Speaking Up: School Climate and Language Politics in the Trump Era

Authors

Mneesha Gellman, Emerson CollegeFollow

Abstract

Identity politics are fraught. High school is a prime location where such politics play out and interface with state-dictated norms and values about acceptable social behavior. This article examines identity politics during the Trump era in two far Northern California high schools to better understand the impact on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students. I argue that while the Trump effect allowed hostility towards BIPOC people to be expressed more openly in general, schools can also be sites of resistance to culturecide—the killing of culture—that diminishes the role of minority ontologies and epistemologies in the formation of young people. Yurok and Spanish language courses serve as spaces of heritage language revitalization that challenge White supremacist ideologies embedded in curricula as well as wider US culture.

Recommended Citation

Gellman, Mneesha. 2022. "Speaking Up: School Climate and Language Politics in the Trump Era." Humboldt Journal of Social Relations 1 (44): DOI: https://doi.org/10.55671/0160-4341.1164