Molly Schmidt

4-27-14
Research Paper
The Injustice Minority Women Face
How did it come about that the world placed the cracker at a higher worth than the
hummus? The voyage to India, which led to the accidental intrusion into America, was
founded on the basis of finding spices, and yet people live in a world where meatloaf and
saltines takes precedence. To top it all off, the supposedly superior mayonnaise is joined by
the power of the supposedly superior male sex, leaving not a crumb for women of spice. An
androcentric world alone is enough to hold women underwater, but the addition of a global
racist system marks a watery grave for minority women everywhere. The world expresses
its hate for minority women everyday, and it is because white people everywhere have
internalized stigmatized, fetishized concepts of minority women. It is high time that white
people stop denying the obvious, awful truth of their ways, and start eradicating their
poisonous views. In a world ravaged by mayonnaise, our only solace lies in the spices of the
world.
Not all white people are like that! White Proverb
White people almost always take the defensive side rather than truly discuss the
problems in the system with the oppressed people in the system. White people are often
cited as claiming [Minorities] are employed, arent they? And Well how is it fair that
[minorities] have affirmative action and BET? The bolder white person might say,
[Minorities] hardly even speak English, and they commit all the crime around here. If they
dont like it, why dont they just go back to their country? Albeit, most minorities do not
fear for their life when they leave their house, and most do not heckled or turned away from
places of business. Yes, things have improved since the Civil War. But it is clear that
minorities are not on equal footing with white people. The problem is that white people are
not willing to change and remain ignorant of the struggle that minority women go through,
or they may tell themselves that someone else will take care of it. White people benefit
from the system, so they may not see the adverse effects or they do not care.
White people are willing to say that they are colorblind or ALL people have
problems they must face when they discuss racism with minorities. White people do this to
reflect responsibility from themselves and rather to falsely assuage minorities, a timeless
artifice that defends rather than accept guilt. White people will try to express common
ground and not stray from there while discussing such topics. White women would agree
that it is unfair that women get paid less than men. They would agree that women are often
mistreated and they should be helped. They would agree it is hard being a woman of any
color. Most white people would agree that slavery was horrible and that the Holocaust was
evil, as well.
With an argosy of white excuses and white disregard, minorities find themselves
drowning in a world that does not seem to be for them. It is apparent in our society that
minorities are stigmatized and fetishized. When a white person says, I have jungle fever,
they are not expressing their love for black people, but rather their objectifying indifference
to their feelings. When a white person demurely says Im just not attracted to black girls
with a shrug of their shoulders, they are not expressing a quirk, but rather a racial
preference i.e., a complete dismissal of every girl of every size, shape, and shade of black,
which is racism defined. One will notice (or maybe one will not if one is white), that white
people will say things that are similarly problematic as the examples provided, but will not
be reprimanded. This is in part because white people run the world, and also because
minorities are rarely given a voice, and even then they are rarely heard. Take Paula Deen for
example:
Paula Deen was a television personality from the Food Network where she cooked
Southern food. Her whole image was centered on her dazzling blue eyes, charming southern
drawl and gorgeous Georgian home and kitchen. She was fired in 2013 when her employees
came forward claiming that she was racist and demeaning towards them (Coates). Deen
was involved in a heavily publicized employee discrimination dispute, which was astonishingly
dropped. During her deposition, she revealed that she has of course used the N-word in her
lifetime. She said that the times have changed and that word is not acceptable anymore, and that
she never meant ill will by using it.
Right.
Granted, saying the N-word forty years ago would not have cost a white person their
job or their reputation. Using such slurs was common speech back then. However, it being the
twenty first century, Deens defense goes out the window. The N- word was racist back then,
and its just as racist now. Using a slur, especially the N-word, reduces a minority to the period
in history when that slur was used to maliciously oppress them. Truthfully, slurs today still
actively oppress minorities. A black woman is no longer a person when she is called the N-
word. She is no longer the mother of two, the dentist, the gym member, the loving wife of a
policeman, or the loving daughter of two proud parents. She is a color, an undesirable, less than
human, color. Slurs hurt and are a very easy indicator of a racist. White people sometimes claim
that the N-word is not hurtful if it is spelt with an -a ending and not an -er ending. White
people love to add technicalities to words they invented to dehumanize a group of people so that
they may use it when they listen to rap and call all of their white friends by it as a joke. A similar
joke as the one white people made at the expense of black people called black face. But, one
might ask, about the white people who would never utter such vulgar, hateful words. The ones
who are on their side, the ones who love their culture?
Katy Perry is a prime example of cultural appropriation, the act of taking something from
a person of colors culture and using it as some sort of decoration outside of its intended purpose.
The 2013 American Music Awards featured the singer Katy Perry as one of the prime acts, but
households all around America were shocked when they saw her. She wore a satin Japanese
kimono with heavy makeup and danced a traditional dance across the stage and needless to say,
Twitter almost exploded (Katy Perry accused of racism). Naturally, people called her out for
appropriating Japanese culture, but surprisingly (or not so surprisingly), many of her fans jumped
to her defense. Many people of non Japanese descent claimed that she was simply wearing a
costume and making the look look beautiful as a nod to the Japanese culture.
First of all, what her defenders do not understand is that a kimono is not a costume. It is a
traditional Japanese garment historically worn by Geishas. Perrys sexualization of the kimono is
offensive, not edgy or different. The sexualization of the kimono only perpetuates the
fetishization that Japanese and other Asian women face every day. The stereotype of demure,
submissive Asian women has lived on since World War II when American soldiers invaded
Japan. There is even a rumor that still exists, although it has died down since the War, that these
women have sideways vaginas. Asian women, along with other minority women, are exotified
and fetishized commonly in the world.
