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The Trappings of Racism Are Here, and I Live in Them University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 6-30-2016 "All The rT appings Of Racism Are Here, And I Live In Them": Resistance, Counterspace, and Identity Socialization as Afro-Caribbean Women Raise Second Generation Immigrant Sons And Grandsons In a Racialized U.S. Southeastern State Michelle D. Grace-Williams Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Language and Literacy Education Commons Recommended Citation Grace-Williams, M. D.(2016). "All The Trappings Of Racism Are Here, And I Live In Them": Resistance, Counterspace, and Identity Socialization as Afro-Caribbean Women Raise Second Generation Immigrant Sons And Grandsons In a Racialized U.S. Southeastern State. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/3369 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “ALL THE TRAPPINGS OF RACISM ARE HERE, AND I LIVE IN THEM.”: RESISTANCE, COUNTERSPACE, AND IDENTITY SOCIALIZATION AS AFRO- CARIBBEAN WOMEN RAISE SECOND GENERATION IMMIGRANT SONS AND GRANDSONS IN A RACIALIZED U.S. SOUTHEASTERN STATE by Michelle D. Grace-Williams Diploma in Education Mico University College, 1997 Bachelor of Arts University of the West Indies, 2003 Master of Education Southern Wesleyan University, 2008 ____________________________________________ Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Language and Literacy College of Education University of South Carolina 2016 Accepted by: Susi Long, Major Professor Gloria Boutte, Major Professor Michelle Bryan, Committee Member Sherina Feliciano-Santos, Committee Member Julia López-Robertson, Committee Member Lacy Ford, Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies © Copyright by Michelle D. Grace-Williams, 2016 All Rights Reserved. ii DEDICATION To my parents, for always believing in me and for your unwavering love and support throughout these years. You are my heroes, the wind beneath my wings. and To the Jamaican immigrant women in this research study. I have grown more as a scholar from listening to your stories: Your stories stripped me naked speaking you reinforced my resolve to lose fig leaves of uncritical multiculturalism baring the raced me I touched the complexities of all our stories speaking the word racism and not being afraid iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever 1 Chronicles 16 verse 34 I am forever grateful to my friends and family who supported me throughout my dissertation work. Words cannot express my appreciation for your support, encouragement, and assistance in completing this journey. Thank you to my parents for your prayers, motivation, love, and inspiration. To my mother, I say a special thank you for sending me newspaper articles, YouTube videos, and photographs from Jamaica to keep me abreast of current events in my homeland to inform my research. Most of all I thank you, mom, for your stories and for igniting my critical awareness as a child. Thank you to Jerry and my siblings for listening again and again to my research and for sharing your thoughts. To my emancipatory teachers and professors in Jamaica, I am indebted to you for exposing me to knowledge that made me cognizant of the socio-political challenges our country is still facing from years of British colonialism and for making me understand that our battle for true liberation is ongoing. To my dissertation committee thank you for your patience, support, encouragement and feedback. Our journey together really began when I took your course, and you exposed me to critical frameworks that helped me to find the language needed to ground my research study. I am truly honored to have critical scholars on my committee who value my critical orientations and gave me the opportunity to grow. iv ABSTRACT This nine-month narrative inquiry explored the experiences of four Jamaican immigrant women (two mothers and two grandmothers) living in a southeastern U.S. state to gain insights about how they ethnic-racially socialize their second generation immigrant sons or grandsons in this racialized context. Research questions guiding the study were: (a) How do the women perceive racism in the U.S.? How do they choose to self-identify? What connection, if at all, exists between their perceptions of racism and how they choose to raise their children or grandchildren? (b) What ethnic-racial messages do they transmit to them and what purposes do they serve? and (c) What insights do the mothers’ narratives on the ethnic-racial socialization of their children or grandchildren provide about what social justice might look like for children from families like theirs? To understand and center the voices and experiences of the Jamaican mothers and grandmothers, I used critical race and decolonizing analytic methodologies, and employed ethno-poetic as well as traditional narrative structures to represent findings from the four case studies. Grounded in critical race theory, Black feminism, and counterspace perspectives, findings revealed unjust school practices including stereotyping and negative profiling as well as strategies used by the women to cope with and negotiate existing systems while teaching their sons or grandsons to survive and thrive within a racialized society. They overtly and covertly exposed their children to ethnic-racial messages in their home and or church that helped to affirm racial and ethnic identities and challenge the deficit and racist practices they encountered. Implications v provide insights for critical scholars conducting research focused on immigrant populations as well as for teacher training programs and schools to better equip in-service and pre-service teachers to support immigrant children by: (1) understanding the nuanced experiences of Afro-Caribbean families; (2) learning about families’ perceptions, experiences with, and responses to racism in the U.S. schools and society; (3) examining their own biases and using culturally relevant pedagogies in classrooms; and (4) collaborating with families to disrupt unjust school practices. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE .................................................32 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .....................................................................................82 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS ..............................................................................................126 CHAPTER 5: CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ...................................239 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ..............................................280 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................315 APPENDIX A – MAP OF JAMAICA ............................................................................352 APPENDIX B – MAP OF THE CARIBBEAN ..............................................................353 APPENDIX C – CONSENT LETTER ............................................................................354 APPENDIX D –DECOLONIZING METHODOLOGY CONCEPT MAP ....................357 APPENDIX E– CRITICAL RACE METHODOLOGY CONCEPT MAP ....................358 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Participants’ Demographic Background ..........................................................107 Table 3.2 Interaction and Observation of Artifacts .........................................................113 Table 3.3. Research Timeline ..........................................................................................116 Table 3. 4 Poetic Transcription of Interview ...................................................................118 Table 5.1 Preparation for Bias and Counterspace Narratives ..........................................270 Table 5.2 Cultural Socializing Messages and Counterspace Narratives ..........................272 Table 5.3 Cultural Socialization Messages and Counterspace Narratives .......................274 Table 6.1 Implications for Practice ..................................................................................286 Table 6.2 Implications for Future Research .....................................................................300 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 My Personal Counterspace ...............................................................................40 Figure 2.2 Jamaica’s Slavery Three Tiered Social Structure .............................................55 Figure 4.1 African Proverbs and Wisdom Book in Bev’s Home ....................................157 Figure 4.2 Haitian Artifact Illustrating
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