Black Women: face of activism yet ignored
Black women are only remembered during every black lives matter, anti-police brutality, and ENDSARS protests
All over the world, there were shrills, tears and angry outbursts from people who spoke up against the wickedness meted out on George Floyd and many other black people whose lives were cut short for no reason at all.
More men than women have been killed by lawless police officers in America and every part of the world, but guess which photos broke the internet?
There were numerous male protesters, but most of the photos that trended on the internet were photos of black women.
Which brings me to my very first question, why are so many people and the mainstream media very obsessed with the rage of a black woman?
Oh! The 'wonderful praises', the heroine worship of black women throughout every anti-racist and anti-police brutality protest season, but the moment black women open their mouths to talk about their challenges, the same set of people become irritated.
You will begin to hear things like,
'Why are you always angry?
'Why are you so bitter
'You are not the only one who has it rough, black men suffer too!
When Oluwatoyin Salau, a black woman and activist was raped and murdered by a black man during the same George Floyd protest, it didn't make the world notice the challenges faced by women in society, almost everyone has moved on like it never happened.
October 2020,Nigerians took to the streets to protest against the extrajudicial killings of innocent young people by the notorious SARS unit of the Nigerian Police force.
There were hundreds of reports from numerous people, accusing the members of the SARS of different crimes ranging from murder to rape, harassment, torture, extortion etc.
They carried out these dastardly acts in the name of sanitizing the country; arresting young people for reasons like having dreadlocks, wearing ripped jeans, owning laptops and expensive phones etc.
The SARs unit of the Nigerian police force called people found in possession of laptops 'Yahoo' boys which is a common name for internet fraudsters in Nigeria.
More men have been killed by the SARS, but guess which photo broke the Internet
Here is it
This is Aisha Yesuf, a Nigerian activist and ‘Bring back our girls' (BBOG) Covener’
In Nigeria, women are raped every day at an alarming rate, according to ICIR NIGERIA only 65 people have been convicted of rape from 1973 to 2019.
Bring it up on the same Twitter, the same Twitter where ENDSARS trended for many weeks, and watch people tear you apart for daring to speak up against rape
Lecturers in Nigerian universities have turned many young girls into their sex slaves, the government, university authorities and the entire society know about this, yet there is no outrage.
"She wanted it, if she didn't she would have said no, after all, life is all about choice
besides University girls love to go about naked"
That's the kind of rhetorics you will hear.
Last year, some women were raped by police officers in Abuja (Nigerian state capital) these vile men raped these women using empty sachet of water in place of a condom.
Till today, nothing was done to them, the rape was justified by many who referred to the rape victims as prostitutes, the same Police killed a young man and all of a sudden there is an outrage.
How convenient!
As at the time of this write-up, Boko haram still has in their custody, young teenage girls whom they have turned into sex slaves and baby-making machines yet, our government claims to be on it.
In this century, adult men still take girls as young as 12 to be their wives, our government and the society at large watches.
In defence, they say
"There is nothing wrong with an 18-year-old girl getting married, even if her husband is 15 or 100 years her senior, it's not that bad: after all, she's an adult"
But the same people will advise an 18-year-old boy to avoid any sort of "burden or commitment" so that he can focus on his future?
Isn't this hypocrisy?
In an article written on Medicalnewstoday.com titled:
We all bleed the same colour’:
"Why do Black women in the UK experience disparities in gynaecological care?"
Written by Vanessa Haye on August 11, 2020, it says;
The 2019 MBRRACE-UK report, which confirms that Black women are five times more likely than white women to die as a result of complications in their pregnancy.
Reproductive conditions such as fibroids are three times more likely to occur in Black women than white women. Similarly, endometriosis is traditionally associated with being a “white woman’s disease,” which may consequently lead to misdiagnosis and delays inappropriate treatment for Black women.
These are not unavoidable mistakes or occurrences, some medical and health professionals simply choose to ignore the complaints made by their black female patients making it difficult or almost impossible for some black women to get adequate diagnosis and treatments.
Another study by Statista (Statista.com) shows the number of NCIC missing person files in the United States in 2020, by race:
White :321,859
Black :182,548
Unknown:18,260
Asian :10,776
Indian :9,575
There were 168.6 million women in United States of America
According to a research carried out by a different organisation: catalyst.org titled;
"Women of Color in the United States: Quick Take"
This the Percentage of Total Women in the US Population in a research they carried out 2019
White (not Hispanic or Latina) :60.0%
Hispanic or Latina :18.0%
Black or African American :12.9%
Asian :5.0%
American Indian and
Alaska Native :0.7%
Native Hawaiian and
Other Pacific Islander. :0.2%
When you compare these two statistics you will find out that 3 out of 1000 white women, 8 out of 1000 black women,1 out of 1000 Asian women and 8 out of every 1000 Indian women get missing in America every year.
Even in America black and brown women are not safe at a
Stories of black women are littered all over the internet and social media platforms on how the police ignored their harassment complaints and brushed them aside.
I can go on and on on this particular topic but I will choose not to.
I consider it highly insensitive when I see people trying to downplay the pain and suffering women especially black women go through in our society.
Everybody has it rough irrespective of their genders, but the pain black women go through is not given enough attention.
Click on the links below to read and download my book titled
Beyond Agadez, the untold stories of the victims of human trafficking and organised crime in Nigeria.
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