Centering Youth of Color Activism and Knowledge in the Critical Race Theory Debates

Abstract

Background/Context: Leah Boveda, a sophomore at Brown University, collaborated with her mother—Mildred Boveda, an intersectional studies scholar situated in special education and teacher education—to make sense of her high school community activism in Arizona. They retrace how Leah’s experiences eventually shaped her understandings of and participation in adult-centered conversations about critical race theory bans. This daughter–mother authorial team offers lessons learned from Leah’s youth mobilizations and how they may inform education research about youth activists of color. Research Design: Using an intersectionally conscious, collaborative approach and a daughtering analytical framing, the authors revisited Leah’s high school youth activism. In addition to their memories, they returned to written documents, such as a 2019 interview between Leah and a correspondent at The New York Times, her notes from a 5-minute speech presented at a CRT summit, and shared files for a panel presentation that Leah gave as an assistant “faculty” member for the July 2021 CRT Summer School. The authors consider how Leah’s youth mobilization may inform how adults—whether educators, researchers, or policymakers—engage youths of color in the CRT debates. Conclusions/Recommendations: The authors analyzed how the adults Leah collaborated with engaged youth voice, including at events where student perspectives about CRT bans were invited. In her daughtering role, Leah both appreciated and pushed the nurturing adults in her life. The authorial team unveils how youth activists of color must deal with not only racialized oppression, but also the pressure to achieve proximity to adults in order to be heard and respected.