I recently attended a community meeting for the local chapter of President Obama’s initiative ‘My Brother’s Keeper’. I was the only female in the room. As far as I could tell, these monthly meetings provide local education and service organizations with a forum to share resources in support of Black and Latino male students at-risk of being pushed out of PK-12 schools and into the school-to-prison pipeline. The school-to-prison pipeline is the name used to describe the very real phenomena of students of color, primarily Black and Latino students, being targeted for excessive disciplinary actions and subsequently suspended and/or expelled from schools. These suspensions and expulsions make them disproportionately at risk for dropping-out of school, and entering the prison industrial complex as a result. Currently, black girls were suspended six times more than white girls, while black boys were suspended three times as often as white boys, making the relative risk for disciplinary action higher for Black girls when compared to White girls than it is for Black boys when compared to white boys. Now while I applaud the brotha's for stepping up to take care of our baby boys, and absolutely understand the need for such a forum for Black boys at-risk of being pushed out, I can't help but lament the gendered approach we as an educational community have taken to the school push out and school-to-prison pipeline phenomena. As I sat in that 'My Brother's Keeper' meeting, the only female in the room, I was also reminded of national scholar Kimberle Crenshaw's urgent call to action for Black Girls. Crenshaw reminds, “As public concern mounts for the needs of men and boys of color through initiatives like the White House’s My Brother’s Keeper, we must challenge the assumption that the lives of girls and women - who are often left out of the national conversation – are not also at risk.” I agree with Kimberle, and it's why I decided to post this week's poem, written after a classroom visit in which a Black male teacher, who taught in a school run by a Black male principal and a Black female assistant principal, in a Black community, just couldn't see the #BlackGirlMagic ways of expressing herself that a beautifully bouncy little girl named Anaya chose to express her Black Girl 'magichood'! I left the room that day asking myself what happens when we no longer recognize our own ways of expressing ourselves. Do we then too become the perpetrators of the PUSH OUT? As I often do, I went home and poured my thoughts into my journal. This poem, though simple, are those thoughts. I wrote this poem for Anaya, in her voice, and for all of the other little Black girl Anaya's out there, who are fighting for their rightful space, and place, and time to just BE who they are, in all of their beautiful Black Girl 'Magichood'! This is for you little Black Girls! We are fighting so that one day you, like us, can express yourself authentically, and be seen, and loved, and cared for, and nurtured, and understood, and TAUGHT...without being PUSHED OUT!
Black Teachers! Why Don’t You See Me Anymore?
A Poetic Counter Narrative from a Black Girl Pushed Out
What happens when my teacher, the dark chocolate man with skin like my own doesn’t see me anymore!
What happens?
What happens when my black female body has been rendered invisible by the one person designed to notice it!
What happens?
What happens when my teacher, the dark chocolate woman with skin like my own doesn’t see me anymore!
What happens?
What happens when my skin, wrapped in the same rich soil as hers becomes unrecognizable!
What happens?
What happens when my teachers, bodies dipped in the same dark chocolate skin like mine don’t see me anymore!
What happens?
What happens, when my skin becomes the problem in this Black Space, managed by these Black bodies who don’t see me anymore because they have surrendered to Whiteness in search of a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist but that they have found in my body whose skin is wrapped in the rich soils of our African heritage!
What happens?
Does Whiteness force Blackness’ surrender? Has it convinced my Black male and female teachers and school leaders, with bodies whose skin has been dipped in the same dark chocolate as my own but who don’t see me anymore, that I am no longer worth seeing?
Is that what happens?
Does my Black body, wrapped in a blackness as rich as the soils of my African heritage suddenly become...
Too loud!
Too Boistrous!
Too Unapproachable!
Too Angry!
Too Defiant!
Too Aggressive!
Too Naughty!
Too much of a distraction!
The problem! In need of being surveilled!
Is that what happens?
YES!
That’s what happens!
That is what happens when my teachers, and school leaders,
the dark chocolate men and women, with skin like my own, can no longer see me anymore!
