Rectifying Black Latino Institutional Education Data: A Case Study of Erasure and Advocacy in New York City

• In Event: Visualizing AfroLatinos/Black Latinos in Education Research: Illuminating Complex Inequities for Policy and Practice

Abstract

1. Objectives or purposes: Most studies on educational equity for Latinos/Hispanics provide outcomes for Latinos/Hispanics as a monolith, a de facto race. This results in less knowledge about racial inequity in education within Latino communities. The purpose of this presentation is to share the work of the AfroLatino Forum, a grassroots advocacy organization demanding recognition and visibility of AfroLatin@s in New York Public School data. This presentation will illuminate the urgent need for precise data collection of Afrolatino individuals, particularly within the educational sphere. 2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework: Centering AfroLatinx ontologies, epistemologies and methods (Jimenez Roman & Flores, 2010; Ayala, 2023; Acosta, 2015; Irizarry 2015) we engage in what Kimberlé Crenshaw (1995) calls mapping the margins. Theoretical guidepost and we also draw upon other intersectional critical race feminisms (Acosta 2015) as well as QuantCrit (López et al., 2018). 3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry: Building on the insights of AfroLatinx scholars (Jimenez-Roman & Flores 2010; Dinzey Flores et al., 2019; Hernandez; Ayala (2023); Irizarry (2015); Acosta; López et al., Puente & Velez (2024), Garcia & Mayorga, 2018), we provide an overview of the landscape of AfroLatinx knowledge production on inequities and implications for education policy and practices. 4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials: Data come from secondary sources that employ qualitative and quantitative data to examine education for Latinos. By examining a real-world authoethnographic account of the executive director of the AfroLatino Forum advocacy efforts in public school district in the Northeast, we expose the stark disparities in racial categorization. A neighboring school predominantly identified students as white, while another, just blocks away, labeled their student body primarily as Black. The Bronx, as the only majority borough of color in New York City, serves as a microcosm of this issue. 5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view: This study shows why a QuanCrit intersectional framework is a normative and ethical principle in education research. The findings from this study have implications for equity-minded policy that target Latinos/Hispanics in schools, namely data collection, analysis and presentation as well as curriculum. 6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work: Removing barriers for Latinx student success, requires illuminating intersectional inequities as a first step for advancing transformational equity at the individual, institutional and structural levels across institutions of higher education. Narratives and representations of “the problem” affect distribution of resources to impacted communities. It is imperative that we adopt intersectionality as inquiry and praxis for interrogating and eliminating inequities in education for Latinos (LatinoIsNotaRace 2020). Our discussion will underscore the profound impact of inaccurate data on educational statistics and advocate for the imperative of comprehensive data collection to inform equitable policies and practices.

Author

• Josue Perea, AfroLatino Forum