Studies have shown that women of color are more affected by violence
in their homes, places of employment, schools, and residences. The majority of these violent crimes against them are committed by men in the community. Examples include physical abuse by intimate partners, sexual assault and harassment by law enforcement, prostitution, and emotional abuse. According to statistics, black women are the most impacted.
More than four black women out of every 10 endure physical abuse
from their personal partners. Latina, Asian/Pacific, and white women all had significantly lower percentages. The domestic violence in these cases is often fueled by the male dominance in the family, which is upheld firmly as part of their cultures and traditions.
Sexual Violence
Statistics show that in a population, 13% of women are sexually abused. However, for the black women, at least 23% of them are raped at least once during their lifetimes. The sexual abuse is inflicted by their spouses, relatives, police, and other people in the society. Apart from that, black women are at highest risk of being pimped due to their uncertain economic status.
Murder
A study conducted in 2015 Violence Policy Center showed that women of color have a 2.5 times higher likelihood of being killed at the hands of a man as compared to their white counterparts. The same study shows that in most of these murders, these victims knew their killers.
Violence against black women illustrates the imbalanced relations between women and men in the society. The power imbalance between the two genders is deeply rooted in many aspects of their cultures. In most of these communities, an integral part of the male members' growth involves instilling the notion that they are superior to their female counterparts. Additionally, the female submissiveness in such cultures is closely related to financial and economic dependency on the men.
However this should not be the case, the world should envision a society where black women are given total control of their lives. The deep-rooted violence must end because it is a violation of human rights, and can cause physical and psychological harm to these women.
How Black Women have been Resisting Male Violence
First black women have been actively advocating for better laws and policies to be well enshrined in the national legislation. The active campaigns towards achieving this are to enable the victims of violence to take legal action safely. In the past court hearings, many conflicts were arising on how much is too much when it came to self-defense by a victim of violence. In most cases, if it involved black women, the victim did not get justice deserved. A classic example is how the state laws in Ohio failed to protect Bersha Meadows, an African American teenage girl who was a victim of domestic violence following a hearing on 2nd August 2016.
The young girl, Bresha allegedly shot her father in her sleep on 28th July 2016, an act which the family and her attorney considered self-defense. The incident occurred after the girl could take no more of the father's battering, physical and psychological abuse and torture inflicted on her, her mum and her other siblings. However, tables turned in court as the law failed to protect her and was sentenced to murder.
Despite the fact that there are many sides to the story, it is not an entirely new case. There is a recent research which was conducted on the history of black women about similar cases, and it is clear that historically, the judicial systems have failed to protect black female victims from domestic violence. Most of the victims who stood against the perpetrator were criminalized and often ended up in jail.
The ruling on the Bresha's case has been witnessed on several occasions in history. It can be traced back to the legacies of exclusion politics of protection. In this case, the blacks were not entitled to laws protection, though they were still punished in cases of violation of these laws. From a closer look, it is these racial gender notions from the early 17th Century have shaped the legal systems that are currently used in The United States and other states in the world.
Meadow's case is a clear example that reveals how the state has failed to protect the victims from domestic violence. The expected outcome is that such scenarios would result in other women submissively allowed to be harassed without taking a legal action.
One of the main reasons why violence against black women has been fueling is the lack of commitment and necessary education on how to handle such cases once reported. There have been several complaints where the victims of abuse by men were neglected and not given support especially in the in the hands of police officers.
Back to Bresha's case above, it is documented that in the same year in May, the young girl ran away from home to her aunt, Martina Latessa. She had done this as she thought it was the best move to protect herself from domestic violence. However, her efforts proved futile. His father, reported to an officer in the domestic violence office in Cleaveland claiming that her daughter had been kidnapped. It is reported that the officer took the young girl back to his abusive father, a failure in the police department in protecting the teenager.
The officers did not consider the emotional trauma that the young girl could have been going through at the hands of her father. Lack of proper training on how to handle such issues could also be a significant factor contributing to his behavior. That is just an example of what happens in real life when victims report violence acts. Since they do not receive any form of helpful assistance, most of them end up suffering in silence.
