Editorial: Critical racial consciousness among diverse youth: global perspectives and educational possibilities

Editorial on the Research Topic
Critical racial consciousness among diverse youth: global perspectives and educational possibilities

Scholar Gloria Yamato gave voice to a fundamental contradiction around the complicated nature of race and racism in her paper entitled “Something About the Subject Makes it Hard to Name.” As the articles in this Research Topic attest in a variety of ways, what is often hard to name about the pervasive impact of race is the presence of hegemonic Whiteness. Whiteness exists as a social construct, historically derived from the (racialized) organization of society, and can be defined as a sort of collective consciousness and way of interacting in the world that privileges whiteness, allowing white supremacy to thrive. Since the manifestations of whiteness will look different in different ecological contexts, it is no wonder that “naming” the dynamics of racial oppression is so hard.

Yet, as co-editors, we were struck by the incisive and compelling way the articles in this Research Topic did name the politics and practice of race and whiteness across different contexts. Importantly, how we name a thing is highly influenced by the socio-historio-geo-political factors of the people who do the naming. This is a paradoxical situation, as many in the majority world—including those in settler colonies—have had no right to name a problem, but rather have been subjects of being named as problems. Featuring the ways that youth grapple with and name the manifestations of whiteness through the development of a critical racial consciousness—in and outside of formal educational settings—was tantamount to the goals of this Research Topic.

Using collaborative ethnography, Mapaling and Shabalala reflect critically on being young Black academics, who are also committed to decolonization, in spaces that remain tethered to whiteness. The article not only reflects on the authors' experiences in academia, but surfaces something more perverse—the silencing of Blackness that is engrained within the higher education system—and by implication basic education. The authors illustrate the ways that conversations on race and racialization often bring about a level of discomfort as individuals within institutions are confronted with their unearned privilege and exclusionary practices. Hesitancy around race-based conversation is also addressed by Faye in their article based on research with youth in Norway, who argues that discomfort is often regarded as something to be avoided. However, as Faye illustrates, in critical racial conscientization, discomfort is a major part of teaching on and about racism. It is this liminal space of discomfort or employing a “pedagogy of discomfort” within the classroom, that leads to change conversations, and better educational and psychological outcomes. This is illustrated in work by Masinga, who uses critical racial consciousness as lens toward understanding the role of self-concept in the academic achievement of youth in South Africa. Self-concept itself is both multi-faceted and racialized, inclusive of class, gender, and sexuality. Masinga's article extends the way in which we see the role of these social identities in the development of self-concept and urges us to contextualize the latter as part of youths' academic trajectories.

The psychological impact of the racialization of youth, and by extension, the silences that follow when things are not named, have far reaching implications toward epidemics such as suicide. Rodríguez et al. highlight how the erasure of Emberá Indigenous populations in Colombia has fueled an increase in suicide among youth. Through collective case study, they illustrate how institutionalized racism, as well as continued violence on indigenous people, plays a significant role in how youth experience belonging, and its association with increased rates of youth suicide.

Indeed, Black bodies in conditions of oppression and repression are marked by violence which invariably shape educational outcomes. This circumstance is no truer than in South Africa, where Spambo illustrates how community violence linked to the socio-historio-political conditions of South Africa has disastrous effects on education of youth. It is not by coincidence that communities marked by violence are majority Black-poor-working-class, it is a condition of a world that devalues Blackness, and specific to this Research Topic, Black youth. Yet, violence within the educational space is not only in terms of physical violence, but often in the form of subtle misrecognitions and exclusions. Head and Dlamini highlight how microaggressions are pervasive within the education space, specifically focusing on name-based microaggressions. Name-based microaggressions are a form of symbolic violence that deny youth their full identity, through racialized renaming; nicknaming; and mispronunciations. In contrast, authentic and affirming representation of minoritized groups within the schooling environment can mediate experiences of discrimination, as Saafir et al. show in their study with 2,063 youth in the United States of America. The article demonstrates the importance of educators with critical racial consciousness that nurture inclusive classroom environments.

Gast et al. draw us closer toward thinking about how we may do the work of “ending” racism, by responding to the silencing that happens in regard to minoritized youth. In their study with youth during and immediately post the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of centralizing youth voices in discussions on racism is noted as a significant factor in raising critical consciousness. Also legitimizing the criticality of voice, the article by Pérez speaks to a kind of liberatory potential that reclaiming the racial narrative can have for historically marginalized communities. This article offers an important theoretical departure for understanding how we move beyond the paradox that is presented by race—that race itself does not exist in its biological sense but rather is a socially derived construct that determines the strata of belonging. Pérez offers transgressive-racialization as a refusal to the reproduction of racialized ontologies within educational institutions.

Together, the articles in this Research Topic engage with the processes by which individuals come to interrogate their lived experiences with racialized systems of dominance and inequality in global perspective. In so doing, they underscore the potential for change that exists when youth and adults stand alongside each other in racial solidarity, as they demand a more just world.

Author contributions

TD: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. SD: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.

Conflict of interest

The author(s) declared that this work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

The author SD declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

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