Poster #78 - Turning Point or Business as Usual? The Social Construction of Merit

• In Event: 79.052 - MTCC Poster Session 19
  In Poster Session: 79.052-9 - Poster Session

Abstract

An emerging body of work highlights academic success among Latino boys and young men. Indeed, these studies introduce an important counter-narrative to mainstream discourses about Latino males as “bad hombres,” criminal, and illegal. Merit, however, is not politically neutral; it represents a political category constructed by social and economic arrangements. The election of Donald Trump and rise of authoritarianism reminds us that “merit” itself warrants critical scrutiny. The present study seeks to fill this void by asking the following question: How does mainstream political discourse influence conceptions of merit? Findings reveal the way gender performance, racialization, Christianity, and capitalism produce a dialectic between merit and criminalization. Stated differently, the opposite of “academic success” is not “failure,” but rather “criminal.”

Author

• Omar Davila Jr., University of California - Berkeley