Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Arrested Justice

          Arrested Justice is a beautifully written book that describes in great detail the hardships that black women are forced to overcome throughout the duration of their lives. Ritchie speaks a lot on the victimization and criminalization of  black women, and how greatly their stigmatized social positions plays into that.

          I am quite knowledgeable about the hardships that black women have been accustomed to dealing with throughout the years. I have experienced and witnessed many of these struggles firsthand. Her arguments and examples given lead me to think about the health inequities that black women live through and how greatly health inequities impacts their lives. Health disparities such as education, police brutality, lack of accessibility and availability of food resources, and lack of quality health care has been a struggle for many minorities, especially minority women.

          We live in a society where the lack of resources and opportunities given to women of color has been a result of their assumed destructive behavior and inability to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. This leads me to question the lack of governmental interference to help a people that have been greatly affected by the very systems put in place, that keeps them reliant on the government for aid, and keeps people of color in prison houses. I am even questioning what are some actions residents of the United States can take, to ensure the success of minority women across the country? Does it end by minimizing the stigmatization against black women? Will change ensue if we support more movements for black women that are ran by black women? What will it take?

           Ritchie, throughout her writings continues to give real world examples of the criminalization and victimization of black women. We are able to see situations like Tanya, where young black girls who became pregnant at a young age and shunned as a failure of mainstream society. We see the memes that are plastered across social media that further contributes to the humiliation of young black girls. We offer no protection to black queer women and arrest them when they act in self defense. We offer no protection for black women who are victimized by police.

What are ways to protect people and communities from the brutalization of the cops? What are ways minority women can work to protect and help themselves from the health disparities they suffer from?

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