RAPE RACISM 9 THE MYTH

ANGELA DAVIS
OF THE BLACK RAPIST

sexual assault is as one the main

emerging of
dysfunctions of present day capitalist society
DISCRIMINATORY RAPE LAWS

In USA 9 other capitalist societies were framed for

the class whose daughters
protection of upper men
wives be assaulted
may
Courts did not care about working class women Few white
men persecuted for sexual violence against these women

Rape charges have been

discriminately aimed at Black
men
guilty 9 innocent alike

Davis calls the

myth of the Black rapist a formidable artifice
invented racism
by
has been used to waves violence and terror
justify of
against the Black community
Black women have not participated in present anti rape
movements ble of
Ci Fraudulent charges on men their community
of
ie Policemen 9 judges have been indifferent to their
plight Many reports of Black women being rapedby
policemen have come to
light
At the start anti few scholars
of rape movement
the historical link b w Black women abused
analysed
violated white men Black men maimed S murdered
by the
via the racist manipulation rape charge
of
Lack of Black women's participation in anti rape
movements does not mean that oppose
anti measures in they
rape general
INSTITUTIONALISED SEXUAL ABUSE OF BLACK WOMEN

One major feature of racism in usa is the assumption

that white men esp those in economic power
an absolute to Black
possess right of access
women's bodies

relied routine several

Slavery heavily on
abuse Right over slaves as a
the
form
property included right over bodies of
black women

Institutionalised sexual abuse was so deep that

it survived the ABOLITION OF SLAVERY

In the post Civil period group rape of black

War
women became a political weapon against the
movement for black
equality
PORTRAYAL OF BLACK WOMEN AS PROMISCUOUS IMMORAL

By politicians journalists S literary

scholars
artists provides ideological sanction to the
countless encounters b w Black
women
anonymous
their white abusers
s
Sanction has led men to think their actions
are natural

6 white class
Heavily imposed on
working men
WHITE WOMEN AS VICTIMS

6 As Racism made white think

they
men
could indulge in sexual coercion w
Black colour
soon
women g women
of
white women
they
the
began treating
same
way
RACISM AS A PROVOCATION TO RAPE

seen in instances
given above
Already
Another example is the les soldiers
to
beingtaught
that it their rape
Vietnamese
was
women
military duty
ble they were fighting an
race
inferior
Rape was turned into a weapon of mass
terrorism

RACISM IN ANTI RAPE THEORISTS WORK

6 Susan Brown argued that Black men

miller
resort to open acts sexual
of violence ble
legitimate expressions of male supremacy have
been out
of their reach due to historical
oppression
Diana Russell reinforces the notion that a

rapist is a of colour and he is

typical white
man
he is
if
a man then from working
 6 Team Mckellar claimed that 907 of all reported
rapes in the rest are committed by Blackman

Shulamith Firestone develops a construct where

father white man on the basis of
mother white woman Biblical notions
children Bracks
Applies Freud's OEDIPUS COMPLEX to this consterreet
S claims that Black men want to kill the
father s sleep wi the mother

fictional
the
image of Black man as rapist has strengthened
fictional image of Black women as
chronically
promiscuous
Calvin Keeton argued that Black women's
sexual exploitation during slavery has
made them promiscuous S loose

lynching of Blacks in the usa as an instrument of

white supremacist terror is much more
blunt than rape

Slaveowners were hesitant to their slaves

lynch
as it would ruin their property
4 The was revolutionised up the
lynching industry
abolition of
slavery
The of the Black rapist up around
myth came
the same time as a political invention
to in Post Civil war era
justify lynchings esp
This utilised was used
myth likewas bywhite
vigilante
KKK to reaffirm
groups
supremacy
this
Consequences of myth
i Opposition to individual lynchings was
stifled
Iii White support for the Black equality
cause of
reduced

this how
The emergence of myth shows
meet
ideology is transformed to new
historical conditions

Davis that while there were some

argues
enamples of
but the
Black
actual
men
no raping white women

the
of rapes was minutely
disproportionate to
allegations implied by
the
myth
Although this myth was used to justify lynchings
most lynchings did not involve the charge of
rape
The colonisation the Southern
of
the North
economy by
capitalists from gave lynching
its most vigorous impulse
Subjugation of Blacks had double advantagefor
capitalists
ein Entre profits from the superenploitation of
 Black labour

ii white their
workers
would
hostility
be
towards
employers defused bye of
racial the
Blacks
solidarity against

Anyone who racial was a

challenged hierarchy
target of lynching by mobs

Black women
played an active role in the
anti movements in the USA
lynching
4 Prominent leaders Ida B Wells M C Terrell etc

These leaders reached to whose women to

re evaluate their own role in the
them in anti
lynchings join the
movement
lynching
It was in 1930 up the establishment of
the only
ASSOUATION OF SOUTHERN WOMEN FOR THE
PREVENTION OF LYNCHING that while women
this
joined fight
Davis white
argues that women have a
special
in the racism
place
There contributions
struggle against the
helped reverse tide of
lynching
No participant the anti
of lynching movements
critic of the Black
no
myth of was
rapist
defending rape itself
Resurgence of racism in the mod 1970s has
led to the resurrection of this
myth
white
often legitimised by women fighting
rape
This continues to be a the
myth part of
racist
ideology
Anti rape theorists have failed to take into
at the large no
of anonymous rapists
le Deese white men whose victims are
Black women
mostly
The class structure of capitalist society also
harbours an incentive to rape like the
did
slavery system
6 The clan structure encourages mento wield power
in the economic 9 political beaten to become
routine agents of sexual exploitation
1
S middle class men enjoy
Capitalists in
from
prosecution for this exeason
Economic assault paralleled sexual assault
is
by
The rising influence of racism in judiciary educational
institutions etc are
leading to both

in
Deteriorating situation of workers of colours
ie attacks on women
Rising
Davis concludes that anti rope movements
must untins and
the
defend of rape
the
of
racist manipulation of rape
charge