizes processes through which Black communities’ meanings and social ties create sites of endurance, belonging, and resistance (Ewing, 2018; Hunter et al., 2016). Used with bell hooks’ (1989) ‘homeplace,’ this paper shows how Black and Brown communities that have been historically marginalized in suburban spaces strategically use the margins to creatively resist and reimagine suburban school systems as places where they feel they belong. I analyze both formal (explicit) and informal (implicit) forms of homeplace-making and how organizing strategies changed after the school board’s decision.

Methods & Data Sources

This paper draws from in-depth qualitative interviews with parents, community organizers, and school board members. These interviews are part of my larger dissertation project, which broadly explores belonging and community-building in Southern suburban schools. Participants lived in one of three neighborhoods in Jefferson Parish, all three of which were predominantly Black or Latinx. Participants were asked about their neighborhood and school communities, how these places have changed, the re-districting plan, and conceptions of belonging.

Scholarly Significance

Although more scholars are considering the impact of increased socioeconomic and racial diversity in suburban schools, less attention has been given to suburbs in the Deep South and Gulf South. While attention has been given to the reforms of New Orleans’ schools immediately and long after the landfall of Hurricane Katrina (Buras, 2015; Dixson et al., 2015; Lay, 2022), less attention has been given to the effects of displacement and dispersal in the greater metropolitan area, generally. This project shows how Black and Brown families simultaneously acclimate, (re)develop a sense of belonging, and build community in suburban schools. Through these processes, Black and Brown families reshape Southern suburban geographies originally constructed through a White spatial imaginary (Boyles, 2020; Lipsitz, 2007).

Author

• Hanora Tracy, Tulane University
  Presenting Author