Disposable Youth: Racialized Memories, and the Culture of Cruelty

Facing a crisis unlike that of any other generation, young people are caught between the discourses of consumerism and a powerful crime-control-complex, and are viewed increasingly as commodities or are subjected to the dictates of an ever expanding criminal justice system. Drawing upon critical analyses, biography, and social theory, Disposable Youth explores the current conditions of young people now face within an emerging culture of privatization, insecurity, and commodification and raises some important questions regarding the role that educators, young people, and concerned citizens might play in challenging the plight of young people, while deepening and extending the promise of a better future and a viable democracy. Front Cover......Page 1 Disposable Youth, Racialized Memories, and the Culture of Cruelty......Page 5 Copyright Page......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 Series Foreword......Page 9 Preface: Youth Matters: Democracy Under Siege......Page 11 I. Youth in the Age of Moral and Political Plagues......Page 17 II. Memories of Hope and Youth in the Age of Disposability......Page 25 III. Racialized Memories and Class Identities: Thinking about Youth in Post-9/11 America......Page 40 IV. Beyond America’s Culture of Cruelty......Page 50 V. Youth Fighting Back in the Age of Casino Capitalism......Page 55 References......Page 65 Glossary/Index......Page 69