Futuring Through Resistance: CARES Dads and the Abolitionist Politics of Black Autonomy in Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 9:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Intergenerational Resistance, Agency and Power through Youth Activism

Abstract

This article engages BlackCrit (Dumas & ross, 2016) to explore how Black fathers resist racialized constraints in an upstate New York school district, “Rivertown.” Focusing on the CARES Dads program, a grassroots mentorship initiative supporting students of color, we analyze 10 focus groups with 10 fathers (8 Black, 2 Black Latino). We argue that the Dads enact an abolitionist, autonomous Black politics of education. Three themes emerge: viewing schools as incapacitating and the Dads as building capacities outside them; healing trauma, resisting white supremacy, and cultivating loving relationships; and developing non-police, non-carceral, non-school alternatives. This work challenges dominant disciplinary practices and reimagines care, safety, and resistance through community-rooted, future-oriented educational practices.

Authors

• Denise G. Yull, Binghamton University - SUNY

• Marguerite A. Wilson, Binghamton University - SUNY

• Chandiren Valayden, Binghamton University - SUNY

• Westley Mays, CARES Advocates for families

• Thomas Gray, CARES Advocates for families