The Social Standing of Women of Color in the United States: Investigating the Struggles of Women of Color in Climbing the Success Ladder Starmecca Grier Course: Women and Gender Studies Capstone Professor: Ruth Maher Student: Starmecca Grier Essay: The Social Standing of Women of Color in the United States: Investigating the Struggles of Women of Color in Climbing the Success Ladder
Assignment: For this assignment, students were asked to conduct formal, objective research on a subject relative to their major and within the Community & Social Justice sphere.
Introduction
For instance, African American people have notably dominated the headlines regarding fatal encounters with law enforcement officers. The widely covered case of George Floyd perfectly exemplifies the degree to which most black people have experienced brutality at the hands of law enforcement officers. Suppose that one is a woman of color. Sandra Bland was racially profiled during a traffic stop, sent to jail, and was later found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas with very few statements on her death. Breonna Taylor was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment when at least seven police officers forced entry into her home.
Historically, women, in comparison to men, have borne the brunt of subjugation and discrimination in the United States. Most women have been compelled to deal with numerous experiences of discrimination and prejudice for ages. Even now, sufficient objective indicia demonstrate that most women still experience various forms of gender-based discrimination. Thus, women of all ethnic groups have a common denominator with women of color but for the purpose of this paper, the focus will be on black women. As per extant evidence, most minority communities – especially black people – have experienced different forms of racial bias. Such discrimination varies across different aspects of society.
While most American women have been discriminated against in one way or another, black women particularly 53
