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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.

Sec. Language, Culture and Diversity

Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1626074

This article is part of the Research TopicCritical Racial Consciousness Among Diverse Youth: Global Perspectives and Educational PossibilitiesView all 9 articles

"Getting Rid of Systemic Racism:" Youth of Color Critical Reflections and Identified Strategies During the Twin Pandemics

Provisionally accepted
  • 1University of Louisville, Louisville, United States
  • 2University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Black, Latine, and Asian American young people living in the U.S. experienced the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racism, along with racial traumas and stresses stemming from violence toward Black Americans and public debates on how to (or not) address racism. Between 2020 and 2022, young people in Louisville, Kentucky (KY) experienced closed schools and unpredictable in-person instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, creating compounding stresses in conjunction with isolation, illnesses, deaths, and quarantining for young people. Additionally, Louisville experienced the murder of Breonna Taylor by Louisville Metro Police Department, spurring an influx of city-wide social action organizing and protests. Using critical consciousness and social justice youth development frameworks, this study sought to emphasize youth-identified strategies for combating inequities experienced by youth of color. Between April 2021 to January 2022, youth of color (ages 12-24) were purposively recruited to engage in listening sessions. We conducted nine listening sessions on Zoom and face-to-face with 18 youth of color. Youth highlighted the saliency of racism and that they lacked safe spaces to share experiences, gain support, and collectively address and manage compounding issues. They described feeling dismissed by adults and excluded or removed from spaces where they could engage in collective care as a community. Youth suggested increased access to and existence of youth-centered spaces that prioritize youth voice and safety within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and experiences with racism in Louisville, KY.

Keywords: Critical consciousness, Social justice youth development, Racism, Listening sessions, Community youth programs, dual pandemics

Received: 09 May 2025; Accepted: 22 Oct 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Gast and Bloomer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Melanie Gast, melanie.gast@louisville.edu
Rebecka Bloomer, rebecka.bloomer@uc.edu

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