On that day, when my teachers, and school leaders, the dark chocolate men and women, with skin like my own, who no longer
saw me anymore, my beautiful Black female body wrapped in skin as rich as the soils of my African heritage was…
Margenalized!
My Voice Silenced!
That’s what happened!
It happened at school!
Slowly at first!
So slow that nobody but me saw it happen!
That’s what happened!
It happened in a Black space, managed by Black bodies whose skin was wrapped in a blackness just as Black as my own Blackness, the one as rich as the soils of my African heritage, and adorning the beautiful bold bodies of my Black male teacher, my Black male Principal, and my Black female Assistant principal…all of them, dark chocolate, with skin like my own, but who didn’t see me anymore!
So my Blackness faded! I gave up! I tried to tell them that it was happening! But they couldn’t see me! Nor could they hear me! Whiteness had reared its evil head and rendered me invisible
And so too had the people designed to see me…
So now,
I am just
another Black Girl, skin wrapped in a blackness as rich as the soils of my African heritage,
body marginalized, voice silenced…
just another Black girl! Pushed Out!
By my teachers! And school leaders!
The dark chocolate men and women with skin like my own, and designed to see me, but who don’t see me anymore!
That’s what happens!
Black Teachers! Why Don’t You See Me Anymore?
A Poetic Counter Narrative from a Black Girl Pushed Out
What happens when my teacher, the dark chocolate man with skin like my own doesn’t see me anymore!
What happens?
What happens when my black female body has been rendered invisible by the one person designed to notice it!
What happens?
What happens when my teacher, the dark chocolate woman with skin like my own doesn’t see me anymore!
What happens?
What happens when my skin, wrapped in the same rich soil as hers becomes unrecognizable!
What happens?
What happens when my teachers, bodies dipped in the same dark chocolate skin like mine don’t see me anymore!
What happens?
What happens, when my skin becomes the problem in this Black Space, managed by these Black bodies who don’t see me anymore because they have surrendered to Whiteness in search of a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist but that they have found in my body whose skin is wrapped in the rich soils of our African heritage!
What happens?
Does Whiteness force Blackness’ surrender? Has it convinced my Black male and female teachers and school leaders, with bodies whose skin has been dipped in the same dark chocolate as my own but who don’t see me anymore, that I am no longer worth seeing?
Is that what happens?
Does my Black body, wrapped in a blackness as rich as the soils of my African heritage suddenly become...
Too loud!
Too Boistrous!
Too Unapproachable!
Too Angry!
Too Defiant!
Too Aggressive!
Too Naughty!
Too much of a distraction!
The problem! In need of being surveilled!
Is that what happens?
YES!
That’s what happens!
That is what happens when my teachers, and school leaders,
the dark chocolate men and women, with skin like my own, can no longer see me anymore!
On that day, when my teachers, and school leaders, the dark chocolate men and women, with skin like my own, who no longer
saw me anymore, my beautiful Black female body wrapped in skin as rich as the soils of my African heritage was…
Margenalized!
My Voice Silenced!
That’s what happened!
It happened at school!
Slowly at first!
So slow that nobody but me saw it happen!
That’s what happened!
It happened in a Black space, managed by Black bodies whose skin was wrapped in a blackness just as Black as my own Blackness, the one as rich as the soils of my African heritage, and adorning the beautiful bold bodies of my Black male teacher, my Black male Principal, and my Black female Assistant principal…all of them, dark chocolate, with skin like my own, but who didn’t see me anymore!
So my Blackness faded! I gave up! I tried to tell them that it was happening! But they couldn’t see me! Nor could they hear me! Whiteness had reared its evil head and rendered me invisible
And so too had the people designed to see me…
So now,
I am just
another Black Girl, skin wrapped in a blackness as rich as the soils of my African heritage,
body marginalized, voice silenced…
just another Black girl! Pushed Out!
By my teachers! And school leaders!
The dark chocolate men and women with skin like my own, and designed to see me, but who don’t see me anymore!
That’s what happens!
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