Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The Assassination of the American Black Female Perspective
This paper deals with the group I feel is most forgotten in society - the black woman. I didn't feel like taking out the parenthetical citations. I wrote it in a day, so forgive any lack of proofreading.
Since the beginning of American history “Silence and invisibility are the hallmarks of black women in the imagery of American life” (Painter 211). Black women were subject to many atrocities throughout their history; arguably more than any other group of people on earth. They were kept as property, raped and cast aside for hundreds of years in this country. In the author’s opinion, the black female voice is the last one taken into account in America. In an effort to shed light on this, this paper will investigate the systematic discrediting and casting aside of the black female perspective in this country’s history. The paper will begin by investigating black female history from their introduction to America, focusing on the stereotypes created by racist institutions. It then looks at sexual assault in this country and investigates the disparate treatment between black and white victims. Next it looks at how society discredits the black female perspective by looking at history and contemporary media practices. It then ends with two studies of high profile cases involving the harassment and rape of black women, tying in the previous arguments to show the common occurrence of disregarding the black female perspective, ultimately leading to a lack of credibility.
The author would like to note race and gender both play a critical role in this society, and it is often hard to distinguish between the two. Kimberle Crenshaw gives a good synopsis:
Black women can experience discrimination in ways that are both similar to and different from those experienced by white women and black men. Black women sometimes experience discrimination in ways similar to white women’s experiences; sometimes they share very similar experiences with black men. Yet often the experience double-discrimination – the combined effects of practices which discriminate on the basis of race, and on the basis of sex. And sometimes, they experience discrimination as black women – not the sum of race and sex discrimination, but as Black women (Crenshaw Demarginalizing… 149).
Crenshaw recognizes both race and gender play roles with the idea of intersectionality.
African-American women by virtue of our race and gender are situated within at least two systems of subordination: racism and sexism. This dual vulnerability does not simply mean that our burdens are doubled but instead, that the dynamics of racism and sexism intersect in our lives to create experiences that are sometimes unique to us. In other words, our experiences of racism are shaped by our gender, and our experiences of sexism are often shaped by our race (Crenshaw Race, Gender… 1467).
This paper will focus on the racial aspect of the black female perspective, knowing the gender aspect still plays a critical role in any analysis.
I. Historical Stereotypes
The discounting and manipulation of the black female perspective in society has been happening since the induction of black women into society. From the early 1630s to the present, black American women of all shades have been portrayed as hypersexual "bad-black-girls”. (Jewell 46) The Jezebel character, in which a woman was governed entirely by her libido, is one of the most prevalent images of black women in antebellum America. This Jezebel was the opposite of the mid-nineteenth-century ideal of the white Victorian lady. She did not lead men and children to God; piety was foreign to her. She saw no advantage in prudery, indeed domesticity paled in importance before matters of the flesh (Phillips 412). In reality, this is based on a bit of truth and a lot of lies and false interpretation. The truth aspect is small; free black women sometimes became the willing concubines of wealthy white southerners in a system called placage, in which the white suitor agreed to financially support the black woman and her children in exchange for her long-term sexual services. The white men met the black women at occasions called "Quadroon Balls” (Id). This is where the truth stops and the lies and false interpretations begin. The misinterpretations began before slavery even existed in America. When European travelers went to Africa they found people dressed not like them, but with far less clothing due to the climate (White 29). Cultural differences led the Europeans to think this type of dress was lascivious. Unable to understand the African culture, white Europeans, locked into the racial ethnocentrism of the 17th century, attributed African polygamy and tribal dances to an uncontrollable sexual lust (Id). The fascination with African sexuality quickly grew with the Europeans. William Bosman described the black women on the coast of Guinea as "fiery" and "warm" and "so much hotter than the men." William Smith described African women as "hot constitution'd Ladies" who "are continually contriving stratagems how to gain a lover" (Id). From these first trips and accounts, the West began its continued practice of looking at blacks as inferior. Not only looking at blacks as inferior, the West used these racist opinions as justifications for enslavement. This was easy to do by claiming blacks were subhuman. The West claimed blacks were intellectually inferior, culturally stunted, morally underdeveloped, and animal-like sexually (Id). This was used as justification for saying whites were the only civilized and rational people, whereas the barbaric blacks deserved subjugation.
The institution of slavery itself further contributed to the idea of a Jezebel character being sexually promiscuous. During times of sale, purchasers requested the slaves to remove their clothing for inspection. In theory, this was done to insure they were healthy, able to reproduce, and, equally important, to look for whipping scars – the presence of which implied that the slave was rebellious (Pilgrim). In reality, this turned into a sexually exploitive function. Nudity, especially among women, implied lack of civility, morality, and sexual restraint even when forced. Slaves often wore few clothes or incredibly ragged ones, whereas white women had clothing covering their bodies. The social impact of this was large, as this reinforced the belief of white civility, modesty, and sexual purity, whereas black women were uncivilized, immodest, and sexually aberrant (Id).
The institution of slavery also called for frequent pregnancies because black women were the suppliers of future slaves. Slaves were encouraged to reproduce by many different means. Many slave owners gave incentives for women to reproduce. Some offered a new pig for each child born, a new dress for each surviving infant, or no work on Saturdays to black women who produced six children (Rawick 228). Owners also encouraged young black girls to have sex as "anticipatory socialization" for their later status as "breeders" (Pilgrim). When they did reproduce, owners viewed their fecundity as proof of their insatiable sexual appetites (Id). One contemporary historian wrote:
Major periodicals carried articles detailing optimal conditions under which bonded women were known to reproduce, and the merits of a particular "breeder" were often the topic of parlor or dinner table conversations. The fact that something so personal and private became a matter of public discussion prompted one ex-slave to declare that "women wasn't nothing but cattle." Once reproduction became a topic of public conversation, so did the slave woman's sexual activities. (White 31)
This shows society did not even look at black women as humans. The black woman was just there to supply future labor. Talk about how to increase efficiency in the reproductive process contributed even more to viewing black women as hypersexual.
This look at history shows the discounting of African women from the beginning of their time in this country. Society treated these women as barbaric, hypersexual, baby machines and thought nothing more of them. One must think of the impact this has on the perception of present day black women. These predominant thoughts of black women as sexually promiscuous remain in society’s consciousness today. Unfortunately this is not just perception; it has real world impacts. This idea of black women being sexually promiscuous has drastic effects in some very sensitive areas. One major area is sexual assault, and we can see the historical untruths and misinformation of centuries ago having a lasting and real impression today.
