Lindsay Pérez Huber

Getting beyond the ‘symptom,’ acknowledging the ‘disease’: theorizing racist nativism

An important tenet of Latina/o critical race theory (LatCrit) is to challenge dominant ideologies that mask racist beliefs and practices perpetrated against People of Color in the United States, particularly Latinas/os. In this article we utilize a LatCrit framework to theorize further the concept of racist nativism in the current sociopolitical moment, which is marked by significant anti‐immigrant sentiment. In doing so, we hope to understand better the contemporary experiences of People of Color and Latinas/os specifically. We show how many racial and ethnic groups throughout US history have experienced racist nativism, but argue that those targeted by it today tend to be Latinas/os in general, and Mexican immigrants in particular. In conceptually extending the notion of racist nativism we endeavor to go beyond the ‘symptoms’ of racism and toward naming the ‘disease’ that plagues US society – white supremacy. We argue that the legacy of white supremacy not only remains with us today, but profoundly informs our racialized perceptions of a white American identity, whereby white Americans are perceived as native to the US and all others as non‐native.

Disrupting apartheid of knowledge: testimonio as methodology in Latina/o critical race research in education

This article utilizes a Latina/o critical race theory (LatCrit) framework to disrupt a narrowly defined process of knowledge production in academia, informed by Eurocentric epistemologies and specific ideological beliefs. This process has created an apartheid of knowledge in academia. Disrupting this apartheid allows critical race researchers to move forward in developing methodologies that can be used in anti‐racist social justice research. This article describes the use of testimonio as methodology in a LatCrit research study. This conceptual piece will describe how theory, methodology, and epistemology led to the development, collection, and analysis of 40 testimonio interviews with undocumented and US‐born Chicana college students. Specific methodological strategies for employing testimonio in LatCrit research are also provided.

Racial Microaggressions as a Tool for Critical Race Research.

This conceptual article utilizes critical race theory (CRT) to explain how everyday forms of racism – racial microaggressions – emerge in the everyday experiences of People of Color. We provide a framework for understanding and analyzing racial microaggressions that demonstrates how everyday racist events are systemically mediated by institutionalized racism (i.e. structures and processes), and guided by ideologies of white supremacy that justify the superiority of a dominant group (whites) over non-dominant groups (People of Color). To demonstrate the conceptual utility of the framework, we utilize historical and contemporary examples of racial micoraggressions, and offer varied ways to use the framework in critical race research. We argue racial microaggressions can be a powerful ‘tool’ for identifying, disrupting, and dismantling the racism that marginalizes, subordinates and excludes People of Color in and outside of education.

Discourses of Racist Nativism in California Public Education: English Dominance as Racist Nativist Microaggressions

This article uses a Latina/o critical theory framework (LatCrit), as a branch of critical race theory (CRT) in education, to understand how discourses of racist nativism—the institutionalized ways people perceive, understand and make sense of contemporary US immigration, that justifies native (white) dominance, and reinforces hegemonic power—emerge in California public K–12 education for Chicana students. I use data from 40 testimonio interviews with 20 undocumented and US-born Chicana students, to show how racist nativist discourses have been institutionalized in California public education by English hegemony, that maintains social, political, and economic dominance over Latina/o students and communities, regardless of actual nativity. Teacher practices of English dominance is a manifestation of this hegemony that can be articulated by the concept of racist nativist microaggression—systemic, everyday forms of racist nativism that are subtle, layered, and cumulative verbal and non-verbal assaults directed toward People of Color.

Visualizing Everyday Racism: Critical Race Theory, Visual Microaggressions, and the Historical Image of Mexican Banditry

Drawing from critical race and sociolinguistic discourse analysis, this article further develops the conceptual tool of racial microaggressions—the systemic, cumulative, everyday forms of racism experienced by People of Color—to articulate a type of racial microaggression, we call visual microaggressions. Visual microaggressions are systemic, everyday visual assaults based on race, gender, class, sexuality, language, immigration status, phenotype, accent, or surname that emerge in various mediums such as textbooks, children’s books, advertisements, film and television, dance and theater performance, and public signage and statuary. These microaggressions reinforce institutional racism and perpetuate ideologies of white supremacy. In this article, we use a racial microaggressions analytical framework to examine how the “Mexican bandit” visual microaggression has been utilized as a multimodal text that (re)produces racist discourses that in turn reinforce dominant power structures. These discourses have allowed for the Mexican bandit image to pervade the public imagination of Latinas/os for over 100 years.

