Safe spaces for girls are not Jim Crow.And to compare the two is not only intellectually dishonest—it is profoundly disrespectful to the lived experie
Safe spaces for girls are not Jim Crow.
And to compare the two is not only intellectually dishonest—it is profoundly disrespectful to the lived experiences of some Black people in America.
Jim Crow was a system of racial apartheid.
It was violence.
It was humiliation.
It was terror sanctioned by law.
It was the denial of Black people’s basic humanity—our dignity, our safety, our lives.
To draw a comparison between that brutal legacy and the creation of safe, affirming spaces for girls—particularly Black girls—is not only a false equivalence…
It is an insult to many.
Girls’ safe spaces are not built on hate.
They are built on safety.
They are not exclusionary for the sake of control.
They are protective by necessity.
They exist because girls live through far too much without sanctuary, without boundary, and without justice.
When you suggest that protecting girls’ spaces is “segregation,” you erase context. You erase intention. And worst of all, you erase history.
Black people fought to be included in schools, buses, restaurants, and voting booths because we were being denied what everyone else had—basic human rights.
Girls are creating safe spaces because they have been denied what everyone else takes for granted:
The right to be free from sexual violence.
The right to say no without fear.
The right to say no without fear.
The right to say no without fear.
The right to grow up without being targeted, groomed, or objectified.
These aren’t the same fight.
They’re not even in the same universe.
If you want to talk about oppression, start with what girls endure globally including in the United States of America: forced marriages, sex trafficking, child pornography, medical neglect, educational disparities, and the relentless sexualization of their bodies from childhood.
Safe spaces for girls are not Jim Crow.
They are resistance.
They are restoration.
They are one of the few places where girls get to feel whole and human again.
Let us not confuse protection with oppression.
And let us never again insult our Black elders, freedom fighters, and ancestors by invoking Jim Crow in a conversation where it doesn’t belong.
We can protect girls without distorting history.
We must.
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Our Daughters Deserve Better: Rejecting Political Apathy Toward Girls’ Safety
If We All Truly Wanted To Protect Girls Sports It Would Be Simple
8 Tips That Explain What “No” Means (Infographic and audio from podcast)
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