Journal Entry by Kimberly McKoy

Kimberly

July 23, 2020

After reading the Blacks Girls Matter Report, I was able to look at all of the experiences that Black girls go through during their educational experiences. The article discusses the issues of the discipline of Black girls in the school system. The counselors in the school system would treat their students based on stereotypes on black girls as being “ghetto” and “rowdy”. After reading that portion of the text, it allowed me to reflect on my own experiences of being in a predominantly white public school. I experience counselors doubting my success and stunting my educational growth. When I was in kindergarten, my school told my mother that I had a speech impediment and that I needed to be held back. They told her this unsupported news without any resources to fix the problem and without a proper diagnosis. If it wasn’t for my mother, they would’ve kept holding me back.

I remember being in second grade in the classroom with the regular kids until a teacher from the special program came and took me and the other black kids out of the classroom. I didn’t know what this meant at the time until I got older, and they never notified my mother that they were doing this at the time. Participating in the focus group and hearing other testimonies made me realize that I wasn’t alone. And that it didn’t just happen to me, but it happens to other black girls as well. This made me feel like I wasn’t alone but sad because this shouldn’t be a cycle. 

-Kimberly McKoy (AAPF Young Scholar)