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Study: Black girls are suspended 6 times more often than white girls

Aja Frost
Cal Poly SLO

Black boys are suspended three times as often as white boys, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education. That ratio isn’t surprising: Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, the executive director of the African American Policy Forum (AAPF) and a Columbia University professor, says there’s been a “two-decade long discussion” about the racial disparity boys face in school.

But another statistic in the same report was surprising. Black girls are suspended six times more often than white girls—meaning there’s a larger gap between black girls and white girls than black boys and white boys.

Crenshaw says no one “made much of” this number.

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“The issue of black girls [in education] falls between the cracks,” she says.

To give it national attention, Crenshaw co-authored a report, Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected, that focuses exclusively on the challenges girls of color face in school.

“The imposition of harsh disciplinary policies in public schools is a well-known risk factor for stunted educational opportunities for Black and Latino boys,” the report says. “Such punishments also negatively affect their female counterparts… The risks that Black and other girls of color confront rarely receive the full attention of researchers, advocates, policy makers and funders.”

Girls of color are what Crenshaw calls “doubly vulnerable.” Like white girls, they face gender stereotypes. Like black boys, they face racial stereotypes.

“Girls tend to be disciplined when they do things that are non-normatively feminine, like when they get into beef with each other,” she says.

Crenshaw says that at the same time, “blacks tend to be seen as threatening because, by nature, people assume they’re more aggressive.”

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“Take those two [stereotypes] together in the form of black female body and you have double vulnerability.”

A 2010 study by Texas A&M researchers found teachers might respond more harshly to black girls because they “seem to defy these traditional standards of femininity which suggest that girls should be quiet, reserved and submissive. Instead, Black girls are assertive, independent and emotionally resilient.”

Rinku Sen, executive director of racial justice organization Race Forward, says she's seen black girls receive harsher punishment.

"The conversation about girls and schools has definitely not been as prominent as the conversation about boys and color and various kinds of discipline scenarios," Sen says. "I'm glad to see [the issue of girls] getting some attention."

Being suspended has bigger consequences than missing a couple days of school. Girls who are suspended are much likelier to eventually drop out, and unsurprisingly, dropping out leads to low wages and unemployment.

Related: Viewpoint: Mainstream media needs to face its race problem

“This represents an acute problem for African American families due to the prevalence of single-wage-earning families headed by women,” the researchers write. “Given the economic dependence of so many Black children on a female wage earner, girls dropping out of high school is a critical socioeconomic concern.”

Crenshaw says this report and the dialogue it’s meant to start is just the first step. In the same way that the challenge black males face wasn’t seen as a social issue until researchers, advocates and politicians began discussing it, she wants to bring the plight of black girls to the national level.

“That’s what will create the political will to intervene in a meaningful way,” she says.

Sen also believes those working for racial justice need to address gender.

“At Race Forward, we always think about our work as explicitly about race but not exclusively about race,” she says. “If you want to solve a problem for everyone, you need to look at it through different lenses. Race is one lens. Gender is another.”

Aja Frost is a student at California Polytechnic State University and a spring 2015 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.

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