ABSTRACT
The construction of gender and race identity most certainly play a key role in the everyday lives of a certain subset of black high-school aged girls. Moreover, the disciplinary actions invoked for the behavior only heightens a disconnect with school. The “oppositional” behavior the so-called bad black girls of Parlington High engage in at school is a means to overcome feelings of disempowerment, first arising from complicated and unstable home lives and later from racialization both in and out of school. Ann Ferguson’s bad boys were on their way to dropping out of school and the so-called bad black girls of Parlington High were closer to that end. The neighborhoods and home lives for all the girls had their share of behaviors that were anything but stabilizing. Most of the girls were fiercely independent—many of them not necessarily out of personal desire to be, but rather out of necessity.
