Book: Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique W. Morris
Publisher: The New Press
Publication date: 2016
Source: Purchased as an e-book
Summary: Pushout describes the forces in our cultural, educational, and legal systems that keep black girls from meeting their potential, depriving us all of the gifts they brought to the world. The author interviewed many girls who were failed by our system, creating this qualitative study on the experience of black girls in our society.
Thoughts: Pushout was the January selection of the Community for Understanding and Hope Book Group, a book club that specializes in books on race in America and meets in Kirkwood, Missouri (a suburb of St. Louis).
We had a wide-ranging, non-stop discussion about this book for nearly two hours. Several of our participants are current or former teachers and they testified to how little of this information is available to teachers and how much it needs to be.
Nearly all of us were shocked by the sections about sexual exploitation. Of course, it’s a crime of adults when children are sexually exploited, but, somehow in our society, when the children are black girls, they are seen as complicit and end up on the wrong side of law enforcement.
Appeal: For anyone who cares about kids and the future of our country. We can do better than this and there’s an appendix that outlines how.
Have you read this book? What did you think?