ABSTRACT
Chapter Overview
This chapter will review the origins of hip-hop as form of youth culture that faces the threat of erasure given forms of systemic oppression scattered across the education system in the United States. As a means to exploring oppressive systemic concerns, scholarship is explored connecting modern-day schooling with the history of education in the United States (Emdin, 2016; Ladson-Billings, 2006; Love, 2019). This context is then applied to a case study that illuminates how age-old oppressive educational practices continue to disproportionally impact Black and Latinx youth today. Further, the origins of the school counseling are explored as their roots highlight how far the field as a whole is from producing culturally competent school counseling professionals and addressing social justice concerns. Given the landscape for urban education and the school counseling profession, this chapter argues that students’ social and emotional concerns are inadequately addressed. A return to the humanistic roots of the counseling profession is warranted, and when coupled with an understanding of oppressive educational structures enables educators to utilize hip-hop approaches to counseling to push back against the slew of concerns addressed in this chapter – with a direct focus on allowing youth to self-actualize.
