On Thursday, April 25, at the YWCA Princeton’s 2019 Stand Against Racism, NIOT Princeton board members, Caroline Clarke and Joanne Parker, presented. “Black girls experience age compression starting at age 5. A study by Georgetown Center on Poverty explained that Black girls’ experiences are seen as more adult-like than their white peers. This leads to the misconception that they need less nurturing, that they know more about sex, and are more independent than their white peers. And these disparities increase over time and peak when girls are between 10 and 14. Age compression has devastating consequences for Black girls. It subjects them to harsher treatment, it denies them the opportunity to make mistakes and come back from it, and Black girls are blamed when they are “hard,” not unlike other girls. But because she’s perceived as “older” she’s also held to be more responsible for her wrongful acts. And what perhaps is most harmful, It causes her to internalize these misconceptions and this leads her to believe that something is wrong with her rather than the historical and sociologically oppressive conditions under which she is forced to function.” – Caroline Clarke and Joanne Parker at Thought-Provoking Talks.