It is an anomaly how white people can hate minorities but at the same time want to be
them. The exotification of their skin, their lips, their bodies, is all over the media, and yet it is
these same features that they are ridiculed and shamed for. Ever since slavery, white men have
oggled at black women, and so they raped them, further dehumanizing them, stunting them, and
killing their spirits. Stereotypes of promiscuity follow black and Latina women, just as sexual
perversion and submission follow Asian women. Tanning lotion, lip injections, and exercises for
better butts are very popular in our society, and yet the woman on the magazine cover is light
skinned. Magazines are notorious for whitewashing their models, even marketing hair relaxers
with a caramel covered model with loose curls and a thin body (Gerdes). There is a stigma against
very dark skinned women. These are the women who were represented in black face and
pickaninnys. Dark skinned girls have little to no media representation. If asked to name one
television show or book with a black girl as the main character, people would be hard pressed to
name one. This is a problem that minorities face that white people will never understand. When
minority women are represented, it is almost always as a token character who purpotrates a trope
such as strong black woman or very smart Asian. And these girls rarely have a love interest
or a protagonist role. Minority representation is incredibly important for self esteem and body
image because without it, these girls see themselves as less than. Imagine living in a world where
no one on TV looks like you, you do not relate to any character, and you do not have any
hypothetical role models. In fact, just recently the Sweet Brown meme was everywhere,
including CNN. A black woman was interviewed by a local news crew and she answered in ways
viewers deemed humorous such as when she said Good Lord its a fire!. Sweet Brown was
on every Facebook wall, every forwarded email, and amazingly, it seemed to be on every news
channel.White media has never had dark childrens wishes at heart. White politics has never had
people of colors interests at heart, white politics meaning the history of radical white
republicanism, and liberal white racism (A History Of Liberal White Racism). In Ta-Nehisi
Coates article A History of Liberal White Racism, he discusses the history of Democratic
politics dating back to President Wilson, which were full of deals that were founded on a
composite of racism and progressive liberalism (A History Of Liberal White Racism).
Southern allies often joined forces with Republican Progressives to fund progressive bills and
laws supporting unions and maternity and infancy welfare, but never to help black people. In fact,
they even actively voted against an anti lyniching law (A History Of Liberal White Racism).
Socially and politically America has fought minorities on every front, but truthfully, why would
white people want to help? White people are the sole benefactors of the system, and so they either
do not care or they remain unaware of the plight minorities go through. They may not be aware of
every struggle the average woman of color faces, but they are aware of some of the obvious
things.
White people will acknowledge that the world is harsh on ALL women. I would agree
with this as well. I would also concede that women go through bouts of sexual, physical, verbal,
and emotional abuse that are so horrible that it does not matter what color one is. My position
remains, however, that a woman of color faces the common plight of woman in addition to the
asperity of being a minority. Minority women are much more likely to be trafficked, exploited
sexually, and abused than white women (Human Trafficking). Minority women are more likely to
be assaulted, especially with racial intents, such as a female circumcision like those uncommonly
performed in Africa and the Middle East (Female Circumcision). Minority women are less likely
to hold a position of rank in a large corporation in America (Seward). It is apparent that minority
women are not on equal footing with white women, and anteceding that notion, women are not on
equal footing with men. This puts minority women at the bottom of the barrel, which is from
where we must lift them up. It is high time that we elevate our women, more importantly those of
color.
Seeing as how it is 2014 and hate crimes still exist, there is segregated pornography, and
there are current movies with black face and yellow face, it is obvious that how things are run
now is not how they should continue to run. In Alveda Kings article, Obama's Racism
Conversation Past Due, she calls for the days where we can live as one human race. She quotes
her famous father with we must learn to live together as brothers or perish as fools, and then she says
If we are one race with varying ethnic distinctions, then we can stop fighting and exercise brotherly and
sisterly, humanly love. While this is an excellent end goal, it is certainly not our current goal. We cannot
be one until we lift up our minority women. This means that we must praise, celebrate, represent, and love
these women. We must represent them in our media; we must leave no slur unpunished, no appropriative
action uncalled-out. We must educate white people, but not by the mouths of people of color, seeing as how
white people never seem to listen to them. We need white people to spread the knowledge to other white
people. We must educate our children against racism, and not taint their minds. We must educate children
of color on their history, and their worth. We must never let another child grow up to hate their nose, their
hair, their eyes, or their complexion. The white people who run the government and the money will never
give up the system that makes them millions of dollars. It is up to white allies and united people of color to
empower other people of color so that they all may rise to stand on level footing with the white people who
run the world and defuse the toxic system. We need a generation of antidisestablishmentarianists to actively
combat the system. We must apostatize the white dominance in the world and replace it with love for all
peoples.























Works Cited
Molly Schmidt 4B
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King, Alveda C. "Obama's Racism Conversation Past Due." Newsmax 23 July 2013.
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Kite, Lindsay. "Media Images of Beauty Hurt Ethnic Women." The Culture of Beauty.
Ed. Louise I. Gerdes. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. Opposing Viewpoints.
Rpt. from "Beauty Whitewashed: How White Ideals Exclude Women of Color."
BeautyRedefined.net 1 Feb. 2011. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 3 Apr.
2014.
Seward Christopher. "DIVERSITY: Many boards lack women: Major corporations have
female directors, but smaller firms lag.." Atlanta Journal and Constitution. 16
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