the over sexualization of black women

In class Monday, Mr. Carson lead a very informative discussion on the black women's experiences in modern times. He introduced the speech by Soujner Truth called "Ain't I a Women" that was performed in front of a convention of white women in an attempt to bring the divided races together. In the powerful poem, Truth introduces points such as how no man has ever helped her get into a carriage, and how she has borne 13 children who were sold to slavery. At the end of every paragraph, she adds "ain't I a woman?" to remind the white woman that their fight is not fought alone and that black women have even greater struggles to conquer. The separation between black and white women was growing due to the fight for women rights. White women saw black as their enemies, especially because black men got the right to vote before women did. Stereotypes of the black female body became oversexualized as whites labeled them as dirty, primal, and bountiful in the butt. In "Selling Hot Pussy" by Bell Hooks, the topic of sexualization and power comes up. She brings up how salves were forced to stand naked as their bodies, butts, and breasts were examined by white men who felt had property rights over the bodies, and how this affects the black women's submissive animalistic view today. Hooks diverges into the career of Tina Turner, as she brings up an abusive relationship between Ike and Tina. When Tina was with Ike she was presented as a savage erotic warrior that was submissive to her abusive partner. When leaving Ike and starring in "Mad Max", Tina is presented again with another stereotypical view of the black female: one who is power hungry and is devoted to conquering men. This stereotype is used to try and bring black women down because if they are not submissive they must be dangerous. Mr. Carson also brought up some horrifying statistics. 4/10 black women experience physical violence in their lives, and a black woman is 2 and a half times more likely to be murdered than white women. More than 20% of black women are raped in their lifetime. These gruesome statistics show the damage of these hurtful stereotypes and the lack of protection and respect that people have for black women. It is obvious that whites have felt threatened by the black women magic and have tried to tie it down with stereotypes, abuse, and psychological harm. In the reading "Black Awakening in Obama's America", the issue of police violence and the fight for Black Lives Matter is brought up. As the statistics above suggest, black women need more protection, but sadly the police aren't always on their side. Luckily Black Lives Matter is fighting back, fighting for the right for blacks to live safely. The article gave hope by saying that in a year BLM had made significant progress in its fight for justice, including making police wear body cameras, and arresting police who have murdered black people. Between being overly sexualized by the media and the public, being abused by people close to them, and being murdered by police, black women have it hard. Music stars such as Beyoncé are trying to fight that through poetic justice. In her song "Hold Up" she is seen slugging a baseball around and hitting cars, taking back the power that was taken away from her by her cheating husband. Her song formation is a social protest to remind the public that the fight for black life isn't over yet. She has shown throughout her creative visual work to fight all the stereotypes that have been imposed on black women, and hopefully start a discussion.
Personally, before this discussion, I did not realize the over-sexualization of black women in media and through stereotypes until my attention was called to it. After rewatching Nicki Minaj's Anaconda video with Mr. Carson, it became apparent how sexualized the black women's behind was. When Mr. Carter brought up whether it would be ok or not for me to play the song "Da Butt" at a dance because I was white, I found myself very conflicted. I feel as though the line between sharing cultures and stealing them is very thin, and I want to know from a black woman's perspective, what they think is ok and not ok. Could I play that song or not? Whose decision is it to make? These questions still remain.