Intersectionality & the

Criminalization of Black Girls

Kiera Wilmot
 Dajerria Becton
Violently arrested by a Texas police officer
who was who was responding to a call for a
disturbance at a pool party
 Statistics
• In D.C. there was an 87 percent increase in
the arrest of young girls between 2007 and
2016

• Black girls are 16 percent of girls in schools,

but 42 percent of girls receiving corporal
punishment

• Girls enter the juvenile justice system at

younger ages than boys, and for less serious
crimes
 Intersectionality
"The examination of race, sex, national origin, and sexual orientation,
and how their combination plays out in various settings."

When an individual falls into more than one oppressed group and
is oppressed in more than one way; needs are often unmet
 Why?
• They're often mischaracterized,
and mislabeled because of how
they look, dress, speak, and act –
Implicit Bias

• Have been perceived as angrier,

less innocent, less "ladylike," and
more sexually promiscuous

• Girls are labeled “disruptive” or

“defiant” for engaging in activities
that adults consider affronts to
their authority
It's Complicated
• They're being discriminated against for
more than just race and sex

• Girls of color are facing higher rates of

trauma, are more likely to live in poverty,
and living in over-policed communities

• We deny that the problem exists

Economic disparity between men and women
 "It’s not about what they did, but rather,
the culture that leaves little room for error
when one is black and female."
-Monique W. Morris
Questions?