Video summary
The presentation addresses critical systemic inequities facing Black students in World Language programs, particularly within Spanish education. Speakers Ujuanya and Deborah Gomez highlight how current curricula often perpetuate racism through a lack of representation, the erasure of Afro-descendant identities, and the devaluation of students' home languages. Research indicates that materials frequently depict stereotypical or inaccurate images of Latin America while ignoring the reality that over one-third of Spanish speakers globally are Black. Furthermore, educators note how "race-neutral" approaches often result in colorblindness that effectively erases Black history and culture, leading to a disconnect between classroom content and the lived experiences of students from diverse backgrounds.
A significant portion of the talk focuses on linguistic prejudice and the psychological impact it has on learners. Many Black students arrive with rich multilingual repertoires involving African American Vernacular English (AAVE), Haitian Creole, Jamaican Patois, or Caribbean dialects, yet they are conditioned to believe these varieties are "broken" or inferior compared to Standard English or French. The speakers argue that this internalized belief system hinders engagement and learning outcomes. To combat this, the new curriculum explicitly validates diverse linguistic backgrounds in the first week of class, challenging students to recognize that language appropriateness depends on context rather than an inherent hierarchy where only one variety is "proper."
To address these issues, the presenters introduce a groundbreaking Open Access Spanish First-Year curriculum designed specifically for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). This innovative program utilizes task-based learning models such as Ellis, Willis, and Noonan to ensure lessons are grounded in students' real-world needs. A unique feature of this resource is its integration of community leaders—both Black educators and activists—who serve as role models within the lesson plans. These figures demonstrate how Spanish proficiency has benefited their own lives and communities, thereby providing visible representation and fostering a sense of belonging that traditional materials lack.
The speakers conclude by emphasizing that anti-racist pedagogy requires more than just adding diverse images; it demands a fundamental restructuring of teaching practices to include inquiry-based assessment and equity-minded planning. They clarify the misconception that all racial identities are mixed or fluid, affirming that Black people in Latin America actively claim their heritage as principal cultural agents rather than being erased by ideologies like *mestizaje*. By centering Blackness and validating diverse linguistic experiences, this curriculum aims to dismantle systemic barriers, increase enrollment among Black students, and create an inclusive environment where all learners can thrive without the burden of historical erasure.
Read the full video transcript
um our next talk is entitled neh funded
Open Access Spanish language curriculum
centering blackness in Latin America and
I'm going to let these speakers
introduce themselves we have several of
them so take it away
hi good morning
my name is ujjuanya and I am at Carnegie
Mellon University in the modern
languages uh in decided second language
acquisition uh and today we're gonna
talk about uh black language learners
studying Spanish in our colleges and
universities and then we're also going
to introduce you to the curriculum that
we have created with neh funding to
address some of the problems that we
have found in our research on this topic
uh so as you can see uh first of all
there is way too little research that's
being done on black Learners black
students uh in World languages in
general and the little bit that has been
done
as
revealed a lot of problems problems that
I have listed here we won't have time to
go through all of them
um but you will notice their issues with
systemic inequity uh racism uh their
issues with uh mismatch between what's
going on in our classrooms and at home
uh their issues with gatekeeping and
black students not being admitted into
Prestige programs or even having those
programs I study abroad for example
being advertised to them uh in the
actual classes themselves excessive
focus on grammar structure uh home
language completely devalued disconnect
and what we're teaching in our Spanish
classes uh and black identity
relevance and meaning to black people
and certainly not uh
tremendous representation of
afro-descendants and black speakers of
Spanish in addition to also issues with
not enough Role Models uh black faculty
grads teams Etc
uh even in the texts and materials that
we use I just you know have a snippet
here from a project uh that I did with
Spanish teachers evaluating
um and analyzing very closely some of
the materials that we uh use in our
classes and um for example we have
pictures uh that are supposedly
representing the Hispanic world and it
looks like a picture of Sweden more so
than any other uh
section of the Hispanic world uh much
less the entire Hispanic World
um we have uh this purport purported
race neutrality in that we are not
preparing for example or black students
to uh talk about themselves for example
describe themselves racially uh they're
