Writing, Rioting, and Righting Como Negra: A Testimonio of Black Latinx Erasure in Bilingual Education

Abstract

In this autoethnography, María Cioè-Peña recounts her experiences of Black erasure in bilingual education in US schools, where the focus is on language and an imagined mixed-race collective, centering culture to circumvent race and treating language as connective yet racially neutral. But languages and how language users are perceived are not race-neutral constructs. Black erasure in bilingual education upholds anti-Blackness and model minority narratives in education and results in tangible exclusion and oppression for Black bi/multilinguals. Supported by theory and history, Cioè-Peña recounts key moments that contributed to her internalization of anti-Black ideology/rhetoric and respectability politics as a bilingual Black Latina, manifesting in the “taming” of her tongue and cultural identity. Through her testimonio, she sheds light on the erasure of Black students in bilingual education programs and research.