“I’ll Walk Out if You Walk Out”: A Comic on How Students of Color Utilize Racial Micropolitical Literacy in Their Everyday Lives

Authors

Josephine Pham, University of California, Santa CruzFollow
Talitha Angelica Acaylar Trazo, University of California, DavisFollow

Abstract

Advocating for an expansive view of Youth Participatory Action Research that considers everyday practices in mundane life as essential for building just and thriving futures, the authors co-created a comic to illustrate the inventive ways youth of color co-create educational possibilities for racially just futures in everyday classroom life. Framed through a racial micropolitical literacy framework and based on a real-life narrative, their scholarship in comic form invites youth, practitioners, and scholars to re-frame and re-present learning, teaching, studying, and living educational justice in renewed ways. Specifically, the authors highlight the ingenious practices of youth of color who are already engaging in alternative inquiries and solutions for a racially just and harm-free world, which can expand collective actions and imaginations for social transformation.

Author Biography

Josephine H. Pham



Josephine H. Pham is an assistant professor at University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research examines micro-interactional processes of social reproduction and social transformation in everyday educational contexts, with an emphasis on the learning, knowledge, and practices of teachers of color. Collaborating with other scholars, practitioners, and artists, she is also creator of Mai Pedagogy Project, combining research with creative expression to communicate complex scholarly findings and critical perspectives related to educational justice.

Angel Trazo



Angel Trazo is a doctoral student in cultural studies at University of California, Davis. Her dissertation explores the origins and implications of Asian Baby Girl (ABG) subculture—as both an Asian American youth culture and viral “ABG aesthetic” on social media. She is the author and illustrator of the children’s book We Are Inspiring: The Stories of 32 Inspirational Asian American Women (2019).

Comments

This project was supported in part by a grant from the Institute for Social Transformation at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Recommended Citation

Pham, J., & Trazo, T. A. (2025). “I’ll walk out if you walk out”: A comic on how students of color utilize racial micropolitical literacy in their everyday lives. Occasional Paper Series, (53). DOI: https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1546