not taught things like they can say that
the Negro Negra
they're being told
um you you could use the words like
Moreno orena but then that is also a
word that can describe somebody who's
white but with dark hair so this attempt
to uh not enter into Political words for
example I'm not exactly what sure what
was going on uh did not yield any sort
of race neutrality yield Duty Erasure uh
of uh black and afro-descendant
identities uh its color invasive
um and they're you know when you have a
white hegemony in your materials in your
teaching
Etc uh that is not recent neutral it is
white supremacist we saw this in the
materials
um
we also saw uh an experience in the
activities for example that were uh done
uh that purported to be race neutral uh
for example the activity that was done
uh to to ask about uh the dates right uh
it's a typical activity you give a
holiday and the students are supposed to
say that uh the date in Spanish and uh
the date that was asked for was
Independence Day it was asked of an
African-American student uh
African-American students like I'm not
going to say Fourth of July it's not my
Independence Day it's the Independence
Day of uh the people who enslaved my
ancestors uh so it yielded a issues
problems uh the perpetuating racism on
the part of an instructor Who as a black
man himself who did not
feel
like uh you know he himself is not a
racist but you do not have to be racist
to perpetuate racism in a system that it
itself is racist uh so uh Erasure is uh
anti-blackness we know this when you
don't represent uh black people in their
fullness and their entirety uh we know
that at least 33 or even more of Spanish
speakers uh across the world are black
and we do not see them represented we do
not see our black students themselves
represented in what we do
um and we also see a lack of connection
or interest or motivation among black
students and we interpret it as a lack
of ability uh and uh an instructor here
said that that is absolutely not true uh
we are not reaching them we are not
engaging them uh this is why they're not
connected not because they are
supposedly unable uh and it is racist to
assume a whole group of people uh or
simply unable
so what can we do we have noted these
problems
um we propose first of all inquiry
assessment and planning to teach from
anti-racist equity-minded and inclusive
uh approaches I make this suggestion and
I will put in the chat uh article that I
wrote
going into much more detail about all
these things that you've heard this
research the problems and of course the
solution created also a protocol for the
analysis of your materials just like I
did with my teachers
um with these goals for anti-racist
equity-minded and inclusive practices so
thank you very much and I will hand it
over
um to our next presenter death
Hi how are you oh thank you for having
me here
um
I just wanna talk really quick about two
things like my experience at teaching at
an HBCU
my name is Deborah Gomez I'm an
assistant professor of Spanish at
Florida Memorial University this is the
only HBCU here in South Florida
so
I just want to talk a little bit about
my experience being like um a white
hispanic teaching in this setting uh
this is for me was sort of like um
a shock at the very beginning
because uh this was like the first time
that I have to think about race
this was like the first time that I have
to see myself as a rationalized object
I'm coming from Cuba and there is no
really a lot or at least when I used to
live in Cuba there was Zero discussion
about race so I never saw myself as a
rationalized subject so working in ihbcu
was the first time that I started
understanding okay in this country I'm
not really white but back in my country
I am white so I'm sort of like a white
Hispanic and the implications that did
to have in this Society but also in an
HBCU setting that uh it actually could
be like an obstacle that was uh it took
me like a lot of time it took me I would
say even years to gain the trust of my
colleagues and also for my students I
realized like the first first second
semester that it was also so difficult
to get the trust of my students and this
this is when
this curriculum plays a fundamental role
because my one wideness could be some
sort of like a obstacle but this
curriculum actually helped me to
navigate this setting and actually to
succeed
um
why and I just gonna talk about like
what I do with this curriculum what I do
the first time of the first week of
during the semester
I'm pretty sure that since I was
connecting I couldn't hear my colleague
Dr Anja her entire presentation
but uh
one of the things that that we do and
probably she already mentioned is that
in we talk about linguistic varieties
and and trans languaging the importance
of trans languishing and validate our
students languages so majority of my
students they have a very rich and
diverse linguistic repertoire my
students seek at least two linguistic
varieties or older languages
African-American languages Bohemian
English but also what they call back in
the Bahamas proper English I have
students that speak Haitian Creole but
also French and English different
varieties I also have students from
other islands in the Caribbean not only
the Bahamas and they could have come
with the
um
Jamaican Patois or the English from the
Virgin Islands yet yet they do not feel
that any of these languages is good
enough unfortunately when they come to
