In American society, a movement towards equal status between the ethnic minority and the majority has progressed significantly during the past decades. However, racism still occurs. Insulting and discriminatory statements and behaviors aimed at ethnic minority individuals, although perhaps have decreased over time, have not disappeared. Regarding intimate partner violence, African American women face a lot of challenges. According to Mugoya et al., (2020), African American women had a higher rate of Intimate partner violence than did White women only among the middle class. The authors' research study reveals that while 27% of the white women in the country complain of intimate partner violence, 46% of the African American report of having experienced intimate partner violence. The underlying fact is that the impact of racism must be considered when understanding intimate partner violence victimization and offending in society. Clements et al., (2019) argues that the existence of racism in American society results in a potential unwillingness of Black women to implicate Black men out of perceived betrayal of their already oppressed race. In the study by Caetano et al. (2019), the authors claim that African American women also fear the potential discrimination and perceived racism experience from the authorities, and these are some of the factors that contribute to them keeping their intimate partner violence experiences private.
African American women have experienced a lot of oppression due to their color that makes them vulnerable to abuse and racial discrimination, as well as being the victim of intimate partner violence in their lives. According to the research by Valandra, Higgins, Murphy-Erby& Brown (2019), 47% of African American women have experienced intimate partner violence. The intimate partner violence manifests itself in many forms regarding African American women in society. According to Novisky & Peralta, (2015 ), African American women are subjected to acts of physical abuse by their partners. According to current literature, more than four in ten Black women experience physical violence from an intimate partner during their lifetimes. As Novisky & Peralta, (2015 ), African American women also are exposed to a high rate of sexual abuse in the country both at home and at work. It begins with physical assaults that result in rape cases and a high rate of brutality by the male partner. According to statistics by Jiwatram-Negrón& El-Bassel (2019), African American women suffer more health-wise due to Sexual violence than among women overall.
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Other than the physical assaults and abuse, most African American women depend on their husbands for financial support and thus lack economic independence. The lack of economic freedom is a factor that exposes African American women to partner violence in their marriages. Also, the low financial status leads to limited access to healthcare; both the perpetrator and victims are less likely to receive treatment. In such a situation, the frustration continues, and this perpetuates the circle of intimate partner violence among such families.
Lastly, most African American women who experience intimate partner violence are not accustomed to reporting such cases. In a meta-analysis research study focusing on intimate partner violence comparing among races, Jiwatram-Negrón& El-Bassel (2019) reveals that African American women are least likely to report the incidences of partner violence. The Latino American women, Mexican American women, and the Caucasian women are more likely to report such cases. According to the authors, African American women fail to report such instances because of the level of racial discrimination and police mass harassment and incarceration that is taking place in America. For these women, they perceive the police officers to be racially biased and feel that reporting such cases are likely to land them into more racial challenges ( Lilly, Howell & Graham-Bermann, 2015). For them, they prefer keeping such violence private because they think that their needs are likely to be less addressed by those who do not understand them and do less to value their race.
Levels of Oppression
The African American women are the victims of not only the intersectional conflict in the society but also the intergenerational trauma or the Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS). At their racial level, these women suffer in the hands of majority races, such as the white people in society. They also suffer from different institutions where they work. They tolerate low payments and also have to doge the instances of racial utterances and mistreatments due to their vulnerability created by their color ( Roberson & Wallace, 2016). At the same time, they also have to suffer from their partners who, equally due to their mistreatment they undergo due to racism, subject them to extreme physical and verbal brutality in their families. Moreover, these people have generational problems dating back to the first time the first African American arrived in Virginia in the year 1654. It is due to such generation that has haunted them to date, placing them at the position where they have to endure internal, institutional, and interrelationship oppression in the country, and understanding such oppressions could be necessary for the social workers to tackle them.
Internal oppression
The question of whether African American women feel the sense of inner oppression and powerlessness to fight intimate partner violence is unquestionable. In a study conducted in the year 2015 by the Violence Policy Center, the study finds that Black women were two and a half times more likely to be murdered by men than their White counterparts. Such a statistic point to the severity of the state of insecurity that brings fear that clouds these women ( Stockman, Hayashi & Campbell, 2015). Due to the high rate of abuse and racial discrimination, African American women, therefore, lack of peace, and this leads to the feeling of internal oppression and exploitation among them.
The internalized oppression is brought about by the Masculinity vs. Femininity culture among African Americans. The culture in the society of the African Americans devalues women while giving men more power to rule over them. It is due to the power the masculinity is granted by the African American culture that culminates in the powerlessness and, thus, the internal oppression that these African American women feel in their communities. From the perception of Lilly, Howell & Graham, (2015 ), women of color, such as African American women, are made to believe that they play a secondary role to men in their relationship. They are made to feel that they play second fiddle roles and, therefore, are not valued in their relationship with men. They have the internal feeling that without them, life will be normal for men, but without men, they may have a lot of challenges to pursue their dreams and live well in society. It is such a feeling that makes them have less power to decide between men, and this leads to the sense of the internal oppression among them.