II. The Black Female Perspective in Cases of Sexual Assault
Race is a tremendous and distinguishing factor between women in sexual assault cases. An initial discussion of data supports this view. In cases of rape, we can look at the race of the victim to see disparate results between races. In cases where a black man is accused of rape, he is historically treated much more harshly if the victim is white. In Rape and Criminal Justice: The Social Construction of Sexual Assault, Gary LaFree confirms these statistics and finds black males receive lesser sentences for rape crimes in which the victim is black. Compared to other defendants, blacks who were suspected of assaulting white women received more serious charges, were more likely to have their cases filed as felonies, were more likely to receive prison sentences if convicted, were more likely to be incarcerated in the state penitentiary (as opposed to a jail or minimum-security facility), and received longer sentences on the average (LaFree 139). LaFree takes into account other factors such as injury to the victim and acquaintance between the assailant and victim and finds unchanged results. Further confirming these findings, Anthony Walsh found the “sentence severity mean for blacks who assaulted whites, which was significantly in excess of mean for whites who assaulted whites, was masked by the lenient sentence severity mean for blacks who assaulted blacks” (Walsh 170).
A Maryland study on rape convictions showed in all 55 cases where the death penalty was imposed the victim had been white, and that between 1960 and 1967, 47 percent of all black men convicted of criminal assaults on black women were immediately released on probation (Wriggins 121). The average sentence received by Black men, exclusive of cases involving life imprisonment or death, was 4.2 years if the victim was Black, 16.4 years if the victim was white (Id). These data confirm black victims are racially discriminated against because their rapists, whether black or white, are less likely to be charged with rape, and when convicted, are less likely to receive significant jail time than the rapists of white women (Crenshaw Demarginalizing… 1277). Growing apparent are ideas of institutional racism and unfair treatment between black and white victims of rape. Because we now know this phenomenon exists, we can examine potential factors leading to this problem.
Looking at history, we find rape is nearly just as much an issue of race compared to gender for black women. Throughout much of American history, the law did not even consider black women the victims of rape. This is because the rape of any black woman (considered property) during slavery was not a crime (Harris 599). A case from 1873 illustrates the difference in treatment between victims of rape of different color. Black men often received the death penalty for raping white women in Virginia at the time. However, in the case of a black man raping a black woman, the Virginia Court reversed the conviction by saying the defendant’s behavior, “though extremely reprehensible, and deserving of punishment, does not involve him in the crime which this statute was designed to punish.” Christian v. Commonwealth, 64 Va. (23 Gratt.) 954, 959 (1873). The only difference in the two crimes is the race of the victim; the white victim begets the death penalty whereas the black victim sees her assailant walk away. Take into account black women were the servants of white families during and after slavery, thus putting them in compromising and potentially dangerous situations (rape was the most common form of interracial sex (D’Emilo and Freedman 102)), and one can easily see how the black female perspective is one not taken into account in the public’s perception of rape.
The Jezebel stereotype became a rationalization for sexual relations between white men and black women, especially between slave owners and slaves (Pilgrim). White society often perceived the black woman as having a voracious appetite for sex, one not satiated merely by black men. In society’s eyes the Jezebel then desired white men, which led to the belief that white men did not have to rape black women (Id). Linda Williams feels society justified the rape of black women due to three stereotypes held over from slavery:
(a) A denial of responsibility, in which the attacker actually becomes the victim because he was provoked by a stereotypical black female with a questionable sexual nature and low morals;
(b) A denial of any possible injury to a sexually assaulted black female because of her constant desire for sex and her previous experience with black men, who as the stereotype goes, possess larger genitals than do their white counterparts; and,
(c) A denial that the black woman can possibly be seen as a victim if she provoked the attack and already brings to the encounter a bad character. (Williams)
This perverse way of thinking was prevalent even with the people fighting for the rights of slaves. James Redpath, an abolitionist, wrote slave women were "gratified by the criminal advances of Saxons" (Redpath 141). Even people fighting for the rights of slaves were completely unaware of their eschewing of the black female perspective (or were aware and did not care), something which the author believes is still happening today under different circumstances.
Even the idea of “voluntary” sexual relations between slave owners and slaves is often inaccurate, again showing the black female perspective to be lacking. Owners would give material incentives in the form of gifts or would reduce required labor if the woman would continue sexual relations (Pilgrim). If a woman was not lucky enough to get gifts out of it, she would still “voluntarily” consent to sex with owners, their sons and other white males for different reasons. To understand this, we must attempt to get into the mind of a female slave at the time. In their reality, they had to do many things they would not normally do out of fear. If a woman did not consent to sex, she faced many dire consequences. Since she was chattel, she or any of her family members faced the threat of death or sale. A quote perfectly exemplifying this came from a slave woman, "When he make me follow him into de bush, what use me to tell him no? He have strength to make me" (D’Emilio and Freedman 101). This “voluntary” sex by slave women directly supported society’s view of black women as hypersexual.
Keeping with the idea of the public not taking the black female perspective into account, some argue society now considers rape to be the victimization of black men by white men, aided, passively (by silence) or actively (by “crying rape”) by white women (Harris 599). In the author’s opinion, this appears hard to dispute after only a cursory inquisition of society’s views. Delving further, we can look at past writings as evidence of this. In 1892, Ida B. Wells analyzed rape under the framing that race and gender are inseparable in Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases. She felt the overall patriarchal system in which white males maintained their control led to rape and miscegenation laws: “White men used their ownership of the body of the white female as a terrain on which to lynch the black male” (Id. Emphasis added). She felt white women, even though they often encouraged interracial relationships, were protected by the patriarchal idealization of white womanhood. They were then able to remain silent, unhappily or not, as black men were murdered by mobs (Id). This directly supports the idea of the lost black female perspective in society. These laws were borne from the need to protect the white female and had nothing to do with protecting the black female. We saw much outrage, and rightly so, from civil rights groups after seeing mass lynchings and hard data showing black men were more likely than white men to go to prison for rape of a white female. This outrage led to the repeal of several racial roadblocks in our legal system, including miscegenation laws. But in the author’s opinion, this was done out of sympathy for the historic mistreatment of the black male, evidencing society’s framing of rape around black on white victims and therefore once again forgetting the black female victims. Since the time of this “awakening” the presumption has been the quintessential lynch victim was a casualty of the miscarriage of justice (Painter 209). Lacking access to the means of mass communication, black women have not been able to use their history of abuse as a corrective to stereotypes of rampant sexuality (Painter 212).
