Discuss The Myth Of The Black Rapists By Angela Davis
One of the themes in Angela Davis’s essay, “Rape, Racism and the Myth of the Black Rapist”, is the necessity of using an intersectional framework to analyze rape and lynching in order to understand how racism and sexism work together to maintain capitalist relations of production. With the advent of Reconstruction came the socioeconomic and political threat to the White bourgeoisie from former Black slaves who sought citizenship, land and equality. Seeing the potential erosion of their control, the [1983:185] “lawless killings of Black people were portrayed as a preventative measure to deter the Black masses from rising up in revolt.” When these accusations were shown to be false, the bourgeoisie were forced to reinvent the form of racism that …show more content…
Davis notes that racism always consisted of the underlying assumption that White men, particularly those of the bourgeois class, had an indisputable right of access to Black women’s bodies. Treating Black women as sexual objects and portraying them as hypersexualized creatures created the image of the mythical Black whore. Rape became the specific act of sexual violence forced upon Black women, with the myth of the Black whore as its ideological justification. Davis states that the controlling image of Black men as rapists has always “strengthened its inseparable companion: the image of the Black woman as chronically promiscuous and with good reason; for once the notion is accepted that Black men harbour uncontrollable, animal-like sexual urges, the entire race is invested with bestiality.” A race of “animals” can be treated accordingly, [1983: 191] “for the mythical rapist implies the mythical whore – and a race of rapists and whores deserves punishment and nothing more.” As rape laws in the United States and other capitalist countries were originally enacted to protect the wives and daughters of upper class men, little to no effort went into prosecuting the men who raped Black women. Lynching and rape, two race/gender-specific forms of sexual violence, merged with their ideological justifications of the rapist and prostitute in order to provide an effective system of social control over
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1197 Words | 5 PagesIda B. Wells wrote this document as a result of the lynchings of Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart, and this case was significant to Miss Wells because she personally knew the victims. These colored men owned and operated a successful grocery store in an area that had a competing grocery store owned by a white man. Due to the economic tension between the two stores, a white band caused a stir and had over one hundred black men dragged into jail on suspicion. Moss, McDowell, and Stewart were charged of raping white women. Because of these accusations, these black men were lynched.
Comparison Between 'Caloya And Frederick Douglass Narrative'
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Civil War Mary Church Terrell Summary
1125 Words | 5 PagesThe time following the civil war was one of raising racial tension in the south. It was a time when southern whites could not truly accept the change that had came and did not want to give African Americans the chance to be equal. This often could lead to false accusations of rape which would then lead to the lynching’s of innocent African Americans. The lynching’s were in part to try and install fear and redact any new power African American’s could have had, but also centered around false rape accusations that were partially used to try and protect white women’s purity; instead of allowing the possibility that there could have been consensual relations between people of two separate races.
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Sin In James Baldwin's Go Tell It On The Mountain
518 Words | 3 PagesBaldwin uses vivid imagery when talking about Deborah’s rape which serves as an eminent example in which women, especially black women, are subject to violence and abuse. Deborah is described as a “living reproach, to herself and to all black women and to all black men.” (Baldwin 67). Society now looks down on her after this horrible event, which was out of her control and shames her for it rather than giving her the support that she needs.
Summary Of Part Five Of Angela Davis
495 Words | 2 PagesPart Five of Angela Davis: An Autobiography, opens with the words of Wallace Stevens “The hand between the candle and the wall Grows large on the wall... It must be that the hand Has a will to grow larger on the wall, To grow larger and heavier than the wall” (Stevens 281). As Part Five details Davis’ struggles with the prison system in California after being moved, this preface seems to indicate Davis’ growing desire to outgrow the wall of oppression she faces, and even tear it down from the inside. At the beginning of the part, Davis notices herself being separated by her brothers and sisters by walls and other objects as if to show that the wall is what must be conquered what separates her from her purpose and cause “On the other side of the gate a crowd had gathered and when I got out of the car, they let out a clamorous ‘Free Angela Davis and all political prisoners!’
