Seeing through Her Eyes: Learning from the School Experiences of Black-White Biracial Girls

Abstract

The racial makeup of the United States' elementary school population is in flux. While much discussion addresses the shrinking White population and the growing Latinx population, less highlighted is the growing number of individuals who identify as belonging to two or more races. This group of individuals currently constitutes the youngest, fastest growing racial subgroup. According to the US Census' projections, the two or more races population will grow by 226% between 2014 and 2060, almost double the Asian population, the next fastest growing subgroup. Though individuals with multiplicity to their racial backgrounds have existed in the United States since its inception, only recently has the government provided the option for individuals to quantify their self-reported belonging to multiple races. The resulting statistics alert educators to the fact that individuals identifying as biracial and multiracial are going to be an increasingly sizable group of students requiring, as all children do, individualized care and support within school walls. In this chapter, I draw upon Black-White biracial women's elementary school recounts to help educational practitioners understand lived experiences that inform young girls' navigations of the intersections of their Blackness and Whiteness in schooling spaces.

Citation

Patterson, A.N. (2022), "Seeing through Her Eyes: Learning from the School Experiences of Black-White Biracial Girls", Mayes, R.D., Shavers, M.C. and Moore, J.L. (Ed.) African American Young Girls and Women in PreK12 Schools and Beyond (Advances in Race and Ethnicity in Education, Vol. 8), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 69-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2051-231720220000008004