In light of the recent homicide of 19-year-old Renisha McBride, the unnerving trend of violence against black females is brought to the forefront. Violence against women, especially minority women is not a new trend in America. The value of women in our culture has suffered a long history of abuse and debasement. When a group is seen as “less than” it is open to being targeted by violence; in which incidences are handled with general malaise and are harder to bring to justice. McBride’s homicide is unfortunately one of the extreme cases of violence against minority women in the fact she was shot with extreme prejudice. The perpetrator alleged that he thought his home was being burglarized. Burglarized by an injured teen female. The facts of what happened that night will hopefully see the light of day in court.

Violence against minority women has garnered attention in other less auspicious areas like reality television. There are several shows that tout the “bad bitch” imagery in order to boost ratings on shows that have casts made of minority women. They promote the female on female violence where in the victim victimizes another in order to gain dominance in a situation that is damning to both parties.

Male and racists perpetrators of violence against minority women are easy to identify, but when you realize that minority women are doing it to other minority women it makes you think. By subjecting my fellow female to the same violence that I could receive for being a minority woman is like stabbing myself in the back. This back stabbing act makes it seem okay that we are treated with violence by the ignorant looking to legitimize their sexist or racist stance. If we present no tolerance to being victimized, then would be perpetrators may think twice before they act. Am I my sister’s keeper?