Voices from the HBCU: Exploring HBCU Students’ Perspectives on Gun Violence, Control, and Policy

• In Event: 2166 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 2: Blackness & College

Abstract

The sociopolitical and economic climate in the United States has shifted over the past decade, especially with the change in the political administration. This moment in history is marked with polarizing political ideologies, renewed expressions of white supremacy, and intensifying violence against Black and brown bodies both from the state and the community. Public discourse around gun control policy begins to dominate the media as we have seen social movement organizers, political activist groups, and protesters take to the streets as a call for action to end gun violence. Considering the history of oppression, super exploitation, of Blacks in the U.S., this research seeks to understand how Blacks experience violence from both the state and the community. This intersection of violence is unique to the Black experience in the United States, however, research around understanding perception of gun control law and policy rarely, if ever, seek views of Blacks. Historically, students have long been major and, arguably, primary actors in social movement spaces; thus, understanding their perceptions about this current moment involving gun control policy is important, as they are in large part contributors to grassroot organizing and movement participation. Furthermore, as Historically Black College or Universities (HBCUs) stand as the helm of Black intellectual thought, activism, and resistance, this study is designed to explore how HBCU students perceptions of gun control law and policy to understand the following: (I) what students know about gun law and policy and; (II) if students believe gun control law and policy will reduce gun violence from the state and/or in the community. Although research has been done on college student’s view on gun violence and gun control, there is a deficit in the literature that seeks perceptions of students from Historically Black Colleges or University (HBCUs).

Authors

• Anthony Jerald Jackson, Howard Univerity

• Britany Gatewood, Howard University

• Carlos Chapman, Howard University