Africa as a continent, which holds strong to its patriarchal cultural principles and practices, is known for its blatant display of violent abuse of women, including state-sanctioned violence, and its lax approach to national legislative policies and international treaties against violence against women. Using data from Africa, the Americas, Australia, and Europe, this edited collection showcases a variety of experiences and perspectives in the international comparative study of violence against women of African ancestry. This approach provides the context for examining the problem of violence against women, including its policy and practice responses (if any), as it impacts women of African origin in different parts of the world. This book is of value to those interested in African studies, criminology, gender studies, sociology, and many more.

Diploma Thesis from the year 2002 in the subject Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology, grade: very good, University of Vienna (Sociology/Anthropology), language: English, abstract: Already before studying social and cultural anthropology and political science, I was an enthusiastic reader of African-American novelists, especially those authored by James Baldwin, and having viewed racism as one form of marginalization and exclusion, I wanted to learn and gain knowledge about this phenomenon and enrolled for these two disciplines. Specializing on African politics in my study, I nevertheless remained interested in the African-American experience and decided to write my thesis on an issue that would be in some proximity to the latter. Through contacts with African-American social and political activists, I finally encountered an issue that I wanted to tackle, it is a circumstance that, in my view then, constituted a contradiction, the gap between the enormous political and social activism of African-American women and on the other hand the high rate of domestic violence and sexual assault in U.S. Black communities.

Break the silence surrounding Black women's experiences of violence! Written from a Black feminist perspective by therapists, researchers, activists, and survivors, Violence in the Lives of Black Women: Battered, Black, and Blue sheds new light on an understudied field. For too long, Black women have been suffering the effects of violence in painful silence. This book—winner of the Carolyn Payton Early Career Award for its contribution to the understanding of the role of gender in the lives of Black women—provides a forum where personal testimony and academic research meet to show you how living at the intersection of many kinds of oppression shapes the lives of Black women. With moving case studies, in-depth discussions of activism and resistance, and helpful suggestions for treatment and intervention, this book will help you understand the impact of violence on the lives of Black women. Topics you'll find in Violence in the Lives of Black Women include: using the arts to deal with sexual aggression in the Black community racial aspects of sexual harassment the consequences of head and brain injuries stemming from abuse domestic violence in African-American lesbian relationships strategies Black women use to escape violent living situations lifelong effects of childhood sexual abuse on Black women's mental health references and resources to help you learn more!

A collection of first-person accounts documenting a historical legacy of violence against black women in the U.S. In Wounds of the Spirit, Traci West employs first person accounts-from slave narratives to contemporary interviews to Tina Turner's autobiography-to document a historical legacy of violence against black women in the United States. West, a black feminist Christian ethicist, situates spiritual matters within a discussion of the psycho-social impact of intimate assault against African American women. Distinctive for its treatment of the role of the church in response to violence against African American women, the book identifies specific social mechanisms which contribute to the reproduction of intimate violence. West insists that cultural beliefs as well as institutional practices must be altered if we are to combat the reproduction of violence, and suggests methods of resistance which can be utilized by victim-survivors, those in the helping professions, and the church. Interrogating the dynamics of black women's experiences of emotional and spiritual trauma through the diverse disciplines of psychology, sociology, and theology, this important work will be of interest and practical use to those in women's studies, African American studies, Christian ethics, feminist and womanist theology, women's health, family counseling, and pastoral care.

First published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

One of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2022, Kirkus Reviews "A righteous indictment of racism and misogyny."—Publishers Weekly A powerful account of violence against Black women and girls in the United States and their fight for liberation. Echoing the energy of Nina Simone's searing protest song that inspired the title, this book is a call to action in our collective journey toward just futures. America, Goddam explores the combined force of anti-Blackness, misogyny, patriarchy, and capitalism in the lives of Black women and girls in the United States today. Through personal accounts and hard-hitting analysis, Black feminist historian Treva B. Lindsey starkly assesses the forms and legacies of violence against Black women and girls, as well as their demands for justice for themselves and their communities. Combining history, theory, and memoir, America, Goddam renders visible the gender dynamics of anti-Black violence. Black women and girls occupy a unique status of vulnerability to harm and death, while the circumstances and traumas of this violence go underreported and understudied. America, Goddam allows readers to understand How Black women—who have been both victims of anti-Black violence as well as frontline participants—are rarely the focus of Black freedom movements. How Black women have led movements demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, Toyin Salau, Riah Milton, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, and countless other Black women and girls whose lives have been curtailed by numerous forms of violence. How across generations and centuries, their refusal to remain silent about violence against them led to Black liberation through organizing and radical politics. America, Goddam powerfully demonstrates that the struggle for justice begins with reckoning with the pervasiveness of violence against Black women and girls in the United States.

“A passionate, incisive critique of the many ways in which women and girls of color are systematically erased or marginalized in discussions of police violence.” —Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow Invisible No More is a timely examination of how Black women, Indigenous women, and women of color experience racial profiling, police brutality, and immigration enforcement. By placing the individual stories of Sandra Bland, Rekia Boyd, Dajerria Becton, Monica Jones, and Mya Hall in the broader context of the twin epidemics of police violence and mass incarceration, Andrea Ritchie documents the evolution of movements centered around women’s experiences of policing. Featuring a powerful forward by activist Angela Davis, Invisible No More is an essential exposé on police violence against WOC that demands a radical rethinking of our visions of safety—and the means we devote to achieving it.