Document Type

Article

Publication Title

The Urban Review

Publication Date

2026

Keywords

white male violence, bullying discourse, criminalization of Black girls

Abstract

This analytical essay uses data from a qualitative study by O’Brien (2017) that explored the social construction of bullying. O’Brien interviewed 16 high school students enrolled in alternative and college-preparatory high schools. Although the study did not focus specifically on Black girls, their narratives surfaced a distinctly different story—one that exposed how whiteness, intersectional power, and cultural ways of knowing construct Black girls as quintessential bullies in schools. This re-analysis explores how Black girls are cast within the mythology of whiteness as archfoes—not merely as disruptive, but as symbolic antagonists whose existence threatens the normative order of whiteness itself. Labeled as bullies, they become scapegoats within a racialized discourse that shields white male violence from scrutiny. While white male shooters are framed as anomalies or victims of circumstance, Black girls are criminalized for protecting themselves and others from the violence inflicted upon them by both educators and students. Findings reveal that the intersection of race, gender identity, and adultification positions Black girls not only as subjects of bullying but also as targets of systemic retribution and disenfranchisement.

Funding Source

This article was published open access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Springer Nature.

Comments

First published in The Urban Review (2026): https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-026-00829-0

DOI

10.1007/s11256-026-00829-0

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