Educational Necropolitics: A Sonic Ethnography of Everyday Racisms in U.S. Schools

205 Pages·2023·24.456 MB·English

by  Boni Wozolek

EDUCATIONAL NECROPOLITICS
Scholars across felds of education have longstanding histories of critically
considering the many ways that inequities in schooling are engendered and
maintained, and, just as signifcantly, how these forms of oppression might be
resisted and refused. Drawing from these important dialogues, Educational
Necropolitics shares two years of stories, sounds, and powerful images collected
through a sonic ethnographic study. What emerges from this work are the
reverberations of how students in this context and, more broadly, how youth across
the country often negotiate the intersections of race, genders, sexual orientations,
class, and other parts of their complex identities in overwhelmingly white high
school settings. This book examines what is produced in the wake of educational
necropolitics—the capacity for schools to dictate to what degree minoritized
students’ ways of being can remain intact—and, signifcantly, it follows the daily
lives of youth as they encounter forms of violence through what schools intend
to teach, what is left out, what is learned through everyday interactions, and what
is valued through the broader emergent cultural contexts. This groundbreaking
work includes interactive e-features that invite readers to travel and interact with
participants of the study, which utilizes deep listening in qualitative research and
refects the results of this sonic ethnography. A truly timely text for educators and
administrators, Educational Necropolitics provides an immersive experience in which
leaders can address and correct systemic racist practices in the school setting by
drawing directly from frst-hand student experiences.
Boni Wozolek is an Assistant Professor of Education at Penn State University,
Abington College, USA.

EDUCATIONAL
NECROPOLITICS
A Sonic Ethnography of Everyday
Racisms in U.S. Schools
Boni Wozolek
Designed cover image: Ya-Meer McKnight, Painting Title: “The moment”
First published 2023
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Boni Wozolek
The right of Boni Wozolek to be identifed as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identifcation and explanation without
intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wozolek, Boni, 1984– author.
Title: Educational necropolitics : a sonic ethnography of everyday racisms in
U.S. schools / Boni Wozolek.
Other titles: Sonic ethnography of everyday racisms in United States schools
Description: New York : Routledge, 2023. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifers: LCCN 2022042345 | ISBN 9781032370859 (Hardback) |
ISBN 9781032370637 (Paperback) | ISBN 9781003335245 (eBook)
Subjects: LCSH: Racism in education—United States. | Ethnology—United
States. | Ethnomusicology—United States. | Music—Social aspects—
United States. | Discrimination in education—United States.| Racism—
United States—History—20th century.
Classifcation: LCC LC212.2 .W69 2023 | DDC 371.82—dc23/eng/20221206
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022042345
ISBN: 978-1-032-37085-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-37063-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-33524-5 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003335245
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For my beautiful mai, Pepe. Until we can embrace again, I’ll hold
you in my heart.
For my grandfather, Ray. You lived life with your intellectual
curiosities foregrounded. For that and so much more, thank you.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements viii
Preface: Sitting with the Ancestors x
Introduction: Sonic Orientations and the Strange Fruit of Schools 1
1 Reverberating Knots: Milford and The Crew 33
2 Too Black for School: Finding Places, Making Spaces 53
3 No After School Special 70
4 “And That’s My Struggle Bus” 86
5 Interlude: Recapitulation and Re-membering 107
6 Framed, Again 114
7 Arrested by Norms 123
8 Fields, Shame, and Schooling 145
9 Necropolitics of Schooling 164
Appendix 177
Index 183
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My ways of being, knowing, and doing as a scholar would not be possible without
the village that are my people. From my family at home and abroad to my cho-
sen family in the academy, I cannot thank you enough. I would especially like to
thank my children, Evalyn and Isaac. When people ask me how I have managed to
be successful as a mother-scholar, I wish there were some secret for “doing it all.”
The reality is that I make sacrifces. Many of those sacrifces cost me time with
my children. While I’d like to express my gratitude, I would also like to apologize
for anything I might have missed along the way as this book, and my career, came
into being. To my partner, Adam, thank you for working to pick up the pieces of
those things I missed along the way. To Walter Gershon—This book would not
be if it weren’t for your guidance and contribution to the feld, particularly at the
intersection of sound studies and education. To Amoaba Gooden, Anneli Frelin,
and James Henderson—Your collective guidance was critical to the frst iterations
of project. To my parents—Amy, Annie, Baji, Dia, Gary, and Steve—your love
and support along the way has not gone unnoticed and continues to be a driv-
ing force in my life. To those whose work, care, and love has shaped my ways of
being, knowing, and doing as a scholar—Reagan Mitchell, Rob Helfenbein, Thea
Berry, Denise Taliaferro Baszile, Ming Fang He, Janet Miller, Jerry Rosiek, Sherick
Hughes, Kent den Heyer, Erica Meiners, and Dave Stovall, among others—I am
indebted to you. To Micha Rahder for her editorial eye, my deepest apprecia-
tion. To my current administration at Penn State Abington—Margo DelliCarpini,
Andy August, and Dave Ruth—thank you for always giving me space and support
as pre-tenured faculty so this work could be possible.
Finally, I recognize that it is impossible to fully capture all those with whom
you stand, and those whose work makes your scholarship possible. Given that
this is a sonic ethnography, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to those
Acknowledgements ix
who have truly heard me over time. Rather than continuing with an exhaustive,
and ultimately incomplete, list of people, I’d like to offer the following playlist1 to
allow you to hear my gratitude. It is my hope that those who have listened deeply
to my life and work will ultimately see themselves in these songs.
Glissando of Gratitude
- Track 1: Fly Me to the Moon, Frank Sinatra
- Track 2: Beautiful Boy, John Lennon
- Track 3: Over the Rainbow, Israel Ka‘ano‘i Kamakawiwo‘ole
- Track 4: Turning Pages, Eric Bibb
- Track 5: Long, Long Journey, Allen Toussaint
- Track 6: Qualifed, Dr. John
- Track 7: Easy Living, Hank Crawford
- Track 8: Smokestack Lightnin’, Howlin’ Wolf
- Track 9: Good as Hell, Lizzo
- Track 10: No Regrets, Mwenso and the Shake
- Track 11: Georgia on My Mind, Ray Charles
- Track 12: Fight the Power, Public Enemy
- Track 13: Jai Ho!, A.R. Rahman
- Track 14: House of the Rising Sun, The Animals
- Track 15: Cello Suite No. 1 in G. Major, Prélude, Johann Sebastian Bach
- Track 16: Sign ‘O the Times, Prince
- Track 17: Break up the Concrete, The Pretenders
- Track 18: Tank!, Seatbelts
- Track 19: Tightrope, Janelle Monáe
- Track 20: Ain’t Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around), Aretha Franklin