Black Girls’ Political Literacies: The Dialectics of Civic Practice
Open AccessThis study explored how Black girls make sense of sociopolitical issues and ideas while engaged in a critical literacy course, as part of a community-based youth leadership development program. Longstanding theories of political socialization primarily take into account normative notions of civic engagement and civic aptitude as defining indicators for youth civic involvement. These theories do not always adequately represent the many ways Black girls develop a civic or critical consciousness, engage in political discourse, or how they engage in civic and democratic practices. To respond to the call for more research on the political socialization of Black girls (Brown, 2007), this study explored the political literacies of five Black middle-class girls who identify as civic actors. Specifically, this study was guided by the following research questions: 1) How do Black girls who are engaged in a community-based critical literacy course make sense of sociopolitical ideas embedded in the course texts?; 2) What sociopolitical issues do they identify as most salient in their lives?; and 3) How do they theorize about advocating for social change?An analysis of the data revealed the participants were most concerned with 1) the under/representation, invalidation, and erasure of Black perspectives and experiences from highly politicized spaces, such as in schools and electoral politics; 2) the hyper-policing and surveillance of Black bodies, and 3) the mental health and wellbeing of Black youth in schools. The participants interrogated these issues and their own political identities through racial, gendered, and intersectional lenses while accounting for their own sense of place and understanding of how their broader community context influences their thinking on these issues. The participants expressed they did not identify as political people and that acknowledging their political identities meant accepting and adhering to normative notions of civics and institutional politics, which they contend are harmful, hostile, isolating, and misrepresentative of their experiences. Instead, they choose to engage in social, civic, and extra-curricular activities that foster joy-seeking and do not compel them to move or exist in ways inconsistent with their sense of self. The participants in this study embody, express, and enact political identities and civic agency according to a self-defined Black girl politic wherein the decisions they make as to when and how they engage in or opt out of highly politicized discourses and spaces are fluid, and these choices reflect a desire to be valued, respected, autonomous, agentive, critically-(self)aware, and whole.
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