Wounds of the Spirit: Black Women, Violence, and Resistance Ethics

1. Testimony from Nonfiction Literature

Testimony from Nonfiction Literature When Aisha reflected on her experience of being raped by an acquaintance as a teenager, she explained: “So, I just kept silent until I couldn’t anymore, and that was like twenty something years later.”1 Her statement attests to the wounding impact of intimate violence against African-American women that exacts their silence, but ultimately evokes defiance of that silencing as well. One might easily respond with skepticism at the very idea that silence is exacted from black women. How can silence be imposed on women typically considered “big-mouthed” and aggressive? Yet for black women victim-survivors there are, in fact, multiple ways: 1/not heard. It can happen to the women in the midst of an everyday conversation . As they try to express their anguish and construct their resistance to the effects of violence, a loud, shrill cultural echo bounces back in their faces. It supplies dismissive, quick labels and familiar stereotypes that warn about “how black women do provoke you.” This echo can be heard in the “jokes” or accusations by family members and friends, or may simply be present in their attitudes. It can drown out the women, making their replies to the violence inaudible. 2/not listened to. As they continue the process of finding a way to interpret their experiences of male violence, women are often encircled by hostile messages about themselves from some very authoritative sources. Persistently closing in on them are a host of public images regularly invoked by politicians and members of the news media that identify black women, especially poor black women, with distorted character traits and immorality. These sources seem to pay attention to what black women actually say and do. They quote, interview, photograph, or depict black 1 11 women through “authoritative” studies. But if a woman’s articulations about herself differ from those images of black womanhood, her version may be voided out, proven wrong by all that public “evidence.” These public representations of her moral inadequacy give the impression that she has been seen and heard, thereby denying the credibility of her claims about her unjust treatment, and ignoring her interpretation of her experience . 3/not permitted to speak out. The rules of the abuser, the court, the church, and the racist patriarchal culture can forbid a woman to interrupt their established order by naming the torment she has endured. The punishment for disobedience of those rules can be so terrifying or shaming that she dares not violate them. 4/censored to the point of losing one’s sense of self. Sometimes a woman cannot speak her truth about the violence because she cannot find her own way. She is overwhelmed by the varying and specific definitions of appropriate behavior that are given to her. Some are inflicted upon her through the psychological torture of her abuser, while others are demanded of her by her church and black community. Still other definitions, based on supposed knowledge of “the black woman’s role in the black family,” are projected onto her by the social worker or some other professional she seeks out for help. Any clear distinction between these external formulations and her own self-perceptions can become blurry and lost. When women do defy such forms of tyranny, it is a noisy silence that is broken. Their defiance provides critical public witness to African-American women’s self-expression and liberation. Moreover, such acts enrich the distinctive history of black women in this country. Ever since the agonizing journey by their African foremothers to the Americas as cargo on slave ships, male physical and sexual violence has consistently been a reality in the lives of black women. The moral consequences of this intimate violence include psychosocial as well as spiritual wounds and obstacles to the wholeness and well-being of black women. Through women’s stories, we can discover some of the buried truths about the harm caused by the violence and the strategies women utilize to resist it. 12 | Testimony from Nonfiction Literature The Art of Learning from Women’s Stories While the analysis in this study focuses on the experiences of contemporary women, the stories from the past are lifted up in the following collage of voices. They document the ongoing historical legacy of intimate violence against African-American women. The voices from the past are needed to accompany contemporary women on their journey of...