Counternarratives of Resistance in Preservice Teacher Education

Abstract

Now more than ever, injustice against African Americans is being publicized at an alarming rate. The accessibility of mobile phones has made it possible for prejudice against blacks to be brought to global attention. This has propelled the Black Lives Matter movement and protesters around the world to take to the streets in demand for change within the governing systems. Their shouts of police brutality toward African Americans are being heard. However, there is another injustice being done against blacks that remains unseen in the background. This quiet discriminatory system has been in operation for generations. The purpose of this article is to expose the disconnection between the African American student and the education system; a detachment that has been intentional and systematic. This article discusses how the education system has become a quiet oppressor of African Americans. An oppressor who has robbed African Americans of their vast history. An oppressor who has branded African Americans as ignorant and delinquent. An oppressor who has refused to acknowledge and include the academic works produced by scholars of color within its curriculum. The racist practices of the educational system have been hidden in plain sight for decades. This article is not being written in order to vent out frustrations. This article is a call for action. A call for change in a system that impacts all African American students from kindergarten through college. As current events have revealed, racism is alive and well in America and is being cultivated inside our schools.