my classroom
all of them minority of them when we
discuss about the linguistic varieties
and they start actually noticing that
their record twice so rich but still
they feel that it's not good enough
because they've been getting this
constant message in their English
classroom and also in their foreign
language classroom that those languages
are not good enough
that the languages are not proper oh
Haitian Creole even if it's the language
that the the Haitians will use in their
daily life or it's not good enough when
you when you do certain ceremonies or
like important social events like you go
to a Haitian wedding oh no no here it
has to be French
so and the same happens like for example
with Bahamian English oh but with your
grandmother and your family and your
friends Bahamian English is totally fine
but here is cool no no here you have to
speak proper English so when we discuss
and especially this proper English and
quote marks when we discuss this in the
classroom and I just made them
understand that this is wrong because
what really pains me is that a lot of my
students they've been getting this
message to the point that they believe
in so they come to my classroom and they
already think that their linguistic
varieties the language that no short
terms is not good enough it's not proper
it's broken so when we start this
discussion the first week of the
semester in the classroom
and I tell them how wrong disbelief are
uh how this belief will affect could
affect their learning and we have this
whole discussion about the purpose of
language which is communication and what
is totally wrong thinking that this
variety is good and this variety is bad
always depending on the context
is is sort of like a life-changing like
I can't apologize to disturb uh but no
more time every little time okay so well
anyway and Dr browse has to present
right now we okay
well I guess that my message went across
thank you so much I'm sorry about that
Melissa you are not muted you're on
you're okay thank you I'm gonna put in
the chat the link to our fully Open
Access curriculum and just briefly
um this project is the very first in the
nation to create a Spanish first year
curricula designed for the effner racial
meets of black language Learners
um starting in the HBCU setting whatever
I just described and I I'd like to
really highlight how critical the
scholarship is of Dr Anya she's the very
reason for which this all came about
because we were seeing such a drastic
decrease in black student enrollment and
teachers struggle to really engage with
their Learners so briefly I'm going to
talk about the curriculum it is fully
task-based and conducted Upon A needs
analysis so all of this is based off of
the students real world needs
um and I want to say that the number
one-sided need in the Spanish language
by the HBCU student was to help others
um we also utilize if you'll see in the
curriculum fully task-based lesson plans
the Ellis model the Willis model sorry
everyone I have my little one with me
and the Noonan model
um and we utilize therefore complete
tasks and task-based methodology to give
teachers these plans another thing that
is unique about our curriculum is the
community leaders so here online when
you go to our curriculum you will see
all of the units and they all
feature a community leader
um so you will find the entire
task-based lesson plan objectives and
materials all of our videos and tasks
and then Community leaders that
critically show our students examples of
black community leaders black students
as well as teachers who are highlighting
how and why Spanish has been beneficial
to them and then the last thing I'll
demonstrate is critically how we've
ordered and designed all materials based
off of means going from simple to
cognitively complex
so we hope that this can be a helpful
curriculum to you all in your materials
that you can use it however you deem fit
and we wish you the best thank you so
much
um let's see I've been looking at uh
people are are thanking you for making
this open of course and they're also
noting that this the question of race is
not uh just a question in Spanish
classrooms but of course in in the
French classroom as you alluded to in
other languages
um I just I'm gonna throw this one back
out at you there was a little bit of
discussion early on
um as Dr Anya was talking about the the
concept of Erasure and somebody asked a
question about well but all races are
mixed
right and I would like to address that
question I did not have a chance to in
the chat
um there are people in the Hispanic
world who are black and who call
themselves black and who uh or afro this
Indian and who uh recognize very much uh
that they are such
um and those people number very very
highly uh these are people who recognize
their descendants uh where they come
from uh and how they actively contribute
to the Hispanic world as principal
cultural agents in the Hispanic world
the ideology of Miss di sahi uh does a
lot of harm and Erasure of black people
um when we say things well everybody is
mixed so nobody is anything they are
black people in Latin America and across
the Spanish-speaking world and here in
the United States as well
right thank you for uh addressing that
because I thought that needed to be
talked about I'm really sorry this is
such a rich curriculum and a wonderful
project but we're going to have to set
up for the next uh next one
um