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The 'Strong Black Woman' Trope Is A Trap

The 'Strong Black Woman' Trope Is A Trap

The 'Strong Black Woman' Trope Is A Trap
Jun 24, 2022 1 min, 55 secs

For my most recent book, “America, Goddam: Violence, Black Women, and the Struggle for Justice,” I spent years looking at what was slowly and spectacularly warring against Black women and girls.

And while murder, rape, and physical assaults were the most recognizable forms of violence Black women and girls disproportionately experience, what became abundantly clear through my research was the grievous impact of less direct forms of violence.

I had to take a step back to see the full picture of violence beyond spectacular encounters in which Black women and girls were physically harmed or killed.

Paying specific attention to Black women and girls, I came to understand that reducing my conceptualization of violence to only its most recognizable iterations erased the injurious and sometimes fatal impact of those struggling to outrun and outlive multiple forms of oppression.

Telling the story of contemporary violence against Black women and girls and, more broadly, of violence in the United States meant taking stock of the many ways we routinely harm those on the margins.

Forced birthing is a multidimensional violation, and like most oppressive realities in this nation, will disproportionately affect Black women and girls.

For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality,” he didn’t offer any semblance of care for the reasons for the higher rates of pregnancy-related deaths among Black women and girls.

The careless care Black birthing people receive in a health care system that relies upon racist, sexist and ableist assumptions, technologies and practices is a form of violence.

The attempt to frame Black people as “unhealthy” without conceding how multiple forms of oppression converge in our lives to produce death-bound outcomes is dishonest at best and fatally malicious at worst.

Although he said he wasn’t minimizing the Black maternal mortality crisis, he was quick to try to dissociate his state’s maternal mortality rate from that of those who are most vulnerable.

Cassidy is one of several elected officials pushing for legislation on maternal health care, and yet he dismissively addressed Black maternal mortality as though those victims are disposable.

For those who sit at the intersection of multiple forms of oppression, the knowledge that too few other than those with shared experiences will care about the harsh material realities with which you contend is soul-crushing.

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