Racial Literacies Matter: The Relational Context of a Predominately White Institution
Keywords:
racial literacies, Whiteness, third space, people of color, White monoculturalismAbstract
The current political and legal violence against DEI and Black Lives Matter movement has pushed the debate on racial inequality to include academic opportunity gap, systemic injustice in schools and classrooms, and racialized gender violence. This article, Racial Literacies Matter, calls us to consider hegemonic practices and [D]discourses that are hindrances to inclusive and equitable educational environments, seeing education as a dialogical and dialectical process in which knowledge is co-constructed in a process of dialogue between educators and learners, and among learners. In this article, one Black undergraduate student’s narratives illustrate her psychological struggles, sense of self, and persistence in the relational context of Whiteness. Her experiences with White Institutional Presence (WIP) led to her psychological disconnection and prevented her from experiencing a sense of community at school. We suggest the creation of the third space, a counter-hegemonic intersubjective relational context that avoids the enaction of “power-over” ethnocentric White monocultural perspectives, and a space with a Spirit and Sense of Community where Racial Literacies Matter.
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