That falsehood is black men are more affected by racism then black women. It just looks that way sometimes because black men have been doing all the telling of current events and history for so long...while refusing to look at certain aspects of the differences between men and women (sans race) when it's beneficial to do so
MEN, WOMEN, AGGRESSION, AND JAIL Men go to jail a lot more than women. For me, it's easy to suppose that this is because men are more aggressive than women. And it's fairly incredible to me that some people will claim they don't see evidence of this in our society -- regardless of male aggression's source.
But I say men are more aggressive, whatever the source.
Comparing Aggressions
Whatever you think the aggressiveness of men is based on -- and it is "aggression"-- men are more aggressive in most all areas of life. Men are the ones that like sports where hitting is involved; it is men that leave the vast majority of dead bodies behind when there is domestic violence; men are the ones robbing most of the houses; men are the ones doing most of the murders.
This is true regardless of race and regardless of country.
On average aggressive white men, here, there, and everywhere out-strip white women at doing crime by a factor of 6 to 1 in most western countries.
CRIME & PRISON: A WORLD WIDE GENDER GAP
The same is true of African American men when you compare them to African American women. Black men go to jail many- times-more as often as black women SIMILAR TO white men go to jail many-more-times as often as white women. In fact, white men go to jail 12 to 13x more than white women WHILE black men "only" go to jail 6 times as often as black women.
Therefore, there is no justification for attributing the high numbers of black men in prison as compared to black women to "black men experiencing more racism." The gap between black men and black women in jail is about gender, not race -- same as all other demographics.
In other words, the racism that leads to black men going to jail 6 times as often as white men shouldn't be seen as ANY MORE IMPORTANT than black women going to jail 6 times as often as white women.
Men are more often perpetrators of crime and more often victims of crime because - unlike women - they participate in aggressive and/or high risk behavior. High Risk Behavior: In general, women don't go places at 3AM alone. Men will. That, for example, is one reason black men are more often in vulnerable positions when white cops decide to abuse their power.
In other words, "experiencing more racism" is NOT the main reason black men go to jail more often than black women.
Therefore books like Michelle Alexander's THE NEW JIM CROW and Ava DuVernay's 13TH should have focused on the incarceration of black women just as intensely as they did the incarceration of black men.
"Racism against black people" is not and never has been synonymous with "Racism against black men."
I was disappointed in Ava for leaning into this idea that black men's suffering racism is so very different that it justifies the erasure of black women. But in DuVernay's defense, I felt like 13th was a video version of Michelle Alexanders "THE NEW JIM CROW" and other black books on black history and black current events.
I've yet to read a through comparison of how and when black women go to prison as compared to white women. So DuVernay didn't have nearly as much pre-fabbed material to use. But that's not much of an excuse for someone as educated and accomplished as DuVernay. Documentaries should cover new ground, no regurgitate someone else's mistakes.
The only place I've read a seemingly equal treatment of black women and black men in black history books is when a black feminist did the writing -- and even black feminists can make mistakes and not focus on black women enough. And Ava DuVernay, I'm sorry to say, just proved this.
http://www.theroot.com/13th-and-the-invisibleness-of-black-women-1790857199
MEN, WOMEN, AGGRESSION, AND JAIL Men go to jail a lot more than women. For me, it's easy to suppose that this is because men are more aggressive than women. And it's fairly incredible to me that some people will claim they don't see evidence of this in our society -- regardless of male aggression's source.
For decades if not centuries people, especially male people, have said that men are more "assertive" than women.
- Men and women of yesteryear and this-year will agree when you're talking about men being "go-getters" at work or at play (sports, dating)...if they're not feminists. But when you talk about men being more "aggressive," these same men and women hang back to figure out if you mean "aggressive" in the negative or positive sense before they'll decide to agree or disagree.
If you say men are aggressive at work, male and female people (sans feminists) will agree all day long that they are. Some feminists will argue about whether this "assertiveness" or "aggressiveness" should be entirely attributed to sociology or not
But I say men are more aggressive, whatever the source.
Comparing Aggressions
Men have put women down for "arguing with one another" for decades on end. That may be comparatively true in one sense. But I think women being able to argue is a positive, not a negative.
The vast majority of women CAN argue strenuously, loudly, and for a longish time. The worst thing that will happen -- more often than not-- is that they'll stop talking to one another. When men start hollaring at each other, everybody backs up because they know these men are seconds from coming to blows.
When men are politicians arguing with other men that are politicians, those "blows" are "wars."
Men are more aggressive.
And people who are more aggressive go to jail more often.
Whatever you think the aggressiveness of men is based on -- and it is "aggression"-- men are more aggressive in most all areas of life. Men are the ones that like sports where hitting is involved; it is men that leave the vast majority of dead bodies behind when there is domestic violence; men are the ones robbing most of the houses; men are the ones doing most of the murders.
This is true regardless of race and regardless of country.
On average aggressive white men, here, there, and everywhere out-strip white women at doing crime by a factor of 6 to 1 in most western countries.
CRIME & PRISON: A WORLD WIDE GENDER GAP
There are 84,731 people in prison in Britain and according to the latest figures, 80,915 of them are men. Less than five per cent of this country’s prison population is female, and the trend is similar elsewhere in the western worl
Prisons in Britain: 95% are men; 5% are women
Prisons in France: 3% are women; 97% are men
Prisons in Germany 6% are women; 94% are men
The global median [for women in prison] is 4.3 per cent, according to figures from the International Centre for Prison Studies.
