Remembering Tamir Rice and Other Black Boy Victims: Imagining Black PlayCrit Literacies Inside and Outside Urban Literacy Education

Abstract

Building on Critical Race Theory, Black Critical Theory in education (BlackCrit), and Black Male Studies (BMS), the author theorizes what he terms Black PlayCrit and, by extension, Black PlayCrit Literacies. Black PlayCrit brings attention to the specificity of Blackness and anti-Black misandric violence in the play experiences of Black boys, including Tamir Rice, who was murdered by two police officers while playing with a toy gun in a public park in Cleveland, Ohio. Black PlayCrit Literacies serves as a conceptual and pedagogical tool to challenge anti-Black misandry in Black boys’ play experiences. Given that the play experiences of Black boys (and other children of Color) are racialized and gendered, yet undertheorized in extant literature, specific recommendations are provided for urban literacy education research and practice to acknowledge and protect Black boys from the anti-Black misandric violence they face during boyhood play.