The Realities of Black Life in the United States Essay Example

on Black and Hispanic women.

Here in this world lies a division, many people try to get around this division by giving up or simply the world destroys their ability to survive the struggle. Simply, in America you are born into the struggle of your background and the color of your skin. As an Hispanic woman, you are already at a low status and are affected by an oppressive economic system within this nation. As your mother, it has come to my understanding that I may not be able to prepare you for this cruel reality and to my knowledge as of now you may be born with privilege or the utmost struggle. You must realize the privilege you may have as a lighter skinned woman. You won’t be as targeted as Black women but this is important because with your privilege, you have the ability to make change. Your struggle will not be even close to those who are dark skinned, this is how the cruel world works. With racism and colorism in this world, you automatically obtain a higher status than those who struggle due to their melanin.

Being born as a dark skinned woman, you will struggle the most in this world as Black women face massive rates of prejudice and their struggle goes beyond just their present. It represents the systems that are still held in place after slavery in America and it represents all that’s wrong with this world. Your background, the color of your skin, and your gender are significant factors that make you vulnerable to the ruthless realities of oppression but it can also push you to be your best

and enforce you to find a way to survive. I can’t say you’ll survive without a few lashes because lord knows when you live the life of the divided, it’s impossible. This division separates you from the rest of society simply because being born who you are, you automatically obtain a lower status. This struggle is seen to have economical, physical, and mental plights that derive from the inequality in America ; in this world. But remember that this shall not stop you from overcoming the struggle through survival.

Being a woman in this world is okay until everyone else realizes you are a woman because they conscribe you to a long set of rules. Now being a woman of color is a whole other set of struggles as you are born into a challenge that you must combat for the rest of your life. Protect your body, remember not to let people overstep their boundaries whilst being mindful that people may use your status over you. In America this could be the simple actions of calling the cops.

People use this ability maliciously, this is racism, this is the power of white people using their status to hopefully destroy your body with the help of the unjust justice system that was built on the incarceration of Black people. As Maya Angelou says, a fellow successful black woman, you’ve got to go out and kick ass. By now you must be worried and your heart may have picked up it’s pace as you have a big part in this world but you shall not worry, unlike Coates I encourage you to have hope. Have hope not for

America, but hope for love because love is power and hopefully it can drive this world in the right direction with virtues.

Even in America, the land of the free and equal, lies a nature for people to disrespect, to harm, and to abuse women, especially women of color. Alcohol use and drugs can alter someone’s ability to be aware of their own body and protect oneself. Predators prey on women by using date rape drugs which are considered to be any type of drug that takes away one’s ability to self defend or make sound-decisions. The use of date rape drugs lead to sexual abuse and oftentimes rape. Victims tend to use alcohol or drugs to escape their trauma, these are unhealthy coping mechanisms.

Sexual abuse can lead to a viscous cycle and cause psychological trauma as, “...adolescent women who report drug use, such as marijuana and other illicit drugs, are significantly more likely to report sexual victimization.9,18 … given the emotional impact of forced sexual intercourse, it can increase future alcohol and drug use.23,24” (Thompson 1). Dr. Nancy J. Thompson specializes in emergency medicine and is a professor that decided to take on an experiment to figure out the correlation between ethnicity/race and sexual assault. She had concluded that substance use had only increased women’s chances into being targeted for sexual assault and understood that Black and Hispanic women are affected by these situations more often than White and Asian women. The psychological trauma of sexual assault can lead to a viscous cycle of future substance use that will increase their risk for becoming a victim to sexual assault, again. This is a cycle that

constantly preys on women due to the lack of protection women have in this world.

A major issue within these communities are drugs and alcohol use that tend to create higher risks for women of color to be sexually assaulted as it has been recorded that, “Substance use is one candidate risk factor as it is a common behavior among teens and is reported to vary by race/ethnicity,” (Thompson 1). Under the influence, women are easier to take advantage of so this gives peer pressure and date rape to be common amongst women who are in areas where alcohol and drugs are being used. These are intense results that should encourage communities to come together to fix these high rates by encouraging substance control and even informing people through their local newspapers and news anchors.

