Abstract

By adopting the Foucauldian concept of panopticon, this study scrutinizes and analyzes institutional mechanisms of the educational system in Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline. It investigates the pervasive surveillance and disciplinary practices within education and their contributions to the disproportionate funneling of marginalized people, particularly students of color, into the criminal justice system. The Foucauldian perspective is critical to examine the consequences or repercussions of zero-tolerance policies within educational systems that perpetuate discrimination and racial threats. Internalizing the thought of being watched by an unseen observer creates docile, disciplined persons, observed externally and internally. Thus, Morisseau’s play Pipeline illustrates these issues by highlighting the case of Omari, a Black student in an all-White private school community, and his single mother, Nya, who works in a public school. Discrimination against African Americans is endemic and is manifested in acts of violence, abuse of authority, and the reduction of less powerful societies.