Papers by Keith F Miller Jr.
Literature abounds detailing the trauma experienced by Black and Latino males in traditional scho... more Literature abounds detailing the trauma experienced by Black and Latino males in traditional school environments, but less research has explored the role community-based youth programs play in specifically supporting Black and Latino males in counteracting, healing, growing, and thriving through the trauma experienced in educational contexts and beyond. In this qualitative research study examining the experience of eight Black and Latino male high school students attending programming at the Deep Center, a community-based afterschool program in the Deep South, participant observation data were triangulated with semi-structured interviews, analysis of creative artifacts (produced and performed), as well as organizational literature and materials.
Findings indicate that Black and Latino males are incredibly aware of the negative, racialized, and deficit-based labels that exist about them and how those labels determine how they are perceived, treated, and ultimately disciplined, a process first experienced in elementary school. Some Black and Latino males are directly antagonized, questioned, and called thugs or in a variety of ways--whether intentional or unintentional--publicly humiliated, shamed, or discriminated against by teachers. And when they lash out, punishment is harsh, swift, and uncompromising, without any consideration of school personnel as perpetrators. As a result, Black and Latino males silence themselves or completely disengage and give up in traditional school environments because they feel like no one cares about them. But in Deep programming, Black and Latino males felt empowered, affirmed, liked/loved, respected, and free to be vulnerable, resulting in the crafting of healing literacies, which I call “rainbows,” that use autoethnography and performance to develop 1) a reflective art practice that empowers youth to describe their lived realities and engage in critical self-reflection, and 2) transformational relationships that create a safe and brave environment for vulnerability and critical caring and humanizing literacies, which, in turn, empower Black and Latino males to transform the conditions of their oppression through advocacy, activism, and art. The metaphor of “rainbows,” inspired by a poem written by one of the youth participants, is used as a framework for examining the key components of healing literacies, based on the scientific explanation of how rainbows are formed, through reflection, refraction, and dispersion.
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Papers by Keith F Miller Jr.
Findings indicate that Black and Latino males are incredibly aware of the negative, racialized, and deficit-based labels that exist about them and how those labels determine how they are perceived, treated, and ultimately disciplined, a process first experienced in elementary school. Some Black and Latino males are directly antagonized, questioned, and called thugs or in a variety of ways--whether intentional or unintentional--publicly humiliated, shamed, or discriminated against by teachers. And when they lash out, punishment is harsh, swift, and uncompromising, without any consideration of school personnel as perpetrators. As a result, Black and Latino males silence themselves or completely disengage and give up in traditional school environments because they feel like no one cares about them. But in Deep programming, Black and Latino males felt empowered, affirmed, liked/loved, respected, and free to be vulnerable, resulting in the crafting of healing literacies, which I call “rainbows,” that use autoethnography and performance to develop 1) a reflective art practice that empowers youth to describe their lived realities and engage in critical self-reflection, and 2) transformational relationships that create a safe and brave environment for vulnerability and critical caring and humanizing literacies, which, in turn, empower Black and Latino males to transform the conditions of their oppression through advocacy, activism, and art. The metaphor of “rainbows,” inspired by a poem written by one of the youth participants, is used as a framework for examining the key components of healing literacies, based on the scientific explanation of how rainbows are formed, through reflection, refraction, and dispersion.
Findings indicate that Black and Latino males are incredibly aware of the negative, racialized, and deficit-based labels that exist about them and how those labels determine how they are perceived, treated, and ultimately disciplined, a process first experienced in elementary school. Some Black and Latino males are directly antagonized, questioned, and called thugs or in a variety of ways--whether intentional or unintentional--publicly humiliated, shamed, or discriminated against by teachers. And when they lash out, punishment is harsh, swift, and uncompromising, without any consideration of school personnel as perpetrators. As a result, Black and Latino males silence themselves or completely disengage and give up in traditional school environments because they feel like no one cares about them. But in Deep programming, Black and Latino males felt empowered, affirmed, liked/loved, respected, and free to be vulnerable, resulting in the crafting of healing literacies, which I call “rainbows,” that use autoethnography and performance to develop 1) a reflective art practice that empowers youth to describe their lived realities and engage in critical self-reflection, and 2) transformational relationships that create a safe and brave environment for vulnerability and critical caring and humanizing literacies, which, in turn, empower Black and Latino males to transform the conditions of their oppression through advocacy, activism, and art. The metaphor of “rainbows,” inspired by a poem written by one of the youth participants, is used as a framework for examining the key components of healing literacies, based on the scientific explanation of how rainbows are formed, through reflection, refraction, and dispersion.