Post #3 Argument and Purpose

Hello again! In my second post, you learned about the style that Monique Morris uses to captivate her audience. The power of literature is incredibly handy in today’s world and there are so many different pieces that are able to move readers while still proving a specific point. Monique Morris is able to warp her powerful words into a message that sticks up for young Black women all throughout America. While reading further into the text I have developed my own thoughts as to what Monique Morris uses her gift of writing for.


Through her writing, Morris makes the claim that young African American women are being criminalized throughout the education system. While this claim may seem unrealistic to some, she uses extensive research and information to back it up. Throughout the text, she talks about certain young women who are struggling to survive in a predominately white-ruled world, who then turn to prostitution for survival and then end up in the juvenile detention centers because of their misunderstood acts. With her wide range of topics, the main theme continues to present itself throughout them all: the importance of education and the fact that these girls are deprived of it because of their skin color.


The evidence to support Morris’s argument is uncanny. In chapter one Struggling to Survive, Morris introduces the negative stereotypes used against the Black community. Words such as “ghetto”, “ho”, and “ratchet” are used daily to describe these young girls. On page 19 Morris writes about the word “ghetto” and how it affects these women: “For Black girls, to be ‘ghetto’ represents a certain resilience to how poverty has shaped racial and gender oppression...To be a ghetto Black girl, then, is to reinvent what it means to be Black, poor, and female.” The adjective “ghetto” is primarily used to describe someone or something, and it ultimately means trashy, hoodlike, or poor. These synonyms are not something that anyone would want to be described as. So why does an entire race get categorized by this word? Monique Morris argues that continuously using the word ghetto, will set up those categorized under the word for failure. The fact of the matter is that if someone is called something for a long period of time, they will start to believe it. Morris also argues that high-poverty schools often ignore and leave out children who are expected to remain poor or stay in the ghetto (31). Morris continues this thought with the statistic that 58% of Black students who decided to drop out of high school attended one of the nation's high-poverty or low-performing schools (31). This fact only adds to the thought that the school system is broken for these young Black girls. Because of the lack of attentiveness towards them, the girls feel as though they are not being heard and decide to put their attention elsewhere.




This “elsewhere” is the main topic of chapter 3 Jezebel in the Classroom. From here, Morris argues that because of the lack of concentration towards these girls, they turn to prostitution where they feel as though someone cares for them. Although this someone is their pimp, in a twisted way I almost see why these girls turn to prostitution. While this may seem like a temporary fix to the issue the problem with this is that once you’re in, you’re in. On page 105 Morris talks to Jennifer; who had been in and out of foster homes for years; about her experience with prostitution. “I didn’t like it… and they, like, talked about me. Told me I’m stupid and never going to be anything. And I believed it, and so that’s when I went back to prostitution.” In this quote, Jennifer is talking about her foster parents that essentially pushed her away, even when they knew she was in the prostitution business. It is these very actions that make it easy to see why these girls turn in the wrong direction. Without guidance from a trusted adult, whether it be a teacher or a guardian, most of these girls will find themselves lost with no directions.


Because sex work is illegal, it is not uncommon for some girls to be taken to juvenile detention centers. In these centers, they will receive their basic needs, which may seem good, but the bottom line is that their needs are only met to a certain degree. Monique Morris argues that a lot of the issues surrounding young Black girls is the lack of education given to them. If the learning in real school is already bad enough, how does that compare to the education given to the girls while they are incarcerated? Some may argue that your actions have consequences and that those need to be faced head-0n, but Monique Clearly disassembles this when she provides evidence that these girls are set up by society and schools to fail all because nobody fights for them. In Chapter four Learning on Lockdown, Morris talks all about Black women and their educational experience while in juvenile detention. On page 136 Morris is interviewing Portia and Mia, at the time Portia was 16 and Mia was 13. When asked what they thought of their education in the detention center their responses were nothing short of sorrowful: The two described their experience as “depressing” and a difficult learning environment. Morris then goes on to explain why girls so often forgot about in the juvenile system. She states that the low percentage of girls with cases goes unnoticed in the grand scheme of things. Monique Morris is able to validate her argument in this case and back up her ideas with evidence.

 
For me, it is hard to imagine a life without a good education. So while reading this novel it is very insightful to see what happens in other parts of the country. Before I even began reading, I knew that there was injustice throughout the school systems but I never realized how bad it was. I think the purpose behind the novel Pushout is to break down the barriers built up by society and shine a bright light on the fact that these girls are neglected. Monique Morris uses her writing to create an intriguing piece of literature that simultaneously brings awareness to the events that are taking place. 

Thanks for reading! And I hope to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Work Cited: 

Morris, Monique W., et al. Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools.
    Paperback edition. ed., New York, New Press, 2018.