ERIC Number: EJ1235199
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 35
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1559-9035
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The Black Literacies of Urban High School Youth Countering Antiblackness in the Context of Neoliberal Multiculturalism
Coles, Justin A.
Journal of Language and Literacy Education, v15 n2 Fall 2019
In this article, I examine how the permanent structure of antiblackness has been invisibilized by neoliberal multiculturalism. Neoliberalism in the U.S. works to disappear and disconnect Black history and suffering from the consciousness of American citizens, which causes schools and society to ineffectively address contemporary racial issues, as the issues are positioned as newly emerged, rather than connected to a deep history of racial animus. Drawing from a year-long Black Critical Theory-driven ethnography with Black girls and boys attending an urban high school, I rely on the Black literacies of the students to explicate how antiblackness functions in their schooling and societal lives in ways that counter narratives that purport that the U.S. is post-antiblackness. I analyze literacy artifacts collected in a co-created after-school space and semi-structured interview data, which unearth the capacity for Black literacies to catalyze humanizing pedagogies for educators to teach and learn through antiblackness. My analysis revealed a two-tiered process of the ways the Black urban youth resist antiblackness in a context of neoliberal multiculturalism: (1) understanding antiblackness as a historical and permanent component of U.S. life and (2) composing life in ways that resist complicity in antiblackness; refusing to be defeated by antiblackness.
Descriptors: African American History, African Americans, African American Students, Critical Theory, Social Bias, Racial Bias, Neoliberalism, Cultural Pluralism, Race, Urban Schools, High School Students, United States History, Resilience (Psychology), Political Influences, Presidents, Social Justice, Slavery, Cultural Awareness, Literacy
Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. 315 Aderhold Hall, Athens, GA 30602. Tel: 706-542-7866; Fax: 706-542-3817; e-mail: jolle@uga.edu; Web site: http://jolle.coe.uga.edu
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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