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Introduction

Racism has been a problem that many African American women have faced. Racism is especially harder to deal with when it becomes a barrier for women and doesn’t allow her, to get the help she need when facing domestic violence. Many of these women must live facing the domestic violence at home because of the lack of resources they are able to obtain due to their race. Below are the effects that racism has on domestic violence.

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Untrustful Resource

Throughout history it is known that black people and the police are not friends. Why? Simply because racism has created an untrustful relationship between the two due to the segregation and oppression black people have faced by the police.As stated in the article named, “ An Analysis of Racism and Resources for African American female victims of Domestic Violence in Wisconsin,” by Lisa M. Martison, the author states, “ Thus, the Wisconsin mandatory arrest law has a limited ability to provide safety for African-American who distrust the police in that they may not choose to call the police for protection.” (268) This shows how black women do not have the trust on the police to protect them as they should. Racism has limited the resources an African American women has therefore leading her to stay and feel helpless in an abusive households. A women no matter her race should feel and safe to call the police over to her house when an emergency is happening. Racism has created this awful image of the police to every African American person, leading them to not have anyone to protect and serve them. The police is a force that helps eliminate crime and not using your voice won’t help anyone. However, African Americans have this fear all due to the racism they face in their life.

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More at risk

African American women are at more risk of suffering abuse than any other race, why? This is because racism does not only affect women but men too. With racism comes along discrimination,oppression and less opportunities in society.Men can experience an economic distress if they for some reason don’t find a job. Leading them to be frustrated and take their anger out on whoever is in their way. Which can cause a man to not think correctly and in some cases hit a women. As stated in the article named, “ Domestic Violence in the African American Community” by, Robert Hampton, William Oliver and Lucia Magarian it says, “It is our view that African American men who are frustrated by virtue of their exposure to historical and contemporary patterns of racial and gender oppression, and who in response to such oppression adopt manhood roles that condone resorting to violence as a means of resolving disputes, are at increased risk of committing acts of intimate partner violence.”(541) African American women should not be a stress relief punching bag for men but instead support and companionship. Racism not only brings less opportunities to African American people in this country but also makes women of color more vulnerable.Domestic violence itself is a burden every women can face but not having support to get out of that situation must be a difficult thing to do.

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Don’t report

Racial groups can sometimes feel like family because of how much they can relate about certain things together.Of course they do stick together and support each other because they understand each other’s struggles and way of living. An African American women who did not want to be named who was in an abusive household was interviewed about her relationship. One of the questions asked to her was “How many years did you stay in your abusive relationship?” her response was 16 years. She went on to say that at first it was something rare and small like a push or verbal abusive. The abusive did stop for some time however, after a couple years it slowly came back and was still just verbally then began to increase rapidly and became physically. The second question was, “ What made you stay in that relationship?” The response after a quiet minute was that it was not love for sure because after a person stops respecting you, you eventually turn that love to hate and pity for that person. She said it was all her family and African American community who made her stay. She goes on to explain that when she talked to her family and friends about leaving the relationship because of the abuse they told her that she was wrong for that. She obviously was confused at first about their responses towards her statement. She went on to ask them why they were saying that and basically they could not believe a black women was willing to send a “brother” her own kind to prison. They wanted to “refresh” her memory that black people do not hurt each other or involve them with the police after their relationship and history with the authorities. So all these comments did get to her and she began to believe and follow everything they will tell her and she admits she was “brainwashed” for the benefit of others and not hers.

WORKS CITED

Martison , Lisa M. “An Analysis of Racism and Resources for African-American Female Victims of Domestic Violence in Wisconsin , Wisconsin Women’s Law Journal , 15 Oct. 2001.

Hampton , Robert, et al. “Domestic Violence on the African American Community .” Sage Journals , Taylor & Francis , 1 May 2003.