Introduction
Racial injustice dominates the US society, denying minority groups essential services, including quality healthcare services. One of the most affected groups is black women who continue to experience various social inequalities, including physical and sexual assault and poor healthcare. White supremacy has suppressed the voice of black women in society rendering government institutions ineffective in addressing challenges experienced by back women. However, there is a significant development of activist groups that aim to advocate for the rights and concerns of black women (Bartholomew et al., 2018). This paper argues that despite the laxity of government institutions in addressing issues affecting black women, activist groups have been effective in sensitizing black women on their rights and guiding them to get social justice. This paper discusses the thesis statement based on the themes of racial healthcare disparities and selective birth control in the United States.
Black Women’s Rights
The gap between black women and their white counterparts in the quality of healthcare services continues to widen significantly. Racism has been one of the major obstacles preventing black women from accessing quality healthcare. Most African-American women experience unfavorable healthcare determinants, including poor education, lack of employment, and poor housing (Taylor, 2020). I perceive white supremacy among white healthcare providers to be another significant factor contributing to healthcare disparity.
The healthcare providers have widely disregarded black women, especially those requiring maternal healthcare compared to white women. As a result, more deaths result from pregnancy in black women than in their white counterparts. For instance, in Linda Villarosa’s article Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis, Simone Landrum delivers a dead child because she did not receive adequate care from her doctor. Besides experiencing severe symptoms, the doctor did give her the quality services she needed. According to the Landrum, “…he warned her that he was planning to go out of town and told her that he could deliver the baby by C-section that day if the wished, six weeks before her early January due date” (Villarosa, 2018). This statement demonstrates professional negligence that presents a greater risk to Landrum. The doctor is insensitive to the patient’s health because she is a black woman.
However, social activist groups have proved essential in ensuring that black women seeking maternal care do not experience what Landrum endured. Besides advocating for the rights of black women. Activists groups have been sensitizing these women and providing them with the necessary care they cannot obtain in the hospitals. For instance, during her second pregnancy, Landrum is given the essential maternal care at Birthmark Doula Collective that enables her to conceive successfully (Villarosa, 2018). The institution’s founder, Latona Giwa, is an African American woman determined to offer the necessary care to expectant black women seeking quality healthcare. Giwa is one of the many activists providing services that the government should be delivering. Therefore, despite being neglected by society, black women find care and hope in the activists advocating for their rights.
Black women have been subjected to selective birth control programs to control the black population and promote white supremacy. I think the agenda of the eugenics movement is still in practice in the modern world. Eugenics and racism represent the same ideology of white supremacy. Therefore, the existence of racism in contemporary society creates a conducive environment for the thriving of the eugenics agenda (Stojanović, 2019). The movement has evolved and presented itself in the form of contraceptives. Black women have been victims of defective contraceptives that prevented them from having children in the future. However, the black activists who have been victims play a significant role in educating the unsuspecting women on the need to have freedom over their bodies.
Black activists have been at the forefront of addressing the concerns about the birth control methods being subjected to black women. For instance, the co-founder of SisterSong Women of Color and human rights activists Loretta Ross discovered at 23 that she could not conceive because the IUD she was using altered her reproductive system. In her article Birth Justice & Population Control, Ross says, “this theory was created by Black women because we fight for the right to have the children that we want to have because we’re always subjected to strategies of population control” (Ross, 2015). I believe that the initial goal of the birth control methods was to discriminate against the black community and prevent its growth. Therefore, the existence of contraceptives and policies that limit the ability of black women to decide on having children is a eugenics agenda that aims to propagate white supremacy. However, the mass awareness conducted by the black activists has been essential in sensitizing women on their rights and freedom, thus reducing their vulnerability to such selective policies.
Conclusion
In conclusion, racial injustice has significantly affected black women and denied the majority of them access to essential services, including quality maternal healthcare services. However, activists have played a significant role in advocating for equality and educating these women on their rights. Additionally, activist groups have provided black women with the quality services they lack in hospitals. Furthermore, women have often been subjected to birth control strategies that have destroyed their reproductive systems. However, activists groups are sensitizing black women on their reproductive rights and having freedom over their bodies.
References
Bartholomew, M. W., Harris, A. N., & Maglalang, D. D. (2018). A call to healing: Black Lives Matter movement as a framework for addressing the health and wellness of Black women. Community Psychology in Global Perspective, 4(2), 85-100.
Stojanović, M. (2019). Eugenics. Facta Universitatis, Series: Law and Politics.
Taylor, J. K. (2020). Structural racism and maternal health among Black women. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 48(3), 506-517.
Ross, L. J. (2015). Birth justice and population control. In Birthing Justice (pp. 72-80). Routledge.
Villarosa, L. (2018). Why America’s black mothers and babies are in a life-or-death crisis. The New York Times Magazine, 11.