Black Girls and How We Fail Them

Aria S. Halliday

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9781469686110, 9781469686103
• eBook ISBN: 9781469683058
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: African American Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

From hip-hop moguls and political candidates to talk radio and critically acclaimed films, society communicates that Black girls don’t matter and their girlhood is not safe. Alarming statistics on physical and sexual abuse, for instance, reveal the harm Black girls face, yet Black girls’ representation in media still heavily relies on our seeing their abuse as an important factor in others’ development. In this provocative new book, Aria S. Halliday asserts that the growth of diverse representation in media since 2008 has coincided with an increase in the hatred of Black girls.

Halliday uses her astute expertise as a scholar of popular culture, feminist theory, and Black girlhood to expose how we have been complicit in the depiction of Black girls as unwanted and disposable while letting Black girls fend for themselves. She indicts the way media mistreats celebrity Black girls like Malia and Sasha Obama as well as fictional Black girls in popular shows and films like A Wrinkle in Time. Our society’s inability to see or understand Black girls as girls makes us culpable in their abuse. In Black Girls and How We Fail Them, a revelatory book for political analysts, hip-hop lovers, pop culture junkies, and parents, Halliday provides the critical perspective we need to create a world that supports, affirms, and loves Black girls. Our future depends on it.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Sometimes I Go Missing
• Contents
• Introduction: Failure Is Everywhere
• Chapter 1. Hip-Hop’s Daughters: Hip-Hop’s Misogyny Problem Revisited
• Chapter 2. Hypervisible Black Girlhood: Black Girls in the Obama Hopeland
• Chapter 3. Loving Fast-Tailed Girls: Queen Sugar, Southern Black Girlhood, and Theological Abuse
• Chapter 4. Black Girls Save the World
• Chapter 5. Dispensable Black Girls: Throw Them All Away!
• Chapter 6. Mean (Black) Girls
• Epilogue: Finding Healing in Failure
• Resources for Failing Less
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index