Unpacking Black children’s racialized experiences and emotions in a Spanish/English DLBE program: A composite counterstory

This theoretical paper critically unpacks the racialized experiences and emotions that Black children experience while using Black Language in a Spanish/English dual language bilingual program (DLBE). Employing Critical Race Theory, Raciolinguistics, and Emotions as Entanglements as theoretical lenses, this article interrogates the nuanced phenomena of Black children’s racialized experiences that are shaped by interconnected dynamics in bilingual programs. In this article, a composite counterstory details how raciolinguistic ideologies influence the specific racialized emotions and experiences of Black children that often place them on the margins in bilingual education spaces, such as performing respectability politics. In this counterstory, we argue that these racialized emotions are unique to Black children with Black Languaging practices in DLBE programs, highlight how their emotions are racialized differently from other participants in bilingual programs, and explain how DLBE programs become an extension of spaces that promote Whiteness for Black children. In sharing these tensions, we demand careful attention to the framing of Black children’s linguistic practices in DLBE programs and offer recommendations toward justice for Black children in DLBE programs.