Just Playin’: Black mixed-race boys and the injustices of boyhood

ABSTRACT

In this article, the author explores the question: in what ways do multiracial boys and their mothers explain play and violence in their everyday experiences at school, home, and in their neighborhoods? The author borrows concepts from BlackCrit, Black PlayCrit, and Critical Mixed Race Studies to analyse interview data with Black mixed-race boys (ages 11, 14 and 15) and their mothers. The purpose of this article is to center the voices and experiences of Black mixed-race boys to add to emerging justice-oriented literature about Black mixed-race boys, specifically with regard to equitable access to education and childhood play.

KEYWORDS:

• Qualitative
• play
• antiblackness
• race
• Black mixed-race boys
• critical mixed race studies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The author uses capital Black and lowercase white, following Dumas (2016) who explains ‘White is not capitalized in my work because it is nothing but a social construct, and does not describe a group with a common experience or kinship outside of acts of colonization and terror’ (13).

2. It is important to note that this category is often under-reported for a variety of reasons connected to systemic and institutional racism throughout U.S. history (see Gullickson and Morning 2011).

3. The Office of Civil Rights (2016) noted that 27% of multiracial boys served by IDEA were suspended; compared to 10% of White boys served by IDEA. Multiracial boys represent approximately 2% of all students, but 4% of students expelled from school without educational services.

4. Being 12 and What are you? A dialogue on Mixed Race.

Additional information

Funding

The research project presented in this article was funded by a summer research grant through the University of Southern Indiana.