Saying Her Name as Critical Demand: English Education in the Age of Erasure

• In Event: 25.022 - From Racial Violence to Racial Justice: Praxis and Implications for English Education

Abstract

In “#Say[ing]HerName as Critical Demand,” presenter #2 (a Black female English educator) focuses on how English educators can create spaces for Black female lives and deaths. In May 2015, members of the African American Policy Forum released the #SayHerName report that provides insight into the state of Black women in the United States. #SayHerName highlights how Black women’s bodies have been misrepresented by media outlets, underserved by social services, and underprotected by the state (i.e., laws, officers of the law, and other components of the criminal justice system). The report was updated and re-released July 2015 to included the photographs and stories of Black women who were murdered. As the author of the introduction, Andrea Ritchie (African American Policy Forum, 2015) grounds the report in the longstanding history of Black women who speak up and out about Black women’s lived realities, especially our encounters with the law.
In this presentation, I merge the movement of #SayHerName with the work of decolonial and postcolonial feminists of color (Figueroa, 2015; Mendez, 2015; Kaomea, 2003, 2006), who call for critical analyses of how race, gender, and class have been collapsed into a dangerous set of identity markers for women of color. Therefore, I focus on how English Language Arts and English teacher educators can critically begin to #SayHerName by incorporating Black women’s autobiographical texts in their classrooms. This presentation offers pedagogical strategies for English educators who want to push beyond the #SayHerName hashtag and move toward more justice-oriented praxis. I reflect upon how I took up “#Say[ing]HerName” with K-12 students in a summer enrichment program that centered the lives and writings of Black women activists. The presentation also explores how I introduced pre-service teachers to digital texts about and autobiographical writings by Black women. After my reflections, the presentation will conclude with additional resources that English educators could incorporate into their classrooms and efforts to develop a decolonial feminist praxis that is critical and life-sustaining work.

Author

• Tamara T. Butler, Michigan State University