“We Have Always Created Paths”: Learning From Black Girls About Navigating Intersectional Oppression

Abstract

The present study explored the ways in which adolescent Black girls responded to oppressive stereotypes and expectations based on their racial, gender, and intersectional (race-x-gender) identities. Participants included 60 girls who were students at a predominantly Black, all-girls high school ( M age = 16.17 years) and completed a 1:1 semi-structured interview about their identity experiences. Expanding on existing research that offers modes of responding to oppression that are dichotomized and value-laden (i.e., resistance or accommodation), we find that adolescent Black girls engaged in a range of broad, nuanced, and overlapping strategies, within the larger categories of accommodation , survival , and liberation . We note that Black girls strategically negotiated the oppressive contexts in which they develop, and that their choice of response strategy connected to the type of oppression that they were navigating as well as their ability to maintain a coherent sense of self through their experiences with harmful structures and ideologies. Our findings highlight the need to learn from and support Black girls in developing a toolkit of strategies they can use to respond to the complexities of oppression, as well as a sense of agency in choosing which strategy to employ in which context.