21: Graffiti

According to Elizabeth Moje (2000), if theorists claim literacy as a tool that transforms thought and experience, then we also need to take a closer look at the unsanctioned literacy practices of marginalized adolescents in our society. We need to ask ourselves what these socalled unsanctioned literacy practices do for the lives of adolescents.

Graffiti is “markings, as initials, slogans, or drawings, written, spray-painted, or sketched on a sidewalk, wall of a building or public restroom, or the like” (Moje, 2000). Graffiti has always gotten a bad rap as being destructive and deviant because of its close association with gangs and gang life. Tagging is similar to graffiti, but is a distant and quite distinctive “cousin” with its own embedded rules and codes.