Source
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11342408/Are-men-natural-born-criminals-Prison-numbers-dont-lie.html
The same is true of African American men when you compare them to African American women. Black men go to jail many- times-more as often as black women SIMILAR TO white men go to jail many-more-times as often as white women. In fact, white men go to jail 12 to 13x more than white women WHILE black men "only" go to jail 6 times as often as black women.
Therefore, there is no justification for attributing the high numbers of black men in prison as compared to black women to "black men experiencing more racism." The gap between black men and black women in jail is about gender, not race -- same as all other demographics.
If male aggressiveness of white men had them going to jail twice as often as white women but black men were going to jail eight times as often as black women, then maybe we'd have to look at black men experiencing "more racism."
But that's not nearly the case.
Men are nearly always upwards of 94% of those going to prison regardless of country. Men are always many multiples more of the people in jail than the women regardless of race or country.You can see the racism effects of who is sent to prison when you compare black men to other men, including white men SAME AS you can see the racism effects when you compare different demographics of women in jail
In other words, the racism that leads to black men going to jail 6 times as often as white men shouldn't be seen as ANY MORE IMPORTANT than black women going to jail 6 times as often as white women.
- This gap between black women and white women has been decreasing in recent years. White women have been closing the gap between themselves and white men and every other demographic. They are going to jail more and more often for whatever reason. (It could be due to the near economic crash of 2007/2008. When people are broke, desperation, the willingness to be aggressive and crime probably increases. Since President Obama had brought unemployment down so low --for white people anyway, white female criminality may decrease; black women going to jail for being black may go back to being 6x as often as white women -- if white racism constant and increasing under Trump. We'll see. )
What black men experience from white men,
that leads them to go to jail more often than white men
is based on racism for sure.
But I'd also guess that, in part,
what black men experience from white men
is also based on white men expressing
a hyper-masculininity type competitiveness
that's "normal" in a patriarchal society
I'll never forget seeing video of that white cop that grabbed a black man by the shirt and held on to him while "just talking" to him...while that black man was NOT under arrest.
The black man took off his shirt trying to get that white cop's hands off him. That white cop grabbed him again anyway. To the black man's credit, he didn't take the bait. He did not punch that white cop's lights out like that white cop deserved.
That white cop was communicating in a type of hyper-masculinity competitive language, "My dick is bigger than yours. I have power over you. You can't do anything about it." I can't help but think that cowards like Darren Wilson are expressing the same thing when they shoot unarmed black men that "don't know their place." And I think a lot of wars and dropping bombs are men expressing the same things to one another.
By the way, I don't think it's anywhere near a coincidence that white cops starting shooting black people, mostly men, like they were going out of style while the most powerful man in the land was black -- President Obama. A black man with power over all white men, was something some white men could not stand still for....some, as cops, shot black people. Other's voted for an overt racist to be president the very first chance they got.
Only time will tell if I was right about this: It might be evident quite soon in the fact that cops shoot a lot fewer black and brown men now that the rich white Supremacist is president; when white people are scared due not having power, hey get violent. The authorities, the cops, the leading edge of white supremacy ought to be calmer now while the white joe six packs are emboldened to more overt acts of racism. We'll have to wait and see.
But I digress
Men are more often perpetrators of crime and more often victims of crime because - unlike women - they participate in aggressive and/or high risk behavior. High Risk Behavior: In general, women don't go places at 3AM alone. Men will. That, for example, is one reason black men are more often in vulnerable positions when white cops decide to abuse their power.
In other words, "experiencing more racism" is NOT the main reason black men go to jail more often than black women.
Black men versus black women is not the comparison you make if you want to talk about whether white supremacy is having more or less of an effect on convictions and jail terms. Instead you compare one male demographic to another male demographic. You compare men to men AND you compare women to women
Black men go to jail 6 times as often as white men.
Black women to go jail 6 times as often as white women.
Therefore books like Michelle Alexander's THE NEW JIM CROW and Ava DuVernay's 13TH should have focused on the incarceration of black women just as intensely as they did the incarceration of black men.
"Racism against black people" is not and never has been synonymous with "Racism against black men."
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| The Increase Women In Prison and The Browning Of Women in Prison |
I was disappointed in Ava for leaning into this idea that black men's suffering racism is so very different that it justifies the erasure of black women. But in DuVernay's defense, I felt like 13th was a video version of Michelle Alexanders "THE NEW JIM CROW" and other black books on black history and black current events.
I've yet to read a through comparison of how and when black women go to prison as compared to white women. So DuVernay didn't have nearly as much pre-fabbed material to use. But that's not much of an excuse for someone as educated and accomplished as DuVernay. Documentaries should cover new ground, no regurgitate someone else's mistakes.
The only place I've read a seemingly equal treatment of black women and black men in black history books is when a black feminist did the writing -- and even black feminists can make mistakes and not focus on black women enough. And Ava DuVernay, I'm sorry to say, just proved this.
http://www.theroot.com/13th-and-the-invisibleness-of-black-women-1790857199
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