ABSTRACT
Because the dynamics of race are wrongly ignored in a current shroud of post-racialism (i.e. re-election of Barack Obama as president of the USA, shifting racial demographics in the USA, etc.), there are still communities in the USA and throughout the world that experience the damaging effects of racism entangled with the realities of class. Many still do not live in a post-racial utopia where ‘things are getting better’. Instead, for some, things are getting worse. In light of these realities, this article is an account of a community’s attempt to interrupt the popularly shared notion that low-income/workingclass communities of color do not deserve quality education. The title has particular significance in that the 14 is reflective of the 14 community members that endured a 19-day hunger strike to secure a school for 1600 students. It should be considered on the ‘edge’ of race in that it recognizes that race is often placed on the periphery of urban education, allowing policies to continually marginalize communities of color. By engaging in this task, this account is divided into five sections. First is the articulation
of CRT and its utilization in this project by way of critical race praxis. The second section articulates the current educational landscape of Chicago, which currently serves as the laboratory for local, state, federal, and international neoliberal school reform. Third is my involvement in an outgrowth of a community-driven initiative for equitable education in two communities ignored for decades by the establishment. Included is my own positioning as a researcher/educator in a design-team process where I participated in the development of mission, vision, school culture, and curriculum for an urban high school with the blessings of community members. Section four provides the duties and responsibilities of the design team into the beginnings of the school. The last section revisits the initial communitydriven initiative through the current struggle to keep the school’s doors open. More than solely a research project, the process challenged me to place my own
understanding theory into action. To those that would argue that I am ‘too close’ to my research, I offer an alternate interpretation: because we are traditionally trained to distance
ourselves from our research, we fall victim to a false sense of ‘objectivity’. In the attempt to create ‘objective’ research, we move further away from grasping with the ‘messiness’ of human life. Fortunately and unfortunately for us, our lives are not perfect, clean, and ordered spaces – they are not objective. These murky, contested, difficult, and affirming spaces pose unique challenges at any given moment in time. Such contradictions remind us why the struggle for justice is so critical. If we do not honor and articulate the messy imperfections of community-engaged research, we do ourselves a disservice. For it is from these spaces that we get the lessons so drastically needed to improve our condition.
The word: narrative, counterstory, and critical race theory
