The black rapist myth responded to marriage fears, not real rape
Evidence
At no time in the early part of the 20th century were any large numbers of black men raping white women or seeking illicit relationships with them. Joseph Washington, Jr.’s, study of inter-racial union, Marriage in Black and White, documents the fact that black men who sought relationships with white women were eager for marriage. White people were never reacting to any high incidence of inter-racial rape during reconstruction; they simply wanted to prevent inter-racial marriage. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 192
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Negrophobic women’s fear arises from imagination, not real danger
Related
- Anti-miscegenation laws failed, so white men deployed two false myths (similarity 0.85)
- Negrophobic women’s fear arises from imagination, not real danger (similarity 0.84)
- White men were encouraged to exploit black women but not marry them (similarity 0.81)
- Warnings against white men function as psychological control over black women’s freedom. (similarity 0.81)
- Whites feared legally sanctioned racial mixing of either sex (similarity 0.81)
- Black men’s inter-racial choices reveal sexist double standards against black women. (similarity 0.78)
- Negative images of black women persisted into the 20th century (similarity 0.78)