“They Just Don’t Get That We Matter”: Black Boys’ Critical Consciousness Development During a Health Crisis and Racial Reckoning

Abstract While the COVID-19 pandemic and heightened racial unrest throughout 2020–2021 brought forth unprecedented disruption and trauma to youth and their families globally, these societal occurrences also provided fodder for youth learning and development. We use a theory of critical consciousness development (e.g., critical reflection, critical motivation, and critical action) and a racialized lens on social-psychological “mattering” to explore the voiced perspectives of adolescent Black high school boys, who participated in our school-university research partnership called The Black Boy Mattering Project . Findings from focus group interviews, gathered over the course of two school years, revealed that as participants navigated the health crisis and widespread racial reckoning, they deepened their critical consciousness of their marginal mattering . Marginal mattering reflects a type of perceived insignificance driven by sensing hyper-awareness from others for the alleged negative traits of one’s minoritized (e.g., racial) group. It led to Black boys feeling unappreciated, undervalued, and even feared in society and school environments. Findings show that while maneuvering COVID-19, participants’ encounters with Black Lives Matter via social media and news outlets inspired their critical reflection on the racial realities that framed their social and school lives and fueled their marginal mattering. Participants also determined protestors’ capacity to impact social change for the Black community, which inspired them to evaluate their critical motivation for making school-level change. While participants did not join street-level protests, they engaged in critical action through social media and some school-based endeavors. Implications suggest ways forward for more humanizing school policies and practices.