There is little doubt concerning the fact that the notions of gender and race are some of the most complicated social matters that have been discussed in society for centuries. However, nowadays, there exists a common misbelief that the abolition of segregation and slavery, along with the progress made in the context of women’s and ethnic minorities’ fundamental rights, marked the elimination of racism in society. Considering the works of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Judith Ortiz Cofer, one may rightfully assume that being a female representative of any ethnic minority remains a devastating challenge for the vast majority of modern women who are overwhelmed with implicit bias.
To begin with, when reflecting on the woman’s image in society, few people can deny the fact that women were forced to involuntarily choose their battle to prove that their looks and body image did not define their cognitive skills and life choices. However, a woman who represents an ethnic minority finds herself simultaneously in two battles that are doing their best to destroy one’s inner perception of herself. As Cofer (572) reflects in her writing, to belong to the community, she felt like she had to explicitly resent her ancestry. However, even when the woman opts for resentment of one’s ethnic affiliation, she remains objectified and sexualized. Just as Cofer (579) emphasizes the issue of Hispanic women being perceived as the ones “of ill fame,” the female representatives of other minorities experience the weight of similar labels. For example, Japanese Americans are sometimes called a “model minority” due to their achievements and ability to succeed in society. Still, such a label primarily defines men, whereas Japanese women continue to become overtly sexualized by media.
The modern media context pays much attention to the advocacy of body image diversity and equal perception of the body regardless of gender and race. However, the aspect of intelligence, which is less covered by media, remains a significant challenge for women of different races. In Coates’ book, there is an excerpt that dwells on the narrator’s recollection of him meeting his future wife. He described her as a “kind of black girl who’d been told as a child that she had better be smart because her looks wouldn’t save her and then told as a young woman that she was really pretty for a dark-skinned girl” (Coates 65). Thus, the author realized that being raised as a Black woman presupposed the risk of belonging nowhere from the moment of birth.
Moreover, Coates himself realized that although the very fact of being Black robbed somebody of their own body, it was Black women who experienced the robbery at its finest. The notion of robbery here stands for the fact that Black people implicitly become responsible for every action committed by the Black community, meaning that rediscovery of one’s true body might require much more effort in the long run. In this scenario, women are the ones being robbed twice, as they are deprived of self-identity at the same time when they are expected to show the world the combination of beauty, intelligence, and being smart enough to seem gullible and fragile in specific situations. Thus, considering the scope of the stigma that overwhelms the lives of women of different races, it would be reasonable to conclude that this intersectionality continues to impose a moral struggle for women from the moment of birth.
References
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between You and Me. Spiegel & Grau, 2015.
Cofer, Judith Ortiz. “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria”, pp. 571-579. n.d. Web.