Navigating Paradoxical Mischaracterization: Black Girls, Placemaking, and Reimagining Punishment in Schools

• In Event: 30655 - Race, Class, and Gender

Abstract

How do adolescent Black girls construct and negotiate their identities through their daily experiences and interactions within the school environment? What interactional strategies do Black girls employ to navigate and respond to the contradictory expectations and misperceptions they face in schools, and how does this impact their experiences with discipline and support? This ethnography examines how adolescent Black girls at Mandela Academy, a Brooklyn public school, navigate a “paradoxical mischaracterization”— experiencing both hypervisibility, leading to disproportionate punishment, and invisibility, where their needs are overlooked. Challenging the School-to-Prison Pipeline framework and the restrictive conceptualization of ‘punishment’ in schools, this study centers Black girls’ perspectives to explore their identity construction, self-presentation, and placemaking within the school environment. Through observations and engagement with the Sisterhood Support Network, the research analyzes their interactions with peers and authority figures, revealing how they adapt to varied social contexts and challenge dominant stereotypes. Drawing on symbolic interactionism and Goffman’s dramaturgical approach, it investigates the interactional strategies Black girls employ to respond to their positioning within the spectrum of their paradoxical mischaracterization. This study moves beyond simplistic narratives, highlighting their agency in shaping academic journeys, resisting challenges, and creating spaces of healing.

Author

• Jacelyn Osarugue Omusi, New York University