WUNRN
USA - BLACK WOMEN, SEXUAL ASSAULT,
RACISM, CHALLENGES
By Brooke Axtell - Forbeswoman -
4/25/12
According
to an ongoing study conducted by Black
Women’s Blueprint, sixty percent of Black girls have experienced sexual
abuse before the age of 18. More than 300 Black women nationwide participated
in the research project. A similar study conducted by The Black Women’s Health Imperative
seven years ago found the rate of sexual assault was approximately 40%.
The pervasive nature of this trauma could translate into an increased risk for Black women and girls to experience depression, PTSD and addiction, common symptoms experienced by many survivors of rape.
The Department of Justice estimates that for every white woman that reports her rape, at least 5 white women do not report theirs; and yet, for every African-American woman that reports her rape, at least 15 African-American women do not report theirs.
There are many reasons why Black women may choose not to report incidences of sexual assault. Survivors of all races often fear that they will not be believed or will be blamed for their attack, but Black women face unique challenges.
Historically, law enforcement has been used to control African-American communities through brutality and racial profiling. It may be difficult for a Black woman to seek help if she feels it could be at the expense of African-American men or her community. The history of racial injustice (particularly the stereotype of the Black male as a sexual predator) and the need to protect her community from further attack might persuade a survivor to remain silent.
We need more research to fully understand the scope of violence against Black women and the barriers they face to receiving support services. This requires both the political will and funding to make their lives a priority. Unfortunately, due to a long history of systemic racism and classism in the United States, the violation of Black women’s bodies is often rendered invisible.
“No race, ethnic group, or economic class is spared from sexual violence or the myths and misinformation that complicate the healing process for survivors. But in addition to our higher victimization rate, African Americans are less likely to get the help we need to heal,” says Lori S. Robinson, author of I Will Survive: The African-American Guide to Healing From Sexual Assault and Abuse.
Robinson points out that in studies of Black women’s sexuality conducted by psychologist Dr. Gail Elizabeth Wyatt, half of the women who had experienced childhood sexual abuse never told anyone and less than 5 percent ever got counseling. “African-American women are raped at a higher rate than White women, and are less likely to report it. We have suffered in silence far too long,” she says.
The movement to end sexual violence in the lives of Black women in the U.S. is inextricably connected to the Civil Rights movement. We cannot effectively discuss the issue of sexual assault in Black communities without acknowledging the direct war that was waged against Black women through rape during slavery and the Jim Crow era.
We must also honor the legacy of anti-rape activism.
Although Rosa Parks is remembered as the NAACP organizer who sparked the 1955 bus boycott and helped give birth to the Civil Rights Movement, she was an anti-rape activist long before the boycott. “Decades before radical feminists in the Women’s Movement urged rape survivors to ‘speak out,’ African American women’s public protests galvanized local, national and even international outrage and sparked larger campaigns for racial justice and human dignity,” says Dr. Danielle L. McGuire, author of At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance (A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power).