Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools, by Monique Morris.
A chapter into me reading this book, Ma’Khia Bryant was shot to death by a police officer who is incompetent, racist, and afraid of people with dark skin. Reading this book after that incident was uncomfortable; at times, I had to check in with my body to remind it to unclench its jaw, unfurrow its eyebrows, to relax its shoulders and breathe through its chest again. Reading the narratives of Black girls who have been repeatedly failed by a system that is functioning at its highest potential to perpetuate this targeted failure hurt. Reading this book hurt. A lot. And when you read first-hand accounts and data that backs those accounts, it is infuriating to realize how comfortable this country is in governing Black girls towards a perpetuated cycle of abandonment. Reading this book was infuriating, too.
If you’re a sociology geek, or want to read something substantiative, or want to understand Black girls better, or want to love Black girls more, investing in this book is an excellent idea. My copy is marked up with my trusty pink pen for good reason, and my heart is full for Black women even more than usual.
An afterthought because I’m drinking wine and listening to Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes: I think this book is necessary in correcting the thought processes of Black people who find it too easy to blame “other” Black girls for their plight and positions in life while also siphoning and appropriating the mannerisms, stylings, speech, and auras of those same “other” Black girls. It’s maddening to see uppity Black people degrade Black girls who are on a different path while also speaking like them, dressing like them, and maintaining like them. That cultural appropriation happens internally, too.