Confronting Colonial Control: Afrofuturist Literacy Stances versus Book Bans in the Battle for Spacetime
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| Title: | Confronting Colonial Control: Afrofuturist Literacy Stances versus Book Bans in the Battle for Spacetime |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | S. R. Toliver (ORCID |
| Source: | Reading Research Quarterly. 2025 60(3). |
| Availability: | Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 17 |
| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Evaluative |
| Descriptors: | Colonialism, Decolonization, Afrocentrism, Futures (of Society), Literacy, Censorship, Books, Racism, Meta Analysis, Ethnography, Ideology, Textbook Selection, Bias |
| DOI: | 10.1002/rrq.70031 |
| ISSN: | 0034-0553 1936-2722 |
| Abstract: | While much of the research on censorship and book banning rightly emphasizes efforts to silence and erase people who do not identify as white cis-heteronormative men, the role of colonialism in the construction and contextualization of censorship is underexplored. However, censorship's primary goal is to obtain power over stories--the control over the narration of the national narrative, the dominion over social memory's plot sequence, and the authority to decide the protagonists and antagonists of history. Narrative is essential to the composition and conservation of empire, enabling settler colonialists to rule the land, the people, and the future. Thus, censoring books written by and about people minoritized in a white cis-heteropatriarchal capitalist society is enacted to ensure that white supremacy flourishes and guarantees that the story of the United States is one in which white people maintain control over the construction of the land, its people, its history, and its futurity. This article rises from this context. Specifically, the author employs meta-ethnography to review existing literacy scholarship to highlight how white-centric ideologies influence in-service and pre-service teachers' text selection practices. Rather than just critique common stances, the author also conceptualizes Afrofuturist literacy stances as another textual possibility. In doing so, the author argues that Afrofuturist literacy stances can act as one liberatory intervention in the broader collective struggle against the spacetime imperialism of censored literacies. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2025 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1478208 |
| Database: | ERIC |
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| Abstract: | While much of the research on censorship and book banning rightly emphasizes efforts to silence and erase people who do not identify as white cis-heteronormative men, the role of colonialism in the construction and contextualization of censorship is underexplored. However, censorship's primary goal is to obtain power over stories--the control over the narration of the national narrative, the dominion over social memory's plot sequence, and the authority to decide the protagonists and antagonists of history. Narrative is essential to the composition and conservation of empire, enabling settler colonialists to rule the land, the people, and the future. Thus, censoring books written by and about people minoritized in a white cis-heteropatriarchal capitalist society is enacted to ensure that white supremacy flourishes and guarantees that the story of the United States is one in which white people maintain control over the construction of the land, its people, its history, and its futurity. This article rises from this context. Specifically, the author employs meta-ethnography to review existing literacy scholarship to highlight how white-centric ideologies influence in-service and pre-service teachers' text selection practices. Rather than just critique common stances, the author also conceptualizes Afrofuturist literacy stances as another textual possibility. In doing so, the author argues that Afrofuturist literacy stances can act as one liberatory intervention in the broader collective struggle against the spacetime imperialism of censored literacies. |
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| ISSN: | 0034-0553 1936-2722 |
| DOI: | 10.1002/rrq.70031 |
