ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how the author's experiences of anti-Blackness and the afterlife of slavery inform their research on neoliberal educational restructuring and the ways Black people experience, understand, and contest market-based reforms. This work is grounded in the Black Radical Tradition and Black Study, which challenges the symbolic and material orders that secure white dominance and intersect with other forms of oppression. This approach aims to honor the humanity of Black people, Black place, Black imaginations and desires, subvert oppression, and dismantle power structures. This chapter emphasizes the importance of theoretical underpinnings in education research and the role of power and positionality in knowledge production. The chapter traces the author's engagement with Critical Race Theory and their deepened understanding of liberalism, political economy, and the conditions of crisis that shape school reform. Overall, this chapter describes the author's work as a political and ethical project rooted in Black desire, liberation, and care.
