Black feminist law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, the lead author of the study, said in a statement:
"As public concern mounts for the needs of men and boys of color through initiatives like the White House’s My Brother’s Keeper, we must challenge the assumption that the lives of girls and women -- who are often left out of the national conversation -- are not also at risk."
The study reveals many alarming statistics on how overpolicing and “zero-tolerance” policies lead to girls of color dropping out, going into low-wage work and, in some cases, ending up incarcerated.
As the chart above shows, black girls are suspended at a rate six times that of white girls (black boys are suspended three times more than white boys). The gap becomes even wider in the public school systems of major cities: In New York, black girls are suspended at 10 times the rate of white girls, while in Boston they’re suspended 11 times more. When it comes to expulsion, black girls in New York were expelled 53 times more than white girls and in Boston, 10 times more.