The New Noose
1039 Words | 5 PagesOne of the most forgotten individuals who conducted research on the noose and lynchings was Ida B. Wells Barnett. Ida B. Wells-Barnett is a historical black figure often overlooked until recently (Green & Gabbidon, 2000). She investigated the ideas of the “unwritten law” and the “lynch law” (Green and Gabbidon, 2000). The “unwritten laws” were laws not written in any book or enforced by national government, but they were rules expressed by white supremacist to oppress the black community.
Summary Of Part Four Of Angela Davis
443 Words | 2 PagesPart Four of Angela Davis: An Autobiography opens with a preface written by Henry Dumas, “fire eaters from the sun we shall lay the high dome to siege cover scream with holy wings, in those days we shall be terrible” (Dumas 147). As the fourth part of Angela Davis’ book is titled “Flames,” this preface relates to this part in many ways. Flames themselves start from a spark, such as a small movement or resistance that continues to burn and add others to the fuel until it becomes a flame. Additionally, the idea that the revolution and rebellion coming from the forces Davis supports is seen as terrible when it seems to be derived from a good and righteous purpose.
Lena Baker: First-Degree Murder Of Ernest B. Monk
659 Words | 3 Pages"I prefer to characterize rape simply as a form of torture. Like the torturer, the rapist is motivated by the urge to dominate, humiliate, and destroy his victim. Like a torturer, he does so by using the most intimate acts available to humans -- sexual ones," Helen Benedict, an American novelist and journalist best known for writing about social injusticr, said (911 rape). The rapist, Knight, took advantage of her by sexually assaulting her and was “motivated by the urge to dominate, humiliate and destroy his victim.” Lena Baker was that victim.
Angela Davis's Influence On African American Culture
380 Words | 2 PagesAngela Davis is to be considered one of the most important political activists in African American culture. Davis was born on January 26th, 1944 in the deep south, more specifically, Birmingham, Alabama. Due to this, Davis was very susceptible to racial prejudice in her early years. She was also influenced by the idea of communism at a young age because her mother was actively involved with politics. Davis spent the majority of her early years as a scholar.
New Jim Crow Thesis
562 Words | 3 PagesSlavery is over therefore how can racism still exist? This has been a question posed countlessly in discussions about race. What has proven most difficult is adequately demonstrating how racism continues to thrive and how forms of oppression have manifested. Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, argues that slavery has not vanished; it instead has taken new forms that allowed it to flourish in modern society. These forms include mass incarceration and perpetuation of racist policies and societal attitudes that are disguised as color-blindness that ultimately allow the system of oppression to continue.
Freedom Is A Constant Struggle: Chapter Summary
540 Words | 3 PagesFrom the genocides of different ethics, to freedom is taken away in minority nations. Angela Davis expresses her views on political aspects of hard punishment upon human beings Americas’ society. She composed many books supporting her idea on political activism. In chapter 9, “Freedom Is A Constant Struggle,” opens different viewpoints, as a results of a transition in today’s society, starting from the 1960’s to the age of Obama. In addition to the few minority groups, as she relates in this book, the similar of a constant struggle for freedom with in the different ethics groups.
Dorothy Sterling We Are Your Sisters Analysis
878 Words | 4 PagesIn the reading from We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century, Dorothy Sterling explores the many experiences of mainly African American women during the period of the Reconstruction era. Sterling states “whites put aside random acts of violence in favor of organized terror.” She focuses a lot on those experiences that involves the Ku Klux Klan (who were the organization responsible for these organized terror) and in a way, it seems fair because they were the main perpetrators of hate crimes against the African American community. The first few examples provided in the reading offer accounts of African American women whose husbands are often targets of the Ku Klux Klan because they were politicians or high-profile radicals in the South.
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