Attacks on Black Women & Children Are America’s Alarming Viral Trend
By: Gfc, Grown Folk Conversations
Tags: Black Women, Equality, Racial Battle Fatigue, BlackLivesMatter, Racism

Black womanhood unprotected and motherhood marred by fear

I have to say as a Black woman, Mother and writer, these videos are scary, triggering, and should be a wake-up call. I’ve written 10 articles and poems based on my own personal and professional experiences of being harassed, humiliated and verbally assaulted by white women and men and highlighted 10 of the countless videos of Black people across the country.

Seeing videos and then reading and writing articles about what seems to be an assault on Black womanhood/motherhood and our children is mentally and emotionally taxing and feels like a nightmare.

October 2019 — Florida: A white woman is filmed berating a teenager, calls him the N-Word and demands he gets on his knees to pick up a candy wrapper in front of his Grandmother and cousin

October 2018 — New York: A Black mother and her 2 small children are humiliated and harassed by a white woman, cursing and calling 911, falsely accusing her 9-year-old son of touching her bottom

Mothers Mourning: Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin, Elijah El-Amin

Black parents live in constant fear and there are historical reasons, but the most famous is Emmett Till. Every Black mother knows the story of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old beautiful Black boy who was kidnapped and lynched in 1955 by the husband of a white woman who falsely accused him of whistling at her. In 2017, the woman admitted she was lying. Yet, an all-white jury acquitted the murderers and the next year they confessed and sold their story to a magazine. Our modern-day Emmetts are adding up

July 2019 — Arizona: Elijah El-Amin, a 17-year-old boy was stalked and killed by a white man who slit his throat and stabbed him for listening to rap music.

March 2012 — Florida: Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old was followed walking from a store and fatally shot in 2012. Like Emmett, the racists killed these children and justice was never served.

Families in fear

Can you imagine the unrelenting helplessness of being a Black parent? Mothers and Grandmothers knowing the history of Emmett, Trayvon and Elijah and the ongoing police brutality and shootings of unarmed Black boys and men? Now imagine being confronted by a random, unhinged, white woman yelling and calling the police, threatening us and our children…

You’re paralyzed with fear — you remain calm. History has shown that there’s no protection for Black parents and children. The police’s response to you and your family is unpredictable at best and potentially volatile…

October 2019 — Texas: Atatiana Jackson was shot and killed in front of her 7-year-old nephew through the window of her home by a police officer

June 2019, here is how the Arizona police responded to a Black family of a 4-year old who took a doll out of a store:

The Viral Attacks

A Google search will show countless videos from the last 2 years. The latest videos are alarming because these two separate incidents sho African American children with disabilities being bullied, teased and injured by white girls. As a mother and educator, this is sick and highly disturbing behavior. There is nothing funny or normal about children who prey on children with disabilities and it shouldn’t be ignored or taken lightly.

Updated 8/9/2020

Updated 2/27/2002

This last video show how things are escalating beyond verbal abuse. This older white woman physically blocked a young, Black woman from leaving her building with a child present. Unfortunately, if the young lady would have rightly defended herself she would have put her own life at risk due to the “presumed innocence” of white women.

America, we need to talk about this! This is a form of domestic violence and ongoing exposure and experience is traumatizing. This needs to be formally addressed!

Racial Battle Fatigue

In a great article by Morgan Taylor Goodwin, entitled Racial Battle Fatigue: What is it and What are the Symptoms?, Goodwin gives an in-depth report of what racial battle fatigue is from the Critical Race Theorist, William Smith. In summation it’s the:

cumulative result of a natural race-related stress response to distressing mental and emotional conditions. These conditions emerged from constantly facing racially dismissive, demeaning, insensitive and/or hostile racial environments and individuals.

More research needs to be done on Black people — women in particular — and the harmful side effects of these racist attacks, exposure and the ongoing stress and trauma of racial battle fatigue. It needs to be recognized as a real and prevalent health issue like PTSD. Right now, it’s just a phrase used in the academic community, that’s experienced and understood by Black and Brown people, but dismissed and ignored by the powerful and privileged.

These attacks have lasting effects after the moments of terror. Racial Battle Fatigue is real and should be added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Diseases (DSM). Without it becoming a real diagnosis — funding for research, treatment, interventions and prevention won’t be a priority or a real and legitimate issue for those who haven’t experienced it.

Truth and consequences

It should also be noted that the racist perpetrators need to be addressed and studied as well. Three men were caught beating two young, Black girls in Pittsburgh:

In New Jersey, videos led to three teenage boys being charged with “bias, harassment, and lewdness” for calling young Black girls the N-word and threatening to kill them. Yet, the local news and BET.com have conflicting reports if the boys actually urinated on the victims or just threw some sort of liquid on them at a football game.

In both of these cases it the perpetrators were given light charges — considering the seriousness and nature of the assaults. And the two aforementioned incidents involved Indian or Middle Eastern, and white men — but no white women. I’ve yet to find ANY information about any of the four white female perpetrators getting caught or prosecuted.

Ignoring this issue is making it worse! The lack of real data, analysis and appropriate consequences is creating a perfect and volatile storm.

I could speculate that white people who verbally and physically attack Black adults and children without provocation have a race-related mental imbalance. Or is this simply a matter of extreme prejudice and explicit bias and they’re consciously abusing their power and privilege in their attempts to put or keep us in their perceived and/or preferred places? Either way, we need to know why and how we can stop it!

But I can’t help but feel that there will never be a real study on racist terrorism and predatory behavior because that would prove that racism is a legitimate problem. Proving that racial violence from white people is a real and present danger to Black men, women and children would show that these aren’t “isolated incidents” and they could no longer gaslight us. Our fear and experiences are real and traumatic.

The toll and personal impact

As I’ve said, I’ve had several real-life personal and professional experiences with enraged white women and men- who’ve done everything from publicly humiliating me by cursing and yelling, to blocking me in parking spaces or in rooms and questioning me…These collective experiences coupled with the viral videos have caused me to proceed with extreme caution. I try to limit the amount of time I’m in predominately white spaces, but I constantly worry about my child who’s heading to college.

In an effort to reduce my risk of being attacked, I’ve even stopped dating outside my race, because the white men I dated simply lacked the level of understanding and empathy I needed to discuss and support me during these events.

This is a quality of life issue and the fear and terror that I and so many other Black and othe POC feel are real! This isn’t a Black or Brown issue. This is a real-life American horror story where a large segment of America is being attacked, terrorized and brutally killed by fellow citizens and law enforcement. Our sense of safety and peace of mind has greatly diminished. The incidents are increasing and America needs to address this as a public health and safety issue for the victims and the police.

I hope this piece brings more awareness to these issues and opens dialogue We cannot heal what we don’t acknowledge.

Hear from the mother of Antwon Rose:

If you’ve been attacked please report it and if you need help please seek counseling. Taraji P. Henson’s foundation offers free mental health services. Don’t suffer in silence:

National Alliance on Mental Illness

CALL THE NAMI HELPLINE

800–950-NAMI (6264) or info@nami.org

M-F, 10 AM — 6 PM ET

FIND HELP IN A CRISIS OR TEXT “NAMI” TO 741741