Black girls are not magic; they are human: Intersectionality and inequity in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) schools

Abstract

For decades, research summarizing educational outcomes has indicated significant disparities, which continue to impact the academic achievement and wellbeing of Black students in Ontario. These concerns are further amplified due to the lack of disaggregated educational data, making it difficult to outline and address disparities for specific groups of Black students, such as Black girls. Equity and inclusion policies implemented by the Ontario government focus on meeting the needs of Black students; however, reviewing provincial educational plans reveals a failure to explicitly account for intersectionality in Black students and as result, the nuanced needs of specific Black students, particularly Black girls, are ignored. This article uses critical discourse analysis combined with tenets of Black feminist epistemologies to contextualize first-hand accounts of the school experiences of 11 Black girls living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The qualitative data, collected for a larger study, exposes harmful learning environments, which include incessant teacher microaggressions and differential treatment practices that Black girls regularly experience in GTA schools. In spite of popular contemporary themes such as #Blackgirlmagic, used to uplift and empower Black girls in adverse circumstances, it is important to acknowledge that Black girls are not inherently magical and therefore, cannot individually resolve the larger systemic educational issues which impact them. In the end, if efforts to address educational inequities through policies and practices are meant to resolve disparities for all Black students in Ontario, the impact of intersectionality demands that the barriers experienced by Black girls in school receive immediate careful consideration.

Keywords:

• Black girls
• Black students
• Intersectionality
• Multicultural/diversity education
• Educational policy
• School educational reform

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Reference to Black girls generally reflects a wide, diverse group of people of African descent, identifying as Black and female, between the ages of 2 and 18. For the purposes of the article, reference to Black girls is focused on female high school students between the ages of 15 and 18 years old.

2 In Ontario, colleges are considered vocational and universities are considered academic. High school courses needed for successful admission to college programs are viewed as less academically challenging than courses required for admission to university programs. The streaming of high school courses in Ontario can lead to a stigma on a student’s ability. Students who opt to, or are directed to complete, college level courses in high school risk being stereotyped as less academically capable based on the implied standards of the courses.