Violence, Blackness, and Public School

• In Event: How Race Matters in School and Community Contexts

Abstract

Interview data from 164 youth and family-member participants in Baltimore was analyzed to understand how students make sense of the structural violence they encounter daily. Using Black habitus and anti-Black structural violence as a theoretical framework, this study uncovers linkages between structural violence and both interpersonal violence and social-emotional distress. The findings reveal that students encounter interpersonal violence as they travel to and from school, within school, and in the areas around schools. Furthermore, students differ in their interpretations of the causes of this interpersonal violence, with some viewing violence as an inevitable aspect of life in Baltimore and others viewing it as a preventable consequence of structural violence.

Authors

• Richard Lofton, Johns Hopkins University
  Presenting Author

• Justin Hill, Johns Hopkins University
  Presenting Author