Danitra Vance’s Cabrini Green Jackson and the Performance of Black Girlishness

Abstract Trough analysis of comedienne Danitra Vance’s 1986 Saturday Night Live sketch performances a 17-year-old character named Cabrini Green Harlem Watts Jackson, this paper argues that Black girlishness can explicate while anti-Black and sexist violence domination suggest white people do not perceive girls as children, there are indeed telltale indicators girlishness. Educators, artists, scholars who seek to understand defend have made the claim since perceived they girlhoods, paper’s argument complicates claim. From diction her movements sartorial choices, represents paradox innocence waywardness womanishness, an age-old characteristic African American girlhood set experiences ideas.