Warnings against white men function as psychological control over black women’s freedom.

Evidence

Black men have a vested interest in maintaining existing barriers which discourage black female-white male marriage, for it eliminates sexual competition. Just as sexist white folks used the idea that all black men were rapists to limit the sexual freedom of white women, black people employ the same tactic to control black female sexual behavior. For many years, black people warned black females to beware involvement with white men for fear such relationships would lead to exploitation and degradation of black womanhood. While there is no need to deny the historical fact that white men have sexually exploited black women, this knowledge is used by the white and black public as a psychological weapon to limit and restrain the freedom of black females. Black females who have been socialized by parents to feel threatened or even terrorized by contact with white men often have difficulty relating to white male employers, teachers, doctors, etc. There are many black women who have as phobic a fear about white male sexuality as the fear white women have traditionally felt towards black men. Phobic fear is not a solution to the problem of sexual exploitation or rape. It is a symptom. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 205

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the rape myth used against black men, showing symmetrical use of sexual fear to police the sexes. — connects to: Devaluation of black women was a deliberate method of social control — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 191

Related

• White women feared black women’s perceived immorality threatened their own status (similarity 0.85)
• White men were encouraged to exploit black women but not marry them (similarity 0.83)
• Labeling black women as sexual savages enabled their rapes by denying their humanity. (similarity 0.83)
• White women fear black women’s power to expose their hypocrisy (similarity 0.82)
• White men created the race-sex hierarchy that black men accept and support. (similarity 0.82)
• Black women’s employment is framed as harming black men, unlike white women’s (similarity 0.82)
• White male brutality toward Black women stemmed from patriarchal misogyny, not racism alone (similarity 0.82)
• Devaluation of black women was a deliberate method of social control (similarity 0.82)
• White male sexual power over slaves redirected white women’s anger onto black women (similarity 0.81)
• Black women’s silence on sexism stemmed from socialization that devalued their femaleness (similarity 0.81)
• Sexism and racism were twin oppressive forces in black women’s slave experience (similarity 0.81)
• Black men asserted dominance over women to compensate for losing to white men (similarity 0.81)
• Whites feared legally sanctioned racial mixing of either sex (similarity 0.81)
• White women’s rights appeals exploited racism against black men (similarity 0.81)
• Institutionalized sexism protected black male sexuality while legitimizing black female assault (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Devaluation of black women was a deliberate method of social control #corroborates (0.70) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 191