If you're looking for answers about how Black girls are faring day to day, you're going to have to put in some work.
Sherese Brewington-Carr, a former president of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women’s Delaware chapter, was one of the co-leaders of “The State of Our Union: Black Girls in Delaware.” The report is a first-of-its-kind study published in 2021 examining the daily lives and well-being of Black girls ages 10-19, covering topics like self-image, experiences of racism, support systems, and safety.
“Is there data? Yes, about Black girls in various segments, yes,” Brewington-Carr said. “But not all in one location, and again, bits and pieces and along with everyone else. Not something that was dedicated specifically to the lives of Black girls.”
The study's lead researcher Katrina Morrison, a policy scientist at the University of Delaware, said the study wasn’t meant to cover everything.
“The Black girl population might sound like a monolith, but they are not,” Morrison said.
The report found Black girls in Delaware face persistent disparities in mental health, education, and safety, and struggle to build resilience, aspirations, and support networks.
But four years later, many of those challenges remain, and Morrison said meaningful progress to address them has been limited.
“As far as a visible kind of policy that would hold folks across the state accountable to ensuring the health and well-being of Black girls, I don't see that, and I'd like to. So, if that was my bar of how to measure if there's enough, I would say no,” Morrison said.
Wilmington City Councilmember and founder of the Black maternal health advocacy group Black Mothers in Power, Shané Darby, agreed.
“There hasn't been any policy, or after this report was published, there hasn't been a great movement to address some of these things specifically for Black girls,” Darby said.
Where the state has acted recently, the focus has largely been on Black women. For example, House Bill 313 passed last year makes sure all women in prison are checked for breast cancer every year or two years.
Delaware has also taken steps to address Black maternal health, including expanding Medicaid coverage for doulas and implementing policies to improve maternal care, an effort aimed at combating racial disparities in maternal mortality.
But these efforts don’t necessarily speak to the needs of Black girls.
To do that, there’s a consensus that more data is needed. While the State of Our Union study provides some information to build on, Darby believes more concerted efforts are needed to develop additional meaningful data on Black girls and the issues they face.
“If you look at a lot of research and studies, Black girls are least likely to be heard, seen, talked about, looked for,” Darby said.
Morrison concurred, noting the lack of data on both Black women and girls has been recognized but overlooked for decades. Four years after the study was published, she is working on a book that will act as a call to action using the study’s findings. Morrison is currently looking for a publisher.
“It's how we fill that gap and recognize that Black girls, their identities rest at this place of interlocking oppressions, and that needs particular attention,” Morrison said.
Co-chair and co-founder of the Haitian Coalition of Delaware Keda Dorisca warned against waiting for data to seek solutions.
“It's sort of like a moot point in a way, and I hate to say it because not having data should not invalidate someone's experience,” Dorisca said. “Having data is vitally important for us to find solutions. It's not a chicken or egg; it's just both eggs. We just need both, because without the data, we don't have the numbers to show ‘These are the amount of people being affected. This is why we need funding.'”
One area where there is some data to help start a conversation is the need for spaces where Black girls feel safe and connected.
Schools don’t seem to provide that. The U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that Black girls receive more frequent and harsher discipline in school than other girls. The same goes for Black girls in Delaware, according to the State of Our Union report.
Dorisca, who is also on the board of Black Mothers in Power, said Black girls need the space and grace to just be themselves.
“If Black girls and students are provided a safe space to be who they are, and it is nurtured positively, and they are given resources, or even the opportunity to ask for resources, it changes the trajectory of their lives. And it also impacts their self-esteem, their mental health, their emotional health,” Dorisca said.
UD’s Morrison agreed creating spaces for Black girls is essential.
“That's what I'd like to see,” Morrison said. “More programs that help Black girls feel safe and belong, more spaces that help Black girls feel safe and belong and connect with one another, and possibly even some local bills that make sure certain things are put in place to help them feel safe and feel welcomed.”
Brewington-Carr argued having safe spaces can help eliminate negative and unrealistic expectations of Black girls.
“I think every Black woman, Black girl would want is just [to be] free, to be who they are in and of themselves with, again, telling authentically from our own stories versus someone else assuming what the role should be."Former president of the NCBW's Delaware chapter Sherese Brewington-Carr believes safe spaces can help challenge negative and unrealistic expectations of Black girls.
“I think every Black woman, Black girl would want is just [to be] free, to be who they are in and of themselves with, again, telling authentically from our own stories versus someone else assuming what the role should be,” Brewington-Carr said.
Darby noted a key part of creating these safe spaces for Black girls is asking them where they spend their time.
“We can't say we're creating a program and then expect Black girls to come running,” Darby said. “And we gotta go to them. We gotta go to those TikToks. We gotta go to the schools. We gotta go to where they are, the community center. We gotta figure out where they're shopping at.”
But creating pockets of safety through community initiatives and organizations is only a start. A comprehensive sense of safety needs to be backed up with legislative action on the local, state, or federal level.
“As it relates to Black girls around the adage of diversity, equity, and inclusion, everything that we learned in this data indicated to us that things are not equitable,” Brewington-Carr said.
Efforts to develop that equity now face another potential obstacle. Since coming back into office, the Trump administration has made a series of moves targeting programs and practices promoting equity.
Most notably, a January 20 executive order labels DEI programs as “discriminatory” and “illegal,” mandating that all federal government entities terminate DEI initiatives, offices, and positions; along with “equity-related” grants or contracts. A federal judge recently blocked that order, but DEI-related programs on all levels face uncertainty as that legal battle plays out.
The Trump administration’s effort to freeze federal payments for grants and assistance could also hinder work by local nonprofits on these issues, leaving the Haitian Coalition of Delaware’s Dorisca concerned about the future.
“It worries me that marginalized communities will not receive the support that they need,” Dorisca said. “It worries me that people will go into the shadows… And in a space where some people are already losing, we're already losing, and we were working towards reclaiming or highlighting or building resources for communities that will be – all that is essentially being all torn down.”
Wilmington Councilwoman Darby said that means redoubling support for community organizations across the First State that focus on Black girls.
“I have always seen girl programs that exist for girls to be a part of, to talk about self-confidence and love… Internally in our community, we have always created things that supported Black girls,” Darby explained.
These groups are not hard to find. Several are stepping up to support Black girls, including the National Coalition of 100 Black Women and Black Greek organizations within the state.
Dorisca said the best way forward is to resist individualism and turn to these and other local support systems that already exist.
“In a space where the things happening at the federal level are out of our control, leaning into your community is vitally important," Dorisca said. "Leaning into trusted individuals within your community, leaning into your friends, leaning into your family, leaning into community organizations, or people in your community that you can really have genuine conversations with, build with, and be able to vent with, but also be able to organize with is important.”
