Institutional and internalized racism significantly contributes to African American misogyny and domestic violence. The problem is as old as African American slavery and the 19th century Freedmen’s Bureau (Hubbert 2011:129) contains a list of complaints about domestic violence from African American women by their husbands and boyfriends. African American women presently experience domestic violence 35% more than White American women (Hampton, Margarian, and Oliver 2003:536).
African American women have always been considered as a substandard group in the United States (U.S.) and internalized racism influences many African American males to look down upon them. Additionally, institutional racism promotes clinical depression and other mental health issues. This, alongside of poverty and high unemployment rate, directly leads many African American women to experience the backlash abusive relationships.
So what currently maintains the stability of African American misogyny and domestic, violence? Movies, music lyrics, influential misogynist celebrities, and White and internalized African American racists constantly send out offensive messages against African American women. This problem stems from slavery, when the U.S. population were expected to hate and mistreat African American women (Gourdine et al. 2011:58).
References
Gourdine, Ruby M., and Brianna P. Lemmons. 2011. “Perceptions of Misogyny in Hip Hop and Rap: What do the Youths think?.” Journal Of Human Behavior In The Social Environment 21:57-72. Abingdon, OX: Taylor & Francis Group. doi: 10.1080/10911359.2011.533576. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10911359.2011.533576
Hampton, Robert, Lucia Magarian, and William Oliver. 2003, May. “Domestic Violence in the African American Community: An Analysis of Social and Structural Factors.” Violence Against Women 9: 533-557. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Pubications. doi: 10.1177/1077801202250450. http://vaw.sagepub.com/content/9/5/533.abstract
Hubbert, Paulette D. 2011, May 11. “Transforming the Spirit: Spirituality In the Treatment Of the African American Male Perpetrator of Intimate Partner Violence.” Journal Of Religion & Spirituality In Social Work 30:125-143. London, UK: Routledge. doi: 10.1080/15426432.2011.56711. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15426432.2011.567113
Vagianos, Alanna. 2014. “30 Shocking Domestic Violence Statistics that Remind us it’s an Epidemic.” The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/23/domestic-violence-statistics_n_5959776.html