Othering African American Females vs. Caucasians

 

The Other

The Black Gothic can be defined in many ways using various concepts and current events happening in society. One concept that is experienced frequently by everyone at some point is being othered. Today, the concept of The Other can be applied to many different situations. Whether it includes race, economic class or other things involving physical appearance, discrimination is prevalent. One situation in which the concept of The Other can be applied is missing females when involving a person of color. The media does not give as much attention to African American females as they do Caucasian females and has been this way for decades. Recently, many have started to notice this dissimilarity and this has caused an uproar in the black community. Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old white female went missing in August of this year. Her story received widespread media coverage and national tv coverage. This upset many people because there have been several African American females that go missing each year, but their situation has not been scrutinized in the same way and their coverage is almost nonexistent. These stories rarely make headlines and if not for social media, a lot of their stories would not be told.  According to NPR.org, “Last year, that figure was nearly 100,000. Yet their cases hardly ever grab national headlines.” (Pruitt-Young) If the victims' families do not bring it to the forefront of the media's attention, their stories would not get the proper acknowledgment. News Source 8 Adriana Sanchez, also noticed how much attention Gabby’s case was receiving and gathered information to answer the question of why. After interviewing Stephen Tibbert, she concluded that this may have had something to do with her physical appearance and economic class. “Gabby was an attractive white female and if you are an upper-class or middle-class person living in the suburbs, she could be the girl next door.” (Sanchez) If African American females are not attractive in the eyes of society and do not possess a high economic class, does this mean they should not receive the same coverage as “the girl next door”? In relation to the Black Gothic, the concept of The Other heavily marginalizes black females. Being othered is unfortunately something that they will always endure in their lifetime unless they are confined to standard’s that consider one to be more important than another. As an African American female, myself, this topic was something I felt like everyone should be informed about. The fact that these missing females are never brought to the media's attention says a lot about society as a whole. This shows that there will always be a level of inequality between races no matter how much the world tries to deny it.

 

References

 

Pruitt-Young, Sharon. “Tens of Thousands of Black Women Vanish Each Year. This                     Website Tells Their Stories.” NPR, NPR, 24 Sept. 2021,                https://www.npr.org/2021/09/24/1040048967/missing-black-women-girl s-left-out-media-ignored.

Sanchez, Adriana. “Why Did the Gabby Petito Case Grab Nationwide Attention, Maine Experts Weigh In.” Https://Www.wagmtv.com, www.wagmtv.com/2021/10/05/why-did-gabby-petito-case-grab-nationwide-attention-maine-experts-weigh/. Accessed 2 Dec. 2021.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

/məˌsäjəˈnwär/ By Ki DaeJanae’

Image
Misogynoir Dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against black women. “Misogynoir shows how sexism and racism manifest in black women’s lives to create intersecting forms of oppression” Moya Bailey first coined the term “misogynoir,” she defined it as the ways anti-Black and misogynistic representation shape broader ideas about Black women, particularly in visual culture and digital spaces. While trying to understand “What Is the Black Gothic” it was triggering and almost unbearable reading about the mistreatment and oppression of black women. Not only are black woman oppressed by slavery, the afterlife of slavery, racial capitalism, and other systemic oppressors. We are also oppressed by our black male counterparts. Stories like Native Son , Beloved , and Sing Unburied Sing are fictional stories but mirror the existence of everyday black women.  Today’s black women are oppressed in an almost futuristic way with technology, especially in media and digital spaces. The ...
Read more

Rememory

 Khailya Jones Ms. Harris ENGL 2016-44378 December 3, 2021  Rememory  Southern gothic is a genre in literature that encompasses horror elements such as supernatural, disturbing characters, grotesque history, etc. with the purpose to explore social issues. Black gothic is what a person defines as the southern horror genre in art and literature with the element of race included and confined what is horror to the Black community. The plethora of authors from the past and present who use such a broad genre and trope bring stories to life. I will be discussing how re-memory ties into Black Gothic and include detail of its influences on the characters in the texts we have read.  Rememory is one concept present as reliving an important or traumatic vivid event that one does or does not have to directly experience. In Beloved, it is the result of enslavement and portrayed through personal and collective memory. The reader encounters this through Sethe and Paul D. who are in ...
Read more

How is Capitalism is present day Slavery?

  India Williams 1 December 2021 J. Harris ENG 2016 Blog Post How Capitalism plays a major role in The Black Gothic? In this blog post, there will be plenty of bashing of white people, I want it to be clear it is not from a personal vendetta, my facts will be solely based on proven historical events and communal experiences black people share in this country. It is logical for capitalism to be the longest-standing assault on people of color in America, it contributes to The Black Gothic as a, if not the reason most black people live the nightmare of the uncertainty of their financial future today. Capitalism started in America as slavery, it can be considered twenty-first-century slavery even. Slavery is nothing new, it is a tale as old as time, when power-seeking people feel they are better than others they oppress their “lesser” peers, henceforth the ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, and in America’s case slavery. Capitalism is a key focus in the black gothic because it inst...
Read more