As black men in America we have been cultured to undertake sexual conquest to show our bravado and earn manhood. These conquest have left our people with all kinds of diseases and STD’s. A lot of young men are pressured into losing their virginity this way and lose their innocence. The worse part about this whole or deal is the affect it has on black women. The rape culture has left African American women mentally emotionally and spiritually unstable with numerous trust of trust issues that will take years to heal. Socioeconomic factors like poverty, unemployment, education and some people because of geographic indifference cannot receive the information. This is making it increasingly more difficult for people under those conditions to protect …show more content…
Nathan McCall gives readers an insight into how young minority men are being programed to think and behave. In the 6 chapter of his book “makes me wanna holler” Mr. McCall details how he heard sex being discussed in his community and how that perpetuated rape culture in his community. His book is another sad practice that African Americans have allowed to take root in our community. Nathan McCall’s Makes Me Wanna Holler, is an autobiography that gives context to Nathan’s troubled life. Nathan like any other young man wanted to be well like and well socialized in his community and his school. Nathan is caught in a quagmire of sorts because he lives in a violent neighborhood where in order to gain notoriety he must become violent and act out of character. Nathan looks up to a guy in the story named Scobie-D; Scobie-D …show more content…
Group think and peer pressure caused Nathan to put his sexual health and wellness on risk. Nathan was committing these crimes in the late 70’s just when aids and cracks were beginning to explode in the black community. He should consider himself lucky to not have contracted aids during all of his sexual escapades. In Chapter 6 Nathan goes into great details about the women that were raped and where it happened. Nathan however give no mention to the use of a condom. This is appalling to me. I do not understand how 30 men can climax in the same women continuously without a condom. Removing the moral, emotion, and criminal implications attached to gang rape; it is still completely nasty and unsafe for the victim and the rapist. This practice was especially risky in African American communities where STD prevalence is very high. With each sexual encounter, Nathan and his friends face a greater chance of encountering an infected partner. According to the CDC in the year 2000 the rate of chlamydia among black women was over six times more than the rate among white women and the rate among black men was 8 times more than white men. The reason for this is behaviors like gang rape and the sexual conquest theories are taught to the youth
Schneider L, Mori L, Lambert P, Wong A. The Role of Gender and Ethnicity in Perceptions of Rape and Its Aftereffects. Sex Roles [serial on the Internet]. (2009, Mar), [cited March 16, 2014]; 60(5/6): 410-421. Available from: SocINDEX with Full Text.
Rape is a virus that infects every nation, culture and society. It is constantly referred to as “the unfinished murder”, because of the deep state of despair the rapist leaves the victim in. There is no common identifiable trend that determines who will be a rape victim. Women are not assaulted because of their attitudes or actions, they are attacked simply because they are present. With rapists, just as with their victims, there is no identifiable trend. The old myth that only “sick, dirty, old, perverted men” commit rapes is a lie that society tells itself in order to sleep better at night. The startling truth is that most rapists work under a veil of normalcy. In order for the percentage of rapes to decrease, we have to change our ideas about rape and let go of the old myths of the past. And until this happens, rape will continue to plague our world at large.
As we read in the book, Nathan is easily influenced by his surroundings. I said that the novel is about being pressure because when you do not know who you are as a person you tend to try and find yourself by doing things that does not pertain to you. Teenagers in particular tend to get influenced by the lifestyle of their peers. However, some teens have the courage to resist the pressure and be themselves rather than being the one amongst a group. In the novel McCall was the teen who got influenced by Jerome Gary also known as Scobie-D. Everyone feared and esteemed Jerome, but Nathan respected the respect that Scobie-D demanded. According to Arnold King “ McCall like many other black men felt the weight of a nation on his shoulders because any sense of failure reflected not only on himself, but also on his family and his entire race”. This quote refers back to the book when black parents focus their children to behave in public and if they did not they would get in trouble because the child behavior was the reflection of how their parent raised them. Although, pressure can be harmful and detrimental it can also be beneficial as well. Nathan McCall is an example of that because he came from being a trouble juvenile to a professional
As stated in the book, “college students have much to teach about sex” (8). That is because the values, ideologies, and worldviews of the students are representative of greater American culture. Although flawed, hookup culture on American campuses hold the possibility of accepting a culture of inclusivity, care, pleasure, and freedom while also rejecting predatory behavior, racism, classism, and abuse. Dismissing hookup culture all together is blind to the reality that young adults are going to have sex, and since sex is non-negotiable, one’s aim should be to foster open dialogue and critical thought onto a future where everyone enjoys the ability to freely explore sexuality, sex, and gender on their own
In what is sure to be a very solemn matter for all American students and their families across the country , in January 2013 , President Obama, the office of the Vice President and the White House Council on Women and Girls converged and issued a renewed call to action against rape and sexual assault report which analyzes the most recent reliable data about this issue and identifies who are the most in peril victims of this malefaction, investigates the costs of this violence both for victims and communities , and describes the replication very often inadequate of the US malefactor equity system.
The sexual abuse of african-american women, and african women began with slavery, and can be noted as the first shift in inequality and lack of control over one’s own body. The psychological, and physiological construct of control is deeply rooted in history. Slavery, for example, was the physical dehumanization of another human being who was thought to be inferior. Psychologically, the act of physical constraint must have internalized ideas of social dominance. Especially, when slave owners, overseers, and drivers would take advantage of their authority and of their powerful positions to rape enslaved women. After the emancipation of the slaves, white men were no longer in control, and this generated a fear of equality with african-american
Criminal justice institutions in Oakland challenge masculinity as a means of rehabilitation. For instance, from a boy’s perspective, being a man involves standing up to peers who challenge self-confidence. This results in law breaking and violent fights, which can create opportunities for arrests. On the other hand, probation officers believe that being a man involves obtaining an education to support your family. However, by living in a poor neighborhood where punitive social control is ratified, the boys can hardly find employment. Thus, it generates hypermasculinity, which “often influenced the young men to perpetrate defiance, crime, and violence, sanctioning police to brutalize or arrest them” (p. 138). To reiterate, probation officers tell the boys to “get a job, do well in school and stay out of trouble” (p. 139). But the odds of succeeding are low, because “most avenues of legitimate success were out of reach” (p.
