Trading Spaces: Antiblackness and Reflections on Black Education Futures

This article explores the visionary possibility of learning to recognize, honor and steward Black Education Spaces (BES). BES might be considered physical locations, cultural practices, traditions, and opportunities for black students and educators to: (a) heal from the racialized assaults resulting from antiblackness; and (b) strategize resistance to manifestations of antiblackness. The authors analyze Derrick Bell’s “The Space Traders” to discern the relationship between antiblackness and Bell’s commentary on black liberation. They then explore the implications of anti-blackness on the schooling of black people in the afterlife of slavery, and put forward a conceptual model of BES. The article concludes with reflections on black education futures, and the implications of BES to achieve black people’s diverse dreams of freedom.