Abstract

Black Muslim youth confront antiblackness and Islamophobia in US schools and society, yet few studies examine how this population navigates these intersecting oppressions. In addition, there has been a dearth of scholarly literature that explores the educational spaces in which Black Muslim youth are nurtured and affirmed. This article addresses these understudied areas by examining a community of African American Muslim youth who, amidst the overlapping deprivations of antiblackness and Islamophobia, opt to leave the USA and continue their education abroad. Based on a 14-month ethnographic study at an Islamic school in Medina Baye, Senegal that was established for African American Muslim youth, and additional fieldwork throughout the USA, this article utilizes data from classroom observations, participant observations, and interviews. I argue that the school, the African American Islamic Institute Qur’an School, and the communities related to it in Senegal and the USA operate from an axiomatic stance of Black Muslim brilliance. I further argue that such an affirmation of students’ inherent capacities expands these African American Muslim youth’s imaginative possibilities and provides them with new ways of envisioning what it means to learn at the intersection of being young, Black, and Muslim. This research: (1) demonstrates the affordances of transnational educational migration as a route to educational justice for Black students; (2) contributes a diasporic and intersectional perspective to understanding Black Muslim youth’s educational experiences; and (3) illustrates the value of providing opportunities for Black youth from the USA to study abroad on the African continent.

摘要

黑人穆斯林青年在美国学校和社会中面临反黑人和伊斯兰恐惧症，但很少有研究调查这些人群如何应对这些相互交叉的压迫。此外，还缺乏探索黑人穆斯林青年被培养和肯定的教育空间的学术文献。本文通过研究一个非裔美国穆斯林青年社区来解决这些研究不足的领域，他们在反黑人和伊斯兰恐惧症的重叠剥夺中选择离开美国并继续在国外接受教育。基于在塞内加尔麦地那贝伊的一所伊斯兰学校进行的为期 14 个月的民族志研究，该学校专为非裔美国穆斯林青年而建立，并在美国各地进行了额外的实地考察，本文利用课堂观察、参与者观察和访谈的数据。我认为这所学校、非裔美国人伊斯兰学院古兰经学校以及在塞内加尔和美国与之相关的社区都是从黑人穆斯林才华横溢的公理立场出发运作的。我进一步认为，这种对学生内在能力的肯定扩展了这些非裔美国穆斯林青年的想象力，并为他们提供了新的方式来设想在青年、黑人和穆斯林的交汇处学习意味着什么。这项研究：（1）证明了跨国教育移民作为黑人学生获得教育正义的途径的启示；(2) 为理解黑人穆斯林青年的教育经历提供了一种散居和交叉的视角；(3) 说明了为来自美国的黑人青年提供在非洲大陆留学的机会的价值。