Not too long ago I wondered if urban public schools were right for African-American boys. Between the lack of resources, the fact that Black boys are the most harshly punished group in American schools, the dismal graduation rates, and the school-to-prison pipeline that have swallowed many of our boys whole, I was convinced that many boys needed to be anywhere but public schools. Now, a new report by the African American Policy Forum suggests schools are not very kind to young Black girls either.
In Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected, legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw and her team poured through national data from the Department of Education and interviewed young women in Boston and New York to figure out how public schools treat girls of color. And what they found was astounding.
Crenshaw’s research confirmed that when it comes to public education Black girls face most of the same challenges as Black boys. Nationally, Black girls are suspended or expelled from school six times the rate of their white female classmates. In New York and Boston, for instance, Black girls were 10 and 11 times more likely to be subject to disciplinary action than their white counterparts, even when committing the same infractions. Crenshaw points to an example of a Georgia tween who was threatened with expulsion and criminal charges for writing “hi” on a locker room wall, while her white classmate faced a much lighter punishment. The conclusion? Race plays a factor in how both Black girls and boys are disciplined. Unfortunately, very few people are talking about it.
Last February, President Obama rolled out the “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative aimed at empowering at-risk young men and boys.
“When we let this many boys and young men fall behind—we are crippling our ability to reach our full potential as a nation,” the White House said.
However, as Crenshaw’s report proves, many Black girls are also being left behind. Now, she hopes her findings will finally cause policymakers to take notice and come up with targeted solutions aimed at empowering Black girls as well.
“As public concern mounts for the needs of men and boys of color through initiatives like the White House’s My Brother’s Keeper, we must challenge the assumption that the lives of girls and women—who are often left out of the national conversation—are not also at risk,” Crenshaw said.
Like Black boys, far too many Black girls are stuck in failing schools, are being swallowed by the school-to-prison pipeline, and struggle to succeed. Because of this, Crenshaw and her team argue it’s time to act.
“We can no longer afford to leave young women and girls of color at the margins of our concerns with respect to the achievement gap, the dropout crisis, and the school-to-prison pipeline,” the report asserts. “Instead, we must develop gender and race-conscious prisms that capture the vulnerabilities they experience today.”
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