Social Identity and Sexual Violence
By Jessica Ohaeri
“ The psychological toll of being a black woman and the difficulties this presents in reaching political consciousness and doing political work can never be underestimated. There is a very low value placed on black women in this society which is both racist and sexist…. We are all damaged merely by virtue of being a black woman”
– Combahee River Collective
The Combahee River Collective, a group of black feminists was formed in 1974. These women were supposed to be societally forgotten, erased by both their gender and their race. In 1977, they wrote a Black Feminist Statementwith the words, “above all else, our politics initially sprang from the shared belief that black women are inherently valuable”.
The collective acknowledges that according to the sexist, racist society that we exist in, to be a woman and to be a black woman is to be at the bottom, However they find strength in this position.
“we might use our position at the bottom, however, to make a clear leap into revolutionary action. If black women were free it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all systems of oppression”
According to the social identity theory in psychology, one’s place in society will dictate their self-esteem. Therefore, black women and girls, should have low self-esteem and self-worth. But the social identity theory is just a theory and there is freedom at the bottom.
I live at the intersection of race and gender. And while I have received the stark societal messages that I am of low value, I refuse to believe that the place that I have been ascribed in society by my body should dictate my self-worth. While there is empirical evidence to support the social identity theory, I believe it is more beneficial to align myself with the freedom that the Combahee River Collective write about.
While the experience of sexism for black women and girls is fundamentally different from that of white women, all women live in a culture of rape. Everywhere around us, the personal power of women is taken away and human beings are reduced to a singular body part. Our culture has enabled men to look at women as a singular body part, a tool for their pleasure that they are entitled to use whenever they want to, no permission necessary.
Tarana Burke, the founder of the #MeToo is all too familiar with lack of value that society has placed on black women and girls. The social identity that women of color have and it’s negative impact on their self-esteem but it does not have to be this way and that is the central foundation of her work.
Self-esteem is related to self-efficacy, the belief that you are capable of something. Burke started her work in school systems working to build up young women and girls. Through her work with these young girls, she began to see the pervasiveness of sexual violence and the devastating toll that it takes among all facets of a young girl’s life. “Sexual violence does not discriminate but the response to that violence does”
We as a society have been trained to recognize trauma in young white girls but not in young black girls.
” You want a leader who raises up the most marginalized members of a group”
All women in society have been told that their place is to make others comfortable, to lower their voice as someone important speaks and to be seen and not heard. All of these roles lack personal agency and power. Sexual assault violently strips one’s personal agency but in our everyday lives, do we let it go?
Women have been socialized to give up their personal power to make men feel better, to prop men up, to make themselves and appropriate amount of small and silent, women are constantly and unknowingly giving up their personal power.
An underlying message that Burke never explicitly said was that of personal power. She does not define herself or any other survivor by what happened to them. She does not owe anyone her story and the details of what happened to her and she encourages others to do the same. She empowers women who feel compelled to share their story in particular spaces on their own admission.
In a world where black and brown girls are constantly getting messages about their inadequacy, lack of worth and subordination, Burke is helping those women reclaim their power.