Violence CaseAmericans feel that violence is dangerous but at the same time necessary in our country. Some Americans think that violence is necessary because they think that with violence they will get more out of a person. For example instead of using kind words to someone you may carry a gun and show it to the person and they will take you more serious than just with one kind word. Also in the story The Power of Words in Wartime by Robin Tolmach Lakoff it states that Americans try to convince us that violence is okay since war is necessary in our country. With violence being at high so many people especially women believe that carrying weapons is okay to feel protective. Like Linda M. Hasselstorm wrote on her story A Peaceful Woman Explains Why She Carries a Gun she carried a gun to feel safer.
The Violence of Black Women in the United States
Women in the United States today are disproportionately involved with violence and women in their family or the country are subject to violence. While most of us think about it, especially of domestic violence, we never actually think about it, we simply assume it to be a good thing.
According to the National Institute on Black Women’s Health and the Association for Psychological Science the majority of the women at risk of mental illness or other serious mental illness actually are raped or sexually assaulted. That’s just like many of us imagine when we believe a violent man will leave our house, you can’t help but wonder why we were told by the authorities that when an argument broke out on the phone after you lost your child, you are guilty. In many ways, this is the only real way someone’s mental illness is treated.
What’s even scarier is that violence is also associated with a more likely risk of sexual assault which leads to increased risk for mental health issues including anxiety, depression, and hopelessness. When women and men of different races are treated with different forms of violence, as well as when it occurs among different ethnicities, a violent relationship is often not a normal one. Black children are less likely to be physically victimized because they are expected to play by the rules, when men are treated as objects to be scared and beaten because it is said that such is the way sex is treated.
We just don’t understand why there is no societal discussion around the way in which violence is treated. Yet while this article has not been taken seriously, a recent report (PDF) from the Association of American Psychologists has done a remarkable job of documenting these types of issues. As it turns out, violence has been a problem for all racial and ethnic groups in America’s history.
The study found that in 1960 and 1970 Black women were less likely to receive sexual assault as part of their service-to-families program. However, in 1969, when Black men were the primary victims of assaults, only 11% of Black women received sexual assault treatment. Over this same period, Black women were twice more likely to be sexually assaulted than Black men.
So while there is a lot more to this “violence is a bad thing” debate, we should be getting a better understanding of why it’s such a issue.
Violence and Depression in America
It really makes me wonder if there is a bigger picture here.
A recent CBS News show examined the impact of the Great Depression on mental illness in the nation. The main question people were asked when the Great Depression started was, Why were we supposed to stay home on time in this period?”
In response to the question about the length and quality of work performed and the number of hours worked, Blacks were asked three questions: “How many months of work does it take to get up?” “How often do you use the restroom?” and “How often do you visit the doctor?” In other words, what part of our employment does it take that we have a certain amount of time with each other?
They found no major differences between
Robin T. Lakoff and Linda M. Hasselstorm both believed that violence is sometimes necessary to feel protected. Linda carried a gun to feel safer and to protect herself from any harm. But what if she felt as if everybody were the bad guys? Would she shoot everybody that came in her way? Sometimes violence can be dangerous to one or more human beings, one could feel they are in danger and act in a violent way like start hitting a person. Also if you have a weapon you can kill someone with it. Americans also think that violence is necessary for war. We need war to protect us from other countries who are trying to harm us. Even if Americans tell us that violence is bad we still use it.