Unfit for free speech? How minoritised youth expression and (self-)censorship is organised across schools in ‘no-majority’ cities

Analysis of the silencing of racially minoritised communities is a cornerstone of race-critical theories. Yet amid resurgent attacks on anti-racist education by alleged ‘free speech’ defenders internationally, few studies analyse the speech conditions experienced by minoritised youth across urban contexts. Drawing on substantial qualitative data from case studies of four secondary schools in the ‘no-majority’ cities of London and Birmingham, the paper demonstrates how space plays a crucial role in the construction of minoritised and working-class youth as fit or unfit to speak critically on race and social justice topics, including Black Lives Matter and Palestinian struggles. We argue that a (neo-)liberal white, middle-class, adult spatial imaginary constructs fitness to speak across urban schools, which closely guards access to reflexive, impactful and justice-oriented youth speech. The paper’s multi-sited account can act as a key resource for building and interrelating anti-racist education spaces which challenge such constructions of fitness to speak.