ABSTRACT
Efforts to achieve social justice in collaboration with youth of color have yielded innovative programs that offer an affirming alternative to “school as usual.” However, the researchers and educators who guide such programs are often unwittingly complicit in the neoliberal and racist structures of the academy and of K–12 educational systems. This chapter critically reflects on the authors’ experiences of both contesting and unintentionally reproducing such inequities while co-directing a program for Latinx youth that has explicit goals of advancing educational, racial, and sociolinguistic justice. The chapter offers strategies for resisting neoliberalism and structural racism in work with racialized youth.
