JAM Aiwuyor Commentary, Race Ethnicity & Culture

The U.S. Black Woman Experience

The U.S. Black Woman Experience

by Zakiya Lasley

In truth, specific oppressions (male domination, white supremacy, class exploitation, etc.) rarely work singularly. Instead, oppressions feed off of each other, their dynamics changing according to specific contexts. The current challenge for anti-rape organizers is to develop solid analyses of rape and rape culture that recognize a multiplicity of oppressions that constantly shape and influence each other.

Throughout history Black women have taken deadly risks in confronting rape under extreme fear and terrorism. Black women who were slaves participated in concentrated and deliberate instances of retaliation of rape by their white male slave owners. Documented in many autobiographies and biographies are horrifying accounts of female rebellion manifesting itself in the poisoning of rapists, burning of property, and assassination of their white slave owners. Also in instances of desperation enslaved rape survivors who were mothers often killed their girl children as a form of resistance to slave rape.

Looking at anti-rape activism done on the part of Black slave women forces us to think about rape in a much more complex way. Rape is not only a tool for male domination over women; Rape is also a tool for economic exploitation and white supremacy. The example of rape survivors killing their babies to keep them from being raped is also resistance to the use of rape to promote the institution of chattel slavery after the banning of the Mid-Atlantic slave trade. We can see the dominating forces of capitalist and white superiority dynamics within rape not only in the case of the rape of thousands of black slaves, but also currently in global issues such as “mail-order brides” and global sex-trafficking.

Another anti-rape movement headed by Black women is the anti-lynching movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During post-Reconstruction, southern white people were determined to regain control over Black people. As a result, they instituted a system of lynching Black women, men, and children when they “got out of line.” Lynching was a sexualized form of murder. Often, the justification for lynching Black men was that they raped white women. The issue of rape was utilized as a scare tactic geared directly towards white women. As a result, many southern white women supported lynching efforts instead of recognizing that sexual violence towards white women, by anyone, is deeply connected to sexual violence towards Black people (as well as other forms of oppression). When Black men were lynched, the mobs would often torture them before hanging them, cutting off sexual parts of their anatomy in particular. When Black women were lynched, they were often raped first.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett, an activist and writer during this time, spoke openly against rape and did not defend Black men who were, in fact, guilty of rape. But after she researched and investigated 728 lynchings that had taken place during the 1890s, she found that only a third of murdered Black people were even accused of rape, much less guilty of it. Spurred by her investigation, hundreds of Black activists at the time, (including the NAACP and Black intellectuals) developed an anti-lynching movement for which activists were burned out of their homes and businesses, run out of town, and murdered.

In my assessment of the anti-lynching movement, I never stopped to look at the moment as an anti-rape movement because the goal of these activists were not specifically to end rape, but to end lynching. Nonetheless, it is so profoundly an anti-rape movement because the theory and activism work the organizers produced challenged all forms of racialized sexual violence. Deconstructing the myth that Black men are overwhelmingly “more desirous” of white women was critical in order for white women to eventually reflect on the sexual violence being done to them by white men as well as their own sexual freedom. Most importantly the anti-lynching movement forced America’s hand in recognizing that other manifestations of oppression are inseparably linked to sexual violence. There is no genuine way to discuss rape and organize against rape without being committed to deconstructing complex ways that race, ability, religion, age, economics, and sexuality are integrated into rape.

This next phase of anti-rape organizing in the 21st century must be able to hold on to the complexity of rape culture with all of its degrees of oppression. The time for thinking about rape as merely a tool of male domination is over. We must be able to mindfully articulate spaces where anti-rape organizing is inseparably linked to organizing against police brutality, for labor rights, and for immigration rights. And we must show up to these other types of organizing work as allies moving towards liberation.

