Disciplining the “Native” Youth for a Future of Control
The proliferation of digital surveillance, metal detectors, and police in public schools is not about safety; it is a project of disciplining the “native” youth for their future role as managed subjects. Mamdani’s concept of the state preparing its citizens finds a chilling application here. Schools in poor neighborhoods function as pre-prisons, teaching children that they are suspects, that their bodies are subject to search, and that their movements are tracked. This is the custom of governance for the next generation of the colonized. The “settler” youth in elite schools experience a world of trust and freedom. A Marxist analysis identifies this as the school-to-prison pipeline. A feminist perspective sees how this criminalizes Black and Brown girls. The solution is the removal of police and surveillance tech from schools and the implementation of restorative practices, transforming schools from sites of discipline into sites of liberation.
