Counterstorytelling

As a person of color, adversity, prejudice, and systemic institutional oppression have been a part of my life. At this point, it has become easier to pinpoint the oppressive experiences of my past and realize the struggles I overcome.

I have begun to understand the meaning of being a minority, underrepresented, lower class and a person of color. For many years, these labels ascribed to me were seen as negative and provided a deficit thought. I was led to believe that my culture and identity dimensions were deficient and less valuable than the dominant White culture. Deficient thought finds minority cultures lacking value and insisting that our cultures cause low educational and occupational attainment (Yosso, 2006). This thinking has permeated U.S. Society and our educational system. Schools driven by the deficit model use a bank system of education: making our students passive bodies in learning, taught to acculturate/assimilate and accept the values of the dominant society (hooks, 1996; Freire, 1970). With time, experience, and education I have dispelled that deficit thinking and liberated my thoughts and actions. This rant reflects my experience in the educational pipeline and briefly covers themes of: education as a liberatory practice (Freire, 1970; hooks, 1996), critical race theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001), LatCrit and racial microaggression (Solorzano), and critical race counterstorytelling (Yosso, 2006).

Today, I will begin to share my counterstory and retrace the struggles I have had as a Chicano, coming from a low-income family and impoverished community to being a college graduate and working towards assisting mi guente along the educational pipeline. Counterstorytelling comes from a revolt against the general history and stories told through the perspective of those with racial and social privilege, “majoritarian storytelling” (Yosso, 2006). Counterstorytellin moves us from the legacy of racism and White privilege and introduces a method for people to validate their lived experience and share their “story” as they see it. Critical race counterstory recounts the experiences and perspectives of racially and socially marginalized people. It empowers our people and embraces our communities of color rich history of storytelling and oral traditions.

Growing up, only a church lot separated me and drugs, gang violence, and many of the issues that face our impoverished communities of color. Although, I still experienced the issues stated above, they were not directly outside my doorstep. I was lucky; I could avoid it, but my classmates, my friends, could not. It affected their daily life; arguments in the morning, domestic disturbances at night, older siblings slang, younger ones stealing, and everyday gang violence just to claim a street corner. In retrospect, I understand why many of my friends dropped out of school, were imprisoned, overdossed or were killed on the streets.

I come from janitors and seamstresses. In my family, if you were a man, you worked maintenance; if you were a female, you sewed.


That is all I have for today... this continues tomorrow.