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Why Won’t Society Let Black Girls Be Children?

Jamilia Blake, Ph.D., a psychologist and associate professor at Texas A&M University who co-authored the 2019 report “Listening to Black Women and Girls: Lived Experiences of Adultification Bias” and its precursor, the 2017 study “Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood,” said adultification impacts black girls early in life. Read the Full Article at

Why the approval of the JCPS Females of Color STEAM Academy brought me to tears

In a 2017 research article from the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown Law, “Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls Childhood,” authors Rebecca Epstein, Jamilia J. Blake and Thalia Gonzalez wrote that often times black girls are seen as being older, louder and more difficult…I can speak from personal experience. I was always

When ‘Incorrigible’ Teen Girls Were Jailed

Times have changed since the 1930s, and girls’ experiences in the criminal justice system have too. Yet echoes of my grandmother’s time remain. According to the report “The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline,” published by the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, the Ms. Foundation for Women and Rights4Girls, girls in the criminal justice

Raped, Then Thrown in Jail: A Teen’s ‘Abuse-to-Prison Pipeline’

As the co-author of a groundbreaking 2015 report on sexual trauma and juvenile justice, [Rebecca] Epstein’s one of the country’s leading experts on the issue. “In many ways, this case is an example of the system responding to a girl of color who has experienced trauma by punishing her,” Epstein said. “When we punish these

The Center on PBS’ “On the Contrary”

On the latest episode of @ToTheContrary, Dr. Jamilia Blake and and Rebecca Epstein of the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality discuss their research findings that show adults view black girls as less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers, beginning as young as age 5. Watch the Full Video on PBS

The Erasure of Black Girlhood in Schools

“It’s really striking that in the context of childhood, which is the epitome of innocence, Black girls are not getting the benefits of being viewed as innocent,” Rebecca Epstein, the executive director of the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, told Vox. “Black women and girls really attributed the source of this to the

Schools ‘Criminalize’ Black Girls, Jeopardizing Their Future Success

As recent as last week, a report was issued by Georgetown Law’s Center on Poverty and Inequality that details stunning statistics and first-hand accounts of how American society and our education system are stacking the odds against young girls of color. It starts early, says Rep. Karen Bass (CA-37). “It can actually start with pre-school,”