Using sexual assault as a framework for looking at the disregard for the black female perspective is beneficial because the examples are so stark. As we have found, the criminal justice system is institutionally unfair to black rape victims. Rape was not even a crime against black females for a long period of time, and the implications of this are far reaching. There is no doubt hundreds of years of a practice (allowable rape of black women) and ideology (the Jezebel woman) must have shaped the mindset of society. It would be naïve to think we are fully over this way of thinking and remnants almost assuredly remain. In the author’s opinion, this is the explanation for the difference in incarceration rates for victimizers of black and white women. Society still holds on to notions of black female promiscuity and this has a direct impact during both prosecution and jury deliberation. In terms of prosecution, this is not just the author’s opinion. A study in Oakland found the police department dismissed over 20 percent of rape cases as “unfounded”, and did not even interview many, if not most, of the women involved (Crenshaw 1281 Demarginalizing…). The vast majority of the victims were poor, black, and often drug abusers and prostitutes. The police remarked, “Those cases were hopelessly tainted by women who are transient, uncooperative, untruthful or not credible as witnesses in court” (Id). Another study demonstrated the victim’s race was a strong factor in the prosecutor's decision regarding juror acceptance of the charges as “prosecutors rejected charges more often if the victim was a racial minority or if the suspect was black.” The researchers found over half - 58.1% - of all rejections and dismissals involved black victims, whereas only 31.1% were white (Pokorak 41). Furthermore, prosecutors were 4 1/2 times more likely to file charges if the victim was white than if the victim was black (Id. at 42). When looked at in a historical context, this immediately draws parallels to the times of the Jezebel. Once again society leaves poor, black women with little or no recourse. In the author’s opinion this is the exact same practice of three hundred years ago wrapped up in the context of today’s society. Males can act in ways not allowable to whites knowing the criminal justice system slants in their favor and against black women. The quote by the police officer brings up what the author thinks is the most apparent and harmful result of centuries of subjugation; the assassination of the credibility of black women. This is a likely result since society stereotyped black women before they even set foot in America. This lack of credibility proves disastrous in sexual assault and harassment cases because it is often one word against the other.
III. How These Stereotypes Affect the Credibility of Black Women
Pervasive stereotypes about Black women not only shape the kind of harassment that Black women experience but also influence whether Black women's stories are likely to be believed (Crenshaw Race, Gender… 1471). This point is crucial because so much of our court system depends on the perception of truth. This court system has a history of disbelieving black women’s words, partially due to the historical connection between chastity and lack of veracity. Historically in America, those who were willing to have sex were not likely to tell the truth (Id). As much of this paper has focused on, the portrayal of black women as lascivious and always willing to have sex had a direct effect on the credibility of black women. Their willingness to engage in sex, in society’s eyes, meant they were not to be trusted. There were even past practices of judges instructing juries to take a black woman’s word with a grain of salt (Id). Once again, it is doubtful that a society can inoculate itself after hundreds of years of a despicable practice. There is no doubt this practice is ongoing when looking at the above conviction statistics of white versus black victims. Getting a jury to believe the account of a black woman is not the end of the problem. Past stereotypes again come into play when people think whether the harm done to the victim is significant or even important. Attitudes of jurors seem to reflect a common belief that Black women are different from white women and that sexually abusive behavior directed toward them is somehow less objectionable (Id). The always asking for sex stereotype is a factor here because even if a jury believes the testimony of the victim, they can ask questions like, “Was it really that bad for her?” and, “Maybe she was asking for it?”
Of importance, the author is not suggesting these thoughts are always conscious, rather, the historic and contemporary treatment of black women has led to collective subconscious thoughts of a diminished black female perspective. Since the abolition of slavery and many other controversial practices occurred many years ago, those methods of subjugating black women have gone by the wayside. However, there are now more subtle ways of discounting the black female victim. We now have a ubiquitous media, capable of influencing the public opinion at large. The media chooses whom it will cover in violence against women cases, and a look at recent events shows an incredibly disproportionate amount of coverage for white women over black women. This phenomenon is sometimes called the “Missing white women syndrome” (Pokorak 3). The following white women have all garnered significant media coverage due to their disappearances:
• Polly Klaas (October 1, 1993) - found murdered; murderer convicted; prompted renewal of Three strikes law
• JonBenét Ramsey (December 25, 1996) - found murdered; cold case until August 2006 arrest of suspect. Suspect was later exonerated and murder is now considered a cold case again.
• Lucie Blackman (July 21, 2000) - A hostess in the Roppongi area of Tokyo that went missing. She was later found murdered in a shallow grave having been drugged and raped beforehand. Suspect was found "Not Guilty". The case gained criticism from Japanese Diet members at the time due to non-white hostesses meeting tragic fates in Japan on a regular basis, but her case becoming worldwide news when it happened.
• Chandra Levy (May 1, 2001) - missing for several months; decomposed body found and foul play/murder is suspected; cold case
• Elizabeth Smart (June 5, 2002) - found alive; kidnapper found incompetent to stand trial
• Laci Peterson (December 23, 2002) - found murdered; murderer convicted; prompted Laci and Conner's law
• Dru Sjodin (November 22, 2003) - found murdered; murderer convicted; prompted Dru's law
• Audrey Seiler (March 28, 2004) - alleged kidnapping in Madison, Wisconsin; Seiler admitted faking the kidnapping several days later
• Brooke Wilberger (May 24, 2004) - still missing, presumed dead; man arrested for murder
• Jennifer Wilbanks (April 26, 2005) - "The Runaway Bride." Went out for a jog and did not return; there was much media speculation that her fiancé had killed her. Found she had staged her own kidnapping when she was discovered alive several days later and admitted what she had done.
