This scenario came to mind when I read about black preschoolers facing higher suspension rates than white preschoolers. Black children make up 18% of the preschoolers, yet represent about half of the students suspended more than once. Boys usually face higher suspension rates than girls, except for black girls, facing higher rates than all other girls and most boys. Actually, when comparing black girls versus black boys and white girls versus white boys, the difference by gender is lower for black girls, meaning they are more likely to be suspended compared to black boys than white girls are to white boys. The intersectionality of race and gender makes black girls even more susceptible to suspension. To bring this all back into perspective, we’re talking about preschoolers ranging from 3-5 years of age. On NPR,
“Here’s what the education data show: kids who are suspended or expelled from school are more likely to drop out, and those dropouts are more likely to end up with criminal records. In many places, school discipline pushes kids directly into the juvenile justice system.”
Obviously, my comic is an over-simplification of the issue, but the point is the race of a child may affect the evaluation of something as innocuous as a drawing. Colorlines reports on a study suggesting “imaginative and expressive pretend-play” elicits different associations from teachers, depending on the race of the student.
It’s disheartening that children as young as 3 years of age are already viewed through the lens that’ll define their actions in the dominant sphere. The story is as old as time, though. People of color, particularly girls/women, don’t fit the dominant definition of behavior and are punished by being robbed of an education and placed on the fast track for poverty and criminality.
- as Others - 