Trap Civics: Operationalizing Hip Hop for Critical Civic Learning

The Black imagination has been the driving force behind much of America's movements for liberation, including the Civil Rights Movement, the March on Washington, Freedom Riders, and Black Lives Matter. U.S. civics classrooms need to be inclusive of Black imagination. Currently, civics learning goals are anchored in white nationalist views that position white males as heroes who tamed the world and developed modern democratic nations. This type of civics education pacifies the masses and assuages collective anger, reducing the insurgent activism that can brew in environments of critical civics education. Drawing on a larger comparative case study project, this article deconstructs how young people utilize rap lyrics as both written and oral storytelling to reflect, critique, and articulate their senses of justice and conceptualizations of human flourishing. This article examines how rap literacy aligns with the objectives of critical civic learning, equipping young people to develop critical perspectives on justice, and offers implications for the future of civics education.