• Natalee Holloway (May 30, 2005) - still missing and presumed dead, last known location in Aruba, investigation closed[12] then reopened on February 1, 2008. Has become especially controversial because of the great duration of media coverage.
• Taylor Behl (September 5, 2005) - 17-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University freshman disappeared and was later found dead; murderer convicted.
• Madeline McCann (May 3, 2007) - 3-year-old blonde girl who has been the subject of a Europe-wide and Northern Africa search.
• Kelsey Smith (June 2, 2007) - 18-year-old woman found murdered
• Jessie Marie Davis (June 15, 2007) was reported missing and later found murdered.
The following are stories the media failed to address:
• Tamika Huston (May 27, 2004) - a 24-year-old black woman who went missing from her Spartanburg, South Carolina home. Described as "bright and beautiful," Huston's remains were found more than a year later in a nearby town, and her ex-boyfriend was convicted of her murder in 2006. Following her disappearance, Huston's relatives tried in vain to interest the national news media in her case; what little national coverage it received often focused on the relative lack of coverage Huston's story was receiving.
• Stepha Henry, a 22-year-old black woman who disappeared while on vacation in Florida.
• Latoyia Figueroa (July 18, 2005) - a 25-year-old woman of African-American and Hispanic descent who was reported as missing and later found strangled to death. Figueroa, who was five months pregnant at the time, was reported missing after she failed to show up to work. Police arrested Stephen Poaches, the father of her unborn child more than a month after she was reported missing. On October 17, 2006, Poaches was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Figueroa and her unborn child. Figueroa's case is especially relevant because it unfolded at the same time as Natalee Holloway's, and cable news channels, such as CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel, neglected to cover Figueroa's with the same intensity.
Natalee Holloway provides us with a good example. Between May 30 and July 28, 2005, there were over 500 stories on the major twenty-four-hour news stations related to her disappearance in Aruba (Pokorak 3). The media followed her story in intricate detail. They analyzed every police action and scrutinized every aspect of her life in the United States, providing the platform for broad commentary on our current culture (Id). News outlets even reported live from Aruba even when there was no news to report. Contrast that with Latoyia Figueroa. She had the hallmarks of a “damsel in distress” narrative: she was attractive, five months pregnant when she disappeared, and her disappearance suggested foul play (Id). The police suspected Stephen Poaches, Ms. Figueroa's boyfriend and father of her child, although there was no evidence to support that claim. Many comparisons to the Laci Peterson case arose, which was a major story for two years running. Unfortunately the media ignored Latoyia’s case while being more than willing to spend countless hours on white victims.
By only focusing its attention on white victims, the media is no different from the previously detailed societies’ magnification and admiration of white victims at the expense of black women. In fact, recognition of the relatively benign valuation applied by media corporations is only a second-hand way of identifying the truly pernicious attitude it reveals: white women are more important than black women and other women of color (Pokorak 4). Since the media is so ubiquitous, this valuation of white over black victims in the media must have some psychological impact on society. Keeping in line with this paper, the author once again feels this contributes to society eschewing the black female perspective. If all people see on the news is white victims, they will likely build sympathies for white women at the expense of black victims. Since we build so many of our opinions on past experiences, looking at a sterilized history of violence against women to form an opinion will lead to defining the attributes of a victim along race and class lines as opposed to the victimization itself. The zeitgeist then turns to defining victims as pretty white women, and any victim not comporting to those ideals is automatically disadvantaged. Couple that with stereotypes that black women are sexually promiscuous, liars and incapable of rape, and one can begin to see how far behind black women are today when it comes to recourse for victimization. All of this shows based on color of skin alone, the credibility of black women comes into doubt in any sexual violence or harassment case. Two real world cases, the Clarence Thomas / Anita Hill hearings and the Duke Lacrosse team, are perfect examples of this.
IV. Anita Hill
On July 1, 1991 George Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to fill the recently vacated seat of Thurgood Marshall. Toward the end of the confirmation hearings NPR's Supreme Court correspondent Nina Totenberg reported a former colleague of Thomas, University of Oklahoma law school professor Anita Hill, had accused him of sexually harassing her when the two had worked together at the DOE and EEOC based on a leaked Judiciary committee FBI report. (Clarence Thomas Supreme Court Nomination) The Senate Judiciary Committee then conducted hearings to investigate the matter. The major players in the committee were white males; Orin Hatch, Arlen Specter and Joseph Biden. Based on arguments posed above, Anita Hill was disadvantaged from the beginning. She was a black woman giving her testimony about Thomas’ sexual harassment to a white jury. Those who attacked Hill had the immediate advantage of not having to confront physical evidence or witnesses (Darwin). A commentator stated in normal hearings with no witness, “normal courtroom defense to such charge is to try to even the score by eliciting details that damage the accuser’s credibility and by testing various theories of her motivation” (Garment). This turned the ordeal into an attack on Hill’s credibility. This was easy to do with stereotypes.
The ordeal involved not only the stereotype of the Jezebel, but also the black matriarch. The black matriarch is the bad black mother who emasculates black men because she will not permit them to assume roles as black patriarchs (Collins 72). Black matriarchs have been held responsible for black men’s low educational achievements, inability to earn a living for their families, personality disorders, and delinquency (King 12). The black matriarch also applies to black women interested in their career and viewed as, “egotistical career climbers, better paid, better educated and more socially mobile than their male counterparts” (Ransby 169). We can look at the testimony for evidence of subversive use of these stereotypes by US Senators. The hypersexual Jezebel stereotype came out in full force during Thomas’ questioning by Orin Hatch. Hatch questioned Thomas if Hill ever asked him for rides home and then asked him inside. Hatch asked, “You never thought of any of this as anything more than normal for a friendly or professional conversation with a colleague. Am I correct on that or am I wrong?” (Bystrom et al 57). This question is an obvious attempt to conjure up the image of Hill aggressively pursuing Thomas. Hatch also took many opportunities to reread the most graphic portions of Hill’s testimony, implanting sexual imagery in any observer’s head. During the hearings white senators called her a heterosexual erotomaniac, a vengeful spurned woman, stridently aggressive, arrogant, ambitious, aloof, tough and opinionated (Darwin 199). Testimony from John Doggett claimed Hill fantasized about him (Id). This was thoroughly debunked days later (Abramson and Mayer 297). Hill’s questioners knew this testimony to be flimsy at best and that it would not be ruled admissible if given in an affidavit (Id at 296). This is direct evidence of her doubters attempting to discredit her through the use of racial stereotypes. They just wanted a man to testify Hill made passes at him, showing her to be a sexually aggressive Jezebel. They knew this testimony would not stand up but all they were worried about was public perception. All of these examples are directly attributable to the Jezebel and black matriarch stereotype used to discredit Hill.
