“They Got Us Warring for Our Freedom”: Toward a TrapCrit Perspective of Social Studies Education

• In Event: Constructing Possibilities: New Directions in Social Studies Research and Practice for Racial Justice

Abstract

This conceptual work introduces a TrapCrit perspective of social studies education that acknowledges how trap music: 1) illuminates the systematically excluded counter-narratives of individuals experiencing oppression, and 2) rejects white narratives of respectability that attempt to dictate how individuals experience and make sense of oppressive lived experiences. Specifically, this work contends that trap music’s exemplification of counter-storytelling, sociopolitical awareness, and the expression of joy as refusal can deeply transform the way we think about respectability and belonging in social studies education.

Author

• Kelly R. Allen, Augusta University