Multiple Jeopardy

Multiple Jeopardy a term used by scholars such as Deborah K. King and Patricia Hill Collins describes the way in which oppressive barriers that individuals face contribute to the level of oppression faced due to these factors culminating together to cause further and greater oppression.

Contents

• Multiple Jeopardy and the Matrix of Domination
• The Relationship Between Multiple Jeopardy and Multiple Consciousness
• References

“The modifier ‘multiple’ refers not only to several, simultaneous oppressions but to the multiplicative relationships among them as well. In other words, the equivalent formulation is racism multiplied by sexism multiplied by classism." - Deborah K. King

Multiple Jeopardy stems off the term double jeopardy, which when used from a sociological perspective, refers to the additional obstacles individuals face when exposed to multiple disadvantages due to their unique being. When considering double jeopardy, often times there is an emphasis on just two aspects such as race and gender. An example of this would be the rights observed by black women. Not only are these individuals oppressed because they are female, but also because they are black. These women are a part of a dual oppressive system and are not only hindered by one trait, but by two.

“Not only are colored women . . . handicapped on account of their sex, but they are almost everywhere baffled and mocked because of their race. Not only because they are women, but because they are colored women." – Mary Church Terrell

“As blacks they suffer all the burdens of prejudice and mistreatment that fall on anyone with dark skin. As women they bear the additional burden of having to cope with white and black men." -Frances M. Beal

Multiple jeopardy differs from double jeopardy, by the fact that instead of just two factors playing into the disadvantages of individuals, there are multiple. Three common factors that are often observed are the factors of race, class, and gender. In Deborah King’s article, Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology, she recounts the ill treatment of black women during the slavery era. During the slavery time period in America, all black people were subjected to demanding physical labor and harsh brutal punishments; this was due to their race and their class, or their position in society. However, what sets black women slaves apart is the fact that they often endured struggles that were only subjected to women, namely rape (King). As Angela Davis put it in her book Women, Race, and Class, “If the most violent punishments of men consisted in floggings and mutilations, women were flogged and mutilated, as well as raped." In this scenario, black women could not identify with black males due to their gender and sexuality, nor could they identify with the sexual oppression of white women due to their race and class.

Black women often find it difficult to identify and relate with white women due to the difference of race and class. One way of viewing the differences between white women and black women would be to examine the way in which they combat the exploitation of women. Over the years there has been a number of political campaigns emphasizing the reformation of policies and laws involving reproductive rights, domestic violence, equal pay, women’s suffrage, sexual harassment, and other issues that particularly involve women; this movement is widely known as the feminist movement. Though this movement involves all women, there is a difference between the ways in which white women and black women experience and go about handling the exploitation. In her article, Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female, Frances M. Beal expresses thathite women are faced with the sole issue of being considered less than men. They often blame their issues solely on male chauvinism and the ways in which society is built on male-encouraged values. They do not face issues based on their race, however, this is the case for black and other minority women of color. Black women are not only faced with male-bigoted views, but they also carry the task of finding equality through means of being black as well. In addition to there being racial differences amongst black women and white women, there are also class differences amongst the two. The white-woman’s feminist movement is often geared towards helping and improving the conditions of the middle-class. This is problematic when referring to the black women. Many, black women experience economic exploitation that, according to Beal, quite few white women endure or are faced with.