Past the leisure trade, Black girls’s trauma is repeatedly ignored and pushed to the sidelines – no matter whether or not it’s seen, heard or documented, together with right here within the UK, the place Black girls aren’t solely extra more likely to have skilled bodily and sexual abuse than their white friends, however are additionally much less more likely to be referred by police to specialist companies equivalent to Refuge for help.
A 2023 report from Imkaan and the Centre for Ladies’s Justice reported systemic failures when it got here to defending Black and minority ethnic girls going through home violence.
“Not solely is our trauma not taken severely, however the identical establishments and techniques which are supposedly right here to “defend us” perpetrate and reinforce this violence.”
The report, which seemed into the murders of 44 Black and minoritised girls because of home murder or suicide, acknowledged, “the controversy on racism inside the felony justice system stays principally silent on the under-protection of Black and minoritised girls, which exists alongside the over-policing of Black and minoritised communities.”
Not solely is our trauma not taken severely, the identical establishments and techniques which are supposedly right here to “defend us” seemingly perpetrate and reinforce this violence, additional traumatising us.
We see this within the Metropolitan Police’s appalling response within the case of Jocelyn Agyemang, a Black girl who was each wrongfully arrested and assaulted in entrance of her son, with the officer manhandling her and referring to her as a “daft cow”. Regardless of the officer being discovered responsible, the Met shared they’d “proceed to help the officer.”
In my very own expertise, after I lastly made a report back to the police – armed with intensive proof of the abuse I had skilled and testimonies from a number of people, I used to be really helpful to not pursue the case and advised (in no unsure phrases) that I might be unlikely to get any justice.
Even inside feminist communities – significantly these on-line with giant platforms – our narratives stay ignored, there’s a lack of concern for our trauma, our abuse, our mistreatment. As bell hooks states in sisters of the yam, “white girls nonetheless don’t perceive the interconnectedness of techniques of domination, of racism and sexism.”
Regardless of the challenges, organisations like Sistah House, The Cassandra Centre (which is presently fundraising for a brand new dwelling) and The Maya Centre are doing phenomenal work to result in change.
In November 2023, Sistah House introduced the creation of the primary refuge within the UK to supply specialist help for ladies of African and Caribbean descent. In addition they proceed to marketing campaign for necessary cultural competency coaching for police and different authorities businesses, referred to as Valerie’s Regulation, in reminiscence of Valerie Forde, who was murdered along with her 22-month-old child Actual-Jahzara by an ex-partner in 2014.
To grasp why Black girls’s trauma goes ignored, or why we have to see it to consider it, we have to deal with misogynoir – and the way it’s embedded into each inch of our society. Misogynoir, the time period coined by feminist professor Dr Moya Bailey, describes the “particular hatred, dislike, mistrust, and prejudice directed towards Black girls.” Misogynoir is private, political, institutional and world – and it will possibly’t be solved in a single day, but when we acknowledge it, we will begin to problem it.
As bell hooks says, “we have to be ever vigilant to our efforts to withstand devaluation… that battle continues.”
For extra details about emotional abuse and home abuse, you may name The Freephone Nationwide Home Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge on 0808 2000 247.
For extra details about reporting and recovering from rape and sexual abuse, you may contact Rape Disaster on 0808 500 2222.
If in case you have been sexually assaulted, you’ll find your nearest Sexual Assault Referral Centre right here. You may also discover help at your native GP, voluntary organisations equivalent to Rape Disaster, Ladies’s Help, and Sufferer Assist, and you’ll report it to the police (when you select) right here.
