Downed by Friendly Fire: Black Girls, White Girls, and Suburban Schooling (Posthumanities)

Description

Most Americans would never willingly revisit their high school experiences; the nation\u2019s school systems reflect the broader society\u2019s hierarchical emphasis on race, class, and gender. While schools purport to provide equal opportunities for all students, this rarely happens in actuality—particularly for girls. In Downed by Friendly Fire, Signithia Fordham unmasks and examines female-centered bullying in schools, arguing that it is essential to unmask female aggression, bullying, and competition, all of which directly relate to the structural violence embedded in the racialized and gendered social order. For two and a half years, Fordham conducted field research at \u201cUnderground Railroad High School,\u201d a suburban high school in upstate New York. Through a series of composite student profiles, she examines the girls\u2019 relationships to academic achievement, social competition, and aggression toward one another. Fordham argues that girls academically \u201ccompete to lose,\u201d which only perpetuates their subordination through the misrecognition of their own competitive behaviors. She goes further to expand the meaning of violence to include what is seen as normal, including suffering, humiliation, and social and economic abuse. Using the concept \u201csymbolic violence,\u201d Fordham theorizes the psychological and social damage suffered especially by black girls in schools. The five narratives in Downed by Friendly Fire ultimately highlight the pain and suffering this violence produces as well as the ways in which it promotes inequality, exclusion, and marginalization among girls. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents Prelude: Who Has Seen the Headwinds? Introduction: Violence— by Another Name? 1. Frenemies and Friendly Fire at Underground Railroad High 2. Last Stop on the Underground Railroad, First Stop of Refried Segregation: Setting and Methodology 3. Nadine: Words as Violence and Misrecognition 4. Brittany: She Talks Like a Black Girl 5. Keyshia: The Black Girl’s Two- Step 6. Chloe: Goldilocks, and Girls Who Are Not 7. Ally: Size Matters Conclusion: Excavating, Resuscitating, and Rehabilitating Violence— by Another Name Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y