‘We’ve been thinking you were stupid all this time:’ racial microinsults and microinvalidations in a rural Southern high school

Riel, Virginia

doi:10.1080/13613324.2019.1579185

Cited by 6 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…The value of whiteness is also conveyed through microaggressions and microinsults (Campbell, 2020;Riel, 2021).…”

Section: Value Of Whiteness and Proximity To Whitenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At school, multiracial students are socialized with tacit knowledge that whiteness holds value and is a powerful credential in educational institutions (Ginsberg, 2017; Lewis, 2003; Lewis & Diamond, 2015; Riel, 2021). Rachel, a mixed‐race Black and Latina woman interviewed by Peng (2022) recalled trying to minimize her blackness at school: “I saw how quickly being white allowed my friends into spaces that I did not see many people like me in… I made sure to try and conform to the white identity as much as possible” (p. 8).…”

Section: Themes and Content Of School Racial‐ethnic Socialization For...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The value of whiteness is also conveyed through microaggressions and microinsults (Campbell, 2020; Riel, 2021). Subtle slights take the form of backhanded compliments that valorize whiteness.…”

Section: Themes and Content Of School Racial‐ethnic Socialization For...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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School racial‐ethnic socialization of multiracial K12 students: A systematic review of the literature using MultiCrit

Peng

2023

Sociology Compass

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The growing multiracial population in the United States necessitates a shift in research attention to include mixed‐race youth. While racial‐ethnic socialization (RES) research has predominantly focused on family contexts, this review highlights the role of schools in shaping the RES socialization of mixed‐race youth in the United States. Existing literature indicates that RES plays a vital role for multiracial children and adolescents by helping them navigate their complex identities, promoting a sense of belonging, and enhancing mental health outcomes. However, studies explicitly exploring RES for mixed‐race children in elementary and secondary schools are limited, and RES is often theorized without structural conceptualizations of race and racism. Using Critical Multiracial Theory (MultiCrit) as a theoretical lens, this review investigates the content and messages conveyed to mixed‐race youth at school. It considers transmissions from various sources (e.g., curriculum, teachers, peers) to uncover implications for the well‐being of mixed‐race students. This paper contributes to scholarship on school RES by considering how the process unfolds for the fastest‐growing demographic of students in the US (multiracials) using a sociohistorical approach (MultiCrit). The review concludes with future directions for researchers studying multiracial youth in K‐12 schools and considerations for practitioners working with multiracial students in school settings. Keywords: multiracial youth, mixed‐race, K‐12 schools, RES, MultiCrit

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“…The value of whiteness is also conveyed through microaggressions and microinsults (Campbell, 2020;Riel, 2021).…”

Section: Value Of Whiteness and Proximity To Whitenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Themes and Content Of School Racial‐ethnic Socialization For...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

School racial‐ethnic socialization of multiracial K12 students: A systematic review of the literature using MultiCrit

Peng

2023

Sociology Compass

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“…The little research in this area suggests that rural schools rely on exclusionary discipline less frequently (Varela et al, 2018), but does not address perceptions of race. Although rural schools were less likely to rely on exclusionary discipline, the common assumption that rural areas are “small towns” with strong communal bonds and little need to examine race often results in troubling deficit narratives of people of color and a proliferation of rendering race invisible (Riel, 2019).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The (In)Visibility of Race in School Discipline Across Urban, Suburban, and Exurban Contexts

