Respectable conduct functioned as self-defense against sexual assault for black women

Evidence

Respectability, too, offered the black Baptist women a perceived weapon in defense of their sexual identities. In 1916 the minutes of the Woman’s Convention noted that “since she [the black woman] is liable to these insults and encroachments… she must become a tower of moral strength and by her reserve and dignified bearing, defy and cower her agegressors.”2? The historian Darlene Clark Hine, in calling attention to black women’s fear of rape by white and black men in the early twentieth century, argues that black women adopted a “culture of dissemblance”—a self-imposed secrecy and invisibility—in order to shield themselves emotionally and physically.3° While this “culture of dissemblance” was illustrative of the everyday resistance of black women, it formed part of a larger discourse that often explicitly deployed manners and morals to challenge charges of black immorality. Such manners and morals, as deployed by black women, were perceived as protection from sexual insult and assault. They were also perceived by some as tools for winning sympathetic white allies. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 891

Categorization

• XREF: This ‘culture of dissemblance’ concept from Darlene Clark Hine connects to my ongoing thread on how oppressed groups use internal discipline and concealment as protective strategy. — connects to: Institutionalized sexism protected black male sexuality while legitimizing black female assault — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 66; The strong-black-woman stereotype overrides even passive black women’s conduct — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 239; The rape myth of Black women’s licentiousness served as slavery’s moral justification — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 222 (+5 more)
• SEED: Angle: the politics of respectability as ‘self-defense’ — how a group weaponizes its own conduct as a shield against assault, not just for white approval.

Broader Connections

• Rape of black women was ignored because they were seen as sexually permissive #expands (0.90)
• Respectable public self-presentation contested racist stereotypes of black women #corroborates (0.90) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 878
• The rape myth of Black women’s licentiousness served as slavery’s moral justification #expands (0.88) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 222
• The jezebel stereotype blamed Black women for white male sexual assault #expands (0.88) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 99
• The politics of respectability required blacks to police their own behavior against racist stereotype #qualifies (0.87) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 900
• Institutionalized sexism protected black male sexuality while legitimizing black female assault #expands (0.85) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 66
• Respectability discourse blames victimized blacks, especially women, for their own discrimination #complicates (0.83) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 923
• The strong-black-woman stereotype overrides even passive black women’s conduct #qualifies (0.82) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 239