One interesting facet of the hearings is the use of black male stereotypes against Hill. This was an interesting phenomenon because both the accuser and accused were black, but Thomas used racism as an excuse for his perceived mistreatment. Thomas used language conjuring up the imagery of slavery when he said, “I will not provide the rope for my own lynching or for further humiliation” (Flax 88). The largest bombshell came when he said, “This is a circus. It is a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, as far as I am concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and that unless you kow-tow to an older order this is what will happen to you, you will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the US Senate, rather than hung from a tree” (Flax 89). To use this imagery was a brilliant move because it immediately shifted the sympathy to him and away from Hill. As argued earlier males have a monopoly on black history, and nothing is more apparent than the lynching of black males in the past. This is a perfect example of the casting aside of the black female point of view. Examining his statement, how is he distinguishing himself from Hill? She can apply to all of the ways Thomas describes himself. She, just as much as Thomas, thought for herself and did not kow-tow to an older order. She is a black conservative and served in a Republican administration. Testifying in front of the Senate committee shows she did not just kow-tow to an older order by accepting the status quo. She also thought for herself when she supported the nomination of Robert Bork. What Thomas did here was position himself as the black American involved in the case (Flax 90). By claiming he was the black American involved in using the lynching imagery, he implicitly denied the painful history of the black woman. The history of lynching was white men hanging black men for having sexual relations with white women. This lynching analogy does not hold up because both the hangman (Hill, not the white committee members) and victim were black. Furthermore, no black man was ever lynched for raping a black woman (Flax 90). The public commiserated with Thomas, thereby denying any potential claims Hill had about mistreatment due to race. Thomas had a long history of denying the ability to play the race card but chose to use it here to completely change the atmosphere of the hearing and discredit Hill in the process. Both the accuser and accused being black, and the male accuser succeeding in his claim of racism just shows how much Society threw away Hill’s perspective.
A final look at why the committee overlooked the black female perspective comes from Hill herself. In her opinion, the public did not believe her because she did not go in front of the committee with a patron (Hill 271). Thomas had the patronage of his nominee President Bush as well as the white senators defending him during the hearings. A patron is a powerful white person willing to vouch for her trustworthiness and worthiness (Id. at 276). In her opinion this is necessary if a black person is to effectively have their voice heard. This comes from the times of slavery and the need for slaves to have a white patron to do anything on their own volition. She points to its lasting effects remaining in the criminal justice system with the practice of the police’s refusal to release a black suspect until a white patron or institution aids them.
V. The Duke Lacrosse Case
A very recent case gives us an up to date look at how the media perpetuates the discrediting of black females. This case arises from a March 13, 2006 lacrosse party. The basic facts involved members of the school's lacrosse team hiring two strippers to perform at the home of several players. Although the events of the evening are hotly contested by the parties, one of the women alleged that she was raped, sodomized, strangled and beaten by three of the partygoers (Kosse 258). This case is germane because the accused are upper class white males while the accuser is a lower class black female. Because this was a high profile case, attempts were made to discredit the victim.
Susan Kosse preformed a lengthy analysis of the press coverage and found some interesting results. She found the media’s statements placed offenders (61%) in a better light than the victim (39%) (Kosse 269). In her study she looked for the Jezebel stereotype. “Primarily, the constant reference to the races of the people involved seemed unnecessary. The media's highlighting the fact that she was black and the men were white insinuates that this is relevant. In one article readers were even told that the men had requested a white and Hispanic dancer but received two black women, as if this somehow was important information to know.” (Id). She also found, “The media's constant reference to the woman as a stripper and exotic dancer created a problem because it took the focus away from the violent sexual allegations of rape, and instead focused on her conduct before the alleged violation. By bombarding the public with those terms, the myth that the woman provoked or deserved to be raped was reinforced” (Id). Again we find lasting imagery of the Jezebel. She continues with, “Such coverage promoted the myth that somehow strippers consent to being raped. Her being black made it that much easier to accept. Although one mention of her profession may be necessary to convey context for the events, repeating the term multiple times in an article becomes pejorative” (Id). This lines up directly with the previous arguments saying black female credibility is attacked by attributing a hypersexual nature to the accuser while also claiming her consent to rape. Criticism comes from Cash Michaels. He said the media only saw her as “trash,” a “false accuser,” “a hooker,” and a “stripper” instead of a “27-year-old-mother of two children, a second-year honor student at North Carolina Central University who hoped to become an attorney, an idealistic young woman who helped her ex-husband learn how to read, worked for low pay on a computer factory assembly line, cared for the elderly in a nursing home, and once enlisted in the U.S. Navy to serve her country” (Michaels).
Kosse even picked up on the media eschewing the black female perspective. She found, “Several important observations can be made about the media's treatment of the characters in this most recent high profile rape case. Like previous coverage of rape cases, the media seemed overly concerned with the effect the rape charges had on the men while all but ignoring the implications the event had on the woman's life. The Sports Illustrated ten-page article titled, “The Damage Done,” may be the best illustration. Although the writers mentioned in the first paragraph that the players, dancer and the university were forever changed, the article spent five full pages on the accused, the coach and the school with only thirteen paragraphs devoted to the accuser” (Kosse 272). This recent case clearly shows society still overlooks the black female in sexual assault cases. Language from the media shows the accuser’s credibility was attacked by constantly referring to her job as a stripper in an attempt to hypersexualize her.
