Black girls around the country were suspended from school six times more often than their white counterparts during the 2011-2012 school year, even though they only represent a small share of public school enrollment. Black boys also faced disproportionate rates of discipline, but to a lesser degree. They were suspended at three times the rate of white boys.
These are some of the findings of a new study released Wednesday by the African American Policy Forum (AAPF) and Columbia Law School Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, which looked at racism and sexism faced by black female students using data from the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights.
Despite these inequities, a myth persists that generally, “black girls are doing well,” Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, the executive director of the AAPF and a professor at Columbia University Law, told The Huffington Post.
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Harry Hartfield, a spokesman for the NYC Department of Education, highlighted similar initiatives.
On a national level, Crenshaw said that challenges faced by black girls continue to be overlooked. The My Brothers Keeper initiative, for example, launched by the White House in February 2014, puts hundreds of millions of dollars behind the specific goal of empowering young men of color.
“Separate but unequal focus is not what we’re looking for,” said Crenshaw. “Separate but unequal didn’t work in respect to race, it doesn’t work in respect to gender, and it especially doesn’t work when looking at the intersection of race and gender.”
