Watching ’12 years
a Slave' left me upset, not because I didn’t know about the horrors of slave
trade, but it brought to surface clearly
what we seem to have forgotten , i.e. that we can’t talk about gender without
considering race when it comes to women equality. The horror of the institution
of slavery during the late eighteenth century was not that it displaced
millions of African people from their homes to the US, but rather that it laid
the foundation for the commodification and dehumanization of the black body
that was culturally, socially, and politically maintained for hundreds of years
to come. White slave owners executed their perceived right under the creation
of commoditized black bodies to sexually abuse their slaves, producing mixed
race children.
As a result of commodification, black bodies were
rendered disciplined subjects; beholden to the will of white men.
Simultaneously, white planters‘ wives were socially conditioned to remain publicly
silent in the face of their husband‘s betrayal and abuse; hence they often
executed their anger on the black slave, further rendering the black body an object
to be claimed by others to enact their will upon. Commodification of the black
body at the start of the era allowed for the objectification of the black female
body to continue throughout slavery, as portrayed by the simultaneous abuse of
the masters and the subsequent retribution of the master‘s wives, which were
enacted on the black female body. Depriving humans of dignity, agency, respect,
and basic human rights was also the tool that was later used by slave-owners in
order to create and maintain the inferior slave subject. Essentially, the
humanity of the black body was ruptured into an object to be bought and sold,
in order to satisfy the economic desires of the white slave owners.
‘Enslavement robbed [slaves] of the markers of their
social existence—the violence of commodification signalled to [the] captives….that
they had been doomed to social annihilation’
Human beings define themselves by their social
interactions and relationships; the denial of these social relationships renders
slaves subhuman and abnormal. Some common practices included, the sale of
family members to different masters in different locations (e.g. selling children
away from their parents) and masters creating sexual relationships with married
slave women, among other equally destructive tactics. While black slaves could
have an unofficial marriage or partnership, ―enslaved people could not legally
marry in any state .The black man had no defence, if at any moment the master
decided to have sex with his wife. White plantation culture dictated the behaviour
of planters ‘wives; social norms stipulated that women were to be docile,
gentle, and turn a blind eye to the infidelities of their husbands, whose
existence they were keenly aware of. Under this cultural imperative, families
operated under a model where ordered obedience created hierarchy and respect
for the patriarch of the family, and produced the appearance of a well ordered family
and thus society. I know white women
were also victims in this (cheating husbands and all) but white women‘s purity
could only be maintained by the simultaneous upholding of the black woman‘s
impurity. Black women were often fetishized, called names like ‘mammy’ and some
of these tags are still their today.(topic for another day)
Colonialism and
imperialism relied upon this notion of superiority, which allowed whites to set
themselves in opposition to their inferior – ‘uncivil’ non-white counterparts,
and justify their actions of structural oppression as acceptable.
Black women were both fetishized and regarded as impure, when
seen in contrast to the modesty of white women; therefore at the height of
slavery, relationships with slave women were decidedly culturally unacceptable.
However, just because these relationships were frowned upon did not mean that
men resisted crossing the line of this social taboo; they did.
Black females were seen as sexually promiscuous and lustful,
thus cases of sexual violence were often viewed as being the fault of the black
woman. These cultural assumptions were successful in indirectly reinforcing the
notion of the pure white woman, set against the vileness of the black one.
So for me it is very difficult to talk about gender
equality only forgetting that we are actually starting the battle at different
levels. Any policies by any organisation on equality should be all inclusive
(gender, race, class, ability, religion etc).
If we are running a 100 metres race and my competitors are 20 metres in
front of me before the whistle to start the race is blown , then it’s clearly a race I won’t win.
Black women have always been at the bottom of the pile
even in countries where black people are the majority with men being on top. As
far as I am concerned , its pretence to talk about gender equality only and empowering women when we are
all separated by social factors. If white women have no equal rights as white
men, where are black women in all this? Who is being empowered? We need policies that
are inclusive. (Athena Swan charter should have been mixed with the race charter).
I have seen efforts being made to promote women following the introduction of
this but I don’t see any women of colour in position of power or even in
clerical/ administrative jobs.
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