VI. Conclusion
As the emblematic woman is white and the emblematic black is male, black women generally are not as easy to comprehend symbolically. (Painter 211) Looking at the history of black women in this country, we see them depicted as sex-crazed women who are not to be trusted. For hundreds of years the rape and dehumanizing of black women by treating them as property was not even illegal. Instead of looking at rape as the long practice of white slave owners on black women, society has transformed it to black men on white women, thereby cleansing the longer and more widespread practice from society’s consciousness. This paper shows how this treatment has a continuous effect to this day. Because of the systematic mistreatment and casting aside of the black female perspective, we now have disparate treatment of victims of different races in the most heinous of crimes. Not only that, society automatically questions the credibility of these victims based solely on the color of their skin. We look to the media’s portrayal of victims and see it is directly contributing to this callous indifference to the black woman’s plight. In one high profile case, we see how perceived racism against black men can even be used against black women. In another we see the media still portraying the Jezebel stereotype to this day. Perhaps we will soon see a movement urging society to take into perspective the black female point of view, thus finally promoting “liberty and justice for all.”
Since the beginning of American history “Silence and invisibility are the hallmarks of black women in the imagery of American life” (Painter 211). Black women were subject to many atrocities throughout their history; arguably more than any other group of people on earth. They were kept as property, raped and cast aside for hundreds of years in this country. In the author’s opinion, the black female voice is the last one taken into account in America. In an effort to shed light on this, this paper will investigate the systematic discrediting and casting aside of the black female perspective in this country’s history. The paper will begin by investigating black female history from their introduction to America, focusing on the stereotypes created by racist institutions. It then looks at sexual assault in this country and investigates the disparate treatment between black and white victims. Next it looks at how society discredits the black female perspective by looking at history and contemporary media practices. It then ends with two studies of high profile cases involving the harassment and rape of black women, tying in the previous arguments to show the common occurrence of disregarding the black female perspective, ultimately leading to a lack of credibility.
The author would like to note race and gender both play a critical role in this society, and it is often hard to distinguish between the two. Kimberle Crenshaw gives a good synopsis:
Black women can experience discrimination in ways that are both similar to and different from those experienced by white women and black men. Black women sometimes experience discrimination in ways similar to white women’s experiences; sometimes they share very similar experiences with black men. Yet often the experience double-discrimination – the combined effects of practices which discriminate on the basis of race, and on the basis of sex. And sometimes, they experience discrimination as black women – not the sum of race and sex discrimination, but as Black women (Crenshaw Demarginalizing… 149).
Crenshaw recognizes both race and gender play roles with the idea of intersectionality.
African-American women by virtue of our race and gender are situated within at least two systems of subordination: racism and sexism. This dual vulnerability does not simply mean that our burdens are doubled but instead, that the dynamics of racism and sexism intersect in our lives to create experiences that are sometimes unique to us. In other words, our experiences of racism are shaped by our gender, and our experiences of sexism are often shaped by our race (Crenshaw Race, Gender… 1467).
This paper will focus on the racial aspect of the black female perspective, knowing the gender aspect still plays a critical role in any analysis.
I. Historical Stereotypes
The discounting and manipulation of the black female perspective in society has been happening since the induction of black women into society. From the early 1630s to the present, black American women of all shades have been portrayed as hypersexual "bad-black-girls”. (Jewell 46) The Jezebel character, in which a woman was governed entirely by her libido, is one of the most prevalent images of black women in antebellum America. This Jezebel was the opposite of the mid-nineteenth-century ideal of the white Victorian lady. She did not lead men and children to God; piety was foreign to her. She saw no advantage in prudery, indeed domesticity paled in importance before matters of the flesh (Phillips 412). In reality, this is based on a bit of truth and a lot of lies and false interpretation. The truth aspect is small; free black women sometimes became the willing concubines of wealthy white southerners in a system called placage, in which the white suitor agreed to financially support the black woman and her children in exchange for her long-term sexual services. The white men met the black women at occasions called "Quadroon Balls” (Id). This is where the truth stops and the lies and false interpretations begin. The misinterpretations began before slavery even existed in America. When European travelers went to Africa they found people dressed not like them, but with far less clothing due to the climate (White 29). Cultural differences led the Europeans to think this type of dress was lascivious. Unable to understand the African culture, white Europeans, locked into the racial ethnocentrism of the 17th century, attributed African polygamy and tribal dances to an uncontrollable sexual lust (Id). The fascination with African sexuality quickly grew with the Europeans. William Bosman described the black women on the coast of Guinea as "fiery" and "warm" and "so much hotter than the men." William Smith described African women as "hot constitution'd Ladies" who "are continually contriving stratagems how to gain a lover" (Id). From these first trips and accounts, the West began its continued practice of looking at blacks as inferior. Not only looking at blacks as inferior, the West used these racist opinions as justifications for enslavement. This was easy to do by claiming blacks were subhuman. The West claimed blacks were intellectually inferior, culturally stunted, morally underdeveloped, and animal-like sexually (Id). This was used as justification for saying whites were the only civilized and rational people, whereas the barbaric blacks deserved subjugation.
The institution of slavery itself further contributed to the idea of a Jezebel character being sexually promiscuous. During times of sale, purchasers requested the slaves to remove their clothing for inspection. In theory, this was done to insure they were healthy, able to reproduce, and, equally important, to look for whipping scars – the presence of which implied that the slave was rebellious (Pilgrim). In reality, this turned into a sexually exploitive function. Nudity, especially among women, implied lack of civility, morality, and sexual restraint even when forced. Slaves often wore few clothes or incredibly ragged ones, whereas white women had clothing covering their bodies. The social impact of this was large, as this reinforced the belief of white civility, modesty, and sexual purity, whereas black women were uncivilized, immodest, and sexually aberrant (Id).
The institution of slavery also called for frequent pregnancies because black women were the suppliers of future slaves. Slaves were encouraged to reproduce by many different means. Many slave owners gave incentives for women to reproduce. Some offered a new pig for each child born, a new dress for each surviving infant, or no work on Saturdays to black women who produced six children (Rawick 228). Owners also encouraged young black girls to have sex as "anticipatory socialization" for their later status as "breeders" (Pilgrim). When they did reproduce, owners viewed their fecundity as proof of their insatiable sexual appetites (Id). One contemporary historian wrote:
Major periodicals carried articles detailing optimal conditions under which bonded women were known to reproduce, and the merits of a particular "breeder" were often the topic of parlor or dinner table conversations. The fact that something so personal and private became a matter of public discussion prompted one ex-slave to declare that "women wasn't nothing but cattle." Once reproduction became a topic of public conversation, so did the slave woman's sexual activities. (White 31)
This shows society did not even look at black women as humans. The black woman was just there to supply future labor. Talk about how to increase efficiency in the reproductive process contributed even more to viewing black women as hypersexual.
