(ThyBlackMan.com) For the last week or so I’ve been following the reports on the riots after the Michael Brown shooting. This is horrible, I cannot imagine his families grief.
The response has been phenomenal: I think it is a good thing that the black community is coming together in protest once again – there is a growing unity that was absent for far too long.
But there is one thing that irks me: why do these protests always coincide with a (young) men being senselessly murdered? Why do the protesters always say: “We are tired of our men being gunned down.”.
What, just tired of our MEN being shot?
Where is the outrages when our women are gunned down? Over the last year alone, I’ve seen article after article, report after report where, in gruesome detail it was revealed how black women are systematically assaulted, abused, raped and sometimes killed by white men – including police men. Non, and I repeat NONE of these stories caused even the tiniest bit of outrage. Non of these stories even made it on the cover of newspaper or into TV news bulletins.
Why is this? Do black women not exist and because of this have no right to live? Research recently revealed that for many groups black women are seen as the bottom of the pile in the race chart.
Even black men seem to be turning their backs on black women, with articles saying: “Why do black men hate black women”, “Why this black
man does not hate black women”, “Why do we love Oprah but hate other black women” threads asking: “Why are black women hated”, “Are black women really the bottom of the pile” and maybe most disturbing: “Why We Wat To Be White Women” being released all too frequent.
This trend has been going on for quite a long time, and by now it has gotten to the point that even a book had to be released called: “Why we hate black women” by Hasani Pettiford that looks at why society sees the black woman as an outcast.
Why are black women outcasts? Is it media manipulation? The white body image ideal? Prejudice?
White film-makers have struggled with portraying normal black women for years. Interestingly, most black men have too.
It has been said that as soon as (certain) black men become more powerful in the media or entertainment industry, they have no concept for or desire to present black women in a positive way at all. It is thought to have started as an arrogance thing, as some men felt that black women were competition in a way, so they portrayed themselves in different ways with no desire at all to show off normal black women, which is how black female stereotypes continue to persist and are almost taken as fact now.
So now in films by both black and white film-makers black women are usually colour cast: the darker the more ratchet, getho and mouthy. The lighter the more sexy and desirable and learned. All of them are hyper-sexual objects, though. Seeing it has been indisputably proven that TV and Film influences peoples way of thinking it is fairly obvious that years of stereotyping has comfortably nestled itself in the brain, with many men saying that the blacker the women is the more ghetto she is. Most (not all!) say they prefer a lighter-skinned girl. A phenomena has risen recently called: “Black Women Shaming”, where people upload pictures of a fuller not conventionally attractive black woman with arrows pointing at all that is wrong with her. Many rappers do the same in their music, they even prefer not to have dark women in their videos.
On a forum a black man explained why he disliked black woman: “I don’t think most black women are worthy of respect. If black women behaved better and didn’t act like a bunch of wild animals then I could be more sympathetic. The problem is most black women are not good women.” While another one added: “Personally I find the Black women culture to be repulsive. 400 years of slave breeding and gang rape, AT THE HANDS OF WHITE MEN, has left Blk women as useless corpse that most level headed Blk men avoid. Hope I gave you some perspective…”
According to many black American women are unattractive, loud, emasculating, too strong, tough and fierce, fake, obnoxious and never vulnerable.
They are judged for weaves and wearing make up, even though many white girls/women do too. They are judged for straightening their hair but at the same time hated when they wore their hair natural.
The army even introduced a rule aimed solely at black women to not wear their hair natural or in braids – forcing them to straighten. (Says the NY Times: “The bias against black hair is as old as America itself. In the 18th century, British colonists classified African hair as closer to sheep wool than human hair. Enslaved and free blacks who had less kinky, more European-textured hair and lighter skin — often a result of plantation rape — received better treatment than those with more typically African features.
After Emancipation, straight hair continued to be the required look for access to social and professional opportunities. Most black people internalized the idea that their natural hair was unacceptable, and by the early 20th century wore it in straightened styles often achieved with dangerous chemical processes or hot combs, or they wore wigs.” In the 60’s trough to the 80’s after the Black Power movement natural hair became normal and loved. Sadly somewhere along the line conformity returned and hair became straightened again. Only recently more women feel happy to go “natural” once more.)