Like any other women that feel the oppressive force of the men and the societal culture, the African American women develop a lot of distort thinking about themselves and the society regarding their race and their gender. The sense of powerlessness comes in when these women face physical and mental torture that leads to ill health, yet they have less power to control the situations that oppresses them. Furthermore, the sense of ignorance, police brutality, and other institutional oppression leads to distorted thinking because these women feel weak as they do not have the freedom and authority to report the cases that affect their lives.
Interpersonal
Other than internal oppression, a social worker needs to understand that African American women also feel a sense of interpersonal abuse. According to a research study by the Violence Policy Center in the year 2015, the results revealed that more than nine in ten Black female victims knew their killers. It implies that the level of relationship oppression is high among these populations.
The core to the high rate of the relationship oppression among African American women is the perception some of them have develop that men are better than them. Also, some African American women develop the feeling that other races, such as white women, are much better than them. While such perceptions are yet to be proved, it is critical to understand that they lead to low esteem and powerlessness among women, which causes oppression among them.
Also, the sense of low self-esteem and powerlessness to control their situation can explain the reason as to why some African American women have given up in the fight to reduce male dominance in society. According to Caetano et al., (2019) , women suffer in the hands of men because they feel they have no power to define their destiny, and they have to depend on men to survive. As a result, men dominate women in society and view them as people who have to rely on them for their survival. As a result, they use all means of oppression in relationships such as physical and verbal abuse to intimidate women. It explains the reason that makes African American women submissive and the subject of oppression in their relationships .
Institutional
Institutional abuse among African American women stems from the fact that they are one of the racial minorities in the country. A social worker, therefore, needs to understand that in most institutions in areas that are dominated by African American culture, men are justified to dominate women. In such institutions, therefore, men take the leadership position. In a research study by Mugoya et al. (2020) targeting 23 women of color at a Fortune 500 company, the study reveals that only 12% of African American women had an opportunity to rise to top positions in the organizations located at their culture bedrock areas. Also, in such organizations, African American women are the least paid, and it means than other than men dominating them in such institutions, the policies that such institutions pass are racially biased, and this discriminates the African American women in the workplace.
The implication to the social workers, therefore, is that African American women suffer twice in society. First, they suffer because of the domestic violence in their families. In such a racial based community such as America, African American women face both gender and racial discrimination. As a result, frustration builds up, and this could explain the reason why there is a high rate of gender violence among African American families. Unfortunately, African American women fall the victims of such circumstances in society. In America, racism is still a factor that defines those who take lucrative positions in the community and the organizations. Unfortunately, minority groups such as African American women are the victims. In this sense, African American women still find themselves in situations that do not favor them in such organizations.
Intersecting Social Identity
The best way to understand African American women regarding the gender and racism experienced in relationship oppression level is by using the intersectional social identity framework. According to Lewis & Grzanka (2016 ), intersectional social identity is a framework for conceptualizing people or social problems into several discriminations. It is a framework that postulates that social issues come due to many social problems in society. As a social worker, therefore, it is critical to understand that African American women may be suffering from intimate partner violence because of the high rate of racism that African American population experiences in their relationships.
Intersectionality identifies identity makers as female or color, which are used to create complex oppression at the relationship level. In this sense, it can help social workers understand the reasons that make African Americans vulnerable to both racism and gender oppression in their families. For instance, African Americans face racism because they belong to the racial minority in the country. In this sense, the Intersectional framework identifies their color as the source of racial discrimination when they are in a relationship or family. Based on the Intersectionality framework, it can also be critical to understanding that gender is another source of African American discrimination mostly in their relationship ( Lewis & Grzanka, 2016). Because these people belong to a culture that discriminates women, Intersectionality pinpoint color as a source of their oppression. Therefore, social workers will be able to understand stereotypes and prejudice that African American women undergo while in their relationships. Therefore, it will be much easier to work with them if they can understand the situation and the racial and gender experience they face in their relationship and society at large.
Posttraumatic Slave Syndrome
For a social worker also, it is critical to understand that racism among African American women has its roots many years ago when the first slave come into America. It is such a situation that has been haunting them, and this has led to a lot of traumatic experiences among them ( Vil, Vil & Fairfax, 2019 ). At the core of the posttraumatic slave syndrome framework is the fact that it places victims of intimate partner violence into the recovery process. It implies that the framework understands African American women as people who are at the recovery process of the traumatic experience they underwent during the slavery period. As a result, the trauma they experience during such times is still affecting them in the present generation.
For social workers, therefore, understanding the traumatic experiences of African American women is essential in designing the most effective interventions that can help boost their self-esteem and support the fight against the injustice of racism and gender inequality. Also, understanding the model concerning African American women's position in their relationship is critical in understanding the traumatic experiences they face. Such trauma comes due to physical and verbal abuse these women experience in their families, and this can help in developing a comprehensive social formwork that can help address their needs.
