‘We are not ok’: a photovoice study on educational violence and resistance by and for Black undergraduate students at predominantly white institutions

ABSTRACT

Experiences of individual and institutional racism within education hinders the ability of Black students to study safely, negatively impacting their mental health and academic outcomes. However, universities continuously fail to respond, ultimately silencing Black students. Despite persistent educational violence, Black students continue to thrive through radical resistance. To highlight both experiences of oppression and resistance, the current study utilized photovoice to understand the intersectional experience of 5 Black women undergraduate students at predominantly white institutions. Implications inform actionable strategies to ensure Black students are in a space where they can thrive.

KEYWORDS:

• Racism
• higher education
• Black feminist thought
• educational violence
• freedom dreaming
• photovoice research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The participants of this study did not give written consent for their data to be shared publicly, so due to the sensitive nature of the research supporting data is not available.

Contributions statement and ethics

A note on authorship- due to the functions of the academy, we are forced to rank the authorship order hierarchically. However, we have all contributed equally to this piece throughout the last two years and do not adhere to the traditional authorship ranking. As such, we decided to base the authorship level solely on the amount written in this manuscript.

Notes

1. The term 'women*' is used throughout this paper to indicate the range of gender identities within the research collective, which included both cisgender Black women and a nonbinary/genderqueer Black femme. The term women* holds space for this gendered complexity, locates the collective in a tradition of Black feminist thought, and contextualizes the current study’s examination of anti-Black racism, sexism, and misogynoir (Halberstam 2018).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. Social Justice Award, University of California, Los Angeles, Luskin School of Public Affairs.