Racism as a factor in violence against females

Growstuff
However, I also suspect that MOnica's last point is true ie that women from some ethnic backgrounds don't report abuse to the police because they don't think anything will be done or they are wary of authority. That means it's difficult to collect accurate data and could mean that perpetuators of DV know there are unlikely to be consequences.
Certainly when I volunteer at one centre, women from some ethnic backgrounds come in to talk about the DV that they suffer, but many would not take it further e.g. to the police, not just because of their husbands, but because of their families.
Do you think their lack of confidence in what the police could do is because the police are racist?
We are a listening ear, offering support where we can but the family/in-laws attitude is often unsupportive or even condemnatory.

I've been thinking about it since I responded to your post growstuff, and yes in that context it is right to define it as racism.

Women who report rape are incredibly brave Meryl and are to be admired for their courage.

As you say Ruanda is a terrible example of rape in a war torn area.

Try looking at this a different way, or what I feel this topic should really be:

Oppression is the root cause of violence.

Let's take sexism and racism which are both forms of oppression. You could say "Most women will experience sexism" and you would be right.

But here is why we cannot concentrate the fight on sexism alone:

We cannot eliminate violence against women unless you eliminate all kinds of violence

So if the focus were only on sexism and racism was not addressed:

Some women would not be getting support due to racism in organisations

Some women would not be believed due to racism in organisations

Some women would still be being abused and attacked due to racism in society.

Other reasons women are oppressed

Sexuality
Gender identity
Age
Disability
Mental health

Add those to race and you can see how many women might be struggling to find support of any kind, not just from men but from other women.

We cannot eliminate violence against women until we eliminate all kinds of violence

The roots are oppression.

Some women face 1 kind of oppression, and some face 2 or 3 or more.

That doesn't put any woman's needs above anyone else's, it simply recognises that this is a fight on more than one front and We must fight all fronts together

What we have to do in order to fight this fight in multiple fronts is understand how they are different and how we are inclusive.

2 examples:

This means access for disabilities whether physical or having services that can be accessed online by deaf or blind people or nursing our vulnerable are safe.

This means fighting racism and understanding how racism or even just ignorance affects women. This means learning to recognise it so we can combat it.

This is how the same fight needs seperate discussions and this is how seperate discussions do not detract from each other.

Smileless
Ruanda being just one example.

Knowing what I know ( through a friend who was raped) I wouldn’t report it.
The chances of the rapist being charged are obscenely low so why put yourself through that.
I’d deal with it myself with the help of friends and family.

Smileless2012

Good point about rape in war torn areas growstuff but still difficult to define as racism.

To be honest, it was an afterthought, but I think it is racism. Conflicts are often caused by some kind of tribalism (ethnic or religious) and fighters sometimes show contempt for captured women in a way they don't show towards women of their own society. It's a way of showing power over the vanquished.

Good point about rape in war torn areas growstuff but still difficult to define as racism.

I suspect that violence against females isn't in itself driven by racism, although that's probably not true in the stories of rape from war-torn areas.

However, I also suspect that MOnica's last point is true ie that women from some ethnic backgrounds don't report abuse to the police because they don't think anything will be done or they are wary of authority. That means it's difficult to collect accurate data and could mean that perpetuators of DV know there are unlikely to be consequences.

In the past couple of years I've read a number of articles about murdered/missing/abused indigenous women in Canada.

The general theme was because these women were from indigenous communities that it somehow didn't really matter and their lives were not so important to law enforcement agencies. As a result of this, abusive partners were able to get away with it.

Rather like the lives of their children who were so abused and even killed in the 'Care' system, after being separated from their families and sent off to be 'civilised'.

Grim.

I'm not sure how it could be determined TBH Baggs.

If it were a serial offender who was white and only attacked non white women or, a non white offender who only attacked white women then yes, that could be viewed as racism.

However, as we know the vast majority of violence against females occurs in the home so is unlikely to be driven by racism.

Thanks, gg. This is one of the things I'd kind of understood before.

Presumably, either black men are treated more leniently if arrested or fewer black women report domestic violence, possibly because they do not expect the police to do anything about it and to not believe them.

by not but

From a bit of Googling it seems that the majority of black/women colour experiencing domestic violence have been attacked/raped by their black/coloured partners/husbands.

Not sure if that should be labelled racism , like all domestic violence it needs to be taken seriously but police and medical staff.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202212/medium-296745-06fe2c28-6089-46d3-b07c-f323913207d9.png https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202212/medium-428093-826ad97e-f343-47d5-94fd-51696f87204a.png

Found this online