Being a Target

In America, it is one thing to be black and another thing to be a woman, but it definitely a very unique experience being a black woman. In an article in the Chicago Tribune, Janice Neumann describes the way in which African American women in the medical profession have succeeded despite adversity. Neumann interviewed multiple African American women as part of a Yale School of Medicine project. In her interviews, she discovered that the women not only had to overcome racism in order to become successful physicians, but sexism as well. Reading this article, I immediately empathized with the women who struggled to obtain success, because I have had personal experiences which have made it clear to me that the combination of my race and gender make it more difficult for me to achieve certain goals than some of my counterparts. One of those experiences in particular occurred while I was studying abroad in Madrid, Spain.

“Why can’t men take no for an answer?” Taylor asked me as we were running out of a club into the foggy air in the middle of the night. This experience that made me very aware of my race and gender actually involved an American man although it was in Madrid.  It was one night of many in one of Madrid’s many vibrant night clubs. I went to the night club with three of my friends. Two were male and one was female but they were all African-American. We were all dancing and having a great time when a tall white man bumped into me a spilled some of his drink onto my shoes. “I am so sorry!” He exclaimed, apologizing immediately after, and I told him that it was fine. For some reason the man took my forgiveness as an opportunity to hit on me. When I informed the man that I was not interested, he walked away and yelled, “You stupid black bitch!” as he stormed off.  I did not even have time to react before my two male friends asked me what he said. I informed him what the man had just said to me and before I could object, my two friends followed him into the bathroom. My other female friend and I ran after them but of course could not enter the men’s restroom. From outside of the door we could hear loud banging and grunting. I screamed from outside for my friends to get out of the bathroom. The next thing I knew, the man who had just verbally harassed me walked out of the bathroom with blood leaking from his nose. Shortly after, my male friends walked out of the bathroom unharmed. Security began to gather so we all ran out of the club. I was in complete shock. I had never experienced anything like that in my life. 

            The next day, I began to reflect on what had occurred the night before. I questioned why I was verbally attacked. I went from blaming myself, to ultimately realizing that it was much bigger than me. American society and media hypersexualizes women, and especially black women. The man felt comfortable making advances at me even though they were not invited, for a reason. The more I began to reflect on the incident, the more I realized that my race and gender played a key role in provoking the attack. It was not my reaction and it was out of my control. “You stupid black bitch!” I replayed the words in my head over and over again. He made it a point to degrade me not only for my race, but my gender as well. As angry as I was, I could understand that it was not completely his fault. It all boils down to the way that as Americans, we are socialized. It is our responsibility as a society to call out misrepresentations of people of color and women, especially in the media.