In this article, Orlando Patterson spends a great deal of time examining the “burdens” and gender discrepancies in regards to Afro-American men and women, Euro-American men and women, and Latino men and women in some instances. It was once thought that Afro-American women were at a greater gender risk than the males were but this is no longer the case. Additionally, women do bear the greater burden than their male counterparts. “Afro-American women writers and leaders have claimed for some time that they share a double burden, being victims of both their gender and their ethnicity.” Following are the attempts that have been made at figuring out the factors that affect the lives of the Afro-American people.
The study starts by examining the level of poverty by gender. This was compared among the Afro-American, Euro-American, and Latino people. From the data gathered is apparent that women face higher poverty levels than men in general, which can be caused by many things. The fact that there is a great amount of female headed households may play a role in this data. It is sad to say, but females have always been among the poor; moreover, as past articles have addressed, women tend to get paid less on average than men do. Although, this rate of pay has increased to some degree.
This leads to the next set of data, which deals with the median earnings by educational attainment, ethnicity, and gender. This data was looked at with Afro-American men and women and Euro-American men and women. The data showed that Euro-American have the highest degrees and greatest pay, followed by Afro-American men, Euro-American women, and Afro-American women being last. Unfortunately, if I had to guess what the statistics were to show, this is what I would have assumed. Last, on the money issue, when comparing the median earnings by educational attainment with gender and ethnic ratios to search for double burdens of race and gender in economic matters, there are none.
When examining the life expectancies at birth by gender and ethnicity, the results are of no surprise to me. They showed that Euro-American women have the greatest life expectancy, followed by Afro-American women, Euro-American men, and Afro-American men. It has been known for some time that women tend to live longer than men. More interestingly, when looking at the same factors, but making projections for the future, it is displayed that all groups will continue to live longer except for Afro-American men, which appears to level off at some point.
Of course when we examine life expectancies, we must then look at death rates. The results show that Afro-American men have the highest death rates, followed by Euro-American men, Afro-American women, and then Euro-American women. This makes sense to me because men tend to be involved in more dangerous affairs. Suicide rates show almost the same results with men being more prone to death by suicide, except that Euro-Americans come before the Afro-Americans in this. I always thought suicide was higher among women.
These results were interesting and even more interesting were the accounts as to what may contribute to these findings from the book. Some of the results were consistent with what I would have imagined, but some were far from my thinking. So the beginning statement of the article dealing with Afro-American women facing double burdens from both ethnicity and gender can be proven as being false for the majority of the population. Afro-Americans are on a rise from where they once have been, but Orlando Patterson claims that their sex roles are what is holding them back, which I guess could be true for all women.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
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For Steve Biskner:
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Kirlin said about the Broken Bloodlines: The External Gender Environment. Patterson’s article contradicts that African American women are more prone to “burden” than their male counter parts. The statistics he shows makes this true, but only for those who are in the middle class or above. Females living in poverty are still “burdened” due to the life chances they possess and the environment they live in. Although, the gap between men and women is still quite large, at least African American women are making strides in higher education, slight increase in income, higher life expectancy, and lower death rates. It is good to see that African American women are making progress in this institutional racist society.
There is one particular line in Patterson’s article that I find interesting. The line that states, “Corporate Euro-America men are less inclined to view Afro-American women as sex objects, as women “out to get a husband,” and therefore more inclined to take them seriously as fellow professionals.” This statement proves that Euro-American’s fear of African American men is still extremely high despite the common theme among whites (at least that I know) that racism is on the downturn. It also shows that if they hired a white woman the men might jump all over her. I thought you get the job because you’re the most qualified, not so males feel less threatened and limit the affairs in the workplace.
After reading this article it made me think about how the media portrays African American women. The media, for the most part, does not portray women according to Patterson’s article. African American women on TV are rarely used in high position jobs that involve education. Instead they still use the stereotypes in their characters such as I Love New York, or the women on Flavor of Love.