The 2017 Georgetown study found that adults’ biased perceptions of Black girls result in their being suspended from school at higher rates than White girls, and being more likely than both Black boys and their White peers to be disciplined for minor infractions, fighting and disobedience. Underlying these perceptions are stereotypes of Black women that originated during U.S. slavery and positioned Black women and girls as unable to conform to expectations of traditional White femininity, the study notes.
Advocates, scholars and doctors characterized the adultification bias emerging in the aftermath of Ma’Khia’s death as a form of misogynoir — a term coined by Black feminist scholar Moya Bailey. It’s a way to describe how “anti-Blackness and misogyny combine to malign Black women in our world,” Bailey wrote.
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