A CULTURE OF SILENCE: SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN THE LIVES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN

1. A CULTURE OF
SILENCE:
SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN
THE LIVES OF
AFRICAN AMERICAN
WOMEN
“I STAYED SILENT
BECAUSE BLACK GIRLS
AND WOMEN LIKE ME
AREN’T LISTENED TO”

2. THE INSTUTIONALIZED RAPE
AND SEXUAL ABUSE OF
BLACK WOMEN: SLAVERY
American Society is hesitant to
acknowledge and confront the fact that
institutional patterns of sexual violence
such as rape and sexual assault, was
“well established before the newly
enslaved Africans reached the Americas
and perpetuated during the Jim Crow
Era and beyond” (West & Johnson,
2013; Lynn 2018).

3. THE FEMALE SLAVE EXPERIENCE
The circumstances of slavery were far more excruciating
for Black women. Black women were the “victims of
sexual abuse, harassment to forced prostitution, and
from breeding to rape” (Diouf, 2015). “They were
routinely raped and impregnated by crew members on
the slave ships during the voyage and they were raped by
overseers and slaveholders” (West & Johnson, 2013;
Diouf, 2015).

4. THE AUCTION BLOCK
o“The white man’s claim to the enslaved body was inherent in the
concept of the slave trade and was tangibly realized nowhere more than
on the auction block” (Hallam, 2004, pp.2).
oEnslaved men and women were “stripped naked, oiled down and poked
and prodded by potential buyers” (Hallam, 2004).
oBlack women economic value was solely dependent upon their ability
to breed healthy offspring
oWomen who were considered “strong were sold as breeders and were
routinely sexually assaulted to birth more children into slavery,” which
were then sold to increase the slave owner’s wealth”
oThe slave auctions had erotic undertones that were particularly
pronounced in the case of black women” (Hallam, 2004 pp. 2). For
example, “the stripping and touching of slaves had a sexually
exploitative and sometimes sadistic function”

5. RAPE OF ENSLAVED
WOMEN
Some sources estimate
that 58% of enslaved women
aged 15 to 30 years were
sexually assaulted by white
men (West & Johnson,
2013).

6. HISTORICAL STEROTYPES OF
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN
o Black women were perceived by white men and white society in general as uncivilized,
immodest, lustful, and easily available. This depiction of black women was further
reinforced by the stereotype “Jezebel”.
o White women were portrayed as “models of self-respect, self-control, and modesty
and even sexually pure” (Pilgrim, 2012).
oThe belief that black women are innately promiscuous and hypersexual stemmed from
European travelers first encounter with Africans, where they witnessed “scantily clad
natives”. Unaccustomed to the requirements of a tropical climate, this “semi nudity
was misinterpreted as lewdness” (Pilgrim, 2012).
oThey attributed Africans practice of polygamy and tribal dances to “uncontrolled sexual
lust and used this and similar stereotypes to justify enslaving blacks” (Pilgrim, 2012).
oUtilizing racist and sexist ideologies, whites argued that they alone were “civilized and
rational, whereas blacks and other people of color, were barbaric and deserved to be
subjugated” (Pilgrim, 2012).

7. JEZEBEL
oThis stereotype also gave the impression that black woman
could not be rape victims because she had an “insatiable
appetite for sex and was not satisfied with black men”. She
“desired sexual relations with white men, therefore white men
did not have to rape black women” (Pilgrim, 2012).
oWhite men not only used the Jezebel stereotype as a
rationalization for their forced procreation among slaves but
also used this stereotype as a legal defense when raping black
women.
oHowever, “legally” speaking, enslaved women (and slaves in
general), were chattel property, therefore they could not be
raped. For this reason, enslaved women were not afforded
equal protection by Rape laws.

8. THE PLIGHT ENSLAVED WOMEN
Although female slaves endured intense and extreme
physical labor, they were also vulnerable to a gender-
specific form of slavery— sexual abuse. Given their
social and legal status as property, they were without
means to deny their owners, or their owner’s agents,
sexual access to access to their bodies. Socially, there
was no available shelter for sexually abused female
slaves, nor were there moral sanctions against owners
who sexually abused or allowed sexual abuse of their
female slaves. Legally, enslaved women had no standing
under civil or criminal law to accuse their owners of
rape. (Bridgewater, 2005, pp. 115-116)

