Schools as Borderlands: How Anzaldúa’s concept of Borderlands apply to schools that serve Black communities

Authors

Gene Fellner, CUNY College of Staten IslandFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 3-6-2023

Abstract

Many young people in Newark, New Jersey, when they cross the invisible line that separates street from school, enter what constitutes for them an alien territory, a place where their values, experiences and their ways of talking and thinking are not acknowledged, respected, or welcomed. At the same time, schools are also one of the few places where Black youth will interact and form relationships with White adults and where White adults will meet and engage with Black students and teachers. In both these ways, schools are akin to what Gloria Anzaldua calls a Borderland, both a geographical designation and a psychological and spiritual space in which cultures meet, often clash, and sometimes emerge together in a world that opens itself up in new and mutually beneficial ways. I assume that schools in other urban districts are not dissimilar