Black desire: Black-centric youthtopias as critical race educational praxis

Abstract

Through the conception of Black desire, a Black-specific rendering of Eve Tuck’s researching for desire, I argue that educational research lacking critiques of antiblackness can cultivate damage-centered narratives that misguidedly identify brokenness in Black youth, rather than brokenness in society. Drawing from a yearlong critical race ethnography, rooted in BlackCrit, I demonstrate how four Black high school students’ critical engagements with literacy reveal the ways antiblackness operationalizes in their lives and how they compose counter structures to this oppressive regime. Through critical literacy artifacts and interview data, I analyze the utility of centering a critique of antiblackness in researching for Black desire as revealed through the voices of the Black youth. Through the findings, I contend that Black students asserting ownership over their reality demonstrates the ways Black desire, through a pointed critique of antiblackness, can function as a tool for critical race educational praxis.

Keywords:

• Antiblackness
• critical literacy
• ethnography
• BlackCrit
• Black youth

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Justin A. Coles

Justin A. Coles is an Assistant Professor in the division of Curriculum and Teaching at Fordham University, Graduate School of Education. His multidisciplinary research agenda draws from critical race studies, urban education, and language and literacy to inform justice-centered educator preparation, particularly helping to inform the ways we develop counter structures to oppressive school and societal regimes.