Gendered Racism: A Double Edged Sword for Black Women

Gender bias and racism is not an exclusive issue to black women; yet, in honor of Black History Month our focus of reference in this article will be through the eyes, experiences and history of our truly powerful Black Women.

History in America has not changed much and a perfect example of what Black Women have tolerated is shown in history when the U.S. Congress ratified the 19th amendment, which ruled that women could not be denied the right to vote because of their sex.

The 19th Amendment [June 4, 1919] was especially significant for Black women who, despite the 15th Amendment’s [February 26, 1869] promises of voting rights regardless of race, still could not vote because of their gender.

The fact that it took two different constitutional amendments—passed a half century apart—to secure Black Women’s Right to Vote underscores how both ‘race and gender’ have always mattered in significant ways when it comes to women of color.

Gendered Racism is a form of oppression that occurs due to race and gender. It is perpetuated due to the prevalence of perceptions, stereotypes, and images of certain groups. Intolerance, prejudice and racism are deep-rooted, complex forces. They take many forms: they can be based on difference of religion, nationality, social class, or gender. One thing is certain: discrimination on the grounds of racial difference is particularly strong.

“The Beijing wording is useful because there is a tendency to speak of so-called “double discrimination” in relation to women of a racial or ethnic group who experience discrimination based both on their gender and on their race or ethnicity. But in real life, the problem is far more complex than this. Clearly, the gender dimensions of racial discrimination are complex and varied. Yet, this very complexity requires the attention of the member States, national institutions, civil society and the United Nations in order to address the problem.” states Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights and Secretary-General of the World Conference against Racism continues.

“Racism” functions as a way to distinguish races as inferior or superior to one another.

“Sexism” is defined as prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination on the basis of sex.

“Gendered Racism” differs in that it pertains specifically to racial and ethnic understandings of masculinity and femininity, as well as along gendered forms of race and ethnic discrimination. Tsedale M. Melaku states “You Don’t Look Like a Lawyer: Black Women and systemic gendered racism affects the attrition rate through the perceived differences and similarities between black female lawyers and both black male lawyers and white female lawyers.”

The term ‘Gendered Racism’ was originally coined by sociologist Philomena Essed, Professor of Critical Race, Gender, and Leadership Studies (PhD in Leadership and Change) refers to the simultaneous experience of both racism and sexism. According to Essed, racism and sexism “intertwine and combine under certain conditions into one hybrid phenomenon”.

Fundamentally, age, class, and gender are intersecting categories of experience that affect all aspects of human life. Thus, they simultaneously structure the experiences of all people in society. At any moment, race, class, or gender may feel more salient or meaningful in a given person’s life, but they are overlapping and cumulative in their effects on people’s experiences.

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: “A gender analysis of racial discrimination recognizes that racial discrimination does not affect men and women equally, or in the same way. To promote and protect the rights of all persons to be free from racial discrimination, it is necessary to ensure the rights of women when they are similarly situated to men and when they are not. There are circumstances in which women suffer racial discrimination of a different kind or to a different degree than men, or in which discrimination primarily affects women.”

This emphasizes that it is difficult for an individual to differentiate which aspect of their identity is being attacked. It may be impossible for an individual to assess whether discrimination is due to gender or race.

Both of these constructs make up the individual’s identity, and they intersect with one another. Because people have intersecting social identities, it is important to focus on how these identities shape an individual’s experiences.

Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.

Possible ways to Cope with Gendered Racism Include Education.

In one focus group, African American women are provided with a space to openly discuss their experiences and develop strategies to better handle situations when they are being discriminated against.

Another research experiment group was conducted in order to assess how black female college students cope with gendered racial microaggressions. In this study, we explored the strategies that Black women use to cope with gendered racial microaggressions, or the subtle and everyday verbal, behavioral, and environmental expressions of oppression based on the intersection of one’s race and gender. A total of 17 Black women undergraduate, graduate, and professional students participated in one of two semi-structured focus group interviews.

Results from dimensional analysis indicated five coping strategies: two resistance coping strategies (Using One’s Voice as Power, Resisting Eurocentric Standards), one collective coping strategy (Leaning on One’s Support Network), and two self-protective coping strategies (Becoming a Black Superwoman or Becoming Desensitized and Escaping).

The theme of Picking and Choosing One’s Battles was also uncovered as a process whereby participants made deliberate decisions about when and how to address the microaggressions they experienced.

When Black women use their voice as power they are actively speaking up and addressing the microaggressions in order to assert power in the situation. African American women relied heavily on the support of the black community.

In order to resist Eurocentric standards, black women are compelled to shy away from the traditional standards of beauty as well as dominant ideologies held by the larger society.

The collective coping strategy proved to be leaning on one’s support networks in which individuals find solace through interactions with friends and family. The women who utilized this coping strategy spoke about the comfort they found in having support from other women who had similar experiences.

Black women who cope by becoming a Black Superwoman take on multiple roles to demonstrate their strength and resilience. They also cope by overachieving, being overly successful.

Other women cope by becoming desensitized and escaping, which involves downplaying the seriousness of the situation and attempting to find a way out.

NOTE: Research demonstrated that the coping mechanisms employed by African American women were not always beneficial because they heightened distress rather than decrease it. Self-protective coping involves strategies that are used to minimize the stressful effect of gendered microaggressions.

“Race and racism create specific, unique challenges for women of color that are too easily ignored with broad platitudes that seek to advance women’s representation without questioning which women are most likely to benefit.”

– Adia Harvey Wingfield, Professor of Sociology – Washington U in St. Louis

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