Author: kellyfairthementor

It is not often in media that we see positive representations of black female friendship. Too often the portrayals are centered around competition and deceit. This is why some women are pushing back against main media. Photographer Miranda Barnes project titled “Doubles”, she photographs black twin sisters.

She describes her collection as:

I find the need to challenge misconceptions of people of color in America, and particularly like to highlight themes of friendship and sisterhood in black communities…I hope my series Doubles can be a reflection of black love, unity, but most importantly black womanhood.

I encourage you to look through her collection of photographs as they are filled with sisterly love and care.

Her project brings up an important question: Why do we often show black women as adversaries rather than sisters?

An easy answer would be to say that media jumps on what viewers like to see…drama. But that is not entirely true because if you look at sitcoms and tv shows with majority white casts you see shows that center on friendship. We hope this changes and we hope that black women continue to celebrate their sisterhood despite mainstream media. Help your daughters see that black girls can love one another and that this support can carry them through the roughest of times.

In recent posts, we have discussed problems girls of color face in schools. If you haven’t read them, here they are:

• It Continues: Black Girls Still Disproportionally Suspended
• Why Girls Don’t Think They’re “Really, Really Smart”
• Not Allowed to be Children: Case of the Black Girl

In sum, recent studies have continued to show that girls of color are disproportionately suspended and expelled from schools. Contributing factors may be stereotypes that surround black girls and other girls of color.

Now we want to focus on what schools are doing to try and reverse this trend! In St. Louis, Missouri, educators held a conference about these exact issues. Two educators mentioned the following:

• Relationship building
• Providing mentorship opportunities
• Cultural competency training for educators
• Social justice training for educators

The National Women’s Law Center Let Her Learn Toolkit provides ways other schools have addressed school push out:

• Banning all suspensions in pre-K and early grades
• Teaching conflict resolution practices, yoga and meditation
• Trying alternatives to punishment, such as focusing on prevention, providing more support to students to encourage good behavior, and bringing students together to solve problems on their own and in small groups
• Using money spent on school police officers to hire more counselors instead

Encourage your schools to take action! When we come together as a community, we can make positive changes for our youth.

The trend continues for black girls. In similar blog posts (below) we informed you that black girls are less likely to see themselves as smart and are unfairly disciplined due to stereotypes about their behavior and personality. A study by Gerogetown Law’s Center on Poverty and Inequality titled “Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood,” found that black girls are viewed as less innocent than white girls.

The report shows that adults believe that black girls seem older than white girls of the same age, and think that black girls need less nurturing, protection, support and comfort than white girls. It also found that people assume black girls are more independent, know more about adult topics and know more about sex than young white girls.

–Taryn Finley, Huffpost: Black Voices

The study talks about a historical trend of “adultification” of black girls and boys. Black girls are seen as more mature and responsible for their behavior. While this may seem like a positive trait, it actually has negative consequences for children. The study suggests that a reason for this is that society is placing stereotypes surrounding black women on young, black girls. Thus, their child-like behavior is being interpreted as “loud”, “aggressive”, “dominating”, and “sexual”.

They also believe there could be possible links between the adultification of black girls and discipline. While their study did not provide a positive link between the two, we do know from other studies that black girls are unfairly disciplined compared to white girls. This happens not only in school, but also the legal system.

Our young, black girls deserve to have a childhood of innocence and naïveté. It is unfair for adults to place mature qualities and expectations on them when it is not always required.

For similar readings on our blog, click below:

Why Girls Don’t Think They’re “Really, Really Smart”

It Continues: Black Girls Still Disproportionally Suspended

When school is out, kids celebrate the absence of class, teachers, homework, and exams. However, this usually means that for the months of summer, they are also missing out on learning. While summer may not seem long, kids experience serious learning loss during this time.

According to the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment (NCASE), “Summer learning loss in the elementary school years alone accounts for at least half of the ninth-grade reading achievement gap.” Summers add up and impacts later learning.

But, there is something you as a parent, guardian, mentor, or friend can do about it! Not everyone is able to have their children attend education-based summer programs. It doesn’t have to be the only answer. You can combat summer learning loss at home. The NCASE breaks it down even further to say that summer learning should include the following everyday:

• 90 minutes of reading and writing
• 45 minutes of math
• 30 minutes of science

While this may seem overwhelming, these activities don’t have to be classroom style lessons. To meet the math needs, you can play simple games. Uno helps with number identification and Sequence teachers numerical order. For science, there are plenty of at-home science projects on the internet ranging from bottle rockets to slime. The important thing is to have fun!

