Post 1: Introduction

Hello and welcome to my first blog post about Monique W. Morris’ novel Pushout, The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools. This book discusses problems that young Black girls face everyday in school, whether it’s suspension, expulsion, or physical violence.

Morris begins the book with an introduction, highlighting several examples of young Black girls who have been attacked or harassed at school. For instance, a sixteen year old girl in Alabama, Ashlynn Avery, fell asleep reading in her suspension. Instead of waking her up, her teacher threw a book at her head. After being ordered to leave the room, a cop “allegedly slammed her face into a file cabinet and then arrested her,” (Morris, page 3). This is not only a problem of violence, but of clear racism. Nothing should institute a teacher throwing an object at a student’s head. It says in the book after the girl didn't respond, the teacher automatically went to violence. Perhaps this teacher was a violent person, but there could definitely be a racist undertone.

Cover of the book
("Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools.")

   

Monique Morris
("As schools prepare to reopen, we must remove cops from campuses to protect Black girls.") 

                    

After the introduction pages in this novel, the first chapter is called "Struggling to Survive." Throughout history, Black women have been dehumanized through slavery, oppression, violence, and objectification. Being a minority, a person of color or a woman, they have gone through "barbarous mistreatment that could only be inflicted upon women," (Morris, page 19). 

Black girls get called "ghetto" a lot, and it is a symbol of strength and toughness through their racial and gender oppression. "To 'loud' is a demand to be heard. To have an 'attitude' is to reject a doctrine of invisibility and mistreatment. To be flamboyant, or 'fabulous' is to revise the idea that socioeconomic isolation is equated with not having access to materially desirable things," (Morris, page 19). With every word used against Black women, they have to prove themselves by overcoming and remaking stereotypes.

Nikki Jones, a sociologist and writer, discussed the difference between "good girls" and "bad girls." She said good girls spend their time in church, with their family, or at school. Jones said good girls are not sexually promiscuous, they will grow up to be a lady, and put the needs of her family first (Morris, page 20). If girls don't do these things, they will be labeled as a bad girl or a ghetto girl. "Bad" Black girls are described as girls who smoke, drink, steal, and lie. Even men do all these things as well, they are not held to the same standard that Black girls are. 

Morris also talked about "Ghettoized Opportunity." Having access to a good public education is more a race problem than a gender problem. While many white girls have some disadvantages, when it comes to good education, it affects Black girls the most. Having a good education influences your career and your future life. Schools that are low performing and high poverty schools have the highest number of dropouts, which isn't a huge surprise because if the students are underperforming, they are less motivated to finish high school. As a result of dropping out, some Black girls went to prostitution for work. "'I hardly ever see them because they are, like, working all the time...It's better to go to school and get a career, but it's like, if you can get money, like right then and there, then why would I want to go to school for however many years?'" (Morris, page 32). This was said by Destiny, a Black and Latina girl. This thought might go through a lot of Black girls' heads, wondering if there's even a point of finishing high school in a high poverty area, when they could be starting a career making money. However, they could be making more money if they went to school and got a degree, so it's about the opportunities they are given. If they can't pay for college or get a scholarship, how are they supposed to get a high paying job? The unemployment rate of Black women without a high school diploma is 20%, and the rate for Black women with a college degree is only 6%. 

Morris gave us a deeper look into these high poverty high schools. The girls she asked said they were chaotic and a lot of fighting, not a good learning space. One girl described that there were cops in the school everyday. "'Like, every single day, all day, cause somebody tried to bring a gun, and somebody tried to do something stupid. I don't know...Sometimes, if you're already like that, and you're already raised up to be around people like that, like, you just get used to it and you don't really care, you know? And then you start doing bad,'" (Morris, page 37). It's upsetting to see that these students are so used to having police officers roam the halls because it's dangerous. No child should have to worry about guns being in their school. Because of the focus on violence, it's harder to focus on the school work. 

Thank you for reading my first blog post! I'm looking forward to diving deeper into this book.

Works Cited

"As schools prepare to reopen, we must remove cops from campuses to protect Black girls." USA Today, 7 July 2020, www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/2020/07/07/black-girls-need-protection-school-criminalization-cops-campus/5356613002/. Accessed 12 Mar. 2021.

Morris, Monique W. Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools. New York City, New Press, 2016.

"Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools." The New Press, thenewpress.com/books/pushout. Accessed 12 Mar. 2021.