Sibley 1 Kajsa Sibley Mrs. Choe American Lit. December 2, 2014 The Shield of Violence During the course of American history, African Americans have faced many forms of oppression, such as slavery and having other inalienable rights denied. To face their oppressors, they either had to fight them with brute force or with uncooperative behavior. In chapter 19 from The Autobiography of Malcolm X , Malcolm X’s views of an effective response to injustice is violence if no other options gave a direct solution. His belief was that if nonviolence led to a nonsolution, and cruelty still surfaced in the community, then you should defend yourself by using any means necessary.
The hyper-sexuality of Black women in slavery comes as no surprise. It was used as a tactic to justify the sexual practices between slave and master. To Whites, the Black woman had a sexual appetite that could not be fulfilled by Black men. Therefore, it was the White man’s job to satisfy her. They used this excuse to justify the rape and seduction of slave women.
In the South however, the blacks were disfranchised, since the state governments introduced literacy tests, tests on the knowledge of constitution and Poll taxes, which African Americans had trouble with, because of poor education and financial problems. Both created through discrimination and racism. Racial hatred groups such as the Ku Klux Klan still existed. They advertised violent treatment of African Americans, and often engaged in violent activities themselves. Blacks were often beaten or killed by members of such hate groups.
Constant attacks on homosexuals and women show the battle between cultural differences in many of gangsta rappers. Gangsta rap is often known for its sexist lewd imagery. Weather its foul language or showing of guns in videos gangsta rap reflects a vicious lifestyle. It also portrays black relationships as nothing more than mere pleasure. Gangsta rappers refer to women as ho's and bitches often belittling black women to show how much they aren't needed in society.
Over the past five centuries, black people have endured violence in many different ways. In history, racist violence, police brutality, has been used to suppress the racial blacks and to preserve power and privileges for the white race. The practice of police brutality has a strong affect on a main segment of the American population. Those affected are minorities and the elderly causing them to have strong hatred towards the whites in America. Police brutality is abuse by law enforcement, where a police officer feels that because he/she has a badge and a gun therefore it puts them above the law and they can use unnecessary force against another individual.
Many of the stereotypes associated with black women have a history with slavery, such as the idea of them being mammies, or the notion of the bad black woman. This is connected to W. E. B. Du Bois’ idea of the double consciousness. The term describes the internal conflict that members of subordinate groups have while in an society that still oppresses them. It is the idea that a person looks at themselves through the eyes of the racist society that they are in (Du Bois, 1903).
Where females were the offenders, the emotional and irrational nature of the crime were outlined whereas for males the violence was made to seem ‘normal.’ Words such as ‘unnatural’ ‘unfeminine’ and ‘sadistic’ are boldly written in newspaper headlines when describing crimes committed by females, their appearances and lifestyles, unlike their male counterparts, are also of major interest. Eric Hickey (Magma, 2002) speaks of female killers and describes them, "These are the quiet killers, every bit as lethal as their male counterparts, but we are seldom aware of them in our midst because of the low visibility of their killing." Tracie Andrews is a former glamour model that was jailed for life for stabbing her fiancé Lee Harvey with a penknife. Andrews appealed for witnesses to come forward as she insisted her partner had been the victim of a road rage incident. At the time of the murder the main focus of the newspapers were on Tracie’s physical appearance (Marsh and Melville, 2009) with headlines such as ‘former model Tracy Andrews’ and ‘blonde Tracy Andrews’ the Sun newspaper also had the headline ‘Death Quiz Tracy in Glamour Poses’ subsequent to her arrest for the murder.
This also gives the police the chance to brutalise the blacks which would damage the image of black people as the white citizens wouldn’t want to help the black if they are involved in violence. So Malcolm X use of violence would lose him supporters for his campaign, which will decrease his campaigns popularity and so the federal government would have no reason to support the demands of the black civil rights. Another organisation also worked to introduce the idea of self-defence. The BPP argued that black people needed an organised defence as they could not trust the police or the US justice system. According to Huey Newton a leader of the BPP the police ‘occupied’ the black ghettos, so the BPP organised its own peoples’ army who patrolled black neighbourhoods
Forms of double jeopardy are aimed at African Americans. One great example is when African American felons who have served time, completed probation and parole sentences, and paid full restitution are banned from voting for a lifetime. This practice punishes the offender twice, once by serving a sentence of various sorts and then by losing voting privileges. African American women also face a type of double jeopardy in corporate America because they are a double minority. After shattering corporate American’s glass ceilings barring women from advancing, African American women are subjected to yet another glass ceiling because of race.
Jim Crow Laws promoted the idea that blacks were naturally mediocre to blacks in all important ways, including intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior. Whites believed that sexual encounters between blacks and whites would produce a mongrel race that could destroy America; treating blacks as equals would encourage interracial sexual unions; any activity which suggested social equality encouraged interracial sexual relations; if necessary, violence must be used to keep blacks at the bottom of the racial hierarchy.Failure to abide by these laws meant you could be beaten, jailed, or even killed! Brutality was influential for Jim Crow. It was a technique of social power. A black person could be lynched for even demonstrating their intelligence!