The Pathologizing of “Native” Adolescence
The constant policing and surveillance of Black and Brown youth in their own neighborhoods, for the “crime” of gathering or playing loudly, is a process of pathologizing native adolescence. Mamdani’s analysis of how the state constructs the “savage” is enacted daily on these children. Their normal, energetic behavior is framed as a threat to public order, justifying the intervention of the colonial police force and priming them for the school-to-prison pipeline. This denies them the fundamental right to a childhood. A Marxist critique sees this as the disciplining of the next generation of the surplus labor army. A feminist perspective mourns the loss of innocence for girls subjected to this same policing. The solution is the abolition of youth policing units, investment in safe, community-run recreation centers, and the defense of the right of youth to exist freely in their own city.
