Goodreads Doesn't Have It, Data Migration: Pushout the Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools
[edit] I began reading this for Tutors Impacting Public Schools, which is one of the most hypocritical organizations in the Seattle area. They do extensive training only to silence domestic violence victims, cater to power, gaslight about the existence of the problem instead of take responsibility and repair, and generally abuse. They should not have access to trainings on this kind of content when they actualize the very behaviors these trainings seek to prevent against women of any race who are going through domestic violence. In fact, one of my final experiences there was a black girl saying when I was in class with her for the first time, "Who are you? You're a stranger. Unless you're one of those strangers that give me candy. Then you're ok." Clearly, someone with poor intentions didn't want anybody who could help her near her. She was in seventh grade. Imagine a place where this girl is being managed by someone who more than possibly has the ability to say "a victim since the beginning huh?" with contempt, and then expels her all while peddling that he does the opposite.
I was glad that the author mentioned that Pushout in schools is complicit with the sex trafficking industry. That principals, supervisors, and teachers that don't fight for black girls and don't look for answers but instead kick them out or expel them pretty much send the into the arms of pimps who are ready to pick up where the school system abandoned them. That therefore these schools are an accessory to the human trafficking young black girls go through. These cultures are fighting to make these girls believe that they are stupid no matter how smart they are so truly disgusting people can have access to their bodies. Pushout is a way to give some of the worst humanity has to offer exactly what they want. Tell me, does a principal like that, a school like that, that is a would-be accessory to human trafficking worthy of any money? We need them out and the right ones in.
That said, this book is excellent. However, I will say it was truly wrong to introduce matters of child prostitution so casually. It should have been introduced as the normalized pedophilia it was instead of simply saying this and that young girl was an italicized eleven years old and talking about her prostitution outside of school with pride. To me, the fact it was treated so lightly reflects how someone the pedophilia that happens to black girls isn't somehow as horrifying as the pedophilia that happens to white girls, even though in most cases it is ten times more gruesome and horrifying often actually penetrative, repeatedly so, and permanently destructive of their ability to stay in school. The fact it was treated as just an odd thing out to negotiate with black girls disturbed me and showed how it isn't treated as the same kind of horrifying pedophilia it is just because it happens so often in areas like the Bay. The book often cites the black girls' body is significantly different on average than a white girl's. The nature of her body doesn't change her age. It doesn't make "more sense" because she is "more developed" and better able to absorb the blows of her environment. She is still the same age as her white victim equivalent, no matter what her body looks like. The effect on her cognitive development will be the same if not worse due to the more gruesome nature of repeated sexually abusive encounters at young ages. Her victimization will seep into her and her environment and you can feel the silence on it all over dark corners in Oakland.
I have a lot to go over for this book that was both powerful and painful. I'll probably add to this review later. Committing to restoration is the key here. One thing they don't talk about is what happens to teachers that do actually stand up to pimp culture in an area rife with it. They deal with their own pushout.