Levels of Practice
The social workers have a critical role in educating and sensitizing the African American women about the potential racial and gender challenges they face at the internal, relationship, and institutional levels. As a social worker, coming up with programs targeting African American women can be critical either at the micro, mezzo, or macro level. Despite the level of social work practice, the aim of the social workers should be to reduce the severity of the cases of gender and racial abuse among the African American women experience in society.
Micro-level
At the micro-level, the social workers will be looking at the issues of gender and racial injustices facing women at a personal level. It will involve working with African American women to identify such challenges and also design the best strategies that they can use to curb them. At the micro-level, therefore, a social worker will be working together with the African American women to find healthcare services for their traumatic experience due to domestic violence and also seek medical attention for any physical injuries sustained. At this point, counseling will be critical for these women, and the social workers can either assist them in finding a counselor or engaging them in the counseling process. According to Katz (2015), domestic violence, mostly those involve physical and verbal abuse, leads to mental health challenges for the victims. Therefore, helping African American women cope with the psychological issue resulting from racial and gender discrimination can be critical at this point. Lastly, Roberson & Wallace (2016 ) claim that the micro-level practice should also involve mainly entails direct contact with both the victims and perpetrators of violence.
Mezzo-Level
At the mezzo level, the social worker can choose to work with smaller groups of African American women or institutions such as hospital and gender rights institutions as a way to advocate for the rights of women both within their families and at the workplace institutions. The social workers can form small groups of anti-oppression teams of African American women and advocate for their rights in groups. Social workers can also choose to place these people in a group and provide group counseling. The focus for such counseling should be on a better and healthy relationship and different coping mechanisms among women who have experienced such a nature of discrimination.
The community can be a powerful tool for social workers at this level while advocating for the rights of African American women. The social workers can ally with communities to identify ways to reduce intimate partner violence. Together, they can interview both the victims and the perpetrators to find the best solution for the problem. Also, they can form community polices, such as reporting procedures for the victims and the action to be taken as a community to ensure that the rights of the victims are restored. Finally, forming a partnership with different local institutions such as schools and churches can be a beneficial program for the social workers targeting the mezzo level.
Macro-Level
At the macro-level, social work practices focus on more extensive areas such as the whole city. The impact of such practices targets the entire community or the bigger picture in the organization. Therefore, social workers focusing on this level aim to work with the whole society to sensitize them on the challenge the African American women face in the community, and the best way to reduce the severity of such problems. In such cases, they push for policy formulation and changes at both states and even at national levels to help recognize the challenges of the victims and finding the best framework for dealing with such changes. According to Katz (2015 ), taking part in crafting laws and working with legislators to pass legislation that protects the African American women from racially-based discrimination in the workplace and also protects them against partner violence can also be critical at this stage.
Critical Self-Reflection
From the discussion and the course in general, the course has provided me with an opportunity to focus on African American women as victims of racial and gender oppression. I aim to look into the issues facing this group of population to develop a clear understanding of their problem and find a solution as a social worker. As a result of their racial discrimination history in the country, African American women were perfect for me because they are an example of people who experience a high rate of racial and domestic violence in the country. Understanding their racial and gender challenges would be critical for me as social workers as it will give me the big picture of the racial and gender discrimination situation in the society and the best way to get to the solution. Lastly, I chose intimate partner violence because, in recent years, it has been on the rise, and it is one of the primary reasons for the high rate of divorce and mental issues in the present families. Overall, understanding intimate partner violence among the racially discriminated African American women would give me the chance to navigate and understand my victims better and work with them towards getting the right strategies for such a problem in the future.
References
Caetano, R., Cunradi, C. B., Alter, H. J., Mair, C., &Yau, R. K. (2019). Drinking and intimate partner violence severity levels among US ethnic groups in an urban emergency department. Academic emergency medicine , 26 (8), 897-907.
Clements, C. M., Bennett, V. E., Hungerford, A., Clauss, K., & Wait, S. K. (2019). Psychopathology and coping in survivors of intimate partner violence: Associations with race and abuse severity. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma , 28 (2), 205-221.
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Lewis, J. A., & Grzanka, P. R. (2016). Applying intersectionality theory to research on perceived racism.
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Novisky, M. A., & Peralta, R. L. (2015). When women tell: Intimate partner violence and the factors related to police notification. Violence against women , 21 (1), 65-86.
Roberson, C., & Wallace, P. H. (2016). Family violence: Legal, medical, and social perspectives . Routledge.
Stockman, J. K., Hayashi, H., & Campbell, J. C. (2015). Intimate partner violence and its health impact on ethnic minority women. Journal of Women's Health , 24 (1), 62-79.
Valandra, Higgins, B. M., Murphy-Erby, Y., & Brown, L. M. (2019). An Exploratory Study of African American Men's Perspectives of Intraracial, Heterosexual Intimate Partner Violence Using a Multisystems Life Course Framework. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research , 10 (1), 69-95.
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