Hi, my name is necessary Yates. I'm a fourth year PhD student in the School of Education. And today I'm going to be briefly discussing a research study that I conducted in preparation for my dissertation entitled Colors outside the lines, recollections and reflections on black girlhood. Um, so just to give a snapshot of the research I'm going to situate in the context of a book chapter that I wrote based on the research study from the book, strong black girls reclaiming schools in their own image on the book was published in December 2020. Really has a creative way of presenting some of the yam, the findings in the context of the study. So in terms of what we're going to cover today, we're going to get a little bit into the inspiration behind the study in the chapter. Talk briefly about the design. Get a little bit into the participants as well as the data. And then discuss the overall relevance of this study in ways that it can be applied on a wider scale. Um, so in terms of the inspiration, the study is actually based on a Nina Simone song entitled for women that centrally focuses on the stereotypes that black women have faced throughout history through the lens of four women. Sarah saffron, yes, sweet thing in peaches. In terms of the design of the study, I chose the focus primarily on intersectionality for my theoretical framework, which was a concept that was made popular by Kimberle Crenshaw. And it really looks at the intersections of experiences of oppression. So for example, uh, because this study is focused on black women, intersectionality was actually created a ram, the experiences of black women. But using that as an example, a black person experiences of racism because of their race. A woman experiences sexism because of their sex. So when we're looking at black women specifically, there's the compound of the two, racism and sexism. But then there's also an interesting experience of oppression at the meeting point of racism and sexism. So it kind of creates a very unique nuanced form of oppression that goes beyond just the one plus one equals two. So looking at, for example, the angry black woman stereotype, that will be an example of ways that stereotyping from an intersectional lens can present. Because that's something that's very specific to black women, not necessarily black people, and not necessarily women in general. So usually when we look at the concept of intersectionality as a whole, we look at it from the intersection of race and gender. What was interesting is that a lot of the women also brought up ethnicity. And I don't think that that's discussed enough. A lot of times we tend to group. Folk in a racial group together in view them as a model live. But I think that the women kind of blew that out the water and a lot of ways with the ways that they describe their nuanced experiences through the lines of ethnicity. And we'll get into some of the ethnic backgrounds of the woman as we move forward. In terms of the methodology, the interviews were one-on-one. So this was a qualitative study. More than half or phone-based, less than half were in-person interviews. And as I was saying, the interview protocol was designed around the archetypes of the four women in munis amount. So, so when we're looking at Sarah, I chose the focus ON microaggressions. On Sarah bore the burdens of the world and tried to make the best of her experiences. In the song. I'm Safra ammonia, we looked at the concept of double consciousness. Sappho Anya was actually by racial and she struggled with finding a sense of belonging. And I connected this to how some black girls may experience that attending a predominantly white school and living neighborhood, for example. I'm sweet thing was a sexual being like we all are, but I'm focused a lot of her sexuality when the pleasure of men and experience a lot of shame because of her sexual agency. So we use this section of the interview protocol. So really explore the concept of fast black girls or black girls for hypersexualized, either because they develop early man hit puberty early, or because they're actually I'm sexually active. Then we got into peaches, who in the song was angry and combative, but must have most of our frustrations them from intersectional oppression that she experienced. So we use that to look at school discipline and the ways that a lot of times black girls are misunderstood and miss characterize and subsequently punished because of because of the disconnect. So getting into the participants in the study, this is actually the flyer that went out to recruit women. Most women were recruited from social media. A few women referred some of their friends for the study. Overall swooning when women were interview, their ages span 21 to 45 years old, most were in their 20s. All of the women identified as cisgender. They were from a mixture of city environments, suburban environments, and a few rural environments. Most grew up in a combination of city and suburban. However, I'm in terms of race and ethnicity, mentioned that before with the concept of intersectionality, 13 of the women were black American, three were black, hispanic to a black Caribbean. One was black African, one was black, Caribbean and African, and then one was a black multi ratio. In terms of sexual orientation, 15 of the women were heterosexual, three were bisexual, pansexual, and one was homosexual. Okay, so getting into the data, I'm not going to dig too deeply. I'm just going to give an overview in the interest of time. Again, bringing it up based on the archetypes of the Nina Simone song. So getting into Sarah and experiences of microaggressions, we talked a bit about Jade who fell. She was pushed out of certain academic environments because of her teacher's perception of her onyx, discuss having some leadership roles in her school, which brought with it some privilege, but then also some of the challenges of microaggression she face being a leader in her school. Saf foia. Looking at double consciousness, we see Dahlia, who attended a prominent predominantly white school, and she discusses some of the challenges she faced there. And then Scarlett kinda juxtapose and Alia story discusses her experience of living in a predominantly white neighborhood. Sweet thing, which focuses on hyper sexualization. Looks at lavender and her experience of coming into her own in terms of our sexuality and some of the challenges she faced. Cherry was an interesting story she looked at actually advocating for another young girl in high school who was being bullied because of her sexuality. Peaches, which focuses on school discipline. We see ebony, who talks about how there were no Black Studies courses that our school. And she wanted to learn about Black Folk. And the only way she was able to do that was by getting in trouble pretty much and going to in-school suspension. So that was a really interesting story. And then alongside ebony, we have re-bin, who actually ended up losing one of her parents at a young age. And she was very advanced in school, ended up losing whatever parents and begin to withdraw. And she kind of discusses some of the relationship breakdown between her and her teacher that caused her to kind of withdraw from school. Um, so getting into the overall relevance of the study, hello, So I have a section of the chapter focus on words of resilience. Because I think advice from elders is invaluable. Um, so I really wanted to give the women an opportunity to one, give advice to their younger self and then to give advice to young black girls who may be reading the chapter and can, can glean from their experiences. I'm so these were a few of the the ones that stood out to me. I'm each women kinda gave a healthy section of advice and I kinda just pulled out some of the highlights that stood out to me. And then also, there was a section in the chapter for reflection questions. In this section is for educators or those who work with young people who may have regular interaction with black girls. This was to really allow them to reflect on their interaction in the ways that they may be Ms. characterizing or misperceiving, blacker or so. It's kind of a reflection for those in leadership to take a step back and say, What can I do differently to support the black girls in in my life? I'm so that is essentially it. I will save the rest for question and answer. Thank you so much for your time and have a great day.
Color Outside the Lines: Recollections & Reflections on Black Girlhood, Nefetaria Yates (3a)
From Lauren Mosesso April 15, 2021
10 plays
10
0 comments
0
You unliked the media.
Black girlhood is a complex and nuanced journey. Laden with social messaging about who we are, who we are not, and who we should become, Black girls spend a great deal of time learning and unlearning bias narratives. As intrinsically intersectional beings, our existence provides a filter for how we see ourselves and the world around us. Similarly, in school, our experiences are punctuated by lessons that extend beyond multiplication tables and book reports. Consequently, these formative spaces often allow us to discover what it means to be Black - what it means to be female - and what it means to be both. Inspired by the archetypes of Nina Simone’s 1966 jazz classic “Four Women” – Aunt Sarah, Saffronia, Sweet Thing, and Peaches, this interview project retrospectively explores the K-12 schooling experiences of Black women (20 total) to provide a nuanced view of Black female identity development, notions of radical self-love, and insight into the alchemy of Black Girl Magic (Thomas, 2015; Wilson, 2016). Moreover, these reflections serve as a lens through which we can interrogate racial and gender stereotypes, systems of power, and dominant cultural norms.
…Read more
Less…
- Tags
- Department Name
- School of Education
- Appears In
Link to Media Page
Loading
Add a comment