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Published on: January 12, 2018
Mechanisms Connecting Police Brutality, Intersectionality, and Women's Health Over the Life Course
Sirry Alang1, Rahwa Haile1, Rachel Hardeman1
1Sirry Alang is with the Department of Sociology and the Program in Health Medicine and Society at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. Rahwa Haile is with the Department of Public Health at the State University of New York, Old Westbury, NY. Rachel Hardeman is with the Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity and the Division of Health Policy and Management, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis. Jé Judson is with the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.
Abstract:
Police brutality harms women. Structural racism and structural sexism expose women of color to police brutality through 4 interrelated mechanisms: (1) desecration of Black womanhood, (2) criminalization of communities of color, (3) hypersexualization of Black and Brown women, and (4) vicarious marginalization. We analyze intersectionality as a framework for understanding racial and gender determinants of police brutality, arguing that public health research and policy must consider how complex intersections of these determinants and their contextual specificities shape the impact of police brutality on the health of racially minoritized women. We recommend that public health scholars (1) measure and analyze multiple sources of vulnerability to police brutality, (2) consider policies and interventions within the contexts of intersecting statuses, (3) center life course experiences of marginalized women, and (4) assess and make Whiteness visible. People who hold racial and gender power-who benefit from racist and sexist systems-must relinquish power and reject these benefits. Power and the benefits of power are what keep oppressive systems such as racism, sexism, and police brutality in place. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(S1):S29-S36. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.307064).
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