Awa Thiam's Arguement Against the Statement “Rape is to Women what Lynching is to Blacks”

Women, unfortunately, have been very discriminated against, even in this century. Women are so cruelly thought of that now, women see nothing wrong with mental and physical cruelty towards them. Since the status of women in Africa, is so low, it has caused many men to overpower women…physically. More

She emphasizes that the life of a slave woman is incomparable to the life of a slave man, in the sense that a woman’s sufferings are not only physical but also extremely mental and emotional. Whether or not a slave woman is beaten, starved to death, or made to work in unbearable circumstances on the fields, she suffers from and endures horrible mental torments. Unlike slave men, these women have to deal with sexual harassment from white men, most often their slave owners, as well as the loss of their children in some cases. Men often dwell on their sufferings of bodily pain and physical endurance as slaves, where as women not only deal with that but also the mental and emotional aspect of it. Men claim that their manhood and masculinity are stripped from them, but women deal with their loss of dignity and morality. Females deal with the emotional agony as mothers who lose their children or have to watch them get beaten, as well as being sexually victimized by white men who may or may not be the father of their children. For these women, their experiences seem unimaginable and are just as difficult as any physical punishment, if not more so.

In a time period when women were considered inferior, as were blacks, it was unimaginable the horrors a black woman in the south had to endure during this period. African women were slaves and subject to the many horrors that come along with being in bondage, but because they were also women, they were subject to the cruelties of men who look down on women as inferior simply because of their sex. The sexual exploitation of these females often lead to the women fathering children of their white masters. Black women were also prohibited from defending themselves against any type of abuse, including sexual, at the hands of white men. If a slave attempted to defend herself she was often subjected to further beatings from the master. The black female was forced into sexual relationships for the slave master’s pleasure and profit. By doing this it was the slave owner ways of helping his slave population grow.

This paper discusses the experiences of African American Women under slavery during the Slave Trade, their exploitation, the secrecy, the variety of tasks and positions of slave women, slave and ex-slave narratives, and significant contributions to history. Also, this paper presents the hardships African American women faced and the challenges they overcame to become equal with men in today’s society. Slavery was a destructive experience for African Americans especially women. Black women suffered doubly during the slave era.

Not just women many other have been oppressed as well. Such as African Americans who were discriminated because of their color of skin. They were mistreated in their work place and other parts of society, they were unable to vote, and they were segregated from education and social spaces, and violence from the authorities. Chicanos almost the same as African American they were discriminated because of the color of their skin they were limited in what they could do in school. They weren't allowed to speak their native tongue in school they were limited on their education since the Anglos thought they would not get far in education. In some parts they were limited to vote. Gays and lesbians mainly oppressed since of their sexuality that mostly face discrimination of their sexuality and limited on where they are able to go. How have all of these groups faced their oppressor there are many. The simplest one it being that they had meeting, looking up at all of these movement there is a part in which all of them had meeting to discuss about their movements. Many used communication to get the attention of people by newspapers, speeches, protest, and art they also had other things as well

Similarly, Patricia Hill’s work “Black Feminist Thought” explains the need for black feminism. For Hill U.S. black feminism is needed in order for black women to survive, cope with, and resist their differential treatment in society. Black feminist thought creates a collective identity among this marginalized group of African-American women. Hill provides several features that make U.S. Black feminist thought different than any other set of feminism. The first feature Hill speaks about is ‘blackness’ it is this concept that makes U.S. black feminist a different group that suffers a “double oppression”. Thus, U.S. Black women collectively participate in a dialectical relationship which links African American women’s oppression and activism. Hill speaks on the U.S. black feminist thought and the dilemma they face in American society. During the women’s right movement there was a tremendous difference between black and white women’s experiences, “while women of color were urged, at every turn, to become permanently infertile, white women enjoying prosperous economic conditions were urged, by the same forces, to reproduce themselves”. It is this difference in attitudes that demonstrate why there is a need to focuses on the linkage of experiences and ideas experienced by the black women in America. Consequently, Davis analyzes the hypocritical differences of the government of the

Although there were many common factors within the institution of slavery for both men and women there were also circumstances that were unique to women. “The first slaves to be brought to the British colonies of North America were disproportionately male. Considered more valuable workers because of their strength, enslaved men performed labors that ranged from building houses to plowing fields. When the Dutch brought African and Creole women into New Amsterdam in the late 1620s, they did so not to supplement their workforce, but to provide company for their black male slaves” (Hallan, 2004). This tells us that from the beginning the African woman was less valuable and her treatment by the slave owners was a direct reflection of this.