Women are described as “damsels in distress,” and this connotes that women need to be saved by men, this is false. Women are sound in the body, mind, and soul, oftentimes women are preyed on by men. This phrase is used by men to state that they believe that they are of the utmost importance in a woman’s life but women don’t need men.

As women, we are survivors and we strive to fight another day against men which is a struggle as catcalling and sexual assault are issues that are belittled because this is a country ruled by men. With that being said, Dr. Nancy J. Thompson just proves with this research that phrases that describe women such as, “damsels in distress,” ironically express the aftermath of women after they are sexually abused by predatory men as they fall into a vicious

cycle of substance use that increases their chances to be a victim repeatedly that can start when you are a young woman.

Women of color are suffering the most from sexual assault at young ages, “According to the current study, the greatest likelihood of forced sexual intercourse among adolescent women was reported by African Americans, and the lowest likelihood by Asians (which included Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders),” (Thompson 1). African American women are affected by sexual assault on a higher level that risks their lives and capabilities to protect themselves. The fact that these women report the most abuse done unto their bodies but are also shunned from being heard by law enforcement is a major issue that needs to be solved as soon as possible.

Politicians and local governments need to fix their law enforcement as they discriminate against the women who are affected the most by sexual assault. If this were to be done more women would speak out and get the help they need instead of going through this trauma alone that could result in a viscous cycle of substance use that would increase their chances of rape.

Oftentimes Black people in America are only described as African American just as this article does which is excluding all Black people in America. Black people come from different backgrounds and different parts of the world to the United States in which they are disappointed as the historical past of the United States also affects them because of the color of their skin and disrupts their identity. Being black in America, born or not, means you struggle to exist as the oppressive systems set in

place are there to challenge your body. There are higher rates in which Black women are being challenged by unconsensual sex and sexual assault that is not being talked about.

Throughout this study it comes to the attention that due to the history of the United States of nativism, racism, colorism, and xenophobia the, “...National Violence Against Women Survey showing that Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaskan Native women are at greater risk for rape victimization than white women,” (Thompson 1).

Black, Hispanic, and Asian women are not respected and protected in America. If they were, then they would have the same rates as white women but they don’t. Even if they did, this still does not exemplify that women are equal because if we were then they would not be such high rates of domestic violence and assault towards women. Women of color struggle in America as they are targeted the most since they are at a “greater risk” for their bodies to be taken from them. This greater risk we have as women of color connotes that our abilities to survive are at a shorter length due to the sense of violence people in America feel towards us.

Daughter, although these statistics and knowledge may seem a bit bizarre but I know you are capable of survival, you are powerful. Your background and knowledge of this violence should empower you to stay alert and keep away from those who may want to cause harm on your body. Since I can’t always be there, I need you to understand that you must protect yourself and your body. You mustn’t allow the cruelty of this world to diminish your

purpose in life and neither stop you from living freely.

Ta-Nehisi Coates is an American author and writer who speaks on cultural, social, and political issues that surround black people and white supremacy. The book Between the World and Me by Coates is a letter written to his son, Samori, that focuses on answering the questions of what is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it ? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? During this letter to his son Coates describes a struggle that is known to the Black community in America due to the color of their skin, including women.

Coates made sure to relate to his son that this struggle did not only affect him, meaning males, he wanted to stress that this issue affected women immensely by telling him, “...this is not reducible to just you -- the women around you must be responsible for their bodies in a way that you never will know” (Coates 71). Coates accounts for his wife’s struggle as a Black woman in America as one that men will ever know which continues his tone of indignation as he tells his son he will “never” know what the struggle of a Black woman is.

The word “never” acknowledges the hardship of women as they may experience discrimination in hospitals as there are many doctors who refuse to believe Black women about their pain and refuse to treat them or in police stations where Black women are less likely to be believed that they are victims of wrongful crimes. This creates an

understanding that in America there is an immense justification towards the ill-treatment of women of color through racism and colorism. These experiences can only be lived through a Black woman as race and gender are social constructs that automatically make your existence much harder. Coates acknowledges the lack of fairness in being a Black person in America as the United States to this day obtains an oppressive healthcare system, justice system, economic system, social system, and a political system in which Black women and Hispanic women suffer the absolute most.

