Utilizing Healing Frameworks to Address and Challenge Racism and White Supremacy In and Out of Educational Settings

Abstract

White supremacy and other systems of oppression have been and are currently at the forefront of today’s society. With all of the racial trauma and violence Communities of Color face, I questioned how are Students of Color healing amidst explicit racial injustices. This three paper project is guided by the following overall research question: How do Students of Color create racial refuge in and out of educational settings? I refer to racial refuge as spaces that challenge trauma-informed characterizations. Instead, these spaces nurture culturally-sustaining healing practices and processes to address systems of oppression. In order to address this, this project utilized participant observations, in-depth interviews, pláticas, and document analysis to better understand how Students of Color make sense of their racialized experiences and describe pathways to healing. Additionally, this project utilized autoethnography as a method to describe my experiences working with a doctoral Student of Color group and how my relationships with this group informed my research and positionality as a Chicana MotherScholar invested in community-based research. This project ultimately informs how various fields of study, especially social work, can better holistically support Students of Color in and out of educational settings by proposing and incorporating healing frameworks and practices to address, challenge, and eliminate white supremacy, along with other systems of oppression.