Art Overcomes a Dehumanizing Experience

Abstract

Punching the Air (2020) by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam is an apt metaphor for 16-year-old Amal Shahid’s struggle to find his voice and survive the gentrification and racial injustice in his neighborhood, a school system that does not address his creativity, and a corrupt, racially-biased criminal justice system. In these environments he is judged by assumptions because of his race