“A Hidden Part of Me”: Latino/a Students, Silencing, and the Epidermalization of Inferiority

Abstract

Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Latino/a Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) as analytical tools, this article examines the experiences of a seven Latino/a high school students at various points of engagement with the school-to-prison pipeline. Building on and extending Franz Fanon's (1952) concept of the epidermalization of inferiority, the authors demonstrate the nuanced ways that institutional racism and other interrelated forms of oppression function to contribute to a sense of internalized oppression among Latino/a youth. We critically examine the ways in which dialogue and collaborative research undertaken in a supportive classroom atmosphere can help students move from feeling shame and guilt to having an enhanced critical understanding of their experiences with incarceration, including an analysis of their own involvement with the school-to-prison pipeline.

Notes

¹By way of definition, we use the term “minoritized” to suggest that while black and Latino/a students may share status as members of historical numeric minority groups, in many cases they constitute the majority of the student body within the schools they attend. Research has documented that numerous urban school districts are more segregated now than during the heyday of the Civil Rights Movement, leaving many youngsters in our nation's cities to attend predominately Latino/a and black schools. In more and more communities, students of color can hardly be said to constitute minorities when their community populations are overwhelmingly Black and Brown. Minoritized captures (better than “minority”) the ongoing political and social status that racializes Black and Brown individuals in predictable, frequently stereotyped, ways.

²See Raible and Irizarry (in press) for a discussion of the ideology of containment in the education of Brown youth.

³The parentheses in (im)migration are employed to signal the diverse immigration experiences among individuals and communities who journey to the United States, specifically underscoring potential differences in citizenship status. For example, Puerto Ricans born on the island of Puerto Rico, a colonial possession of the United States for over a century, are US citizens by birth. Subsequently, their move from the island to the mainland can be viewed as “migration” rather than “immigration.” However, Spanish is the dominant language on the island and when Puerto Ricans, who are free to travel throughout the United States without restriction, migrate to the US, their experiences share many similarities with those of other immigrants from Latin America, especially in their encounters with xenophobia, racism, and linguicism. Therefore, we use the parentheses to call attention to the complexities of (im)migration that are often overlooked.

⁴The choice to capitalize racial categories is a difficult one fraught with political implications. In this article, we endeavor to talk about racism and the racialization of minoritized groups while simultaneously acknowledging that race is a social construct. That is, we would like to unpack and destabilize race without diminishing the impact of racism. However, at a time when Black men and other racialized minorities are being killed because of their racial identities, we choose to capitalize race to capture the power embedded in particular labels.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jason G. Irizarry

Jason G. Irizarry is an associate professor and Director of Urban Education at the University of Massachusetts—Amherst. His research, broadly defined, focuses on the education of Latino/a students in urban schools, teacher diversity, and culturally responsive pedagogy.

John Raible

John Raible is Associate Professor of Diversity & Curriculum Studies and Women's & Gender Studies at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln. His research investigates, through the lens of social justice, the impact of professional interventions on marginalized youth populations, that is, urban youth of color, LGBT youth, and youth affected by adoption and foster care.