Tefera

Siegel‐Hawley

Sjogren

2022

Teachers College Record

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Background/Context: Racial disparities in school discipline represent a long-standing injustice in U.S. schools. Students of color, particularly Black students, are systematically subjected to harsher school disciplinary actions compared with their peers. A growing body of evidence demonstrates the severity of the problem and the negative consequences of harsh punishment, particularly given that students who are disciplined are more likely to be forced into the complex nexus of education and incarceration. Focus of Study: In this study, we aimed to understand how different racial contexts in urban, suburban, and exurban schools shaped responses to and understandings about racial disparities in school discipline. Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework that centers the visibility and invisibility of race (Artiles, 2019) throughout the disciplinary cycle, this study was guided by two research questions: (1) What are the similarities and differences in educators’ and students’ understandings of racial contexts and racial disparities in school discipline across urban, suburban, and exurban school districts? (2) How do urban, suburban, and exurban school districts’ racial contexts shape educators’ responses to racial disparities in discipline? Research Design: This research was part of a larger mixed-methods research–practice partnership that aimed to understand racial disparities in school discipline and how to address them across varying school contexts in Central Virginia. The qualitative portion of the study included individual and focus group interviews and classroom observations. The findings reported in this article focus specifically on 50 individual and focus group interviews with teachers, leaders, staff, and students. Findings: Our findings demonstrate the ways race was made visible and invisible in responses to and understandings about racial disparities in discipline. This was evident in the ways deficit perspectives were racialized and how race-evasive perspectives and ideologies dominated educators’ responses to the problem. We found these responses were mediated by the racial contexts of each school. For instance, we learned that educators at the urban middle school with a majority of Black and Latinx students were the most willing to discuss the role of race and racism in shaping racial disparities in discipline compared with educators at the suburban and exurban schools. Educators at the racially diverse suburban high school focused on socioeconomic diversity and relied on deficit cultural explanations for poverty. Contrastingly, educators at the exurban school openly discussed its racial homogeneity with its mostly White students, and their language regarding racial disparities was laced with race-evasive terms and some racist perspectives. Across suburban and exurban school contexts, many educators adopted race-evasive and deficit rationales for disproportionality in ways that failed to consider the role of the school in disciplinary outcomes. We also found that students across the three school contexts were more willing than educators to discuss the role of race and racism in explaining disparities in discipline. Conclusions/Recommendations: Findings from this study have important implications for how schools can respond more effectively to racial disparities in discipline. First, it is important that schools create policies and practices that provide clear guidelines to promote racial equity in discipline. Data should therefore be collected, shared, discussed, analyzed, and used to inform how to improve disciplinary practices and interventions at multiple intersections (e.g., by race, gender, socioeconomic status, and disability) given research that demonstrates disproportionality in discipline emerges among students of color and multiply-marginalized students. Second, schools must critically examine how their everyday beliefs about race become enacted in practice and ultimately institutionalized, thereby granting privileges to dominant groups. Third, schools can benefit from including and engaging with students as they reform disciplinary procedures to address racial disparities. Ultimately, disrupting racial inequities in discipline requires responses that include engagement with race and racism in ways that attend to both individual beliefs and school policies and practices.

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“…Teachers whose educational experience is not in a rural community may have a distorted view of the ability of Black students (Broadhurst & Wright, 2004). Just as low expectations of urban students tend to be the norm, so are the expectations of some teachers regarding the potential of rural area Black students (e.g., Riel, 2019).…”

Section: Importance Of a Culturally Responsive Education For Gifted Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Black and Gifted in Rural America: Barriers and Facilitators to Accessing Gifted and Talented Education Programs

Davis

Ford²,

Moore

et al. 2020

tpre

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Nationwide, Black students are underrepresented in gifted and talented education and advanced learner programs. These tragic outcomes occur in all demographic communities: urban, suburban, and rural. As a result, the academic and psychosocial supports needed by gifted Black students are overlooked, disregarded, and underdeveloped. Rural communities are frequently depicted as remote, lacking in social and academic experiences and opportunities, and predominantly White and economically disadvantaged. For gifted and talented Black students, these characterizations contribute to feelings of isolation and alienation in school on a daily basis. Despite their high intellectual potential, they are constantly victimized by racially oppressive conditions in society that cause stress and anxiety. The Black rural community, including Black gifted and talented students, is almost invisible in scholarship that discusses rural education in the United States. This article explores the nature of the rural communities where these students reside; shares intellectual, academic, and cultural characteristics that make Black gifted students from rural communities unique; and delineates recommendations for research, curriculum, and specific programming to meet their intellectual, academic, cultural, and psychosocial needs with an emphasis on access, equity, and excellence.

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‘We’ve been thinking you were stupid all this time:’ racial microinsults and microinvalidations in a rural Southern high school

Cited by 6 publications

References 36 publications

School racial‐ethnic socialization of multiracial K12 students: A systematic review of the literature using MultiCrit

School racial‐ethnic socialization of multiracial K12 students: A systematic review of the literature using MultiCrit

The (In)Visibility of Race in School Discipline Across Urban, Suburban, and Exurban Contexts

Black and Gifted in Rural America: Barriers and Facilitators to Accessing Gifted and Talented Education Programs

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