When I was ten, the only thing I wanted to be was a white cheerleader. (Monkeys Like You paragraph 1)

Importance: From an early age, Jerkins formed her desires and identity as constituted by a standard of whiteness. Cheerleaders embodied white status and mobility in her high school. She coveted their status as beautiful, and desired to emulate their grace toward the possibility of greater mobility. Upon auditioning, she came to realize that, because she is black, she was cast as other, and was not selected for the team. Her early fantasies of acceptance in the realm of white hierarchies were represented through the account of her cheer leading tryouts, and her failure to be accepted into the fold of white women that she had been taught to admire.

Black girl children aren't supposed to live; they're supposed to exist." (How to Be Docile paragraph 1)

Importance: Social imperatives demand that young black girls conform to a series of standards that silence them...