Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

by Monique W. Morris

“[My school is] predominantly White,” she said. “Okay, I’m terrible in math. So when little Suzie gets the question wrong, it’s like, ‘Aww . . . you got the question wrong.’ It’s funny. When I get a question wrong, it’s like, ‘Oh, she’s slow. What’s wrong with her?’ I get so angry, number one, because I already told them I’m bad at math. Number two, because I’m not slow. Like, don’t call me slow at all. I take my education seriously. Do not call me slow. That’s why I’m at school, to learn. . . . That triggers it. It does not only make me want to fight them, it makes me want to . . . it makes me want to ask them, why would they say something like that? The fact that I’m the only Black kid in the school, it’s like, ‘Oh, are we back in the 1950s now?’”