Pushout - Chapter 1 (pg16-56)

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog!
I will be reading a book called Pushout, written by Monique W. Morris. This book talks about the criminalization of black girls in school. In one chapter, the texts are separated into several "mini-chapters" with different titles. For instance, in chapter one, several passages/ paragraphs were separated into eight mini-chapters. Throughout this book, I will be selecting a couple of sections from the chapters that I am reading and analyze them accordingly.

Bad Girls Do Cry

  "Seventeen-year-old Portia grew up in the Bay Area foster care system. She was a larger girl in height and girth, and felt that her physical stature made her both a target and perpetrator of bullying (27)."
  " 'I had on white shorts and a white shirt. We was at the park and it was muddy. We were playing by the creek, but I wouldn't go near [the water], so I was standing at the edge. And the teacher came behind me and pushed me... and I was the only Black kid in that class. And she didn't like me... She tried to make it seem like I tripped off the slope into the water and stuff.' (27)"

    This section is where I first realized that Morris had approached several black female students in different schools, from different states across the country. The stories that she writes about throughout the chapter definitely pulls the readers' attention and makes it easier for them to understand what Morris is trying to explain. This also helps the readers to feel and understand how these students feel about their environment in school.

Ghettoized Opportunity
 
  "Black women and girls in America are subjected to dormant assumptions about their sexuality, their "anger," or their "attitude." They have long understood that their way of engaging with the world- how they talk, how they walk, how they wear their hair, or how they hold their bodies- is subject to scrutiny, especially by those in positions of relative power (35)."

  I personally thought that this was easy to relate to today's society. This particular passage from this section talks about how other races view Black women by their actions, the way they dress, the way they communicate with others, and even the way they walk. We often witness such situations in public and even on social media. Morris used pathos to appeal to the readers by approaching them in an emotional way. It is easy for people to judge others on how they dress and talk. Most people do. Humans are prone to judge others if they are different from themselves. I thought this particular passage clearly showed the reality of our society and how most people judge others who are different.

Believing the Hype

  " 'I feel like... because there are so [few] Black people on campus... I've noticed that other races get more, like, special attention in class,' Destiny said. 'Like, if they're struggling or like, if they want to see the teacher after class, I noticed that the teacher will be more willing to help them after class.' (39)

  I thought this passage links with the passage in the second section. It shows the reality of schools in other states. As a student who moved from North Carolina, compared to my old school, I have noticed that New Hampshire does not have this issue as much as North Carolina. Reason being, personally thinking, because the population of African Americans in this state is very low. It may be harder for some people who live in states like New Hampshire to see these kinds of issues in schools and I think this book will expose new perspectives of schooling for Blacks in grade school. I have personally experienced this before and I think it will be a good experience for readers to be "updated" and understand that people in other places, across the country, go through such tough times in their daily routines, especially school.