Colonial women in America suffered considerable oppression by society. Life in colonial America was difficult. Women had to be resilient, brave, hardworking and above all else, subservient to her husband. It was tradition and the law. Most certainly, this tradition was the reason some women captured by Native Indians, chose to stay within Native societies. Or when returned to their homes, chose return to them.

The perception of inequality was evident in the colonial Spanish America, man belief that women were lacked in capacity to reason as soundly as men. A normal day for European women in the new world was generally characterized by male domination, for example marriage was arranged by the fathers, women never go out except to go church, women didn’t have the right to express their opinions about politic or society issues. Subsequent to all these bad treats European women try to find different ways to escape from man domination and demonstrate their intellectual capacities, for example women used become part of a convent, write in secret their desires and disappointments, and even dress as man to

Chimamanda Adichie is an author from Nigeria, a major country in Africa. She is an exceedingly well-known author from her writings on immigration, feminism, and the African experience in America. She has given a variety of Ted talks, speeches, and has done interviews on immigration, feminism, and the African experience in America. In her writings, most noticeably “My Mother, the Crazy African,” she talks about the experience of immigrants in America and through a lens which relates to issues one from all walks of life can understand. Her book shows a growing divide between the understanding of “American Culture” and other cultures from around the world, in this book, most specifically Nigeria in this case. The analysis in this essay will take place through examining similar work as well as her interviews and speeches.

From the different readings that was explored in class, there were several themes and issues that were pointed out from each one. One thing that seems to correlate most women’s experience from the readings was that they were treated more as an object rather than a person regardless of their race, class, or ethnicity. The cases and experiences of women such as Sarah Taylor, Celia the slave, Pocahontas, and Native American women from Carolina being objectified by their society will be used to support this notion. One of the examples that women were treated as an object was the case of Sarah Taylor, a white indentured servant, as she was treated as a property by her master, the people in her society and, the court. It was described in Taylor’s complaint how her masters beat her.

"Our politics initially sprang from the shared belief that Black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else 's may because of our need as human persons for autonomy". The opening of the second part of The Combahee River Collective Statement, What We Believe, expresses one of the major will of the Third World Feminist studies: making Women a topic of research in its own rights. It 's in 1977 that the Combahee River Collective, a US radical feminist lesbian group, wrote this very famous manifesto that became essential for the Black Feminism Mouvement. They made as central the total recognition of the different forms of oppressions, sexual, racial, social, that black women endure and the necessity to fight against them. Therefore, the integration of notions of gender, sexuality, race, class in any feminist analysis that deals with power and domination become unavoidable. They express clearly the logical result of their struggle, the destruction of the political, social and economical system as they are the representative basis of an unfair and racist society. To bring a fresh way of looking at the position of some women in the American society turn to be a way to consider differently the organisation and the functioning of the actors of a society on a national and also international level.

It critically addresses the dynamics of the conflict between the main stream feminist, the Black Feminist, the African Feminist and the Africana Womanist. The conclusion is that Africana Womanism and its agenda are unique and separate from both white feminism and Black Feminism, and more over, to the extent of naming in particular, Africana Womanisms differs from Africana feminism”(Alexander-Floyd & Simien 2006: 67).

Enslaved Women With Forced Choices In a world that has been dominated by men since the dawn of time, women have come a long way from resisting patriarchal interests by beginning to realize they are able to do and say as they please. Feminism focuses on gender and social roles which have been rejected in social power and various forms by self-expression of women. Women were not able to choose or say what they wanted because of patriarchal dominance and interests. While feminist analysis acknowledges the separate levels of social power given to women and men, it has altered over the years, women are increasing their social powers although in the twenty-first century women still encounter patriarchal dominance.

Whites’ study of slavery and the experience of women show a marked contrast between the restricted femininity of white women and the sexual exploitation and perception of black women. White women were expected to be controlled and preserve their modesty and virtue, but black women were exposed and blamed for the sexual advances and exploits of their white masters. White sums of this contrast best: