HOW LIVING IN A BLACK FEMALE BODY INCITES PERPETUAL ATTACK

From the time they are just children, black women in America face a set societal perceptions and actions that can have devastating effects.

Before scores of professional athletes brought black Americans’ thorny relationship with love of country center stage, did you know that, in 2014, a black girl in Texas had started her own protest ritual of sitting during the Pledge of Allegiance? Much like how today’s athletes are citing racial injustice as reasoning to exercise their First Amendment rights, the Houston senior, who has declined to be named, recently stated the following: “We live in a country where there isn’t justice and freedom for all, and so I’m not going to stand for a pledge that says there is.”

Black women and girls accrue among the highest costs for confronting America’s sins—but they’re also excluded from, and silenced in, narratives about this national reckoning.

During her three years of protest, the black teen encountered student, teacher, and school administrator vitriol, ranging from being told to leave the country to being described as “unappreciative” and even labeled as a “communist.” Another black girl in the Houston area suffered even greater retribution for the same peaceful protest. After refusing to stand for the pledge for months in protest of police brutality, India Landry—a senior at Windfern High School—was kicked out of school and reportedlythreatened to be escorted out by police.

When these black teenagers exercised their constitutional rights, their schools created an environment to make them feel unwelcome at best and criminalized at worst. In both cases, school actors used their power to silence India Landry and the other Houston senior simply for drawing attention to social injustice. To be blunt, these two stories demonstrate a broader American tale: Existing in a black female …

Please read original article- HOW LIVING IN A BLACK FEMALE BODY INCITES PERPETUAL ATTACK