Join the conversation as Anita, Mavis, and Gail discuss The Sting of Adultification Bias Felt By Black Girls.

New York Times Article April 17, 2020 Why Won’t Society Let Black Girls Be Children?

Adultification means teachers, parents and law enforcement are less protective and more punitive with certain kids.

“They never saw a child”: Ruby Bridges and the Adultification

of Black Girls, February 11, 2021

This article appeared on PositiveExperiences.org blog of HOPE: Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences. The author, Loren McCullough, wrote the article from the perspective of how antisegregationsist perceived Ruby Bridges, a child, six years of age, caught up in the harmful effects of racism against Black girls in education. As Ruby approached her new school on November 14th, 1960 she heard the angry sea of White faces screaming. “2, 4, 6, 8! We don’t want to INTEGRATE!”

CNN Article November 23, 2022 A neighbor’s call to police

on a little Black girl while she sprayed lanternflies

exposes a deeper problem, mom says.

She hopes the incident can spark a deeper dialogue around discrimination and the biases Black and brown children face. The neighbor in calling the police on a nine year old child decribed her as a "little black woman" who scared him. 

Why are Black girls treated more harshly by schools and

the juvenile justice system than White girls who behave

the same way?

A study from the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality suggests a contributing cause: the “adultification” of black girls. The report, Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood, found that adults viewed black girls “as less innocent and more adult-like than white girls of the same age, especially between 5–14 years old.”

Episode giveaways:

• A neighbor’s call to police on a little Black girl while she sprayed lanternflies exposes a deeper problem, mom says https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/23/us/lanternflies-black-girl-new-jersey-police-reaj/index.html
• New York Times Article April 17, 2020 Why Won’t Society Let Black Girls Be Children? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/parenting/adultification-black-girls.html
• “They never saw a child”: Ruby Bridges and the Adultification of Black Girls, February 11, 2021 https://positiveexperience.org/they-never-saw-a-child-ruby-bridges-and-the-adultification-of-black-girls/
• A new study from the George­town Law Cen­ter on Pover­ty and Inequal­i­ty sug­gests a con­tribut­ing cause: the ​“adul­ti­fi­ca­tion” of black girls. https://assets.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/georgetown-listeningtowmoenandgirls-2019.pdf
• Black Girls Equity Alliance - https://gwensgirls.org/bgea/