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Black Women's Blueprint Study

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The US historical records tell the unfortunate story of institutionalized and prevalent sexual abuse of African American women. The legal system itself was insufficient to protect them. Excuses such as Black Women's hypersexuality were used to justify lack of justice for rape victims. As a result, these women became habitual of this brutal culture, and for a long time did not fight back. Things have improved in recent times, but compared with other races in the US, sexual abuse among African American women is alarmingly high.

Legislation on Sexual Abuse Violence
According to Black Women’s Blueprint study, 60% of black girls have experienced sexual abuse before they turn 18 (Axtell, 2012). The two major legislations for prevention of sexual …show more content…

Whenever there was an incidence of rape reported, sardonically the victim (black woman) was deemed responsible because she was perceived as the initiator. A sadistic twist to this situation was that the white man was perceived unsafe from a black women's unwanted sexual advances (Manatu, 2002). Often the perpetrators of sexual abuse were in the position of power in the society, therefore they did not have any effective means to tell the world what they were going through. The impact of sexual violence is unique to every community. The black community faces many barriers in coping with the aftermath of sexual violence because of dealing with the pre-existing vulnerabilities and preconceived notions about their …show more content…

Secondly, awareness about such issues and the law will help either prevent such actions or will provide immediate assistance for the victims. Educating young black women about possible scenarios and how best to cope with them is a highly effective strategy. For instance, educating the African-American women that if someone pressures them into having sexual relations with them, it is not their fault. They are not supposed to feel guilty, historically the culture imposed this mentality among the women of this community. As mentioned by Tillman, Bryant-Davis, Smith & Marks (2010), the services available for sexual assault victims are underutilized by the Black women, which means that a culturally appropriate strategy is due to help this

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