We be talkin': Critical explorations into how black adolescents experience a black language book club

Deficit views about Black language have circulated throughout society since before desegregation. However, Black literary societies were used as a way to counter hegemony by developing the language of the Black community and continue to exist (Muhammad, 2021). This single case study sought to understand how Black American adolescents connect with, perceive, and take power over Black language. This was done by investigating the experiences of the adolescents as they interacted with Black literature during a book club with consideration for the pedagogical shifts that emerge because of these experiences. Critical consciousness and reader response theories were used to understand how the Black adolescents described their experiences. As a result, the overarching theme, recognition of Black language, emerged from the data. This was supported by three subthemes: Black language identity, language awareness, and societal positioning. Findings suggest a need for pedagogical shifts in education to consider the asset tools Black adolescents utilize when interacting with Black language.