A Black Principal's Decolonizing Journey for Racial Justice

Abstract

This chapter is a critical autoethnographic analysis of a Black male school leader enacting racial and social justice in his school improvement efforts. A reflexive dialogue between dissertation research findings and related leadership experiences seek to extricate the colonial structure of public education and the colonizing intent of schooling as experienced by a Black principal and the communities of color from which his students and caregivers derive. Three dynamics are identified as oppressive: white moves towards Black domination, white privilege, and intersecting oppressions. Three decolonizing acts are highlighted: centering of racial justice, catalyzing critical community consciousness and agency, and dismantling intersecting oppressions through counter narration.