ABSTRACT
This poem was written by a sixteen-year-old female member of “Recess!,” a literary program that is one component of the University of Florida’s Center for the Study of Children’s Literature and Media. The tenor of this poem speaks to the struggles experienced by African-American girls who are under attack by the media, social institutions, and policymakers. They are often portrayed in the media as hypersexualized. African-American girls are more often portrayed on television and in movies as aggressive, vixen-like characters. Furthermore, a simple Internet search with keywords “Black girls” yields pages of pornographic sites. On the other hand, a search with “White girls” as the keywords yields pages of popular self-help style sites. This mischaracterization creates adversities which these young girls must overcome.
