How Schools Make Race: Teaching Latinx Racialization

• In Event: Latinidad, Representation, and Visibility

Abstract

This presentation discusses how schools “make race” and define the Latinx group by teaching ideas about race and delineating/blurring societal racialized boundaries. Drawing from a qualitative study, I show how a secondary-level bilingual-education program, intentionally or unintentionally, (1) teaches about race and racism; (2) positions Latinidad in relation to Blackness, Whiteness, Indigeneity, and Asianness; and (3) structurally reproduces racial patterns, thus reinforces racial hierarchies. I find that by not teaching about the social process of making race and struggling to challenge the unjust distribution of resources, the program fell short in providing educational equity. I further argue that the program contributes to constructing the Latinx group by reinforcing the Spanish language as the signature boundary that delineates the Latinx racial group/category. This work connects race, Latinx education, ethnic studies, and bilingual education, and offers implications for educators and school communities.

Author

• Laura Carolina Chavez-Moreno, UCLA