This look at history shows the discounting of African women from the beginning of their time in this country. Society treated these women as barbaric, hypersexual, baby machines and thought nothing more of them. One must think of the impact this has on the perception of present day black women. These predominant thoughts of black women as sexually promiscuous remain in society’s consciousness today. Unfortunately this is not just perception; it has real world impacts. This idea of black women being sexually promiscuous has drastic effects in some very sensitive areas. One major area is sexual assault, and we can see the historical untruths and misinformation of centuries ago having a lasting and real impression today.
II. The Black Female Perspective in Cases of Sexual Assault
Race is a tremendous and distinguishing factor between women in sexual assault cases. An initial discussion of data supports this view. In cases of rape, we can look at the race of the victim to see disparate results between races. In cases where a black man is accused of rape, he is historically treated much more harshly if the victim is white. In Rape and Criminal Justice: The Social Construction of Sexual Assault, Gary LaFree confirms these statistics and finds black males receive lesser sentences for rape crimes in which the victim is black. Compared to other defendants, blacks who were suspected of assaulting white women received more serious charges, were more likely to have their cases filed as felonies, were more likely to receive prison sentences if convicted, were more likely to be incarcerated in the state penitentiary (as opposed to a jail or minimum-security facility), and received longer sentences on the average (LaFree 139). LaFree takes into account other factors such as injury to the victim and acquaintance between the assailant and victim and finds unchanged results. Further confirming these findings, Anthony Walsh found the “sentence severity mean for blacks who assaulted whites, which was significantly in excess of mean for whites who assaulted whites, was masked by the lenient sentence severity mean for blacks who assaulted blacks” (Walsh 170).
A Maryland study on rape convictions showed in all 55 cases where the death penalty was imposed the victim had been white, and that between 1960 and 1967, 47 percent of all black men convicted of criminal assaults on black women were immediately released on probation (Wriggins 121). The average sentence received by Black men, exclusive of cases involving life imprisonment or death, was 4.2 years if the victim was Black, 16.4 years if the victim was white (Id). These data confirm black victims are racially discriminated against because their rapists, whether black or white, are less likely to be charged with rape, and when convicted, are less likely to receive significant jail time than the rapists of white women (Crenshaw Demarginalizing… 1277). Growing apparent are ideas of institutional racism and unfair treatment between black and white victims of rape. Because we now know this phenomenon exists, we can examine potential factors leading to this problem.
Looking at history, we find rape is nearly just as much an issue of race compared to gender for black women. Throughout much of American history, the law did not even consider black women the victims of rape. This is because the rape of any black woman (considered property) during slavery was not a crime (Harris 599). A case from 1873 illustrates the difference in treatment between victims of rape of different color. Black men often received the death penalty for raping white women in Virginia at the time. However, in the case of a black man raping a black woman, the Virginia Court reversed the conviction by saying the defendant’s behavior, “though extremely reprehensible, and deserving of punishment, does not involve him in the crime which this statute was designed to punish.” Christian v. Commonwealth, 64 Va. (23 Gratt.) 954, 959 (1873). The only difference in the two crimes is the race of the victim; the white victim begets the death penalty whereas the black victim sees her assailant walk away. Take into account black women were the servants of white families during and after slavery, thus putting them in compromising and potentially dangerous situations (rape was the most common form of interracial sex (D’Emilo and Freedman 102)), and one can easily see how the black female perspective is one not taken into account in the public’s perception of rape.
The Jezebel stereotype became a rationalization for sexual relations between white men and black women, especially between slave owners and slaves (Pilgrim). White society often perceived the black woman as having a voracious appetite for sex, one not satiated merely by black men. In society’s eyes the Jezebel then desired white men, which led to the belief that white men did not have to rape black women (Id). Linda Williams feels society justified the rape of black women due to three stereotypes held over from slavery:
(a) A denial of responsibility, in which the attacker actually becomes the victim because he was provoked by a stereotypical black female with a questionable sexual nature and low morals;
(b) A denial of any possible injury to a sexually assaulted black female because of her constant desire for sex and her previous experience with black men, who as the stereotype goes, possess larger genitals than do their white counterparts; and,
(c) A denial that the black woman can possibly be seen as a victim if she provoked the attack and already brings to the encounter a bad character. (Williams)
This perverse way of thinking was prevalent even with the people fighting for the rights of slaves. James Redpath, an abolitionist, wrote slave women were "gratified by the criminal advances of Saxons" (Redpath 141). Even people fighting for the rights of slaves were completely unaware of their eschewing of the black female perspective (or were aware and did not care), something which the author believes is still happening today under different circumstances.
Even the idea of “voluntary” sexual relations between slave owners and slaves is often inaccurate, again showing the black female perspective to be lacking. Owners would give material incentives in the form of gifts or would reduce required labor if the woman would continue sexual relations (Pilgrim). If a woman was not lucky enough to get gifts out of it, she would still “voluntarily” consent to sex with owners, their sons and other white males for different reasons. To understand this, we must attempt to get into the mind of a female slave at the time. In their reality, they had to do many things they would not normally do out of fear. If a woman did not consent to sex, she faced many dire consequences. Since she was chattel, she or any of her family members faced the threat of death or sale. A quote perfectly exemplifying this came from a slave woman, "When he make me follow him into de bush, what use me to tell him no? He have strength to make me" (D’Emilio and Freedman 101). This “voluntary” sex by slave women directly supported society’s view of black women as hypersexual.
