Prostitution: Where Raciscm and Sexism Intersect

Prostitution: Where Raciscm and Sexism Intersect
Prostitution: Where Racism and Sexism Intersect*
by Vednita Nelson
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, 1993, Volume 1: 81-89.

Eleven Black women were strangled. Eleven Black women were sexually mutilated. The bodies of eleven Black women were dumped in abandoned buildings under piles of trash in a period of nine months

I had to ask myself. Where was the outrage? Why wasn't the community up in arms? Clearly there was a pattern here. All of the women were poor. All of the women were Black. All of the women were used in prostitution. There was no reason to believe that the killer would not strike again. So, I had to ask myself, where was the outrage? One Black male is beaten up by four white police officers and every Black community activist in the country, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson, is crying out against racist violence and the culture of poverty that precipitated the L.A. riots.(6) Eleven poor, Black women are murdered and mutilated, their bodies are thrown away like so much trash, and the only thing we hear, besides the deafening silence, is a local Baptist minister mourning that these women "were already among the walking dead."(7) Where do racism and sexism meet? If you ask me, they meet in a trash pile, in an abandoned building, in Detroit.

Racism makes Black women and girls especially vulnerable to sexual exploitation and keeps them trapped in the sex industry. It does this by limiting educational and career opportunities for African-Americans in this country.(8) It does this through a welfare system that has divided the poor Black family. If a mother works, or her children's father contributes to their support, her check and food stamps are cut by that amount.(9) Thus, poor Black women are left alone to find for themselves and their children on inadequate Aid to Families with Children(10) grants.

Racist stereotypes in the mainstream media and in pornography, portray Black women as wild animals who are ready for any kind of sex, any time, with anybody.(11) Additionally, strip joints and massage parlors are typically zoned in Black neighborhoods,(12) which gives the message to white men that it is alright to solicit Black women and girls for sex--that we are all prostitutes. On almost any night, you can see them slowly cruising around our neighborhoods, rolling down their windows, calling out to women and girls. And we got the message growing up, just like our daughters are getting it today, that this is how it is, this is who we are, this is what we are for.(13)

.....

How can mainstream feminists claim to care about Black women and racism when they fail to speak out against the white men who pay for the right to sexually abuse our daughters and sisters, or against the police who target these same women for arrest and imprisonment, while their abusers, the johns that prey on our community, go free? It is time for white feminists to stand beside US, to fight racist and sexist oppression, and to take the same risks we do. The mainstream feminist community must actively fight to end both systems. If not, the cry "sisterhood is powerful" will remain an empty slogan for Black women.

Read the rest of the article here.

No comments.

watch it...

This was yet another WAPC event that I didn't make it out to. I thought I would post the videos from that day for you. Check it out:

National Hunger Awareness Day

I would write more - but I won't have a chance. Sign this quick online petition.

As most of you may know we have a conservative government in Canada now, and this of course means cuts to social spending.

From having volunteered at a food bank in the past - I could just quickly say the following:
1) All people of all ages, of all racial backgrounds go hungry daily, many of them are young children. Sometimes you'd see entire families coming into the food bank. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly 2/3 of the hungry in Canada are children.

2) Food banks are sad. When we used to sort the 'good' produce from the 'completely inedible'. Many of us middle-class kids would walk away with the heaviest heart. Because we knew what was 'good' was something we'd never have in our kitchen, something our parents wouldn't feed us. In fact, what was good produce at the food banks was often the stuff that we'd throw out in our own homes. The place where I volunteered even had rats in the produce. Food banks are underfunded places in general. In TO - there aren't many of them, the ones that exist, exist in a sad sorry state.

3) Mac n cheese - is not food, stop donating it. There's no nutrition - it's the equivalent of cardboard. Save some money to buy peanut butter and canned beans.

4) The long-term goal should not be to have more food banks - the goal should be to get rid of the need for food banks.

5) It's hard for women (I.e. this usually ends up being 'women's work') to get to the food bank. It really is, it's this trap between deciding whether you ought to use your $2.50 for the subway to get to the food bank in the dead of winter, get someone to watch the kids, or go to the foodbank - or straight up use the $2.50 to buy a carton of milk instead of getting much needed groceries from the foodbank. You're only allowed to 'take' so much food from the food bank as well. This is even tougher for new immigrant women who are rarely even familiar with the food bank or the city.

Sorry this is a little messy...

ETA: At Professor black woman's suggesetion, here is a list of most needed items. I'm guessing this is common amongst most food banks. Note: this food bank does state mac n cheese. At the foodbank I was at - this was a staple, but definitely other products were a necessity and most people tend not to donate them as much (hence my previous comments).

Women's housing takeover (ETA: SALCO)

Updated with info from Red Jenny, via WOC blog:

The women's housing takeover resulted in four arrests. This is really disturbing on so many levels. Read more here and here.

Check out WAPC's blog itself.

1) I saw some posters and also heard about this from a friend. It looks totally awesome, but unfortunately I have more trivial things to do today, so I can't go.

Do check this out, it is truly awesome, and I wish I was so there right now, this minute.

From their website:

Support this exciting work by women and trans people in Toronto to set up housing for those of us experiencing violence and our children.

Sunday, June 3rd, Noon

Rally: 12 noon at Cawthra Square, Toronto (North of 519 Church Street Community Centre)

March: 1:00 pm- Led by women, trans people and our kids

ALL ARE WELCOME

HOUSING BY WOMEN 4 WOMEN NOW

What is the Women’s Poverty Collective Women’s Housing Takeover?


The Women Against Poverty Collective (WAPC) is a group of women and trans people who have been meeting regularly since March 2006. We are working together to advocate for safe, affordable, and accessible housing for women experiencing violence. Poverty is one of the biggest concerns identified by women living with violence, and coupled with a lack of access to housing, it keeps women stuck in abusive situations.


Women living in poverty have repeatedly identified the important, but often unrecognized, links between poverty and women’s experiences of violence, asking for policy changes such as those that are being advocated for by the current Raise the Rates and the Ontario Needs a Raise Campaigns. The Women Against Poverty Collective is organizing in solidarity with the Step It Up! Campaign, a broadly based effort that aims to address the link between poverty and gendered violence, organized by Ontario’s women’s equality-seeking groups, shelters, rape crisis centres, unions, anti-poverty groups, and community groups.

-----------------------------------------------------------

2) Quick online action - to support SALCO (South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario):

Please take two whole seconds to fill out this letter to the Ontario Provincial Parliament:

Their funding hasn't been renewed and they may end up closing.

From their site:

ACCESS TO JUSTICE!
Funding for the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO) from Legal Aid Ontario comes to an end in September 2007. After September 2007, the fastest growing community in the GTA – the South Asian community – will be denied access to legal services that are affordable and that meet the community’s needs in a linguistically and culturally sensitive manner. The Ontario Government and Legal Aid Ontario refuse to make a commitment to our community in the shape of a fully funded and permanent legal clinic. While the Government and Legal Aid Ontario rightly made such commitments to Aboriginal, Francophone, African Canadian, Chinese and Spanish-speaking Ontarians, they have not extended the same right to South Asian Ontarians.



Sorry, this post is so short, I'm very busy lately.

-AD