If you need some book suggestions, consider this list from We Need Diverse Books: http://weneeddiversebooks.org/summer-reading-series/

Lin Bian, a psychologist at University of Illinois, found that starting at the age of 6, girls are less likely to identify themselves or other girls as “really, really smart”. In a recent study, she analyzed the gender gap between young boys and girls and their perception of intelligence. While boys continually identified men as being “smart”, girls as young as 6 started to identify women less and less with the word “smart”. The girls actually pointed to men and women as being more equally intelligent than the boys.

In another task, when asked if they wanted to play a game for kids who are “really, really smart”, the girls would opt out. The young boys wanted to play the game for “really, really smart kids”. However, girls would choose to play the game for kids who “try really, really hard”.

The study suggests that starting as young as 6-years-old, girls have been influenced by society to accept that they are not as intelligent as boys.

Now, before we go headlong into changing girls, Sapna Cheryan from University of Washington brings up a good point:

Do we want a society where each gender thinks they are smarter, or do we want one where boys and girls think the genders are equally smart? If the latter, then it may be boys’ beliefs that we should try to change.

Similarly, do we want a society where people would rather play the game that requires being ‘being smart’ over the one that require ‘hard work?’ We as a society should figure out what we value before concluding that it is the girls we need to change.

It’s an important point to make because the answer can influence how we plan youth mentoring programs. What are your thoughts on Cheryan’s question?

What we do know, is we need to continue to recognize the role gender bias has on our youth and work to encourage children to work with and accept one another. There will always be a place for mentoring programs.

The core of the Polished Pebbles curriculum is providing our girls with enriching and educational opportunities. We love that with the help from sponsors, we are able to provide learning and shadowing events to our young women. Our goals are not only to educate the girls and women in our program, but also to empower them by connecting them with job shadowing opportunities and mentors.

We’ve all heard that connections help you get ahead; networking is a must! By connecting our Polished Pebbles groups with prominent people and leaders with organizations and businesses we are giving them the support they need to succeed. And succeed they will!

Here are some snapshots of our Pebbles looking powerful in pink!

Lunch at the Hyatt to learn about the hospitality industry…

Glam session with MODA for a sneak peek into the fashion industry…

Job shadowing with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois…

The crisis continues for black girls in our school system. We have spoken repeatedly about girls of color needing our support in school and out of school in our communities. The most recent report from National Women’s Law Center tells us why.

This [Let Her Learn Survey] also showed that being called a racial slur is a common experience shared by all girls of color, with one third to one half of them saying they have had this experience (Asian and Pacific Islander girls reported the highest rate), compared to just more than one eighth of white girls. And national data shows that Black girls are 5.5 times more likely and Native American girls are 3 times more likely to be suspended from school than white girls. In addition to these barriers, girls of color are more likely to attend under-resourced schools that are not culturally competent or personalized to their needs or interests, which negatively affects their educational opportunities and future earnings.

Doesn’t this upset you? Doesn’t it make you want to change reality? To twist our school system, our culture, our society, our communities to be inclusive and safe for all of our children. It makes me want to work for change.

Now, some people might point out that maybe black girls are more likely to be suspended than white girls because of their behavior. Well, this survey shuts that down by pointing out black girls are overly-disciplined for similar behaviors or small offenses! That’s right. To ignore the role that race and stereotypes play into this is to ignore reality.

Black girls are stereotyped as:

• Aggressive
• Promiscuous
• Defiant

When teachers and school officials are raised in a society that puts these stereotypes into their minds, it affects their interactions with black girls. Unless they are actively combating their biases, then these negative stereotypes will have real life affects on black girls in the classroom. By removing them from school as punishment, they are not being provided quality education.

Although expulsions are less common, Black girls are 6.1 times more likely to be expelled from school than white girls. To make matters worse, they are 2.5 times more likely to be expelled without educational services.

Take this information and use it to fuel your drive. Support girls of color, support your schools, communities, and after school programs. Help our girls receive a quality education because they are our future leaders!

Polished Pebbles was featured in the May edition of The Columbia Chronicle. The article, “Guiding Girls” (pg. 20-21) was written by Esther Bell and Zoë Haworth. They write:

With schools no longer a safe haven and homes providing scant refuge in some neighborhoods, Polished Pebbles Mentoring Program for Girls is creating an opportunity for young girls to understand that their voices, experiences, and what they share with others are valuable…

To read the full article, go to page 20-21 at this link!

By now, you all know the mission of Polished Pebbles Girls Mentoring Program. We want young women of color to be prepared and succeed in their futures. We teach communication, relationship-building, conflict resolution, and career-readiness skills. Not to mention, the women who lead our groups model to our girls how to be positive mentors in their communities.

This year, we had the opportunity to work with a group of women in Texas. For their final event of the year, they spent time with ThoughtWorks as they learned about the technology industry and competed in a mock production competition. These experiences are invaluable to our girls and we love seeing how excited they are to participate! Take a look below at the products our girls pulled together and then pitched to the group!