“Life was brought back into my body”: a Critical Race Feminista analysis of racial microaffirmations

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study utilized a Critical Race Feminista approach to explore the experiences of graduate Students of Color with racial microaffirmations. Racial microaffirmations are the subtle verbal and nonverbal strategies People of Color engage that affirm each other’s dignity, integrity, and shared humanity. These moments of shared cultural intimacy allow People of Color to feel acknowledged, respected, and valued in a society that constantly and perpetually seeks to dehumanize them. A Critical Race Feminista approach is grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Chicana feminist theoretical foundations. These theories guide the overall research design, and specifically, the methodological process. Four group pláticas were conducted with 30 students who also participated in the co-construction of knowledge during data analysis. This analysis revealed how racial microaffirmations can be embodied experiences, as sensory forms of knowledge that connect us to shared cultural intimacies and can serve as strategies for healing from racial traumas.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical race theory
• Chicana feminisms in education
• racial microaggressions
• racial microaffirmations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We use the preferred pronouns of our participants, which they provided during data collection. Yatsiri’s preferred pronouns were they/them/theirs. In our discussion of participants throughout this article, we refer to individuals by those preferred pronouns.

2. We use the term ‘aracialism’ to name an analysis that lacks and/or dismisses the consideration of race and racism.

3. We borrow ‘shared cultural intimacy’ from Gates, Jr. (1994), who uses the phrase to describe the practice of acknowledgment Black people engage in public space. In an epistolary to his daughters, Gates states, I sat at a sidewalk café in Italy, and three or four ‘black’ Italians walked casually by…[E]ach spoke to me; rather, each nodded his head slightly or acknowledged me with a glance, ever so subtly. When growing up, we always did this with each other, passing boats in a sea of white folk … [W]hich is why I still nod or speak to black people on the streets and why it felt so good to be acknowledged by the Afro-Italians who passed my table at the café in Milan … [A]bove all, I enjoy the unselfconscious moments of a shared cultural intimacy, whatever form they take, when no one else is watching, when no white people are around (p. xii-xv).

4. The editors describe that Chicana feminist thought in education is an extension of the work of Chicana feminist scholars in various academic fields. For example, the theorizing of scholars like Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Cherríe Moraga, Emma Pérez, and Chela Sandoval (among others) have been critical to the development of Chicana feminist perspectives in education.

5. Critical race hypos build on Derrick Bell’s (1999) ‘racial hypos’ as a pedagogical tool utilized to engage law-school students in discussion of race and racism. In previous work, Pérez Huber and Solórzano (2015) developed the critical race hypo as a pedagogical strategy to engage students in education and beyond in critical discussions of race and racism. We used critical race hypos to engage discussions of racial microaffirmations in this study.

6. Similar to photo elicitation, music elicitation is a symbolic representation that can prompt responses from participants during qualitative interviewing (Harper 2002). Just as photos can be utilized in the interview process to prompt discussions relevant to a research study, we argue that music can be used in a similar way to engage participants about perspectives feelings, and memories tied to music. In this study, we shared several culturally-specific songs popular in Latinx communities, but also identifiable to other Communities of Color in the music elicitation. Although we chose Latinx music samples, we emphasized the purpose of the music elicitation strategy for all participants to feel included by sharing their own examples (if they had this experience) of music and racial microaffirmations.

7. We also recognize how a handshake can also be a microaggression when it is exchanged by well-meaning white people toward Black men and other People of Color (although a handshake is also a gendered exchange, typically used by Men of Color). Law professor Ronald Wheeler (2016) describes how white faculty often greet each other with the traditional handshake, but attempt to greet him with an ‘elaborate and unorthodox hand-shaking ritual’ that he interprets as a form of microaggression (2016, p. 324). Wheeler’s work illustrates the significance of the shared cultural intimacy of racial microaffirmations, and highlights how this exchange cannot be shared with his white collegues.

8. ‘Abuelita’ is the name of a Mexican hot chocolate product with a distinct smell and taste of cinnamon, among other ingredients. The product targets Latinx communities with the line ‘hecho’ (made) in Mexico on the front of the packaging, although the product is made by the U.S. corporation, Nestle.

9. During the first group plática, we played ‘Son de la Negra’, a regional Mexican song traditionally sung by mariarchi groups. For the two proceeding group pláticas, we chose to share a song that was identifiable by non-Mexican/Chicanx students and other People of Color. During these meetings, we played Elvis Crespo’s ‘Suavemente’, which Veronica heard playing from a speaker at the center, rather than a band.

10. While we do not attempt to operationalize a concept like healing, we believe Anzaldúa’s (2015) Coyolxauhqui Imperative can help us understand the transformative healing that is described in this section. For example, Yatsiri’s experience of returning to her body is remnant of Anzaldúa’s recounting of the Aztec mythical history of the goddess Coyolxauqui who, upon attempting to murder her mother is killed and dismembered by her brother. Anzaldúa uses this story to theorize the pain caused by racism, heteropatriarchy and white supremacy and the transformational healing one must engage from these experiences to once again become whole, through a process Anzaldúa (2002) names as conocimiento. Anzaldúa (2002) explains the process of conocimiento as one path toward healing, where healing results in transformation, and transformation results in healing.

11. Here, we acknowledge the work of Irene Lara (2002) on bodymindspirit (one word), a concept that signifies the inextricable connections between Chicana/Latina bodies, minds, and spiritualities that articulates a concept of wholeness to understand life experiences. Lara explains dominant research paradigms delegitimize spirituality and the body as a site of knowledge, which she challenges with this concept. Although we did not use body mind spirit in our analysis here, we believe this concept would be important for future research on racial microaffirmations.

Additional information

Funding

This author confirms this study was not funded by any agency and/or grant, and there are no financial or non-financial conflicts of interest.