Trump, Kaepernick, and MLK as “maybe citizens”: Early elementary African American males’ analysis of citizenship

Abstract

ABSTRACT What it means to be a citizen for groups such as children and African Americans remains a contested, abstract, and evasive concept. This article seeks to gain a greater understanding of citizenship education by injecting the voices of young Black male students who are talked to and talked about but rarely asked to contribute to citizenship discourse. What emerged from these first- and second-grade students is the framework of “maybe citizens.” The maybe citizen embodies two scenarios: a contradiction of title and actions and/or identification by how one is generally (mis)treated by society despite one’s good character and honorable deeds. By combining critical childhood studies and phenomenology, this study captures the rhetoric of democracy versus the reality of democracy from the lens of early elementary Black males.