This report was published by the African American Policy Forum.

HERE’S HOW THE AUTHORS DESCRIBE THIS REPORT:

This Report, the first in a series published by the African American Policy Forum, argues that the ‘œpipeline’ metaphor fails to both capture and respond to the unique set of conditions affecting Black girls today. It builds upon the Policy Forum’s long articulated stance that intersectional analysis is the key tool needed to reveal the causal and correlative factors that contribute to Black girls and women’s continuing vulnerabilities inside and outside of our immediate communities. By pulling together a substantive body of literature, Morris articulates what we have all long known: the current ‘œcrisis’ in Black communities is one faced by our boys and our girls. This revelation, of course, has important consequences for all stakeholders and all members of our communities.

We can no longer, as Morris argues, afford to focus exclusively on the plight of Black boys and men and hope that in the end our work will translate entirely into intervention efforts intended to bring our girls and women out of crisis. Instead, we must develop gender and race conscious lenses and interventions that adequately capture the vulnerabilities imposed upon our Black girls and women today, rather than imposing ill-fitting ones designed and intended for our boys and men.