"F**k School": Abolitionist (Educational) Politics Among Radical Black Youth Community Organizers

• In Event: 15.033 - Black Youth Activists' Political Education: Developing Critical Politics in the Absence of a "Truth Era"

Abstract

Overview

In the public imagination, Black youth are typically positioned as objects needing to be “fixed” and/or “saved”, especially as it pertains to education (Baldridge, 2016; Ginwright; 2010; Ladson-Billings, 2006). There is a large body of literature, some liberatory while others fundamentally antiblack, that attempts to provide insight and approaches to education for Black youth. All too often, the truths, expertise, and insight of Black youth, especially Black youth organizers, are unheard and/or ignored in terms of addressing educational issues. Black youth have always been at the forefront of Black (educational) social movements (clandestine educational movements during enslavement, Freedom Schools, Black Panther Party schools, political education today, etc.). Black youth were and are vanguards of both creating educational opportunities within Black communities and in the contexts of traditional American schools. With that being said, it is critical that we center the voices, ideas, and actions of Black youth and in this case Black youth organizers. Data which emerges from a larger qualitative study on educational initiatives in the context of a Black Liberation Organization (Assata’s Children) reveal that “educational justice” for Black youth sometimes mean a world without schools (and a world without a world) as schools and the world are inherently antiblack (Dumas, 2012; Dumas & ross, 2016; Wilderson; 2010).

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework

Afropessimism is a relatively new intellectual project that primarily focuses on theorizing (anti)blackness. For those who accept the foundational premises of Afropessimism, there is often times a lingering question around how scholars, organizers, activists, educators, practitioners, community-members etc., might address antiblackness if the crux of the world is antiblack and the only solution is dismantling and “destroying the world” qua Fanon. While Afropessimism is highly critical of any “solution” that attempts to salvage and/or preserve the current structure of the world, there is a recognition that some aspects of reform can at least temporarily lessen Black suffering (Dumas; 2014; Dumas and ross, 2016; Hartman; 1997; Sharpe, Sojoyner; 2016; 2016 Sexton, 2008; Wilderson; 2010; Wun, 2016). Considering the data, it is critical that we grapple with the abolitionist politics put forth by Black youth organizing as it pertains to American education and schooling. Additionally, Sojoyner (2016) rearticulates the school-to-prison pipeline as the school-to-prison nexus ultimately arguing that schools are prisons. The constitutive elements that make a prison also informs Black schooling.

Methods

This qualitative study utilizes ethnographic research methods which included: 20 semi-structured interviews; collection of field notes; journaling; participant-observation/observation of meetings, direct actions, political education, etc., at Assata’s Children; document collection and analysis; analysis of archived records and physical artifacts such as protest signs. Data analysis is still in progress.

Findings

The data shows that Black youth are calling for changes in the context of schools such as more Black teachers, more “culturally competent” counselors instead of security, better food choices etc. The data also shows that Black youth organizers are imagining education outside of traditional school contexts and are even calling for the abolition of schools (as they are prisons and fundamentally antiblack.

Author

• Michael A. Davis, University of Wisconsin - Madison