How Domestic Violence and Political Activism are Related. A Case Study on African-American Women

Diploma Thesis from the year 2002 in the subject Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology, grade: very good, University of Vienna (Sociology/Anthropology), 100 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Already before studying social and cultural anthropology and political science, I was an enthusiastic reader of African-American novelists, especially those authored by James Baldwin, and having viewed racism as one form of marginalization and exclusion, I wanted to learn and gain knowledge about this phenomenon and enrolled for these two disciplines. Specializing on African politics in my study, I nevertheless remained interested in the African-American experience and decided to write my thesis on an issue that would be in some proximity to the latter. Through contacts with African-American social and political activists, I finally encountered an issue that I wanted to tackle, it is a circumstance that, in my view then, constituted a contradiction, the gap between the enormous political and social activism of African-American women and on the other hand the high rate of domestic violence and sexual assault in U.S. Black communities.