How Black girls hurt: noticing and naming the t/terror narratives accumulated in schools and society [or, a call for a third wave new literacies education for all people, based on the dynamic, triumphant literate lives of Black girls and women]

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 I define “soul” as one’s mind or cognition; the soul is one’s meaning making center, in the space of personhood.

2 I define “soma” as one’s matter or body; the soma is one’s memory making center, in the space of personhood.

3 At the time of this publication, the exact number of narratives in the collection is 4998.

4 While I do not directly critique teachers in this article, I have placed this question to show that the continuum of knowledge building around Black girls’ hurt must clearly include teacher education. Their inclusion is crucial in efforts to interrupt pain and suffering that inhibits the evolutions of dynamic academic and social identities and experiences among these youth. As such, teachers are an audience of this piece in addition to new literacies scholars and sociocultural literacists.

5 More than two-thirds of contributors.

6 www.thesupremeloveproject.com

7 An email subscriber list is built through various social media campaigns. Each campaign might bear, for example, an invitation to obtain a complimentary educational resource or access to an informational or inspirational webinar. Another might offer an opportunity to schedule a coaching call, participate in a survey, a roundtable series, or join a virtual conference or interview series that provides immediate value by addressing a pertinent relational problem occurring in an academic or social context. Recipients of such campaigns are given the right to, "opt-in" to the correspondences with their name, email address, and telephone number (to receive calls or text messages). By opting-in, subscribers agree to terms and conditions that make their contributions subject to interpretive analysis, and confidential, descriptive sharing for marketing, research, and educational purposes.

8 A follower list is built through the same campaigns as those described in generating an email subscriber list, however, the social media platforms they’re distributed on prioritize, follows, likes, shares, and views as opposed to opt-ins.

9 Historically Black College or University.

10 These literacies are defined in the implications section of this article.

11 These logics are defined in the implications section of this article.

12 When I use this term I am specifically referring to A Course In Miracles. A Course in Miracles—often abbreviated as ACIM or simply called The Course—is a complete, self-study, spiritual thought system. As a three-volume curriculum consisting of a Text, Workbook for Students, and Manual for Teachers, it teaches that the way to universal love and peace—or remembering God—is by undoing guilt through forgiving others. The Course thus focuses on healing of relationships and making them holy. A Course in Miracles also emphasizes that it is “but one version of the universal curriculum, of which there are many thousands.” Consequently, even though the language of The Course is grounded in biblical principles, it expresses a non-sectarian, non-denominational spirituality. A Course in Miracles, therefore, is a universal spiritual teaching, not a religion.

13 Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person or a group covertly sows seeds of doubt in a targeted individual, making them question their own memory, perception, or judgment, often evoking in them cognitive dissonance and other changes such as low self-esteem. Using denial, misdirection, contradiction, and misinformation, gaslighting involves attempts to destabilize the victim and delegitimize the victim’s beliefs. Instances may range from the denial by an abuser that previous abusive incidents ever occurred to the staging of bizarre events by the abuser with the intention of disorienting the victim. See Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting

14 The participant’s exact age was unknown because she chose not to reveal it.

15 These are actual names and are used with permission. Today, Erma is a single mother of one Black girl and a middle school teacher in an urban neighborhood school. Jennifer is a single mother of five children [one Black girl and four Black boys]; she is a customer service representative for a cable company and also a beautician. Angela is a divorced mother of five Black girls and an electrical engineer. All three women live in a major metropolitan city in the U.S.

16 A popular shampoo in the African American community; specifically formulated for kinky, coily, textured hair.

17 A pseudonym; reference to Jennifer’s daughter.

18 Young adulthood is defined as ages 21–26.

19 Adulthood is defined as ages 27–44.

20 Andrea Ritchie, Teen Vogue, https://www.teenvogue.com/story/dajerria-becton-arrest-pool-party-viral

Kelly Macias, Daily Cos, https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/4/27/1760308/-Waffle-House-arrest-reinforces-the-pattern-of-police-violence-and-sexual-abuse-toward-black-women

David Moye, HuffPost, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dajerria-becton-pool-party-viral-video_n_5b2a751be4b0a4dc99233e9d

21 See, How To Die Peacefully (TEDx) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WonC2e5aOGE), by Jeanine Staples

22 Note that the depiction shared in this article is a t/Terror narrative to the extent that it is a description of a macroaggression that took place in society. It does not reflect Dajerria’s direct reflection on the experience. To conduct analysis on Dajerria’s articulation, several videos were reviewed including this one, wherein she says, of the physical, emotional, and psychological assault, “I was terrified of what he was going to do to me. I was shocked. I was confused.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gc0tIgKgDM&t=1s

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeanine M. Staples-Dixon

Dr. Jeanine M. Staples-Dixon is a Professor of Literacy and Language, African American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education, Pennsylvania State University.