The Rushed Chapter: The Accelerated Development of Black Girlhood

Abstract

The Adultification of Black Girls. Black youths seem to be dealing with the issue of having their childhood cut off much sooner than their white counterparts. Just to give one example, black children are 5 times more likely to be arrested for a crime compared to their white peers who commit the same crime. For the sake of this paper, I'm focusing on the adultification of black girls. There are a number of stereotypical labels that are thrown on black women, and I'll be focusing on the main 3; The Mammy, the Jezebel, and the Sapphire. The first section of this paper discusses the stereotypes individually. Next, the paper goes into the creative aspect of story writing. Each chapter is focused on a stereotype manifested as a child, and then the story shows how their lives intertwine. It is my hope that my paper successfully communicates the issue of adultification of black girls and what they eventually lead to.