A Search Past Silence: The Literacy of Young Black Men

Language and Literacy

by David E. Kirkland

This beautifully written book argues that educators need to understand the social worlds and complex literacy practices of African American males in order to pay the increasing educational debt we owe all youth and break the school-to-prison pipeline. Moving portraits from the lives of six friends bring to life the structural characteristics and qualities of meaning-making practices, particularly practices that reveal the political tensions of defining who gets to be literate and who does not. Key chapters on language, literacy, race, and masculinity examine how the literacies, languages, and identities of these friends are shaped by the silences of societal denial. Ultimately, A Search Past Silence is a passionate call for educators to listen to the silenced voices of Black youth and to re-imagine the concept of being literate in a multicultural democratic society.

Genres: Education, Grad School, Academic, Teaching

208 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2013

Reviews

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING. one of the best books I have ever read in my graduate studies. Every teacher should read this.

[Skylar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunningly good. Texts in the education world are rarely written with this kind of exquisite care for detail and turn of phrase. If you want to know what it looks like to view young people through the lens of their strengths and assets, if you want to read a text that is deeply thoughtful and compassionate, this is what you're looking for.

Note that it is not written as a manual for classroom teachers--you will not find a single recommendation for lesson planning or "engagement strategies"--and that's all to the good, here. This isn't a book about how to "fix" young Black men; it's a book about the strength and intelligence and creativity you will find as soon as you start looking--or even, as soon as you stop actively blinding yourself to it.

[Robbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was incredible how Kirkland morphed his research based study into a narrative telling the untold stories of a friend group of African American children in Michigan. “A Search Past Silence” was extremely eye opening and has made me revisit not only how I define literacy, but also how I view race and the formation of one’s identity.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful and heartbreaking. It is books/conversations/articles like this that make me question, what am I to do? What steps does a teacher take? How much can you "know your kids" before you take on their trauma? Until you burn out? No easy answers, for sure.

[Wren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for my Linguistic Anthropology class this semester. It was good. It read more like a memoir of these boys life during the period of time the author was studying them but overall it was interesting.

[Angelina Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Angelina calls it a must read. As someone who reads a LOT (a lot) of scholarly text, it is always refreshing to read academia like Kirkland's. His writing is like poetry, every sentence makes me want to be a better person.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first ethnographic read and it was beautifully written. Kirkland challenges the dominant narrative of Black men, specifically Black male students. As a teacher, it brought a lot of insight into my own biases and experiences.

[Kevin Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

While Kirkland admirably highlights voices of young black men that are otherwise silenced in America, he fails to address the potential pitfalls of those very boys not fully developing the ability to wield the language of power to propel themselves forward. In this, Kirkland assumes a false preclusion between “white” and “black” literacy, when the six boys may benefit from an integration of the two instead of dismissing one at school for the sake of another outside of it.

[Collin D.N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

INCREDIBLE. This book challenged me to think about my own literacy in ways thatI had never even considered. It was an added bonus that the narrative takes place in my hometown, Lansing, Michigan, and gave me a lot of things that I could relate very closely to.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

So beautifully written that I thought I was reading nonfiction.