Today, tensions still run high with the black community and it seems with the rest of the world. The Black Lives Matter movement is ongoing, trying to stop the killings and brutality of black people. Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Sandra Brown all are victims of police brutality. These black men have become the faces of the Black Lives Matter Movement. However, there is something odd about it as well. Can you spot it? There is only one black woman's story being told, while there are many more just like Sandra Bland. It seems like it's a recurring theme for the black community and world that the black women are pushed to the back.

The black community is predominantly a matriarchal society, as the black woman is most likely to be taking care of the families and communities according to City-Data. Essentially the black woman is the backbone of the black community. We stand by our black men in trying to uplift and support them in a world that is known to have a target on the black man's back. As the black women are trying to protect the Black man, why is that the black woman is not being protected by the community? Black women are being equally oppressed by the world as well as black men and the black community.

It is no surprise that black women have been raped. It has been going on for centuries from the time being enslaved to the present time. According to the article Black Women, Sexual Assault and the Art of Resistance, it states that "The Department of Justice estimates that for every white woman that reports her rape, at least 5 white women do not report theirs; and yet, for every African-American woman that reports her rape, at least 15 African-American women do not report theirs." Most black women do not tell their families or speak out about their rape because of the backlash they receive from the community. As men and even women will accuse the victim of bringing it upon herself or trying to "bring a brother down" and receive attention. Another reason for a black woman who doesn't tell is that the world and the system are already putting black men in jail, as the black woman doesn't want to add to that.

The black community is also oppressing the black woman by not letting the black woman's story to be heard. It is rare to hear about a Black woman to be murdered or beaten by police or racism cases. The only cases that were talked about were Sandra Bland and the young girl that was slammed by a police officer in class. Out of all the cases of black men shown through Black Lives Matter movement, only two cases for black women surfaced and disappeared as quickly as it came in the Black Lives Matter Movement. What about the eight black women that were raped by an Oklahoma police officer, Holtzclaw, specifically choose black women. According to US Today, " Holtzclaw reportedly forced women to expose themselves, fondled the women, forced four of them to perform oral sex on him and had intercourse with at least two of the women, court records show. The women, between 34 and 58 years old, all are black." Ralkina Jones is also another black woman that died in police custody as the police held her in for a dispute with her ex-husband but he didn't press charges. She died on a Sunday when the police allegedly called the ambulance and checked on her.

As the black community looks upon to help the black man and support of them, why is that the black woman is left behind? Always in the background trying to fight to the front to get a piece of recognition. Black women already have to strikes against them. One is that we are black in a system that is only made for whites to be successful. Second, we are women, which is seen as weak, not taken seriously, to be second to man in a patriarchal world. In order to help the black community we can't just only recognize the black man and their struggles, the black woman has them as well. I believe Malcolm X says it best in the video.