Black Lives Matter: Storying, Identities, and Counternarratives

• Published in: Journal of literacy research 2020-12, Vol.52 (4), p.382-405
• Main Authors: Kinloch, Valerie, Penn, Carlotta, Burkhard, Tanja
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activism; African American Children; African American Students; African American Teachers; Black Lives Matter movement; Black people; Black studies; Critical Literacy; Cultural identity; Discourse; Empowerment; Equality; Ethnicity; Literacy; Narratives; Pedagogy; Racial Bias; Resistance (Psychology); Social Justice; Story Telling; Teachers; Teaching; Youth; Youth movements
• ISSN: 1086-296X; 1554-8430
• DOI: 10.1177/1086296X20966372

In this academic counternarrative, we examine how Black students and adults get positioned by, and come to resist, discourses that favor dominant linguistic and cultural practices. We ask, How do Black youth and adults resist the gaze of whiteness, or dominant discourses, in schools and communities, and what are pedagogical implications of such resistances? We address these questions by discussing three contemporary examples of injustices experienced by Rachel Jeantel, Amariyanna Copeny, and Black youth who continue the activism of Colin Kaepernik. Thereafter, we analyze data from three research vignettes of Black teachers and Youth of Color who produce counternarratives through storying. In our conclusion, we advocate for a pedagogical agenda in literacy studies grounded in cultural equality and linguistic, racial, and social justice for Black people and other People of Color. We situate this work as an academic counternarrative—an analysis of young people’s unapologetic affirmation of Black humanity, brilliance, and power.