Tajha Konomanyi shared her thoughts in Candor news on why it might be black women were not preferred:
“I am apparently considered to be a triple threat! 1) The usual, I have a bad attitude, 2) My hair isn’t silky, shiny, and straight, and 3) I am too picky. (…) This idea of a ‘nappy’ haired ghetto black women with a baby in one hand and a cigarette in the other, whilst wearing a ‘you’re the baby daddy!’ t-shirt, has polluted the minds of not only a considerable amount of black men, but also innocent minded black boys!”
Last year Jim DeRogatis the reporter who broke the R Kelly scandal said: “The saddest fact I’ve learned is nobody matters less to our society than young black women. Nobody.” Even after revealing this and describing the deeds done by Kelly in full, nobody cared. Isn’t is strange that his career never truly suffered and he doesn’t seem to be judged the way others taken to trail are.
Even people who were falsely accused suffered more setback then Kelly did. Judging from recent media events, would white girls have been abused by Kelly, there would been a lot more outrage, had boys been abused Kelly would have been lynched. But what happens to black girls doesn’t matter: after finding out the rates of rape are higher among black females in a statistical poll, a newspaper decided to conduct an article on it. Interviewing only WHITE women and black MEN!!
But why would black women be raped more if they are not wanted? The answer in the question: the women they rape is an object a throwaway thing like a plastic cup or bottle. Use it, throw it away, worthless.
But it is not just rape: Last year Selwyn Crawford reported for Dalla News: “experts in the field say that one set of victims — black women — is at a far greater risk to experience the grimmest of all domestic violence statistics: They are about three times more likely to die at the hands of a partner or ex-partner than members of other racial groups. Intimate-partner homicide is also among the leading causes of death for black women ages 15 to 35.
And, the experts add, their plight may not change anytime soon because of complex underlying causes that in some cases stretch back generations: unemployment, poverty, lack of education, incarceration and violent environments.
“A lot of groups have economic issues, but a lot of groups have not had the economic issues we’ve had for as long as we’ve had, for the reasons that we’ve had,” said Dr. Gail Wyatt, a professor of psychiatry and bio-behavioral sciences at UCLA for 35 years.
“This is not just an African-American problem, but we are disproportionately affected by it.”
Comedian D.L. Hughley, who once said that black women were the angriest people he’s ever met, attacked actress and dancer Tanee McCall-Short (wife of actor and Scandal star Columbus Short) by calling her a “thirsty bitch” and a “thirsty hoe,” for revealing her husband assaulted her, adding she should have kept her mouth closed to get more money from her divorce. “I think that broad shouldn’t be telling all his business if she gone take him to court,” said Hughley. He continued a bit longer, basically dismissing women who try and gain arttention for the abuse they suffer. He later apologised, but this was after the damage was done.
In 2012 Forbes reported that according to an ongoing study conducted by Black Women’s Blueprint, sixty percent of Black girls have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18. More than 300 Black women nationwide participated in the research project. A similar study conducted by The Black Women’s Health Imperative seven years ago found the rate of sexual assault was approximately 40%.
The Department of Justice estimates that for every white woman that reports her rape, at least 5 white women do not report theirs; and yet, for every African-American woman that reports her rape, at least 15 African-American women do not report theirs.
Statistics show the justice system does not support the notion that black women should be able to defend themselves in the same way that white women do. A study conducted by the Urban Institute of Washington D.C. revealed that incidences where a white woman killed a black man were determined to be justified 13.5 percent of the time; however, for black women, that number drops to just 5.7 percent for the exact same type of incident.
To make things even more encouraging: Bret Searles writes “Research shows that black women are less likely to be promoted then males and white women. Economists, human resource specialists and scholars have gathered conclusive evidence that black women are least likely to be promoted and white males are most likely to be promoted.”
So with all this aimed at black women, and their problems ignored, is it any wonder that the crimes done to them are ignored. This has been going on for decades and if changes are not made it will continue for many more. No-one deserves to be ignored shunned or hated not for anything.
The change need to be made now, before it is too late!! Because I’m tired of our men and women being gunned down.”
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.Maya Angelou
Staff Writer; Dannii Cohen
One may also connect with this well accomplished Author/Psychologist via Twitter; Divinevarod and Facebook; D. Cohen.