JAM Aiwuyor Academic Articles: Black Voices on the Hill

Living The Words of Audre Lorde

Living The Words of Audre Lorde

By Zakiya Lasley

     How fitting at a time like this in my life is the concept of this question. A topic that up until recently I tried my best to stay clear of. Before this year, I felt I had strategically and carefully averted the blatant racism/prejudice/homophobia that exists on this campus. Of course this is my conscious mind talking, fully aware that there is no escape from the vices of racism, the penetrating glare of homophobia, or the disturbing and downright exasperating nature of prejudice. “Every woman has a well-stocked arsenal of anger potentially useful against those oppressions, personal and institutional, which brought that anger into being” (The Uses of Anger” Women Responding to Racism,” Sister Outsider: 127). Yes, we do, I respond. Until recently, I had only toyed with my feelings of anger, and unfairness, unwilling to accept that these feelings existed, always there bubbling at the surface waiting for the perfect moment to unleash. My freshman year of College I wanted to set forth goals that I knew may or may not be achievable,  yet in the long run would not only provide me with a genuine liberal arts perspective, but an education worthy of my Ivy League peers. In achieving this goal, one of the ways I wanted to implement a unique experience was by studying a critical language. In this case I selected Chinese. Not only because of the spiritual reasons that connect me to the teachings and philosophies of East Asia, but also due to my natural curiosity and love of learning. Needless to say, my first memories of Chinese class were very unpleasant, uncomfortable, and embarrassing. Finding myself not at the head of the class or even in a position of authority, I felt off-balanced and un-centered.                                   

      Automatically I relied on my personal strengths, frustrations, and anger to carry me through the semester. Apparently this was not enough. One day in my 120 Chinese Class second semester of my Freshman year. I returned to class upon using the restroom to find two of my pages torn from my Chinese book (which cost $100.00), and characters (written symbols) in the margins of my open pages. I was shocked; I had only left the room for five minutes. At first I thought it was a joke played on all of us, quickly searching the materials (and faces) of my classmates, to find nothing. Not even an incriminating sound. So I did what I felt at the time was appropriate given the cruelty of the situation. I sat down, closed my book, and waited silently for my professor to return. Unfortunately, in the Chinese department we have all visiting professors one-year, two years at the most.  Men and women who dedicate themselves to teaching students a critical language. I immediately deflated. How can I approach this woman, who might not have any clue as to what I’m experiencing? Later, as I asked my Chinese native-speaking friends what the characters meant. I realized they were not the common epitaphs I expected from a predominantly white class “Black bitch…nigger” were among some of my cynical assumptions. I quickly learned that my case had suddenly become an attack on my sexual orientation. Which at that point I hadn’t realized had become such public knowledge.

     I immediately felt ashamed, and stupid. Eventually I notified my professor who discussed it with the head of the department. The final result was a deduction in everyone’s grades, given the fact that my classmates refused to come clear. As humiliating and stupid as the situation was. I found myself laughing, commenting that whoever took the time to learn the characters for Dyke must have learned something in the process. Yet the anger that surrounded me throughout the semester only served to motivate me and support my decision to stick with a language that everyone seemingly felt I would ultimately fail.

            Institutionally speaking, I now find myself in a situation where I have come to terms with my own responsibility in a matter of Academic Dishonesty. I find myself straddling a fence of depression, shame, embarrassment, yet mostly outrage. The outrage stemming from the unshakable belief that there are practices and systems in place at predominantly white institutions, to not only break the student of color, but destroy them. The system of institutional racism I have come into contact here at Hamilton has left me more depressed than any “real-world” experience I have encountered in my short lifetime. I feel the reason for this is the knowledge that even in my academic naïveté, I believe in higher education to overcome the barriers and blockades of racism. Sadly, my own faith in the educational system has been tried to the utmost. However, I have not given up all hope, since in this instance; my anger is my most powerful tool. I realize that ultimately the decisions made by my white peers, administrators, and professors will not be overturned in the immediate future. Yet I know that any action that occurs between now and my “gentle separation” from the college will result in a change of the power and oppression that exists in my eyes as the most transformative department at any college or university; the Women’s Studies Department. In reading Audre Lorde’s essays, specifically ‘The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism”, I now realize that anger is not just a reactionary emotion to an oppressive system but a mechanism of change and solidarity. I hope that in my future studies I continue to utilize anger until all my sisters of color understand the precarious legs of support that come from these predominantly white institutions.

JAM Aiwuyor Academic Articles: Black Voices on the Hill

How Climate Change Affects Black Women

Photo © 2005 Anissa Thompson

How Climate Change Affects Black Women

By Jessica Ann Mitchell

In 2005, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and Redefining Progress released a research report called, African Americans and Climate Change: An Unequal Burden. The report noted that climate change is already in the process of attributing to 160,000 deaths annually. Furthermore, African Americans are prone to respiratory problems in that over 70% of African Americans live in districts that are violating “federal air pollution standards”(2005 p.5). There are 44 recognized major U.S. metropolitan areas. In all of them, African Americans are more likely to be subjected to levels of toxic air pollution that are higher than those whites maybe subjected to. Thus, hospital visits and deaths caused by asthma are more likely to occur among African Americans to the rate of 3 times that of other races (CBCF 2005). In the northern states it is predicted that heat waves due to climate change will affect New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Detroit. As stated earlier, an increase in diseases such as malaria are predicted to affect the southern states. All of these areas are known to be inhabited by large concentrations of African American people. Yet white Americans are 50 times more likely to have health insurance than African Americans. Furthermore, African American homes emit fewer amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in comparison to other races at the rate of 20% less (CBCF 2005).