9. POST-EMANCIPATION, JIM CROW, AND
THE 20TH CENTURY
oUnfortunately for Black women, the sexual abuse continued
throughout Post-Emancipation, the Jim Crow era and beyond.
oThe passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth Amendments and Fifteenth
Amendments, also known as the reconstruction amendments,
“purported to raise Blacks to the status of full personhood” (Broussard,
2013).
oHowever, these amendments were not applied in an equitable
manner. The status of Black women remained largely as it had been
during slavery, especially in the south or border states where Jim Crow
Laws were enacted (Pilgrim, 2012).
oSouthern white males continue to avoid being convicted of rape or
attempted rape of Black woman and Black woman still had little legal
recourse when raped by white men (Pilgrim, 2012).
oMany Black woman also became reluctant to report their sexual
victimization by black men for fear that they would be lynched
(Pilgrim, 2012).

10. CULTURE OF SILENCE
o“Black women also used a variety of resistance strategies to combat
sexual victimization” (West & Johnson, 2013).
o “Some woman physically fought back or ran away, while other women
developed a culture of silence that discouraged the disclosure of rape”
(West & Johnson, 2013) The latter often extended to the larger black
community, in which Black woman used silence as a necessary tool for
survival and the perseveration of blacks as a race.
oAfter after the passage of the 13th and 14th amendments, the law was no
longer silent on the issue of whether Black women were included among
those persons protected by it. However, the law failure in applying these
new laws in a just and equitable manner, imposed a new silence.
oThe judicial system consistently continued to work to “undermine the
laws that purportedly applied to Black women” (Broussard, 2013).
oBlack women who survived the physical and the subsequent judicial rape
faced psychological abuse, being labeled as a “temptress, damaged goods
and a loose and immoral woman with no virtue

11. THE THIRD LAYER OF
SILENCE
A third layer of silence grew around Black women during the early and
mid-twentieth century as the rape of Black women by [W]hite men
continued. These rapes were not widely publicized, especially when
compared with the public discourse, debate, and protest against
lynching. The Black community always pointed to lynchings as the most
blatant and vicious aspect of White males’ attack on the Black
community, but no such discourse and protest surrounded the rape of
Black women by White men. Yet, rape was frequently part of [W]hite
males’ attacks on the Black community. (Broussard, 2013, pp. 408).

12. THE UNTOLD STORY OF
ROSA PARKS
o “Mother of the civil rights movement”
o Parks wrote a six-page “detailed and harrowing account of nearly being raped by a
white neighbor who employed her as a housekeeper in 1931 (Iinytzky, 2017).
oParks is best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott which in
turn inspired the civil rights movement. Her solidarity act of defiance during the
social and political protest that lasted from December 5, 1955 to December 20,
1956 led to the Supreme Court outlawing segregation on buses (Iinytzky, 2017). Yet
no one has never before heard of the attempted rape.
oWomen remained on the “lower socio-economic spectrum during the Jim crow era
and 20th century” (Broussard, 2013) For this reason, Black women who endured
sexual abuse and harassment maintained their silence in fear of losing their jobs
(Broussard, 2013).
oHowever, one can assume that this is why Parks chose to remain silent: fear of
further being victimized by the incident; fear of losing her job and facing backlash
against her community; and guilt or shame.
o Parks maintained her silence because she knew that Black women was invisible in
the eyes of the law, where accusing a White man of rape can inflict greater harm
upon the victim than upon the white assailant, himself.

13. THE UNTOLD STORY OF
ROSA PARKS (CONTINUED)
oRarely acknowledge and discussed in history, before the bus Parks
was a sexual investigator for National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), “protecting black men
from false accusations and lynchings and ensuring that black people
who have been sexually assaulted by white people could get their
day in court” (Mattimore, 2017).
o Parks contribution to the progress of Black people is mainly
attributed to her refusing to giving up her seat. Society has this
image of Parks as the “silent middle-aged seamstress who tiptoed
into history after refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger
on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955” (Hopper & NG, 2011).
oHowever, she was a multifaceted individual who not only spent a
lifetime fighting for racial equality but also fought against the sexual
violence of black women and girls, urging them to speak out.
Unfortunately, this too, however, has been omitted from history.

14. THE STAIN OF SLAVERY AND JIM CROW IN
THE 21ST CENTURY
oAfter Slavery and Jim Crow ended, the stereotypes used to degrade Black woman barely
changed.
oThe idea that black women “sexuality is deviant, aggressive, and pathological” persisted into the
twenty-first century and continue to have devastating and sometimes deadly effects on Black
women in America (Hess, 2018).
oWhile our racially bias and unjust legal system and court of opinion continue to perpetuate,
these stereotypes, it is no surprise that only 17% of Black survivors will report their assault
compare to 44% of white survivors.
oAs the larger society continues to ignore and blame black female victims and survivors for
crimes against them, black women as a group are least likely to break the silence.

