“…they are not just gangs of kids anymore. They are often the kinds of kids that are called super-predators — no conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first, we have to bring them to heel.”
—Hillary R. Clinton, in a 1996 speech supporting Bill Clinton’s Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.
The idea had been embedded into the American psyche long before Hillary Clinton gave it a name. While race was never specifically mentioned, the image it evoked was clear: the specter of marauding gangs of (Black) teenagers preying on the huddled masses of America’s law-abiding citizenry.
Years later, these casual remarks are still linked to the start of mass incarceration and the break between social conscientiousness and public safety.
“Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools,” which closed out the Downtown Film Festival L.A. on Oct. 27, examines an overlooked segment of the equation. America’s fear of Black males, long woven into the fabric of the country’s folklore, is commonly known, while the issues that impact black women and girls have been comparatively overlooked.
The film piggybacks upon the hot-button discussion about the prison-industrial-complex, and more specifically the school-to-prison pipeline policy prevalent in the 21st century.
Its nucleus is rooted in the work of civil rights and education advocate Monique W. Morris, Ed.D., who has championed an alternative approach towards guiding African-American girls through childhood over the past decade. “Sing a Rhythm, Dance a Blues: Education for the Liberation of Black and Brown Girls” (August, 2019 by The New Press), and 2018’s eponymous tome from which the film takes its name, Dr. Morris makes the case that girls of color suffer from society’s preconceptions in much the same way that their male counterparts do.
Co-written with Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning writer and producer Jacoba “Coby” Atlas, the filmmakers give educators, social services professionals and others space to weight in, and wisely allow the children to speak for themselves.
Many of these girls do not fit into the norm of what society considers appropriate behavior (read “feminine”). Consequently, there is often a rush to administer punitive discipline which can (and often does) reinforce negative conduct. This “milieu” or social environment may be the impetus for such stereotypes as “the angry Black woman.”
On the opposite end of the spectrum, those in authority often do not consider “intersectionality,” a word coined by African-American legal scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw of UCLA, to describe the overlapping of seemingly separate social issues such as class, gender and race and their impact on an individual.
It is then easier to “pushout” those unable/unwilling to conform, and relegate them to an overcrowded and dysfunctional criminal justice system.
Morris acknowledges the influence and impact of legal advocate Michelle Alexander (“The New Jim Crow”), and especially University of California, Santa Cruz professor emerita Angela Davis, on her work.
For more info. Visit Dr. Morris website at https://www.moniquewmorris.me/.
