Trouble in Mind: On Becoming a Black Girl Under Oppressive Social Control, Crime, and Slave Status

Abstract

Black Scholar Ruth Nicole Brown defines Girlhood as “the representations, memories, and lived experiences of being and becoming in a body marked as youthful, Black and female.” (Brown, Hear our truths: The creative potential of Black girlhood, 2013). However, given the increasing number of Blacks that have lost their lives unexpectedly and suddenly due to white supremacist terrorism or gun violence (Chaney, The disparate treatment of Black youth in the juvenile justice system, 2021; Chaney & Robertson, Journal of Pan African Studies 8(4):45–78, 2015). Black girls may be especially vulnerable to physical, psychological, and spiritual harm. The premature deaths of 7-year old Aiyana Mo’Nay Stanley-Jones (July 20, 2002—May 16, 2010) (Momodu, Aiyana Mo’Nay Stanley-Jones (2002–2010), 2017) and 7-year old Jazmine Barnes (February 11, 2011—December 30, 2018) (Brice-Sadler, Second man arrested in killing of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes, 2019) are proof that the world is oftentimes a very dangerous place for Black girls. When commenting on the role that Barnes’ sisters played in helping identify the perpetrator, Representative Sheila Davis (D) describes the shooting as “the deepest fear they [Jazmine’s sisters] will ever experience” (Fernandez et al., Arrest in Jazmine Barnes’s killing allays hate-crime fears, 2019). Using Black Feminism and Black Feminist Thought as our foundation, the authors assert historical and contemporary realities undermine the girlhoods of young Black females. Furthermore, the authors assert young Black females are more vulnerable to racist critique than girls of other races are, yet at the same time, must live up to the expectation that they be strong and resilient in the face of racism and social instability. By situating our work on Black Feminism and Black Feminist Thought, this work will respond to the following question: What are some of the ways Black girls lack girlhood, or how is girlhood itself differently modulated in anti-black contexts?”