15. NATIONAL STUDIES
oAccording to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC),
Rape is the most under-reported crime authorities regardless of the
victim’s sex, age, race and ethnicity (NSVRC, 2015).
oHowever, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that
sexual violence affects Black women at a higher share among
women overall: “more than 20 percent of Black women are raped
during their lifetime (Women of Color Network, 2006).
oIn addition, Black women also experience intimate partner violence
(rape, physical assault, stalking) at a rate 35 percent higher than
that of white women and are less likely to use social services report
to the police, or go to the hospital (Women of Color Network, 2006).
oIf anything, it is understanding why Black women don’t report to
agencies. As society refuses to recognize the bodily autonomy of a
Black woman, reaching out for help after a sexual assault can
compound the trauma and re-traumatize the her (Mitchell 2018).

16. MYTH AND BELIEFS ENTRENCHED
IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY
oThe most common myths and beliefs are “The Strong Black women” and “Protect, don’t
Expose”. Black women have internalized the “we have to be strong” idea leaving them
feeling like they have no one to turn to (Domesticshelters.org, 2018).
o Black women and girls are also taught that it’s their duty to “protect black men and boys
from White Supremacy and cruel grip and police brutality” (Savali, 2018).
oWith America’s harsh history of racism and discrimination by whites, the Black community
internalized in their mind that “white folks are not to be trusted” and “black people are
expected to protect not expose, the black community” (Pollard-Terry, 2004).
oFor black women, the first response is not to report black sexual abusers because they
don’t want to turn them over to the police, the courts, and other institutions that have
been known to be historically racist and brutal to them” (Domesticshelters.org, 2018).
o Black women don’t want their voices to be an instrument that further neuters Black men”
(Broussard, 2013).
oWhen Black women do stand up for themselves and report their victimizations not only are
they judged and labeled by their communities as traitors but further victimized by a justice
system that is meant to protect victims but instead discriminates instead of providing
safety. (Domesticshelters.org, 2018).

17. VICTIM RACE AND RAPE:
THE COURT SYSTEM
oElizabeth Kennedy reveals how: (1) history plays out in rape prosecutions today; (2) Black/African-American rape
victims continue to face obstacles in pursing justice within the legal system; (3) The experiences of African American
rape victims vary in critical ways from that of her white counterpart (Kennedy, 2003).
o African American women are less likely to disclose the rape to family, to rape crisis centers, to clergy and significantly
less likely to report it to the police (Kennedy, 2003). Kennedy attribute African American women unwillingness to
report to “rape myths” that are accepted in the African-American community such as the notion that “victims deserve
some blame for what happens to them” or that you “cannot force sex upon a woman” (Kennedy, 2003). These myths,
she stated, “are accepted at higher rates than white woman” (Kennedy, 2003).
oWhen African Americans do report their victimizations, the prosecutor is less likely to file charges than if a similarly
situated white woman made a similar report (Kennedy, 2003). However, when the victim does report, and the
prosecutor does charge, the African American accuser is further victimized by the jury.
oWhen mock juries are given little information about the crime the victim race is taken into consideration in a myriad of
ways: (1) Jurors are more likely to believe that the assailant of a white woman is guilty than they believe in the guilt of
a black woman’s assailant; (2) when the evidence is neutral or indeterminate, jurors are more likely to view that
evidence as favorable to the prosecution when the victim is white than when she is black (Kennedy, 2003); (3) and that
“date rape” is perceived ass less serious when the victim is black. In this case, mock jurors were less likely to believe
that a crime had occurred or that the assailant should be held responsible (Kennedy, 2003).
oWhen the jury does find the assailant of an African American woman guilty of rape, Kennedy revealed that the victim
race continues to play a role in the proceedings: in combination, the race of the defendant and the race of victim
affects the seriousness of the defendants charge and the severity, location and length of his sentence (Kennedy, 2003).
She found that If a black man was convicted of raping a white woman, he was: (1) more likely to be charged with a
felony; (3) more likely to receive a jail term; (4) more likely to serve his time in a state penitentiary than in a local
facility; (5) and received a longer sentence on average in cases with a different defendant-victim dyad (Kennedy, 2003).