Factors frustrating women's efforts to resist male violence
The unequal power relation in a society is referred to as 'patriarchy' a term which is used to mean the rule of fathers loosely. The feminists who coined the word explain that violence against women mainly caused by unequal power relations that exists between men and women, giving men dominance over women. Violence against women is just one of the six 'structures of patriarchy', others being economic, social and political dominance. If any of these pillars is destabilized, the men may feel inadequate therefore develop the urge to express their sense of dominance and control, often using violence.
Another factor contributing to violence against black women is 'impaired masculinity.' In some of the African societies, men are exposed to violence early in their childhood lives. By growing in this environment, such men may consider violence a mean of conflict resolution. In such cases, violence against these women can result from men experiencing negative external factors such as conflict, poverty, abrupt political and social change. Several studies have linked violence against women to social instability. In cases where these men are unemployed, they may feel threatened since in African culture they will be considered weak if they are unable to provide for their families. Consequently, these men subconsciously resort to violence as they struggle to maintain a sense of power and control.
Methods Black Women can adopt to Resist Male Violence
Black women should advocate for better laws and impartial implementation of these laws to ensure that justice is applied without bias. They should have a right to free and fair trial, that does not consider the color of their skin in the application of the law. In addition to that, they should have a right to legal representation in courts when they take such cases to courts. It is clear from the example of the teenage girl Bresha that she was not given a fair hearing, and eventually jailed while in fact, she was the victim of the violence. Some critics argue that it was due to the ignorance of the judicial system, while others argue that the harsh judgment she was given was because of her race. Women should come up and form support organizations and networks that will advocate for their rights, especially those who are victims of violence.
Vigorous campaigns aimed at changing the social norms that result in violence against these women. Examples are social beliefs that since the men are the heads of the families, they have a right to discipline their daughters and other women in the society. The societies which hold this view consider their women to be inferior and are therefore required to be submissive to men. As it has been discussed earlier, this is one of the primary reasons that fuel violence, especially in an African setup. By conducting peer education and organizing sensitization meetings, some men who are perpetrators of violence may realize that being in charge of a family is essentially being able to protect the family from abuse rather than being chaotic.
There should be dedicated projects initiated as part of women empowerment programs. These projects can help women prone to violence by strengthening them both physically, psychologically and economically, thereby significantly increasing their ability to protect themselves against violent men in the society. From the findings of a research conducted by Deepta et al., it is clear that women who are contented being in a submissive relationship can be partly related to their economic status. Women who do not have a stable source of income are three times more likely to be victims of male violence as compared to their economically empowered counterparts. In this empowerment programs, they could also form self-help groups where they can share their experiences, learn from each other and get the strength to keep going even in tough times. In doing this, the newer members of the groups can get first-hand information on how to cope up with some situation and appropriate courses of actions to take in instances where they may feel they are being violated.
Encourage women in leadership positions (especially political positions) to actively campaign against male violence in the society. Despite the fact that there have been efforts to increase women representation in leadership, there is still a large gender gap in political representation. Having gender diversity in political position increases thought diversity. In addition to that, black women in political leadership are better placed in championing for their rights and bring to light some of the challenges they face in the society. By having a better political representation, they have a better chance of raising their voices and making their grievances known.
Finally, engaging men and boys in ending the violence against black women cannot be ignored, the reason being they are the main perpetrators of violence to these women. That may be partly attributed to little awareness and knowledge on the impact of their violence to the society or just sheer ignorance. Apart from that, some men hold powerful and influential positions in many sectors of the economy, law, and politics. Therefore their support in fighting violence against women of color men can go a long way in ending male violence against women in the society.
Conclusion
It is evident that there are many forms of violence that black women experience in their lifetimes. The options they have to resist and end this societal problem are limited due to the discriminatory legal systems and social systems that greatly promote male dominance. However, all is not lost, since by economic empowerment of the victims of violence and intensifying anti-violent campaigns that includes both genders can play a role in changing the society.
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