Systems of tracking in U.S. schools have exacerbated racial inequalities in student access to quality education. This qualitative study examines Black girls’ experiences attending these advanced-level courses and the obstacles they face in accessing these courses. I find that educator emphasis on personal responsibility as a function of color-evasiveness limits Black girls’ opportunities for accessing and positively experiencing advanced-level courses. Counter-stories of Black girls, as well interviews with a parent and school personnel, show the ways that personal responsibility influences beliefs about individual-level drive, parental engagement, and course selection and content. Black girls’ counter-stories show an awareness of the ways racism as an outcome of color-evasiveness functions in crafting narratives about Black girls. These counter-stories also show the ways in which they resist such framing.
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