The United States of America is home to the American Achievement Gap (Porter, 2007; Ansell, 2011; American University, 2019) and the School to Prison Nexus (Meiners, 2007; Alexander, 2011; Thomas, 2018; Ghandnoosh, 2015). These epidemics represent a deeply intertwined relationship between educational inequities and over-policing which result in epistemic violence disproportionately affecting Black and systemically minoritized youth and their communities.
Black youth are at risk for many types of school failure such as poor test scores, high dropout rates, low grades, and high suspension rates both in general and comparative to their non-Black counterparts (Ricks, 2014). According to We Dream A World: The 2025 vision for Black boys and men: “Black boys are three times more likely to be suspended or expelled from school than White peers, therefore missing valuable learning time in the classroom.” (Tsoi-A-Fatt, 2010). And conversely, in schools, Black girls confront both tacial and gender bias: “An analysis of national U.S. Department of Education 2015-16 civil rights data by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) and The Education Trust found that Black girls are five times more likely than White girls to be suspended at least once and four times as likely as White girls to be arrested at school” (LePage, 2021).
At the national level, we know that one in every three African American males born in 2021 will experience a criminal conviction and spend time behind bars (NAACP, 2017). Educational data has shown a consistent trend acknowledging one out of every four African American boys is tracked into diverse learning (special education) systems (NAACP, 2017). Due in part to invisibility politics, the needs of Black girls are often overlooked by teachers, administrators, and policymakers because of a deficit and nefarious focus on Black boys. This oversight has contributed to a lack of educational programming and policies that address the impact of the intersection of racism and sexism on the educational experiences of Black girls (Ricks, 2014).
These data markers represent a real opportunity to make a shift in both our collective knowledge and practices towards healing and safety for these youth.