Decriminalizing Play: Counternarratives of Black Boys' Disruption of Antiblack Misandry in Boyhood Play

• In Event: Counternarratives of Intergenerational Legacies of Violence: Decriminalizing Students of Color in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Background
Black boyhood play is often subjected to anti-Black violence in and beyond early childhood education. In 2019, Bryce Lindley, a 10-year-old- Black boy, was suspended from school, and faced criminal charges for ‘assaulting’ a White boy classmate during a playground game of dodgeball (Morgan-Smith, 2019). The White boy’s mother filed charges. She was tired of her son being assaulted by his classmates during play. Apparently, her son had been injured previously by several of his classmates (Morgan-Smith, 2019); yet, Bryce was the only child who was charged with assault. Although the charges Bryce faced were later dropped because he and his mother protested them, they still led to Bryce’s entry into the preschool-to-prison pipeline or the funneling of Black boys from schools and classrooms into the criminal justice system (Zinsser et al., 2022).

Most early childhood teachers criminalize Black boyhood play by restricting the amount of time they play, spaces in which they play, and with whom they play (AUTHOR, in progress). However, Black boys do not subject themselves to teachers’ restrictions, but enact their agency by defying the ways teachers suppress their play experiences (AUTHOR, in progress).

While the majority of critical scholarship on Black boyhood play has focused on the racist strictures that criminalize it, such scholarship ignores how Black boys decriminalize boyhood play experiences. As such, Black boyhood play unwittingly becomes background context rather than take center stage (Tichivakanda, 2021). Tichivakanda (2021) suggests that educational researchers should begin to investigate the experiences of Black students beyond lenses of oppression and resistance to prioritize and “understand the expansive, dynamic nature of Black [children’s] life” (p. 6). Furthermore, Tichivakunda (2021) challenges us to think about “the form, possibility, and existence of Black boys’ play that persists in spite of and in relation to policing” (p. 5). That being said, Black boys are more than victims of unjust play experiences; they curate safe spaces for themselves to “giggle, play, cry, pout, and be just as frivolous as other children” (Dumas & Nelson, 2016, p. 39).

Objectives, Theoretical Framework, and Methods
As such, the author draws on Black Critical Theory, anti-Black spatial imaginary, Black Male Studies, and BlackCrit portraiture (Curry, 2018; Dumas & ross, 2016; Jenkins, 2021) to illuminate portraits/counter narratives of three Black boys resisting the criminalization of their play styles, and curating play spaces beyond oppression in early childhood classrooms. The following research question guides this study: How do Black boys resist the criminalization of their play styles and behaviors in early childhood classrooms?

Data Sources
Semi-structured and unstructured interviews, classroom observations, and field notes are used to co-create portraits/counternarratives of the Black boys who decriminalize their play styles (Bhattacharya, 2020).

Results
Findings reveal that Black boys counter what the author terms the three anti-Black misandric restrictions of Black boyhood play enacted by early childhood teachers, which means they contest teachers’ restriction of time, restriction of space, and the restriction of interactions.

Significance
This study is significant because it illuminates the strengths and possibilities of Black boyhood play.

Author

• Nathaniel Bryan, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author