Beyond physical and representational violence: the violence of Black children’s invisibility in public spaces

Abstract

ABSTRACT George Floyd’s May 2020 murder by police underscored the interconnectedness of violence, systemic racism, and white supremacy in the US. This essay explores violence against Black children as an historical extension of the violence against Black adults and communities that is often at the centre of social justice and anti-racism work. We connect recent social media posts of Black children being ignored, waved away, or pushed by public amusement park performers with the current conservative political climate legislating the erasure or censoring of US history in K-12 schools allegedly to ‘save the [white] children’ from the misnamed ‘Critical Race Theory’.