Naming and Navigating Racism: Latinx Students Racial Literacies via Ethnic Studies

• In Event: Towards Altermundos: Racial Literacies and Racial Sense-Making of Latinx/e/o/a, Indigenous, Latin American-Origin Youth

Abstract

Introduction/Objective:
Situated within the ongoing anti-immigrant, racist-nativist sociopolitical and schooling contexts of K-12 US schools, this paper explores how working class, Latinx youth in Ethnic Studies/English Language Arts classrooms were supported with cultivating their racial literacies to name, navigate and disrupt the racial status quo in their immediate world(s).

Theoretical Framework:
Three theoretical strands guided this study. Critical race theory (CRT), provided a framework to critique the normativity of racism and White supremacy on multiple levels (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Solórzano, 1998). LatCrit, an offshoot of CRT that underscores concerns specific to Latinx-identifying people, such as language, immigration, and identity helped center the racialized experiences of students (Solórzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001). Racial literacy, a concept pertinent to pedagogical contexts and closely aligned with CRT provided a gauge to explore how students navigated hegemonic discourses and experiences of racism (Guinier, 2004).

Methods & Data Sources:
Data for this study were drawn from a year-long crit­ical ethnographic study (Carspeken, 1996) at a comprehensive high school in the southwestern US. Utilizing observation and interview protocol adapted from Rogers & Mosley’s (2006) racial literacy indicators, data were collected via participant observations (Merriam, 2009) semi-structured phenomenological interviews (Seidman, 2013) and document collection. Throughout the data collection and analysis phases, I engaged in a process of memoing (Saldaña, 2013) to document emergent themes and patterns and develop a codebook based on sensitizing concepts and emergent codes relevant to students’ racial literacies.

Findings:
Students’ racial literacies were supported across two factors: a) their structural analysis of racism as it intersects with factors such as language and citizenship status, and b) their ability to connect that analysis to engage in or towards social action. Teachers facilitated the connection between supporting students with “naming” manifestations of institutional racism and social action by engaging students in participatory action research projects. Moreover, students were provided multiple opportunities to imagine themselves as activists and to practice engaging in community responsive transformation with a direct connection to the discourse and theory they learned in their classes. Opportunities were provided through presentations by community activists/cultural workers and leaders and school-based clubs promoting community responsive social action.


Conclusion/Implications:
Given the significant role that racial literacy development plays in sustaining the revolutionary potential of secondary Ethnic Studies, this study can help inform its institutionalization across California high schools. Furthermore, this study extends the concept of racial literacy to encompass the specific racialized socio-political experiences of Latinx students at this historical moment and within the immediate context of a predominantly Latinx community in a metropolitan urban center. This study challenges watered-down conceptualizations of racial literacies and especially of underscoring how racial literacies necessarily moves beyond “race talk.” Finally, this paper extends the scholarship on racial literacies by providing a classroom-level exploration of how racial literacies that are responsive to the intersectional racialized experiences of working class Latinx youth and their communities can be fostered.

Author

• Arturo Nevárez, California State University - Stanislaus