Rape of black women was ignored because they were seen as sexually permissive

Evidence

Since prostitutes are women and men who engage in sexual behavior for money or pay of some kind, it is a term inaccurately used when applied to enslaved black women who rarely received compensation for the use of their bodies as sexual latrines. Abolitionist women and men labeled black women “prostitutes” because they were trapped by the language of the Victorian ethos. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 99 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The white woman could at least plead for her own emancipation; the black women doubly enslaved, could but suffer and struggle and be silent. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 26 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Black women suffered quadruple exploitation as laborers, domestic workers, breeders, and rape targets; Rape of enslaved women functioned as institutionalized terrorism, not lust — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 78; Black women bore the brunt of slave-ship terror because they could not retaliate (+18 more)

Related

• Calling enslaved Black women prostitutes misdescribed their coerced sexual exploitation (similarity 0.90)
• Historians have normalized and minimized the rape of enslaved black women. (similarity 0.90)
• Black women bore the brunt of slave-ship terror because they could not retaliate (similarity 0.89)
• Labeling black women as sexual savages enabled their rapes by denying their humanity. (similarity 0.89)
• Devaluation of black womanhood licensed exploitation and prostitution (similarity 0.88)
• Sexual exploitation dehumanized black women more than labor exploitation did (similarity 0.88)
• Rape of black women was not a crime under slavery law (similarity 0.88)
• Black women suffered quadruple exploitation as laborers, domestic workers, breeders, and rape targets (similarity 0.87)
• Abolitionists who condemned rape still blamed enslaved women as accomplices. (similarity 0.85)
• Nineteenth-century sexual morality taught mistresses to blame enslaved women for rape (similarity 0.85)
• Sexism and racism were twin oppressive forces in black women’s slave experience (similarity 0.85)
• Rape of enslaved women functioned as institutionalized terrorism, not lust (similarity 0.85)
• Black women under slavery were doubly enslaved by race and sex (similarity 0.85)
• Understanding black women’s status requires analyzing race and sex together (similarity 0.85)
• Enslaved women absorbed anti-woman violence that white women otherwise faced (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Calling enslaved Black women prostitutes misdescribed their coerced sexual exploitation #corroborates (0.75) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 99
• Sexism and racism were twin oppressive forces in black women’s slave experience #corroborates (0.70)
• Black women under slavery were doubly enslaved by race and sex #expands (0.70) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 26
• Nineteenth-century black women endured double enslavement by race and sex #corroborates (0.65)
• Devaluation of black women was a deliberate method of social control #expands (0.60) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 191
• Black women experienced sexist oppression distinct from racism #corroborates (0.60) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 47
• White male sexual power over slaves redirected white women’s anger onto black women #complicates (0.55) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 451
• White women feared black women’s perceived immorality threatened their own status #complicates (0.50) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 384