Using a Queer of Color Critique to work toward a Black LGBTQ+ inclusive K–12 curriculum

Abstract

To date six states (Oregon, California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, and New Jersey) have adopted legislation that amends curricular standards to include affirming representations of LGBTQ+ people and identities in schools. Nonetheless, the legislation falls short of clarifying what constitutes an LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum. Thus, the decision of what to teach is left up to individual districts, schools, and, in many cases, individual teachers who rely on their own interpretations of “positive representation” to adhere to new mandates. In recognizing the negative schooling experiences of Black LGBTQ+ youth, the fact that informal LGBTQ+ curriculum often centers whiteness, and the lack of clarity around what constitutes LGBTQ+ inclusive curricula, in this article I draw on Queer of Color Critique (QOCC) to analyze the practices of ballroom educators and present their approaches to curriculum as a guide to designing LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum that responds to the realities of Black LGBTQ+ youth. As a framework, QOCC requires researchers to: (a) explore the resilience of queer people of color and their communities as they navigate oppression, (b) rely on the experiential knowledge of queer people of color as a primary source of knowledge production, and (c) examine how queer people of color use their agency to defy the constraints of queer of color marginalization.

Keywords:

• Inclusive curriculum
• black
• LGBTQ+
• queer of color critique

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 In ballroom culture, ballroom members are given titles based on their status in the culture. The title of “legend” or “legendary” is often reserved ballroom members who have participated in ballroom culture and have won a significant number of trophies in their categories. Similarly “icon” or “iconic” is attributed to members who have been in ballroom culture for a substantial amount of time, have won a significant number of competitions in their category, and have contributed to ballroom culture in some way.

2 Often in ballroom, house members take on their house names as their last names. For example, Jonovia Lanvin is in the ballroom house of Lanvin. Members without houses use 007 or free agent.

3 A chop refers to the moment in which one of the judges makes the decision to remove a competitor from the competition. Competitors can be chopped for various reasons ranging from not adhering to the guidelines for the category, to not performing to the judges’ standards.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shamari Reid

Shamari Reid is an assistant professor of teaching and learning at New York University. Dr. Reid’s work explores questions of how Black trans and queer youth and their communities sustain themselves amid oppression, as well as how we can collaborate with these communities to better transform schools into sites of equitable opportunities for youth.