White sexual assault of black women was excused by blaming the victims’ morals.

Evidence

Articles of this type were aimed at maintaining separation of the races. They convinced white readers that they would not want to live as social equals with black people by arguing that contact with the loose morals of blacks (and particularly those of black women) would lead to a breakdown of all moral values. The white public justified white male sexual assault of black females by arguing that the women invited sexual abuse by their lack of morals. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 177

Categorization

• XREF: This victim-blaming logic parallels the ‘she was asking for it’ rape myth literature and other feminist analyses of rape culture. — connects to: The jezebel stereotype blamed Black women for white male sexual assault — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 99; Labeling black women as sexual savages enabled their rapes by denying their humanity.
• SEED: Possible essay: how racist ‘moral’ myths functioned as ex ante legal justifications for sexual violence.

Related

• The jezebel stereotype blamed Black women for white male sexual assault (similarity 0.86)
• Labeling black women as sexual savages enabled their rapes by denying their humanity. (similarity 0.84)
• White writers fabricated black women’s unchastity to justify racial segregation. (similarity 0.83)
• Institutionalized sexism protected black male sexuality while legitimizing black female assault (similarity 0.82)
• Nineteenth-century sexual morality taught mistresses to blame enslaved women for rape (similarity 0.82)
• Historians have normalized and minimized the rape of enslaved black women. (similarity 0.82)
• The rape myth of Black women’s licentiousness served as slavery’s moral justification (similarity 0.81)
• Abolitionists who condemned rape still blamed enslaved women as accomplices. (similarity 0.81)
• Rape of enslaved black women devalued black womanhood beyond slavery’s end. (similarity 0.80)
• Rape of black women was not a crime under slavery law (similarity 0.79)
• Black women’s experiences were ignored and ridiculed as unworthy of study (similarity 0.79)
• White male brutality toward Black women stemmed from patriarchal misogyny, not racism alone (similarity 0.79)
• Warnings against white men function as psychological control over black women’s freedom. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Labeling black women as sexual savages enabled their rapes by denying their humanity. #corroborates (0.85)