He researches the relationship among the public education system, prisons, and the construction of Black masculinity in Southern California. In addition to his work appearing in many popular media forms, he has written articles in scholarly journals such as Transforming Anthropology, Race, Education, and Ethnicity, and the Berkeley Review of Education. His book, entitled "First Strike: Prison and Educational Enclosures in Black Los Angeles," was released in 2016 by the University of Minnesota Press.