Whiteness Owns it, Blackness Defines it

Rural Reality in the Black Belt

Authors

  • Amy Swain East Carolina University
  • Timberly L. Baker Arkansas State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3776/tpre.2021.v11n2p15-27

Keywords:

rurality, rural education, Black Belt, plantation logic, critical race theory

Abstract

Any examination of schools and schooling in the rural Southern Black Belt must interrogate the enduring logic of plantation politics and examine rural equity work through a racialized lens. We defined rural and identify a rural reality for life in the Black Belt South. Critical Race Theory (CRT) and antiblackness are offered as potential race-conscious theoretical frameworks to a plantation rurality, and we propose an alternative vision of rural education scholarship in the Southern Black Belt that invites space for anticolonial liberation.

Author Biographies

Amy Swain, East Carolina University

Amy Swain, PhD, is a teaching assistant professor in the Department of Special Education, Foundations and Research at East Carolina University, where she teaches courses in the social foundations and diversity. She has worked in and with public schools for the last seventeen years in North Carolina and has taught at every level of education from elementary school to university. Her research and practice focuses on social and racial justice, rural education, racial equity, and transformative justice. She is a native of eastern North Carolina and lives in Martin County, North Carolina. Her work has been published in Educational Studies, Qualitative Inquiry, and The Urban Review.

Timberly L. Baker, Arkansas State University

Timberly L. Baker is an associate professor of educational leadership at Arkansas State University. She received her BSE in secondary education social studies and her MSE in educational theory and practice. She has published in Journal on Transforming Professional Practice, The Journal of Culture and Education, The Journal of Negro Education, and School Community Journal. The focus and purpose of Dr. Baker's scholarly pursuits and accomplishments are centered on the improvement of educational outcomes for African American students P-16, through examinations of disproportionality in school discipline, disproportionality in special education, representation in the curriculum, and preparation of teachers and administrators. Her work utilizes critical race theory—microaggression, interest convergence and colorblindness—to critique policy, practices, and praxis. Overall her work seeks to improve educational outcomes for African American students.

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Published

2021-11-09

How to Cite

Swain, A., & Baker, T. L. (2021). Whiteness Owns it, Blackness Defines it: Rural Reality in the Black Belt. Theory & Practice in Rural Education, 11(2), 15–27. https://doi.org/10.3776/tpre.2021.v11n2p15-27

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 2 (2021): Theory & Practice in Rural Education: Special Issue on Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity in Rural Schools and Communities

Section

Research Forum

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Copyright (c) 2021 Timberly L. Baker, Amy Swain

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