There is a struggle women cannot control but it’s not as though this struggle goes unseen, it is in the face of America but the difference is people like Ta-Nehisi Coates acknowledge this struggle, “...that all are not equally robbed of their bodies, that the bodies of women are set out for pillage in ways i could never truly know” (Coates 65). As Coates relates to his son about the unknown struggle black women have to go through, the audience is able to affirm that he is talking about the abuse on black women, not only their appearance but also the harm unto their bodies. The word “pillage” has a connotative message of the killings and abuse on the black bodies of women.

The trauma they go through as they have to stay strong for themselves as going to law enforcement and getting help is not an option as they will not be heard anyways. Coates obtains an indignant tone throughout this writing- piece which expresses the unjust and unfair struggles Black people, and especially Black women, have to deal with yet he expresses no sound solution

to the struggle.

In many cases, Daughter, we have seen that black and brown people in the United States are underprivileged, discriminated against, and oppressed. One of the many factors that has helped the oppressive system is law enforcement. Law enforcement has been given the ability to take the lives of black people and incarcerate them, these people take an oath to protect in which they fail when it comes to black and brown people. One of the many injustices led by law enforcement in America is not believing the voices they were supposed to take an oath for and this causes, ”Women and girls of color may also face additional barriers to receiving support and justice. Survivors may fear or distrust police…” (The White House Council 37).

The distrust between police departments and the black community is strained due to ongoing discrimination and even past oppression. Throughout the history of the US, law enforcement and the justice system has obstructed justice for black Americans due to racism. These systems and placements of authority are used to discriminate against the black community so how can black women be expected to trust these systems in place when they have only hurt their communities. Bresha Meadows was failed by the system as she tried to report the abuse on her mother, herself, and her siblings by her father. Law enforcement refused to listen to her and believed she was lying which is why they disregarded her statements and told her they needed her mother to file a report.

In day to day society we learn more and more that kids should be listened to yet cops chose not to listen

to this little girl’s statement on her abuse because she was black. Bresha ended up shooting her father and the courts were trying to charge her with aggravated murder until a committee stood up and her sentence was redcued to that of involuntary manslaughter. If the law enforcement had just listened to Bresha this all could have been avoided. Not only does Bresha have to suffer behind bars but she is forced to deal with the psychological impacts due to the abuse and the killing of her father.

In American history, the government and corporations have provided women with an unequal pay, even when they were the backbone of the nation during WW1 and WW2 as they had taken on factory defense jobs that supported their husbands who were fighting in the war. Unequal pay between men and women has existed for years but what makes the difference is that women of color receive even less than white women, “Women of color also face significant wage gaps, with Asian American women still making 79 cents, Black women making 64 cents, and Hispanic women making 56 cents, for every dollar paid to White, non-Hispanic me” (The White House Council 15).

Women of color are constantly put down and the economic system has been around long enough to provide evidence of women being taken advantage of. Not being able to obtain the same pay just because a male believes you aren’t worthy of the paycheck is an absolute crime of sexism. Hispanic women receive the lowest pay and are unable to obtain wealth and financial stability. People are living paycheck to paycheck and fighting for women is an absolute

pleasure. Never let your voice go unheard.

Random Family, a true story based on the lives of Jessica and Coco, by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc that expresses the struggle for survival for Hispanic women during their experiences with poverty and life in the Bronx. Adrian Nicole LeBlanc introduces her first subject as a young Puerto Rican woman who suffers in a world ruled by men, Jessica. Jessica ends up meeting an all time hustler named Boy George who built an entire heroin business in the Bronx. Although Boy George introduced Jessica into the wealthy life and showered her with gifts, he abused Jessica and had no respect for her as, “George could be a loving husband in the morning and a landlord the same afternoon: ‘Get out of here’ he’d suddenly say. ‘I don’t want to see your ugly fucking face’” (52). “Jessica couldn’t appease him as she had…” (52).