African American Women Research Paper

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Cameron University | African American Women: When Race and Gender Intersect | | Ms. Rembert-Anderson 5/6/2011 COMM 3393Dr. Heflin | Introduction The purpose of this paper is to explain why African-American women are treated differently/unfairly when experiencing workplace discrimination as opposed to the status quo representatives of women-White women and representatives of the Negro/black race-African-American men. This comparison analysis will bring to light the disparities faced by African-American women, from all socioeconomic backgrounds, in the workforce. The criteria used to analyze the real-life narratives are based on Tzvetan Todorov’s, a Bulgarian literary theorist, paradigm. What is Intersectionality?…show more content…
The Judicial decisions injustices that have taken place throughout the years, since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, have been institutionally (systemically) racist. Institutional racism is defined as the societal patterns that have the net effect of imposing oppressive or otherwise negative conditions against identifiable groups on the basis of race or ethnicity (Head, 2011). Institutional racism is pervasive throughout America’s judicial system. According to Risa L. Lieberwitz, African American and other individuals protesting discrimination have had difficulty winning cases that rely on proof of discriminatory effects of employment practices. Legal expert Michael Selmi’s study of cases between 1983 and 2002 confirms this, showing a low success rate for women and people of color, who won only 25.1 percent of their cases of discriminatory impact in federal trial courts and only 19.2 percent on appeal. These rates are even lower than the general 35 percent success rate for women and people of color who encounter discrimination in all employment discrimination cases. Why do women and people of color seeking relief from discrimination lose their cases so often? One possibility is that federal judges are ambivalent about finding that employers violated Title VII without evidence that they intentionally discriminated against job applicants or employees. (O'Brien, 2008, pp.…show more content…
Systemic racism is ubiquitous in the lives of African American women. The story structure consists a beginning, middle, and the resolution/ending. It followed Todorov’s theory perfectly. The stories are very believable because I have experienced workplace discrimination and have spoken with other women about their experiences. The best intent of the story is to educate people of the pervasiveness of racism and how the African American female, who has always been on the bottom of society, has been/is treated by society. The narrative range and depth is given. The narratives tell us about the narrator in time, place, and situation as follows: The stories are individuals concerned with the plight of the African American woman and all like her. The African American women are from all walks of life throughout the United States. The situation at hand needs more collaborative narrative research conducted in order to get more statistical data to present to the legal world on the innumerable amount of injustices that prevail pertaining to workplace

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