From Spirit-Murdering to Spirit-Healing: Addressing Anti-Black Aggressions and the Inhumane Discipline of Black Children

Abstract

School is a hyperviolent space for Black students and in particular for Black girls. Black girls continue to be adultified, criminalized, and spirit-murdered by educators who enact racially discriminatory school disciplinary policies. Using literature from racial microaggressions and antiblackness, we introduce a model that we refer to as “antiblack aggressions” to examine the disciplinary experiences of two Black girls who were at the center of a violent assault by a White male School Resource Officer at Spring Valley High School. We provide an analysis of South Carolina's Disturbing Schools Law, and we discuss how an antiblack aggressions model can challenge traditional notions of peace, law, and justice for Black girls in school.