Watch Logan Green, a Mississippi high school student, perform her spoken-word poem about adultification bias, which won her first place in the 2021 National Speech and Debate Association Tournament. In Logan’s words, the idea for her poem came from connecting with our report on adultification bias: “I’ve always been told that I looked too grown
The impact of the adultification bias does not end in the schools or with teachers. As a Black girl continues to age, it follows her within her community as she is gets identified as the “Strong Black Woman.” While it is most definitely true that Black women are not only strong and powerful beyond measure,
When I was 12 years old I was in a car that was involved in a car crash. I was the first to climb out the totalled car feeling battered from the impact and the wind knocked out of me. The cops on the scene ask me “was I driving the car?” I was so
Since pre-k, my biracial daughter has been adultified with adult skill sets applied to her normal childhood behaviors and differences and nefarious intentionality ascribed to her behaviors. She is not afforded the presumption of childhood innocence or the right to the childhood developmental expectations. She has repeatedly been removed from her classroom, received lunchroom and
“To be adultified is to be stripped of your pride and innocence. By telling a black girls she’s too "aggressive" or "sexual" forces her into a stereotype others may never let her live down.”
It was the day of the championship game. If we won, we’d move on to the next division, with a shot at the state championship title. We were all pumped up and ready to go as we saw how full the gym had become with family members, friends, and townspeople. I gave my parents the
The media is very much complicit in how it portrays children of color and how children of color are absent from major films for children. It may be of interest to some:
When I was 19, I decided it was time to go to the OBGYN for the first time. I had lost my virginity to my boyfriend and wanted to get on birth control. The doctor was an older white man. He came into the room and started asking me questions about my sexual history. What
I don’t really remember how old I was but it was in elementary school. All the boys & girls were being ‘fresh’ as most boys & girls do around that time. I remember a boy approaching me in class to be what flirtatious was at that age and the teacher yelled at me. The boy
I went to small evangelical Christian schools that were extremely conservative and mostly white. In many of my classes I was the only black person. On many occasions I was kicked out of classes for “rolling my eyes” or “having an attitude.” I never understood why this was happening, because I wasn’t trying to be