GRSJ224 Racial and Gender Oppression of Black, African Women

From UBC Wiki

Racial and Gender Oppression of Black, African Women

Blackness

Blackness is not only about skin colour and physical appearance, but also about the historical meanings of national identity and racial mixing as well. The construct of black is a social construct heavily used in the U.S. Historically being black was associated with skin colour or any person with any known African, black ancestry[1]. Nowadays being black has been used to signify collective structural locations typically associated with restricted opportunities, economic disadvantage and community disorganization [2]. The construct black has also been used as an identity, a marker, a social category, a statement of self-understanding, a socially imposed parameter of the self. Whiteness exists as a response to blackness[3] . I am from a country where I didn’t consider myself black and where race is not an issue. I only became black when I moved to Vancouver[4].

Degrees of Blackness - Skin Shade

Black is becoming increasingly multidimensional. Race is not only conditioned as black vs white but on skin hue as well. Colourism, particularly for black women, is a huge problem that affects both dark- and light-skinned Blacks, though the advantages of lighter skin outweigh the disadvantages both within and outside of the Black community. The shade of one's skin colour particularly dark skinned women intersects with sexism to disempower them[5]. These disadvantages are seen in education, employment and housing. Dark skinned women are more disadvantaged because skin shade is a central assessment of beauty, with light skin operating as a form of symbolic capital that is converted into economic capital and advantage in the 'heterosexual market'[6]. Dark skin is generally regarded as evil, bad or ugly while lighter skin is regarded as attractive, pure and cute. While men of all races are subconsciously more attracted to fair-skinned women, women are more drawn to dark-skinned men[7]. This is just one example that shows how dark-skinned women experience more oppression and inequality than dark-skinned men in society. This preference for lighter skin in the black community is derived from social advantages associated with lighter complexions in wider society[4].

African

There is no one definition of what being African really means because the African continent is very diverse. One’s own personal experience with the continent can’t be standardized but to most people, the word “Africa” is synonymous with the word “home” and no one knows really where the word came from. There are different theories as to how and where it was derived. Personally, like most people Africa to me means home and being African means family, values, culture, beauty, oppression, colonization, resilience, great food, struggle, perseverance and most importantly hope. I must confess that before moving to Vancouver I didn’t really call myself African I was Zambian full stop, but having moved to Vancouver I started to identify less and less as Zambian and more and more as African. This is because once in Vancouver, I was immediately black, not black American but a black girl from Africa. This awareness or recognition of being African was instilled in me by my friends who are from different parts of the continent, the African clubs I became involved with and the learning and unlearning I had to do about not only the continent but my country as well.

Woman

A woman is a female human being. The word woman is usually reserved for an adult, girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent[8]. Femininity is not about biological sex, but about the traits that have become ascribed to biological sex. This set of traits carries a set of ideas and histories contingent upon economies and politics of any given time[3].

Oppression

The theory of intersectionality is based on the concept that oppressive institutions within a society, such as racism, ageism, sexism, and homophobia, do not act independently, but are instead interrelated and continuously shaped by one another[9]. One’s social inequalities increase with additional stigmatized identity [10]. Of all the oppressive concepts and systems racism and sexism give black women the greatest disadvantage. Black women’s experiences with racism and sexism are complicated by their position at the intersection of racial and gender oppression, which is sometimes termed “gendered racism” [11].

Although Black women face many of the same struggles as White women, Black women also have to face issues of diversity on top of inequalities [12]. Work is demanding regardless of one’s racial or gender background, but exposure to racial bias and discrimination is especially stressful for those who face racism and sexism every day [13]. For instance, Black women report more frequent encounters with everyday unfair treatment than Caucasian women. The stress this creates for black women is numerous. Researchers have already established that African American women have shorter life spans than some other groups; have higher infant mortality rates; suffer higher rates of high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease; have high levels of emotional distress; and have a low sense of general well-being [14]. Black women face challenges of appealing to rationality in public discourse because society has decided that women are irrational and emotional. Logic and reason are beyond our biological and cultural programming.

While race isn't really an issue in Africa, many African women experience distinct forms of discrimination due to the intersection of sex with factors such as race, language, religion, political and other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other factors, such as age, disability, marital, refugee or migrant status, resulting in compounded disadvantage. For example, women are often subjected to discriminatory employment practices such as the requirement to present a non-pregnancy certificate to gain employment to avoid dismissal from employment [15]. One of the key obstacles to the realization of women's human rights in Africa is deeply rooted in culture. Some of these cultures are enforced through (criminal) legislation. Some traditional cultural practices prevent women from controlling their own fertility.

References

  1. ↑ Broady, E.K (2018). "Passing the Costs and Benefits of Appropriating Blackness". The Review of Black Political Economy. 45: 104–122.
  2. ↑ L.B & A.K., Brunsma & Rockquemore (2002). "What Does "Black" Mean? Exploring the Epistemological Stranglehold of Racial Categorization". Critical Sociology. 28: 102–118.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cotton, M.T. (2019). Thick and other essays. New York: The New Press.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Adichie, N.C. (2014). Americanah. Canada: Vintage Canada. p. 359.
  5. ↑ Phoenix, A. (2014). "Colourism and the politics of beauty". Feminist Review. 108: 97–105.
  6. ↑ Glenn, E.N (2008). "Yearning for lightness: transnational circuits in the marketing and consumption of skin lightness". Gender and Society. 22, No.3:281- 302.
  7. ↑ Dodson, R. (2008). "Men, women & the secrets of skin colour". The Independent on Sunday.
  8. ↑ Wikipedia contributors (19 July 2019). "Woman". Archived from the original on 19 July 2019.
  9. ↑ Crenshaw, Kimberle (1989). "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics". University of Chicago Legal Forum. 1989.
  10. ↑ Bowleg, L. (2008). "When black + lesbian + woman not equal to] black lesbian woman". The methodological challenges of qualitative and quantitative intersectionality research. Sex Roles,. 59(5-6): 312–325.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  11. ↑ Thomas, Witherspoon & Speight, A.J, K.M, S.L (2004). "Toward the development of the stereotypic roles for Black women scale". Journal of Black Psychology. 30: 426–444.
  12. ↑ Hamilton-Mason, Hall & Everett, J, C & J (2009). "And some of us are brave: Stress and coping among African American Women 18-55 years of age". Journal of Human Behavior and the Social Environment. 19(5): 463–482.
  13. ↑ St. Jean & Feagin, Y & J (1998). Double burden: Black women and everyday racism. New York: M.E. Sharpe.
  14. ↑ Griffith, Neighbors & Johnson, D, H & J (2009). "Passing the Costs and Benefits of Appropriating Blackness". The Review of Black Political Economy. 45(2): 104–122.
  15. ↑ Ssenyonjo, M (2007). "Culture and the Human Rights of Women in Africa: Between Light and Shadow". Journal of African Law. 51: 39–67.
Retrieved from "https://wiki.ubc.ca/index.php?title=GRSJ224_Racial_and_Gender_Oppression_of_Black,_African_Women&oldid=562755"