#pushout

Jennifer Morrison, (Instagram, June 17, 2020)

Monique W. Morris – Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

“For Black girls, to be “ghetto” represents a certain resilience to how poverty has shaped racial and gender oppression. To be “loud” it to demand to be heard. To have an “attitude” is to reject a doctrine of invisibility and maltreatment. To be flamboyant–or “fabulous”–is to revise the idea that socioeconomic isolation is equated with not having access to materially desirable things. To be a…

Inspired by Monique Morris’ “Pushout” 

I don’t want my daughter to ever think

that it’s okay to feel

as if your body belongs to another,

as if you owe someone a part of your aura.

 You were not put on this earth to please someone else.

Your autonomy is yours, and you should never be forced

to kiss someone’s cheek, or have your hair be pet.

 You should be recognized for your worth, not your wealth.

You can use your body for what you want but—

I don’t want to see you prop your hand on your hip,

eleven years old and in a detention center,

and tell me that you sell your body to help your family

and you know how to make a man feel good.

 I did not push you out of my womb

after carrying you and creating you

for much longer than nine months,

for you to be pushed out of the life that you deserve,

for you to be sold for less than what you’re worth.

 Our girls are sacred and loved,

she whispered to me as she handed me my child—

bloody and soft but warm.

I hope I never see you like that again

because of the cruelties of this world. 

May you stay realized yet pure.

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN for our February 9 program:

Join us for a close look at the roles, needs, and contributions of black women and girls in the context of the Black Lives Matter Movement moment. Nikole Hannah-Jones moderates a conversation with Monique W. Morris, author of Pushout, Monifa Bandele, VP and Chief Partnership & Diversity Officer at MomsRising, and Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, renowned author, civil rights advocate, and founding scholar of Critical Race Theory.