According to Smith, Native bodies will continue to be seen as expendable and inherently violable as long as they continue to stand in the way of the theft of Natives lands” (Smith 2005, 69). That is to say, that racism plays a major role in the widespread anxieties produced by white supremacy, regarding a rise in the global population of Native Americans. Although, “some populationists say population growth contributes to starvation,” and organizations may claim that they want to reduce the size of all ethnic and racial groups, in the end, they often work to reduce populations of color (Smith 2005, 71). In the white dominated society, “black and dark may be associated with death, evil and destruction” (Anzaldúa 1987, 91). To clarify, “people of color are scapegoated for environmental destruction, poverty, and war. Women of color are particularly threatening, as they have the ability to reproduce the next generations of communities of color. Consequently, it is not surprising that control over the reproductive abilities of women of color has come to be seen as a ‘national security’ issue for the U.S.” (Smith 2005, 79). Native American women should be treated equally, like any other woman because they also have reproductive rights. According to Min-ha, “it is as if the sexual act has become virtually the only direct contact with
It is very important that we are invulnerable to rape. Rape can happen to anyone at any time. Rape prevention strategies help to decrease the risk, but the risk never drops to zero percent. In our society of rape myths, gender ideology, and exposure of sex in the media, especially in advertising, and especially when it involves violence, rape will be in our culture for a long time. Our culture promotes this brand of sexuality and we turn our cheeks to rape and any negative form of sex.
Staples successfully begins by not only admitting the possible faults in his practiced race but also by understanding the perspective of the one who fear them. Black males being opened to more violence because of the environment they're raised in are labeled to be more likely to cause harm or committing crime towards women but Staples asks why that issue changes the outlook of everyday face to face contact and questions the simple actions of a black man? Staples admits, "women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence," (Staples 384) however...
3. “Rape Myths and Facts.” The Student’s Center of Health. West Virginia University. Web. 5 April 2014.
Davis stated that racism draws strength from the ability to encourage sexual coercion. Black women, who were rape victims, receive little sympathy from law enforcement and judges. Not only because of racism that has grown over time against black men, but black women as well. Since black men were categorized as rapist, black women were suggested to be loose and promiscuous. Since black women were suggested to be whores and sexual immoral, their cries of rape went unheard because they lack legitimacy in a society that believed men were provoked to acted in a natural way. Davis believes that the creation of the black rapist was used as a scapegoat in order to veil the true problem of black women being sexually assaulted by white men. A historical feature of racism is that white men, especially those with money and authority, possess an indisputable right to access a Black woman’s body. Davis also stated that the institution of lynching complimented by the rape of Black women became and essential ingredient of postwar strategy of racism. Lynching and the labeling of black men being rapist and raping black women for being promiscuous, both black men and women were able to be kept in check. By following the mainstream population, people fell into the trap of blaming the victim. Unfortunately a consequence was that blacks has to endure the punishment of lynching and black women were blamed for being victims of sexual
Rape can ruin lives. The sexually violent act is associated with a long list of public health concerns, including disease, unwanted pregnancy, physical trauma, mental and emotional suffering, and death. While rape can be simply defined as sex without consent, the impact rape has on society is complex. Victims are often stigmatized. They feel ashamed, weak and at fault. An estimated 18 percent of women in the US reported being raped at least once in their lifetimes, according to a 2007 study cited by the Center for Research on Violence Against Women. For college women, the numbers are slightly higher: 1 out of 5 women report being raped during their college years (as cited in Lawyer, Resnick, Von Bakanic, Burkett, Kilpatrick, 2010, p. 453). To better contextualize those numbers let’s look at SF State. A little more than 17,000 women went to school here in 2013, according to the demographics listed on the SF State website. If we were to follow those women over the entire span of their college years, we can assume that 2,400 of them would get raped. These are alarming statistics, especially since we know that rape is widely underreported, suggesting the percentages of rape might be even higher. College students drink more alcohol than the normal public (as cited in Gunby, Carline, Beynon, 2012, p. 88). This is troubling for women because alcohol is known to increase the risk of victimization. In most alcohol-involved rape situations, women voluntarily drank large amounts alcohol before being raped. It is more common for college women to be raped after being incapacitated by alcohol than it is for them to be raped by force (as cited in Messman-Moore, Ward, DeNard, 2013, p. 50). Alcohol intoxication often affects ...
Webster’s Dictionary describes rape as the crime of forcing another person to submit to sex acts, especially sexual intercourse. Rape is a crime in which most women cannot defend themselves. The fear of rape plagues every woman at some point or another in her life. The traumatic effects of rape vary from mild to severe, from psychological to physical. This paper will evaluate rape, as well as the effects it has on women, the theory behind male dominance and patriarchy, and differences in demographics.
The society we live in is rape-conducive, rape-friendly, if you will. Despite the anger I feel joining those two words together, I know the sad paradox holds within it a great deal of truth. We are a violent society that has shrouded rape in mystery and shame. To stop this nightmare’s venomous crusades, all people must wage a private war to eradicate their own acceptance of the savage crime. While it is only a minority of men that actually commit rape, it is everyone’s silence that tells them it’s ok.