Misogynoir is Black Women’s Other Pandemic, and it’s time to admit that
In many ways, misogynoir is Black women’s other pandemic. We are experiencing the effects of COVID-19 while still grappling with the effects of femicide and its subsidiaries.
Photo by EZEKIXL OLUWATOBI AKINNEWU on Pexels.com
If we have learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that Black women are unsafe. In fact, Black women seem to be more unsafe because of the pandemic. FOIA data obtained from the Chicago Police Department* shows that Black women aged 26 were more likely to be victims of femicide from 2019 to 2023. Behind them, Black women 18 and 22 were tied. Finally, Black women aged 21 and 28 trailed closely behind.
Although our data only focuses on Chicago, it has nationwide implications. Really, Black women are not allowed to be victims, and this could be based on the Sapphire Caricature. This characterizes Black women as “rude, loud, malicious, stubborn, and overbearing,” the Jim Crow Museum writes on their website. In society, the Sapphire caricature is used as justification for the violence Black women experience.
What we also see is that young women are victims of violence. Megan Thee Stallion was 25 when she was shot. Breonna Taylor was 26 when she was murdered. Youth is a recurring theme in these women’s stories. I’ll start with Breonna.
When we tragically lost Breonna Taylor to police violence, there were memes surrounding her death – memes we didn’t see with the tragic killing of George Floyd. As we pointed out in a previous article, the lack of care for Black women on social media permeates into society’s lack of care for Black women. In Taylor’s case, it was life threatening; she did not receive medical care while she was breathing five minutes after police shot her, according to CNN. Flash forward three years, and we are still begging for protection.
Moreover, when we are victims of violence, misinformation begins to spread to justify the violence against us. For Megan Thee Stallion, Tory Lanez’s three year hate campaign was fueled by media bloggers who cast doubt in her allegations based on false reports – namely Milagro Gramz and DJ Akademiks. NBC News reported on the misinformation with the trial, and Kat Tenbarge and Char Adams wrote:
In May, Gramz posted an image of an LAPD report from Peterson’s arrest stating that the first doctor to see Pete “confirmed laceration due to stepping on glass.” The information was recorded before bullet fragments were discovered in Pete’s feet during surgery, but bloggers and podcasters like DJ Akademiks presented Gramz’s post alongside conspiracy theories that Pete wasn’t shot.
Kat Tenbarge and Char Adams, NBC News
This was a high-profile example of the misogynoir that Black women face in everyday life. In many ways, misogynoir is Black women’s other pandemic. We are experiencing the effects of COVID-19 while still grappling with the effects of femicide and its subsidiaries. Another example I think of happened last summer.
While at Maxwell’s in Chicago, Carlishia Hood and Jeremy Brown got into an argument. When Brown started violently beating Hood, her son got her gun from the car and killed Brown. Afterward, there was once again misinformation spreading, as in Megan Thee Stallion’s case. In this case, an initial security video showed the 14-year-old boy killing Brown, which some said was at the direction of Hood. Yet, when witness videos came out, they provided more context, which showed that Brown had punched Hood in the head several times; this new information revealed that the son was protecting his mother from violence.
Nonetheless, Hood spent five days in jail for contributing to delinquency, and her son was charged with first degree murder. This was based on security footage and witness testimony. Yet, when the new context was provided, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office dropped the charges against the mother and son, CBS News reported.
I want to focus on the witness testimony for a second. To me, it’s a jarring example of the bystander effect. This woman was being violently beaten in front of multiple men, but it took a teenager who was related to her to do the right thing. The men in this scenario were bystanders who did not intervene in the situation until it turned fatal. Then, they lied to the police and contributed to the unjust imprisonment of a mother and son.
This is the danger of misogynoir. It can literally ruin lives.
Months later, there was another high-profile case of misogynoir that occupied the news cycle. In Houston, TX, content creator Roda Bashe shared a video of herself in a hospital with a swollen face. This was because she was hit in the face by a brick for rejecting a man.
Afterward, misinformation once again spread. This time, it was alleged that Bashe was going around “slapping white people,” but these were satirical, consensual skits. But that’s the thing. Some men don’t understand consent, which is why Bashe was hit with the brick. Her perpetrator couldn’t take no for an answer, and he reacted violently.
Then, when she spoke out about it online, other men tried to justify the violence by using old videos that were recorded consensually. Therein lies the problem. Black women are unprotected, unless by children or other Black women. At this point, we are past debates about Black women needing protection because that has been made obvious by the examples we see on social media. Moving forward, we need action.
To start, I will leave you with a question: what will you do to protect Black women?
Editor’s note: there were some holes in the data from the Chicago Police Department, but we use it to make the point that Black girls are victims of femicides more foten
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