Chicana/Latina Testimonios on Effects and Responses to Microaggressions

Testimonio in educational research can reveal both the oppression that exists within educational institutions and the powerful efforts in which students of color 1 engage to challenge and transform those spaces. We utilize testimonio as a methodological approach to understand how undocumented and U.S.-born Chicana/Latina students experience the effects of and responses to a systemic, subtle, and cumulative form of racism, racist nativist microaggressions. We draw from critical race and Chicana feminist frameworks to understand the effects of microaggressions as embodied systemic oppression (Cruz, 2006; Moraga & Anzaldúa, 2002b). Our analysis reveals that the students engaged and created counterspaces within K-12 institutions that challenged oppression and sought to transform the educational spaces that marginalized them. Throughout these findings, we explore the process of conocimiento (Anzaldúa, 2002) that allowed the women to engage in reflection, healing, and celebration of their resiliency.

More than "Papelitos:" A QuantCrit Counterstory to Critique Latina/o Degree Value and Occupational Prestige.

Abstract Concerned with how numbers are misused and distorted in research and public discourse at the expense of People of Color, this article attempts to answer the following: How do we use numbers to tell the stories of Communities of Color? We offer a QuantCrit counterstory to share our journey of (re)imagining quantitative methods to center and extend the commitments of critical race scholarship. Specifically, we employ the tools of cultural intuition and groundtruthing to examine educational attainment and occupational outcomes of Communities of Color generally, and Latinas/os specifically, in order to challenge dominant narratives of postsecondary degree ‘value’ and occupational ‘prestige.’ We describe how our QuantCrit journey led us to theorizing a new index of occupational status and prestige for Communities of Color, what we call a Critical Race Occupational Index. By sharing our methodological counterstory, we offer a strategy for what it means to employ QuantCrit, rather than a strict description of a methodological design that produced specific results.

Teaching racial microaggressions: implications of critical race hypos for social work praxis

ABSTRACT This article provides a conceptual understanding of racial microaggressions from a critical race theoretical (CRT) perspective, as relevant to the field of Social Work. To do this, we utilize Critical Race Hypos, hypothetical pedagogical tools developed from existing literature on racial microaggressions, and meant to engage critical dialogue on everyday racism in the lives of People of Color. We explain the pedagogical utility of Critical Race Hypos for engaging discussions about racial microaggressions in social work training. This article provides three Critical Race Hypos that focus on common questions about racial microaggressions set within the context of a social work graduate program classroom. The article concludes with implications of these hypos for social work theory and practice.

Healing Images and Narratives: Undocumented Chicana/Latina Pedagogies of Resistance

ABSTRACTThis article draws from a longitudinal study of 38 in-depth testimonio interviews with 10 undocumented Chicanas/Latinas from 2008 to 2014, first as college students and then as professionals. A Chicana feminist theoretical perspective in education was utilized to explore how undocumented Chicana/Latina ways of knowing emerged in the ways they worked with and for immigrant communities as professionals. The study found that participants drew from their multiple identities, social locations, and life experiences as undocumented Chicana/Latina women to engage in pedagogies of resistance—everyday forms of teaching and learning that challenge the subjugation of undocumented communities, and are shaped by personal and collective experiences, knowledge, and identities. The study found that participants utilized mestiza consciousness, convivencia, and bodymindspirit to employ these pedagogies of resistance in their professional work with and for immigrant communities.ABSTRACT This article draws from a longitudinal study of 38 in-depth testimonio interviews with 10 undocumented Chicanas/Latinas from 2008 to 2014, first as college students and then as professionals. A Chicana feminist theoretical perspective in education was utilized to explore how undocumented Chicana/Latina ways of knowing emerged in the ways they worked with and for immigrant communities as professionals. The study found that participants drew from their multiple identities, social locations, and life experiences as undocumented Chicana/Latina women to engage in pedagogies of resistance—everyday forms of teaching and learning that challenge the subjugation of undocumented communities, and are shaped by personal and collective experiences, knowledge, and identities. The study found that participants utilized mestiza consciousness, convivencia, and bodymindspirit to employ these pedagogies of resistance in their professional work with and for immigrant communities.