Disruptive (Re)memberings: Anti-Blackness and the Mental Health of Black Millennial Womxn Pursuing Postsecondary Education

• In Event: Voices of Disruption: (Co)Constructing Educational Possibilities Through Intersectional Collaborative Frameworks of Resistance and Imaginings

Abstract

Explicitly utilizing an “endarkened feminist epistemology” (Dillard, 2010), the purpose of this study is to identify in what ways anti-Blackness impacts the mental health of Black Millennial Womxn (BMW) pursuing post-secondary education. Millennials are a demographic of people born between 1982 and 1996 and are the largest generation after the baby boomers (U.S Census, 2015). Though they are the second largest generation to date, millennials are the most diverse adult generation than any other in the United States (U.S Census, 2015). In addition, millennials complete more higher education degrees compared to other generations, with millennial womxn in particular being the highest educated at 43% (Bialik and Fry, 2019). In 2015, 44.2 percent of millennials identified as non-white, and “the nation’s black or African-American population totaled 45.7 million as of July 1, 2014, up by 578,000, or 1.3 percent, since July 1, 2013” (U.S Census, 2015).

Historically, having better access to humxn rights, healthcare, education, employment, agriculture, and technology, BMW don’t experience the benefits of these educational and professional advancements as their non-Black and non-female peers. This demographic is gravely impacted by present day forms of anti-Blackness as a result of “the aftermath of slavery” (Sharpe, 2016), or the ongoing colonization and experiences by the generations before them dating back to the slave trade over 400 hundred years ago (Kaba, 2008). Examining the under-researched consequences of present-day colonial struggles and highlighting the narratives that are often disregarded in education research from BMW pursuing post-secondary education, this study provides an intentional emphasis on addressing anti-Blackness in education and the ways anti-Blackness affects Black womxn’s mental health while obtaining a degree in higher education. I argue, if educators and researchers don’t examine how trauma impacts Black students, Black girls particularly will become Black womxn who believe they are “defective and lacking” (Lasdon-Billings, 2009). This belief, then, has more potential than not, to be passed down to their children and impact the educational experiences of their families for generations. In exploring the impact that anti-Blackness has on BMW pursuing post-secondary education and honoring their humanity, Critical Race Feminism (CRF) will be the theoretical framework to intentionally position Black womxn as a primary focus (Crenshaw, 1989). To critically examine the systematic structures of anti-Blackness on BMW, ethnographic methods grounded in “Black Participatory Research” (BPR) will be the integrated research approach and ethic in order to conduct a study rich with oral history (Drame & Irby, 2016). Global anti-Blackness, heteronormativity, and misogynism are the preliminary findings that have implications for student trauma outside schools.

Presenting the narratives of BMW pursuing post-secondary education is necessary so that false propaganda such as the “Achievement Gap '' aren’t justifications for the continued educational oppression of Black people within education research. It’s necessary for educators and researchers globally within urban school contexts to understand the impact that generational, racial trauma, has on Black womxn in education, and how ongoing and global Anti-Blackness affects this particular group when accessing services from established mental health systems.

Author

• Perpetual A. Hayfron, University of Massachusetts - Boston