Pushout - Chapter 4 (pg 135-197)
Hello readers and welcome back!!
I am more than excited to share what I have felt about this book over the week.
I will be telling you about what I may think the author's purpose is of writing this book, Pushout. Looking at this book as a big picture, I, personally, thought that Morris wrote this book to spread awareness of the criminalization of Black girls in school in our generation. Before I started reading this book, I only thought that the mistreating of Black students were existent in the past before we were born and they did all kinds of work to survive. This book shocked me when I started reading it and started exposing me to current happenings such as trafficking that is happening to female Black students instead of going to school on a daily basis and being mistreated by teachers regularly. Although I am aware of the racism that is existent in schools today, I learned that there are still students out there who are suffering from trafficking just to survive. Looking at the past 3 chapters I have read so far, I thought that Morris was trying to let the readers know that this is still going on by approaching different Black girls and talking about their lives.
Fortunately, the beginning of the chapter I read for this week had a prominent purpose that I could talk about. The chapter begins with Morris mentioning two girls, Mia and Portia, and how they think that they cannot "learn here" and how it is "depressing" at school. Also, Morris states the statistics of the rate of arrest and detention of students in school.
"In fact, while the rate of arrest and detention has declined overall for boys, rates have increased for girls. Between 1996 and 2011, the proportion of girls arrested declined by 42 percent, compared to a 57 percent decline among boys. Girls (37 percent) are more likely than boys (25 percent) to be detained for status offenses and technical violations rather than for crimes that actually present a danger to public safety. Girls (21 percent) are also more likely than boys (12 percent) to be detained for sexual assault (cases that may include commercially sexually exploited children) and public disorder cases, including those that may include public drunkenness or scuffles (136)."
This paragraph is how Morris generally started her chapter. By talking about the statistics of the rate of arrest and detention of students, I thought this gave the readers a good idea of increasing and decreasing percentage rates by comparing boys to girls in school. She then introduced Isis Sapp Grant, who is a former gang member in New York. She had launched the Blossom Program for Girls at the Youth Empowerment Mission. This was a recovery program that helped out girls and young women.
"Through this program, she worked with girls who were gang-involved or in contact with the criminal legal system for other reasons. Blossom, now a program primarily serving New York schools, facilitated the recovery process for more than two thousand young people and their families (137)."
I pondered this question for a while, "why did she introduce this program to us?" This program has helped more than two thousand young people and their families. These people were vulnerable enough to go to this program, seek help and search for recovery. Just by even thinking of the number of people that go through the process of this program, I would assume that it made a benefit to these people and their families.
Since the beginning of the book, Morris explains the unconscious bias that exists in society, the struggles Black girls go through, how they spend more time getting trafficked than being in school, and how these girls think that their learning environment is "depressing." I have a strong opinion that Morris tries her best to let her readers know what is going on in society right now. For especially people like me, who is not updated frequently about what happens out of the state that I live in, or who do not watch the news on a daily basis, it was definitely an eye-opening experience while reading this book. I sound like I am done with all my blogs but I just wanted to share how impactful this book has been so far to me. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my last chapter next week!
I am more than excited to share what I have felt about this book over the week.
I will be telling you about what I may think the author's purpose is of writing this book, Pushout. Looking at this book as a big picture, I, personally, thought that Morris wrote this book to spread awareness of the criminalization of Black girls in school in our generation. Before I started reading this book, I only thought that the mistreating of Black students were existent in the past before we were born and they did all kinds of work to survive. This book shocked me when I started reading it and started exposing me to current happenings such as trafficking that is happening to female Black students instead of going to school on a daily basis and being mistreated by teachers regularly. Although I am aware of the racism that is existent in schools today, I learned that there are still students out there who are suffering from trafficking just to survive. Looking at the past 3 chapters I have read so far, I thought that Morris was trying to let the readers know that this is still going on by approaching different Black girls and talking about their lives.
Fortunately, the beginning of the chapter I read for this week had a prominent purpose that I could talk about. The chapter begins with Morris mentioning two girls, Mia and Portia, and how they think that they cannot "learn here" and how it is "depressing" at school. Also, Morris states the statistics of the rate of arrest and detention of students in school.
"In fact, while the rate of arrest and detention has declined overall for boys, rates have increased for girls. Between 1996 and 2011, the proportion of girls arrested declined by 42 percent, compared to a 57 percent decline among boys. Girls (37 percent) are more likely than boys (25 percent) to be detained for status offenses and technical violations rather than for crimes that actually present a danger to public safety. Girls (21 percent) are also more likely than boys (12 percent) to be detained for sexual assault (cases that may include commercially sexually exploited children) and public disorder cases, including those that may include public drunkenness or scuffles (136)."
This paragraph is how Morris generally started her chapter. By talking about the statistics of the rate of arrest and detention of students, I thought this gave the readers a good idea of increasing and decreasing percentage rates by comparing boys to girls in school. She then introduced Isis Sapp Grant, who is a former gang member in New York. She had launched the Blossom Program for Girls at the Youth Empowerment Mission. This was a recovery program that helped out girls and young women.
"Through this program, she worked with girls who were gang-involved or in contact with the criminal legal system for other reasons. Blossom, now a program primarily serving New York schools, facilitated the recovery process for more than two thousand young people and their families (137)."
I pondered this question for a while, "why did she introduce this program to us?" This program has helped more than two thousand young people and their families. These people were vulnerable enough to go to this program, seek help and search for recovery. Just by even thinking of the number of people that go through the process of this program, I would assume that it made a benefit to these people and their families.
Since the beginning of the book, Morris explains the unconscious bias that exists in society, the struggles Black girls go through, how they spend more time getting trafficked than being in school, and how these girls think that their learning environment is "depressing." I have a strong opinion that Morris tries her best to let her readers know what is going on in society right now. For especially people like me, who is not updated frequently about what happens out of the state that I live in, or who do not watch the news on a daily basis, it was definitely an eye-opening experience while reading this book. I sound like I am done with all my blogs but I just wanted to share how impactful this book has been so far to me. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my last chapter next week!
Hi Grace!
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post, you focused on many of the key topics in the book such as trafficking and unconscious bias. Like you, I also noticed from reading this book that Morris tries to tie in recent occurrences and focuses on newer problems facing black girls. She does not dwell on the past, and this is something I also admire about her style of writing.
Great job! :)
Hi Abbey!
DeleteYes, I really do think it was an eye-opening experience to read this book and really learn about "current events" that we did not even notice. As you said, she really did not dwell on the past and I think that makes this book more interesting. I think it was definitely helpful reading a book that talks about more recent events rather than reading a book that talks about a lot of history! Thanks for reading :)
Hello Grace, prior to reading this book I also thought that educational disparities for black girls only existed in our past. However, Pushout has helped me understand how prominent the issue of the criminalization of black girls in schools is in our society today. Morris does this through the use of logos and pathos, as you discussed in your blog. I also liked how you pointed out that Morris compares boys to girls. This is something Morris does constantly throughout her novel to emphasize how much harder girls have it than boys. I enjoyed reading your blog and look forward to reading your last one!
ReplyDeleteHello Ellie :)
DeleteI feel the same way as you. I thought the disparities for Black girls only existed in the past. This book definitely allowed me to look into more sources about this issue and see if I, as an individual, can do anything to at least make a small change. It felt real when she compared boys to girls, including the statistics. Thanks for reading!!
Good discussion of the arguments and discussion of this section of the book, as well as your response to this section of the reading.
ReplyDelete