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All the Breshas: Punishing Black Girls in the Age of Mass Criminalization
September 29, 2016 @ 6:15 pm - 8:15 pm
IRAAS Conversation Lecture -Free & Open to the Public
3rd Floor Pulitzer World Room – Journalism School
All the Breshas: Punishing Black Girls in the Age of Mass Criminalization
**Topic:**
Black girls and young women are the fastest growing population in the juvenile legal system. They are disproportionately targeted at every stage of the process. Black girls are also consistently suspended, expelled, and arrested from school at a higher rate than their peers. Yet most of the discussions and concern about criminalization are centered on boys and young men.
Join Mariame Kaba for a talk that will consider the following questions: 1. How and why are black girls targeted? 2. What are the effects and impacts of their disproportionate criminalization? How can we intervene to interrupt this criminalization?
Mariame will focus on the case of Bresha Meadows, a 15 year old girl currently jailed in Ohio for killing her abusive father to defend herself and family.
**Speaker Bio**
As an organizer, educator and curator, Kaba is a voice in social movements for prison abolition, racial and gender justice, and transformative justice.
She is the founder and director of Project NIA, a grassroots organization working to end youth incarceration. She co-founded many organizations, including the Chicago Freedom School and the Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women.
Mariame is a 2016 Soros Justice Fellow. She currently organizes with the collective Survived & Punished.