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Women Of Color As Deviant Corrupters Of Society

Decent Essays

For years women of color, have been unrightfully labelled as deviant corrupters of society. Due to the economic and social disadvantages they have endured because of institutional racism, these women of color hold the identity of being of low socioeconomic status more than their white counterparts. Although white people are one of the largest racial groups that receive government assistance, women of color are often see as lazy manipulators of the system. The continuation of the deviant, hypersexual perception of women of color that stems from slavery is used to justify the wrong, abuse, and exploitation that is done to them. For example, the characterization of women of color, specifically black women, as “welfare queens” fueled the sterilization abuse of many women of color that still goes on. Manipulation of forms, unauthorized procedures, and pressured birth control is “justified” through this stereotype that paints women of color’s reproduction to be negative for society because it enables them to take more government assistance and the children produced will be a continuation of their inferior lifestyle. In Reproducing Race, Khiara M. Bridges explores the historical and contemporary racial salience of pregnancy through her fieldwork at “Alpha” Women’s Health Clinic, a New York public hospital known for sophisticated healthcare of people of color and people of low socioeconomic status. Something I found unique about her research is that she was not able to analyze the

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