Colonial news media ignored rapes of Black women entirely.

Evidence

Of the nearly one hundred reports of rape or attempted rape in twenty-one newspapers in nine American colonies between 1728 and 1776, none reported the rape of a Black woman. Rapes of Black women, by men of all races, were not considered newsworthy. Like raped prostitutes, Black women’s credibility had been stolen by racist beliefs in their hypersexuality. For Black men, the story was similar. There was not a single article in the colonial era announcing the acquittal of a suspected Black male rapist. One-third of White men mentioned in rape articles were acknowledged as being acquitted of at least one charge. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 101

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s goal of testing how racist ideas about hypersexuality materialize as policy/media practice, complementing later chapters on the scientific defense of such beliefs.
• SEED: An essay angle on how news coverage of sexual violence both constructs and is constructed by racial credibility hierarchies — applicable to modern coverage disparities.