“I am not Jasmine; I am Aladdin”: How Youth Challenge Structural Inequity through Critical Hip Hop Literacies

Abstract

Abstract Previous research on Hip Hop Education has advocated for the inclusion of critical media literacy in schools and for the recognition of Hip Hop music and culture as a central component of young people’s literate and social identities (e.g. Hall, 2017; Kelly, 2020; McArthur, 2016). This article places critical Hip Hop literacy at the intersections of media education, social justice education, and culturally sustaining pedagogies by discussing the role of Hip Hop literature and culture as a form of text that can foster young people’s critical consciousness development in the secondary classroom. Through analysis of data collected in a high school Hip Hop Literature and Culture class, this qualitative case study examines how critical Hip Hop literacy practices can support youth sociopolitical development in racially diverse classrooms and schools. The results of this study reveal the need for schools to support students in identifying, analyzing, and challenging structures of oppression through the development of critical Hip Hop literacies.