In the multidimensional breakdown of the criminalization of black girls and women, there is an extensive list of governmental systems and society norms that alter the survivability of black women and girls. Investigating the local and global systems that continue to oppress black women and girls challenge people to include us in conversations about the intersectionality of race and gender. Black girls and women are locked out of mainstream society in educational institutions, workplace and common practice in more ways than one. The common psychological conditions associated with Black women’s victimization are consequences of their neglect and it’s vital to challenge the narrative, but not before analyzing the issues and the culture behind why black girls and women have been pushed out. The schema around feminine inferiority is a societal mentality that must be altered. Women have been fighting for the same level of respectability as men for decades as African-American people have been on the receiving end of brutal beatings and racialized violence since attempting to seek the same rights as white counterparts. Being a part of both categories, black women tend to fall through the cracks in education, employment, the criminal justice and a host of other areas. Exclusionary protection reflects recurring patterns where black women are not entitled to the law’s protection yet fail escape it’s punishment. 

The early foundations of racialized and gender-biased protection contributed to the disproportionate incarceration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Kali Nicole Gross uses her research concentrated on black women’s experiences in the United States criminal justice system to explain how black women have historically been robbed of their womanhood. She notes how Virginia’s December 1662 decree stating “all children shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of his mother, both mapped enslaved women’s sexual exploitation and countered English practices. (Gross) The rape of black women was not acknowledged at all by early American law. Women who violently lashed out on their captors after being attacked were criminalized and often put to death for their ordeals as opposed to being granted any human rights, that they had been stripped of as slaves. A potent example is that of enslaved black Missouri woman by the name of Celia who was executed for killing her rapist and owner in 1855. (Gross, page 3) The slave narrative of black women being sexually assaulted, raped, stripped and beaten bloody are all a part of the larger narrative that transpires into modern day oppressions that still impact our survivability. 

The Civil Rights Movement consisted of dedicated and passionate civil rights leaders and activists who compromised their lives for the advancement of colored people. Along with powerful male leaders were exceptional women alongside them not as a form of support or as an inferior, but as leaders themselves. Black women were also at the forefront of the black power movement in the 60s and 70s modeling solutions to poverty, housing and education that were not capitalistic oriented. In the documentary The Black Power Mixtape 1967- 1976, Swedish reporters described the Black Panther party as “the most militant black organization in the United States” and after twenty-one Panthers were on trial and in jail for crimes related to their fight against oppression, it was black women that were carrying out regular classes in Revolution.  Angela Davis, one of the most influential black women of all time, symbolized black liberation during this time period and played a vital role in the progression of rights for the black population in America. She was criminalized in a case related to the events that unfolded in the trial against James McClain, where a courtroom shootout with police took place and people were killed. Angela Davis knew the family member of the alleged shooter and was accused of owning the gun used in his killings. San Francisco lawyer, Dennis Roberts, reflected on Davis’ charges as an accomplice to murder and remarked on how the United States government “seized upon this opportunity to try to put her to death” and how the trial would be “historic on its unfairness”(Black Power Mixtape of 1967-1976) Although she was acquitted on these charges in June of 1972, her initial arrest is an example of the many ways black women have historically been criminalized and are continuously criminalized by oppressive systems. 

There is a contrast between modern day criminalization and criminalizing practices that took place during the colonial era, the civil rights era and beyond. As time progressed in history, the rights for minority women gradually came about. Although limited, women starting to become more respected in a patriarchal America. However, this respectability was not applicable to women and girls of color who were seen as inferior because of both gender and race. This schema supports why black girls and women are pushed out of mainstream society; they aren’t prioritized. Fast forward to today, black girls are victims of police violence, school and workplace discrimination and reproductive justice.

Black girls are left under-protected and over-policed in educational institutions, hindering their ability to be productive in the classroom while on the receiving end of unfair disciplinary actions that unmatch the ratio in which they are enrolled. In Boston and New York, although black girls made up less than thirty-five percent of the total enrollment, they were disciplined 61% higher than white students according to a report from the African American Policy Forum, a non-profit based in New York. The disproportionate gaps between girls of color and their white counterparts exist in school systems across the country and contribute to the gap in the disciplinary measures that tend to criminalize black girls. This frequent pattern tends to transform into unnecessary confrontations with law enforcement. The report published in 2015 also mentions the case of a 16-year old suffering from sleep apnea, asthma and diabetes who had a book thrown at her for sleeping in class and later hospitalized for injuries sustained in an encounter with police officers. Ashlynn Avery wore a cast for a month for these injuries. Harsh disciplinary practices of this nature create a link between school-based offenses and the juvenile system that later become interactions with the law and introduction to an oppressive criminal justice system. Punishing students of color in a harsher manner gives them an unbeneficial connect with authorities at the higher level (law enforcement) exposing them to a justice system as minors that follows them as adults. An even closer look at this phenomena is here South Carolina in the case of Niya Kenny, a friend of mine, who was arrested for recording the assault of a teenager girl by a police officer who refused to give up her cell phone. Niya was charged under the disturbing schools law of South Carolina that makes it unlawful for “any person willfully or unnecessarily interfere with or to disturb in any way or in any place the students or teachers of any school or college in this State.” However, when the assault is enacted by a figure sworn to serve and protect, the law becomes bent to accommodate that person and in turn increases the criminalization of the black girls and women that these offenses are committed against. A recurring theme found in criminalization is how black women are denied protection under the law, only to be condemned by it. 

Vivian Anderson, a passionate activist and mentor, is woman that I was able to meet at a conference through campaign called #EveryBlackGirl that was created in support of Niya and Shakira’s ordeals. Vivian distinctly asked Niya about her motives behind interjection in the heated confrontation between the officer and Shakira, her response was “I knew she had no one else.” A scary thought in a high school that educates thousands of students and employs a fully equipped staff of teachers and faculty.  In an interview with Mrs. Vivian, I asked what issues affecting black girls in the south tug at her heart the most and she noted “the erasure of their pain and existence”. She also acknowledged how “in the south there’s more of desire to get along so there’s this conditioning of how to behave”, consistent with the narrative told throughout history of the relationships between people in the south. After working with both girls, Vivian became more conscious of the issues occurring in the south with black women and girls, thus sprouting #EveryBlackGirl from a campaign to non-profit organization. “Campaigns are often short lives and the work needed to be done would take much more time and it deserved the time so we became an organization.” 