The same can be said for African and other developing countries whose CO2 emissions are profoundly lower than the emissions of European countries. All countries on the African continent combined only attribute to 3.5% of all CO2 emissions in the world in comparison to the 22% emitted by the U.S. alone (UNEP 2000, EIA 2005). Yet it is estimated that Africans numbering from 75 to 250 million will face water shortages in 2020 (IPCC 2007). This will also affect 50% percent of agricultural crops that are dependent on water for nourishment (IPCC 2007). In Latin America, there are 150 million African descendants, making them the largest group of Africans outside of Africa. In Brazil alone, there are 80 million African descendants. They make up 48% of the Brazilian population, yet 78% of these 80 million African descendants are below the poverty line (Morrison 2007). Twenty six percent of the Colombia population is African descendants, yet they make up 75% of the impoverished in Columbia (Morrison 2007). Due, to climate change, Latin America will also be hit by water and food shortages in the near future (IPCC 2007). The people mostly affected by these shortages will be the poor, meaning the African descendants.

Climate Change is an issue that is dramatically affecting the world as we know it but even more specifically, the Pan-African World. The problem here is that these issues have not been studied in-depth by those in the field of Pan-Africanism and Black Studies. Both Africans on the continent and African descendants throughout the Diaspora have already begun to unjustly reap the negative consequences of climate change; which has been mainly caused by the greenhouse gas emissions of industrially advanced and or developed nations. One of the causes of climate change includes the burning of enormous amounts of fossil fuel. (Uwaza, 2003). The earth’s atmosphere then becomes oversaturated with Carbon Dioxide (CO2) which causes an enhancement of the widely discussed greenhouse effect.

The greenhouse effect is described as the process in which heat is trapped in the earth’s atmosphere. This, in turn, causes a warming of the planet. Part of this process is natural and part of it is human induced through the burning of natural gas, oil, and gasoline (EPA 2007). Sixty four percent of the greenhouse effect is attributed to Carbon Dioxide levels (Uzawa, 2003). Consequently, the temperatures begin to rise to unusual levels (EPI, 2005). As Uzawa (2003) states, “an excess concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide would warm the globe significantly” (p. 11). The top five countries that emit the most CO2s into the atmosphere are: the United States, China, the Russian Federation, Japan and India (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1998).

According to the Center for Disease control (2007), climate change is going to have damaging effects on the sustainability of humanity. The effects of climate change include stronger hurricanes and other storms, flooding, rising sea levels, droughts in some areas, and extreme rainfall in others (Uwaza, 2003). This will in turn cause a rapid spread of disease, heat strokes, drowning, asthma attacks, and etc. It is also noted that the people who will be affected by these changes the most are likely to be those with low socio-economic statuses (CDC, 2007).

Developing countries, with their low participation in contributing to global warming, will also be heavily affected. In fact, developing countries will be more affected than developed countries that sometimes benefit from global warming (Uwaza, 2003). Thus, people of color who have historically faced world wide discrimination based on racism and classism are even more at risk when it comes to climate change. Many communities with people of color have been marginalized globally and endure inequalities that affect the quality of their lives and the ability to sustain life. Any economic challenges or increases in economic disparities could have devastating effects on their everyday lives, especially in relationship to climate change. People with low socio-economic statuses do not possess the economic power to combat climate change. Furthermore, the burden of enduring the negative effects of climate change is placed on their shoulders by those nations, companies, and organizations that have contributed substantially to this problem and possess the economic capacity to stop this injustice.

Women of color specifically face a particular type of oppression when it comes to climate change because of the intersection of racism, sexism, and classism (Malveaux 1986). In the mist of Climate Change, for example, African American women in Atlanta, GA struggle against rising costs of living, including rising food prices and medical bills. Still, African Americans emit lower amounts of CO2 emissions than other races in the U.S (CBCF 2004). On the other hand, African women of Imbaseni village of Maji ya Chai, Tanzania struggle against the rising costs of living, including the cost of fertilizers, the inability to render crops for sale, and medical expenses. This is because irregular changes in the climate alter the success of agriculture. Yet, the entire continent of Africa is only responsible for 3.5% of the world’s CO2 emissions (UNEP 2000, EIA 2005). Thus, African and African descended women similarly face increased hardships due to climate change and already existing economic inequalities.

For more information about this topic, email Jessica Ann Mitchell at ourlegaci@gmail.com.