Play is never neutral: Teacher- and child-perpetrated anti-black violence in play-based curricula and a search for hope and joy

Abstract

Play-based curricula are often celebrated as child-centered and liberatory, yet this article argues that play is never neutral in a schooling system where anti-Blackness structures everyday life. Drawing on BlackCrit, Black PlayCrit theories and pro-Black pedagogies, I trace how teacher- and child-perpetrated anti-Black violence surfaces in constructive and sociodramatic play in a Texas public prekindergarten where university preservice teacher interns complete embedded field hours. In this setting—devoid of Black teachers and shaped by state-sanctioned, anti-critical political activism—our use of multicultural and pro-Black texts risks becoming a form of tokenism, producing more hazards than hopeful encounters. Through analysis of school encounters around play, I illustrate racist literacies in “play for all” assumptions and the joy that emerges when Black children author play-based literacy practices that are intern led. I also interrogate my role as a white teacher educator whose collaboration with the school is nascent and potentially a tokenistic violence. The article concludes that play-based curricula must be intentionally grounded in pro-Black, antiracist commitments—rather than laissez-faire play-based curricula harboring claims of neutrality—if early care and education classrooms have any hope of become sites of repair, and resistance.