Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

The final chapter radically departs from the structures of previous chapters. Whereas Chapters 1-4 analyzed historical and social dynamics negatively affecting Black girls, Chapter 5 casts its eyes on the future and proposes solutions. In contrast to previous chapters, this chapter relies less on history, social studies, and statistics; instead, Morris reflects on her field work and interviews and, drawing from what Black girls around the country told her, identifies issues that she believes must be central to instituting changes to the American educational system. In its differences of methodology and content, Chapter 5 proves to be the lynchpin of Pushout; it establishes the text as one that is not only concerned with socio-political analyses, but also one that actively builds radical change.

The chapter’s structure reflects its goals as a practical guide for change. In addition to the section headings throughout the book, Chapter 5 employs subheadings for even more detailed organization. Subheadings emphasize seven chief solutions: race-conscious gender analysis, respect, centered responses to victimization, preventing and disallowing “permission to fail,” understanding dress codes, practices that facilitate healing opportunities for girls, and having “the talk” with girls, not just boys. Bolded subheadings draw readers’ attention to each of these solutions, emphasizing their importance within the chapter but also in the larger scope of the work; in a way, the entirety of Pushout works towards the last chapter’s solutions for previously discussed issues. These organizational decisions for Chapter 5 illustrate Morris’s continuous effort to present her work in an efficient, digestible manner so that readers can fully absorb and understand. Further, these decisions reinforce the chapter’s purpose as a practical reference for scholars, activists, and community leaders as they discuss, research, and build policies responding to the pushout phenomenon and Black girls’ needs.

Morris’s solutions are both ideological and practical; some larger-scale solutions use ideological means to fix the harmful attitudes pervading the American education system, while other solutions offer immediate application on the ground level to change Black girls’ daily scholastic experiences. This combined approach maintains that all proposed ideas can work together to create a new, progressive American education—on both ideological and concrete levels. Morris’s solutions thus mirror her approach in writing Pushout, which is equal-parts theoretical analysis of systemic issues and grounded analysis of individual case studies.

Morris begins with race-conscious gender analysis of the educational system as her first solution; this ideological solution reflects the text’s primary theoretical and methodological thrusts, constantly arguing for the validity and importance of acknowledging intersectionality. Solutions must consider how Black girls face specific obstacles due to the intersection of their race and gender identities. This solution’s principal status underpins one of Pushout’s most significant imperatives: emphasizing the importance of intersectional thought in the creation of any new policy, rulebook, or system for American education. Other of Morris’s theoretically driven solutions, such as responding to victimization and having “the talk” with Black girls, similarly connect to her previous explorations of systemic racism, misogyny, and how educators’ implicit biases inform their treatment of Black girls.

Among the text’s most valuable content are Morris’s direct, practical solutions. Her paragraph titled “What We Should Really Mean by ‘Respect,’” for instance, provides a step-by-step process for scrutinizing school policies. Her numbered list of open-ended questions—prompting readers’ critical reflection on their local schools’ policies, how they function regarding Black girls’ education, and what can be done to institute changes—indicates the final chapter’s function as a practical resource. The questions facilitate real-life discussions to enact legitimate structural change.

There is also a particularly instructive section describing the prevention of “permission to fail” attitudes in educators. Morris offers a detailed yet accessible approach to this solution: Schools can offer routine professional development workshops to educate staff on their own implicit biases. This will improve their relationships with Black girls. Again, this solution incorporates intersectionality, emphasizing the significance of race and gender-focused lessons in educating staff; because many of the girls Morris interviewed expressly desired strong student-teacher relationships, “Teachers would benefit from training on the use of culturally competent and gender-responsive discipline protocols” to create more supportive classrooms. Previous chapters analyzed the importance of teachers and adult role models for Black girls, and this section showcases how the final chapter’s solutions build off of earlier chapters’ more theoretical analyses.

In direct dialogue with previous chapters, Morris’s solutions offer empathetic answers to the earlier tumultuous questions, especially the question casting the largest shadow in the pushout phenomenon: how schools can stop criminalizing Black girls’ behaviors and begin supporting these students instead. The intratextual dialogue positions Chapter 5 as a comprehensive review of Pushout’s content and emphasizes the main arguments (most especially, that listening and empathy are key in all solutions). It is the most instructive and, perhaps, pertinent chapter; it effectively gives readers the roadmap toward local, practical improvements for Black girls’ educations. In both content and organization, Chapter 5 is key in Pushout’s ultimate goal of being an active text.