Racial and Ethnic Lenses: Understanding the Perspectives and Activism of Girls of Color

• In Event: Black and Brown Immigrant Youth Constructing and Negotiating Identity in Canada and the United States

Abstract

With attention to the experiences of girls of color, educational researchers address the benefit of outlets where they can unpack the racism, sexism, and other dimensions of oppression they experience in schools and society more broadly (Brown, 2021; Carter Andrews et al., 2019; Player, 2021). This study builds on the existing scholarship by investigating how girls of color from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds make sense of and draw from the learning experiences cultivated within a critical social justice course (CSJC). Given the essentialization of the experiences of girls of color, this critical qualitative inquiry examines how their varied socio-political realities influence their interpretations of oppressive ideologies, systems, and structures.
I draw on politicizing socialization (Brown, 2007) and intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991) as theoretical frames that are attentive to how social location and systems of oppression shape the experiences of girls of color. Politicizing socialization operates as a lens to pursue inquiries concerning the influences, knowledge, and skills girls of color utilize to make sense of their interpersonal and institutional interactions. Through an intersectional lens, I explore how the sociopolitical identities of girls of color inform how they process and employ insights from social justice curricula that aims to deepen their understanding of critical concepts and the manifestation of various forms of oppression in the U.S. and globally.
The insights from this study emerge from my analysis of the multimodal journals (Google Docs and Instagram stories) and a series of interviews conducted with four high school girls of color (Two Black and Two South Asian) that were participants in a critical social justice course (CSJC). The findings highlight the essential role the girls' racial and ethnic backgrounds play in forming ways of knowing that are cultivated through socialization within their families and cultural communities. For example, South Asian girls of Bengali descent are often raised in Islamic households. In this case, as an ethnic identity, Bengali offers religious and cultural insights that inform how South Asian girls understand and navigate the U.S. cultural, social, and political milieu. When ethnicity is collapsed and conflated with race, students' diverse realities and the circumstances that impact their lives are not fully considered.
One significant finding concerns how the girls' immigrant identities inform their awareness of and inclination to address and encourage action against injustice occurring internationally. Given their "imagining[s] of the past, present, and the future span national borders" (Vellanki and Prince, 2018, p. 314), the girls' transnational identities, along with insights gained through the CSJC influence their sophisticated understanding of global issues. Additionally, as Black and South Asian girls, they were privy to various manifestations of anti-blackness in their communities. However, their learning in the CSJC strengthened their ability to identify, interrogate and challenge it; this agentic mindset was visible in their social media stories and posts. The findings from this study have implications for educators and researchers with commitments to cultivating educational spaces where girls of color feel seen, heard, and understood.

Author

• Tashal Brown, University of Rhode Island
  Presenting Author