Assata An Autobiography Summary

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Recommended: The development of the prison system

The creation of prisons and penal system was meant to be used to create an institution to detere crime and create rehabilitation. The ideas put into this new institution did not try to fight crime but instead use the institution as a way of social control. Blacks and Hispanics have become the target of social control as a way to keep the whites and minorities segregated through legal ways. The book Assata an Autobiography, follows the story of an African American women’s struggle with the racist south as well as the inhumane treatment of the penal system. Assata demonstrated the unlawful way police and justice system treat blacks, but not only was it this institution but society as a whole. The hypersexualization of being a black female and …show more content…

She saw herself as worthless and ugly because of the way the kids treated her. Assata did not attend high school and found herself running away from home. Assata lived on her own but struggled with ways to get money. Assata found a job working for a restaurant. The owner began to make passes at Assata, “I found him constantly brushing up against me. His hands were always “accidently” touching my behind. I’d move his hand away but that only seemed to make him bolder” (Assata 102). The environment that Assata was placed into with this job demonstrates the hypersexualization of black women as well as the lack of respect. Beth Richie would note that the inhumane treatment of black women comes down to the fact that only violence against women focuses on white women. The African American community have no support for themselves because there are multiple factors that affect their daily lives. The relationship that Assata was forced into with the store owner was one that no one could help her with. Not only did Assata deal with the owner hypersexualizing her but three boys at a party did the same thing. “I had heard people talk about “trains” but I had never thought it would happen to me.

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