Kennedi Johnson is a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnomusicology with a Ph.D. minor in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. Her current research centers around the ways in which race and gender are perceived sonically in the United States. More specifically, she looks at how the (mis)hearings of Black girls as sassy, angry, or disrespectful impede their learning in the U.S. school system. She has worked for the American Folklife Center, the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, and the Atlanta History Center.