Kemba Smith’s story is an example of how Women’s History Month often forgets how Black women are criminalized for the crimes of men

Economist and educator Julianne Malveaux writes in The Seattle Medium: “Every March, Women’s History Month brings a familiar rhythm of celebration—panels, proclamations, and tributes to pioneers who shattered glass ceilings. Those stories matter. But if we are honest, the story of women in America cannot be told without confronting another truth: this nation has been built, quite literally, on the backs of Black women.

“From the earliest days of the republic, Black women’s labor has been both indispensable and invisible. Enslaved women worked fields, cooked meals, nursed children, and produced wealth they would never see. Their bodies were exploited for labor and reproduction alike. Even after emancipation, many were pushed into the lowest-paid work—domestic labor, laundry, caregiving—while their own families struggled to survive.

[Kemba] Smith’s story is not an anomaly. Across American history, Black women have borne the consequences of policies and practices designed without them in mind.

“Economists often talk about productivity and growth as if they emerge from neutral markets. But the American economy was built on coerced labor and unequal pay structures whose echoes remain today. Black women remain among the most reliable workers in the labor force—and among the most underpaid.

“Black women working full time are typically paid about 64 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. Over the course of a career, that gap can cost the average Black woman a million dollars or more in lost earnings and wealth. Because Social Security benefits are calculated from lifetime earnings, lower wages also translate into smaller retirement benefits, compounding inequality long after women leave the workforce.

“The devaluation of Black women does not stop at wages. When a society treats a group’s labor as expendable, it often treats their lives the same way. The same systems that underpay Black women also too often criminalize and punish them.

“Consider the case of Kemba Smith [Leading with Conviction™ 2019].

“As a Hampton University student, Smith received a 24-year federal sentence because her abusive boyfriend was involved in drug trafficking. She had no prior record and was not accused of violence. Yet the system treated her as fully responsible for the actions of a man. After serving six years, she received clemency from Bill Clinton. Her case helped expose the cruelty of mandatory minimum sentencing and the ways Black women are often punished for proximity to men’s crimes.

“Smith’s story is not an anomaly. Across American history, Black women have borne the consequences of policies and practices designed without them in mind.

“More than a century ago, educator and activist Nannie Helen Burroughs warned that when society devalues Black women, the entire nation suffers. She understood that the progress of women could not be measured only by the advancement of the privileged. It had to be measured by the condition of those at the bottom.

“That lesson remains painfully relevant.”

Read the full op-ed at SeattleMedium.com.