Standin’ tall: criminalization and acts of resistance among elementary school boys of color

ABSTRACT

Unjust racial disparities persist in the United States criminal justice system fueled by a school to prison pipeline which, through criminalizing processes, disproportionately and unjustly targets boys of color in our schools. This criminalization and the ways in which boys of color resist, remains largely under-researched on the elementary school level. This study utilizes data from multiple qualitative sources collected from three elementary school STEM programs during a year and a half time period to examine acts of resistance in which boys of color engaged, and ways in which educators and school staff responded. Findings indicate that criminalization and resistance were normaland ordinary parts of the daily experiences of boys of color; and the acts of resistance themselves were regularly hyper-criminalized, creating cycles of escalation. These findings support a counternarrative that boys of color engage in resistance as a normal and healthy response to oppressive measures.

KEYWORDS:

• Resistance
• criminalization
• punishment
• school to prison pipeline
• elementary school
• African American boys
• Latino boys

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.