"What Does It Mean to Be in My Skin?" Black Girls' Resistance to Antiblackness

• In Event: Education as a "Plantation Public Good": Responses, Reforms, and Refusals of Schooling and Education in an Antiblack World

Abstract

Overview: Scholars have begun to address the many ways Black girls experience anti-black violence in schools. Their experiences range from harsh and severe discipline, pushout, and physical, psychic, symbolic, and gendered anti-Black violence and attacks from teachers, administrators and staff in schools every day (Harrison, 2015; Fordham, 2016; Hines-Datiri & Carter Andrews, 2017; Morris, 2016; Wun, 2014; 2015; 2016). As a result scholars and community leaders are aiming to create educational spaces for Black girls to learn and thrive (Brown, 2009; Price-Dennis, et al., 2017). Most importantly, these spaces have become sites of survival and escapism from the violence and harm caused by traditional school spaces, and allow Black girls to make meaning about their identities and experiences (Brown, 2009). This paper will explore the development of Black Girl Magic, a school-based, identity-centered group alongside 21 Black girls at two predominantly white middle schools. 

Author

• Ashley L Smith-Purviance, Providence College