African American women suffered more.

 African American women suffered more.

Trace Gordon 

Ms. Harris

ENGL2016-44378

11/16/22

In this course, we learned about black gothic; a major part of our class theme is the house is haunted, and some specific themes that stuck out to me were racial and sexual violence. This made me think about the horrors African American women experienced in slavery and how they get treated today. Black women had to worry about getting raped, while black men did not. Women had the chance to work in the house with the enslaver’s family, which gave white men more opportunities to manipulate them. Today, African American women are discriminated against, are more likely to be single parents, and face more health disparities than white women. 

I chose to use Homegoing and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano to pull examples from, seeing as they had many instances to choose from. In Equiano, he sees many atrocities and one of the first that stuck out to me was when he saw an enslaved women with a muzzle on:

“I had seen a black woman slave as I came through the house, who was cooking the dinner, and the poor creature was cruelly loaded with various kinds of iron machines; she had one particularly on her head, which locked her mouth so fast that she could scarcely speak; and could not eat nor drink. I was much astonished and shocked at… I afterwards learned was called the iron muzzle.” (Equiano 43)

Equiano had to witness African American women of all ages getting sexually assaulted and couldn’t do anything to help. One example of this would be when he realized he had to be subservience in fear of getting beat, “and it was almost a constant practice with our clerks, and other whites, to commit violent depredations on the chastity of the female slaves; and these I was, though with reluctance, obliged to submit to at all times, being unable to help them” (Equiano 72). Equiano also realized that white women were put on a pedestal above black woman. He witnesses a black man gettting beat due to being with a white prostitute while there were no repercussions given to those that raped the black women, “as if it were no crime in the whites to rob an innocent African girl of her virtue; but most heinous in a black man only to gratify a passion of nature, where the temptation was offered by one of a different colour, though the most abandoned woman of her species” (Equiano 73). In Homegoing, more specifically in Esi’s chapter, there were many instances of sexual and racial violence. At some point in the beginning of Esi’s capture the white soldiers came in and started to grope the women:

“The soldiers looked around and the women in the dungeon began to murmur. One of them grabbed a woman on the far end and pushed her against the wall. His hands found her breasts and then began to move down the length of her body, lower and lower still, until the sound that escaped her lips was a scream.” (Gyasi 47)

In the very next chapter, Esi is raped and the aftermath of her mentally shutting down and continuously bleeding. Later in the book in Abena’s chapter, there is a sexual relationship between Abena and Ohene Nyarko, and things go wrong with the crops. The village people immediately place the blame on Abena. This is clear sexism because it was both of their decision, and Ohene had to be the one to convince the village to let her stay. 

In modern times, African American women face more struggles than white women. Statistically, there are more single black mothers than white mothers. The article "African American Single Mothers and Children in Context" states, “Regardless of the mothers’ marital histories, births to single women constitute 28% of all births… 20% of White… and 67% of Black births are to single mothers” (Murry, Bynum, Brody, Willert, Stephens). This can be due to many reasons, but it is a common stereotype that black fathers leave more often than white fathers. African American women also face discrimination when going to the doctor’s office. They are often thought to be faking an illness or don’t have enough money to go to the hospital in the first place. Health Equity among Black Women in the United States mentions, “These health disparities are in large part a reflection of the inequalities experienced by Black women on a host of social and economic measures” (Chinn, Martin, Redmond).


Works cited:

Chinn, Juanita J, et al. “Health Equity among Black Women in the United States.” Journal of Women's Health (2002), U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2 Feb. 2021, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8020496/. 

Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Olaudah Equiano, 1789. 

https://moodle.ulm.edu/pluginfile.php/3741356/mod_resource/content/1/equiano-interesting-narrative.pdf

Gyasi, Yaa. Homegoing. Alfred A. Knopf, 2016. 

https://www.oasisacademysouthbank.org/uploaded/South_Bank/Curriculum/Student_Learning/Online_Library/KS4/Homegoing_by_Yaa_Gyasi.pdf

Murry, Velma, et al. “African American Single Mothers and Children in Context: A Review of ...” African American Single Mothers and Children in Context:A Review of Studies on Risk and Resilience, 9 Sept. 2015, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11585690_African_American_single_mothers_and_children_in_context_A_review_of_studies_on_risk_and_resilience_Clinical_Child_and_Family_Psychology_Review_4_133-155.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reality Beneath the Surface

  Treasure Garner  ENGL 2016 Ms. Harris 17 November 2022 Reality Beneath The Surface The Black culture. Culture consists of elements that makes up a nation; it is the foundation of a united group of people. In reference to Black culture, I am referring to Africans, African Americans, and all Black communities. The Black culture has taken on elements since the period of enslavement. These elements stem from the ideology of the Black Gothic. The Black Gothic is a genre within academic literature and visuals. It is the process of experiencing spiritual, traumatic, and horror circumstances as well as healing and overcoming breakthroughs. To bring acknowledgment to the elements that have been brought on stemmed through the Black Gothic from the years of the enslavement of our ancestors by looking through the lens of spirituality and mental health.  Spirituality is widely permeated within the Black culture and community. Dr. Carter in his work he explained the importance of spi...
Read more

Black Roots from A Famous Poet!

Image
  Oteria Mounds Ms. Harris English 2016-44378 14 November 2022                                                      Black Roots from A Famous Poet My project was solely based on our class theme, “The sea is haunted.” I decided to be creative, and I came up with the title; Black Roots from A Famous Poet! After learning what a Flying African is I feel Nipsey can fall into the same category. Before Nipsey's death, conspiracy theories surfaced in the media mentioning his documentary with Dr.Sebi about a cure for aids. In my opinion, it is common for the white man to feel intimidated by the knowledge of an African American. Nipsey's connection to the controversial figure made him a target. I decided to portray both stories, The Int...
Read more

Mixtape

  Wright James  Harris, Jaleesa  ENG 2016  17 November 2022  Playlist  1985 (Intro to “The Fall Off”) - J Cole  ● Gazzy Garcia known as Lil Pump, is a rapper who comes from a Latin American heritage. In 2018, Lil Pump presumably had beef with J Cole and proceeded to write a diss track on him. J Cole took to such actions, in dissing Lil Pump in a fatherly manner, giving advice on what’s best for his image. J Cole addresses that though coming from a Latin American heritage, Lil Pump passes as a black man, who provides a false image toward his widely caucasian audience, in order to provide the feeling of what it’s like to be black. Thus escalating Lil Pump’s social and financial status, which is a representation of Black Bourgeois in the Black Gothic.  Deep River  ● Deep River comes in many arrangements by many African American composers like Hall Johnson and H. T. Burleigh. Nevertheless, this negro spiritual tells the story of going home by way...
Read more