Keeping with the idea of the public not taking the black female perspective into account, some argue society now considers rape to be the victimization of black men by white men, aided, passively (by silence) or actively (by “crying rape”) by white women (Harris 599). In the author’s opinion, this appears hard to dispute after only a cursory inquisition of society’s views. Delving further, we can look at past writings as evidence of this. In 1892, Ida B. Wells analyzed rape under the framing that race and gender are inseparable in Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases. She felt the overall patriarchal system in which white males maintained their control led to rape and miscegenation laws: “White men used their ownership of the body of the white female as a terrain on which to lynch the black male” (Id. Emphasis added). She felt white women, even though they often encouraged interracial relationships, were protected by the patriarchal idealization of white womanhood. They were then able to remain silent, unhappily or not, as black men were murdered by mobs (Id). This directly supports the idea of the lost black female perspective in society. These laws were borne from the need to protect the white female and had nothing to do with protecting the black female. We saw much outrage, and rightly so, from civil rights groups after seeing mass lynchings and hard data showing black men were more likely than white men to go to prison for rape of a white female. This outrage led to the repeal of several racial roadblocks in our legal system, including miscegenation laws. But in the author’s opinion, this was done out of sympathy for the historic mistreatment of the black male, evidencing society’s framing of rape around black on white victims and therefore once again forgetting the black female victims. Since the time of this “awakening” the presumption has been the quintessential lynch victim was a casualty of the miscarriage of justice (Painter 209). Lacking access to the means of mass communication, black women have not been able to use their history of abuse as a corrective to stereotypes of rampant sexuality (Painter 212).
Using sexual assault as a framework for looking at the disregard for the black female perspective is beneficial because the examples are so stark. As we have found, the criminal justice system is institutionally unfair to black rape victims. Rape was not even a crime against black females for a long period of time, and the implications of this are far reaching. There is no doubt hundreds of years of a practice (allowable rape of black women) and ideology (the Jezebel woman) must have shaped the mindset of society. It would be naïve to think we are fully over this way of thinking and remnants almost assuredly remain. In the author’s opinion, this is the explanation for the difference in incarceration rates for victimizers of black and white women. Society still holds on to notions of black female promiscuity and this has a direct impact during both prosecution and jury deliberation. In terms of prosecution, this is not just the author’s opinion. A study in Oakland found the police department dismissed over 20 percent of rape cases as “unfounded”, and did not even interview many, if not most, of the women involved (Crenshaw 1281 Demarginalizing…). The vast majority of the victims were poor, black, and often drug abusers and prostitutes. The police remarked, “Those cases were hopelessly tainted by women who are transient, uncooperative, untruthful or not credible as witnesses in court” (Id). Another study demonstrated the victim’s race was a strong factor in the prosecutor's decision regarding juror acceptance of the charges as “prosecutors rejected charges more often if the victim was a racial minority or if the suspect was black.” The researchers found over half - 58.1% - of all rejections and dismissals involved black victims, whereas only 31.1% were white (Pokorak 41). Furthermore, prosecutors were 4 1/2 times more likely to file charges if the victim was white than if the victim was black (Id. at 42). When looked at in a historical context, this immediately draws parallels to the times of the Jezebel. Once again society leaves poor, black women with little or no recourse. In the author’s opinion this is the exact same practice of three hundred years ago wrapped up in the context of today’s society. Males can act in ways not allowable to whites knowing the criminal justice system slants in their favor and against black women. The quote by the police officer brings up what the author thinks is the most apparent and harmful result of centuries of subjugation; the assassination of the credibility of black women. This is a likely result since society stereotyped black women before they even set foot in America. This lack of credibility proves disastrous in sexual assault and harassment cases because it is often one word against the other.
III. How These Stereotypes Affect the Credibility of Black Women
Pervasive stereotypes about Black women not only shape the kind of harassment that Black women experience but also influence whether Black women's stories are likely to be believed (Crenshaw Race, Gender… 1471). This point is crucial because so much of our court system depends on the perception of truth. This court system has a history of disbelieving black women’s words, partially due to the historical connection between chastity and lack of veracity. Historically in America, those who were willing to have sex were not likely to tell the truth (Id). As much of this paper has focused on, the portrayal of black women as lascivious and always willing to have sex had a direct effect on the credibility of black women. Their willingness to engage in sex, in society’s eyes, meant they were not to be trusted. There were even past practices of judges instructing juries to take a black woman’s word with a grain of salt (Id). Once again, it is doubtful that a society can inoculate itself after hundreds of years of a despicable practice. There is no doubt this practice is ongoing when looking at the above conviction statistics of white versus black victims. Getting a jury to believe the account of a black woman is not the end of the problem. Past stereotypes again come into play when people think whether the harm done to the victim is significant or even important. Attitudes of jurors seem to reflect a common belief that Black women are different from white women and that sexually abusive behavior directed toward them is somehow less objectionable (Id). The always asking for sex stereotype is a factor here because even if a jury believes the testimony of the victim, they can ask questions like, “Was it really that bad for her?” and, “Maybe she was asking for it?”
Of importance, the author is not suggesting these thoughts are always conscious, rather, the historic and contemporary treatment of black women has led to collective subconscious thoughts of a diminished black female perspective. Since the abolition of slavery and many other controversial practices occurred many years ago, those methods of subjugating black women have gone by the wayside. However, there are now more subtle ways of discounting the black female victim. We now have a ubiquitous media, capable of influencing the public opinion at large. The media chooses whom it will cover in violence against women cases, and a look at recent events shows an incredibly disproportionate amount of coverage for white women over black women. This phenomenon is sometimes called the “Missing white women syndrome” (Pokorak 3). The following white women have all garnered significant media coverage due to their disappearances:
• Polly Klaas (October 1, 1993) - found murdered; murderer convicted; prompted renewal of Three strikes law
• JonBenét Ramsey (December 25, 1996) - found murdered; cold case until August 2006 arrest of suspect. Suspect was later exonerated and murder is now considered a cold case again.
• Lucie Blackman (July 21, 2000) - A hostess in the Roppongi area of Tokyo that went missing. She was later found murdered in a shallow grave having been drugged and raped beforehand. Suspect was found "Not Guilty". The case gained criticism from Japanese Diet members at the time due to non-white hostesses meeting tragic fates in Japan on a regular basis, but her case becoming worldwide news when it happened.
• Chandra Levy (May 1, 2001) - missing for several months; decomposed body found and foul play/murder is suspected; cold case
• Elizabeth Smart (June 5, 2002) - found alive; kidnapper found incompetent to stand trial
• Laci Peterson (December 23, 2002) - found murdered; murderer convicted; prompted Laci and Conner's law
• Dru Sjodin (November 22, 2003) - found murdered; murderer convicted; prompted Dru's law
• Audrey Seiler (March 28, 2004) - alleged kidnapping in Madison, Wisconsin; Seiler admitted faking the kidnapping several days later
• Brooke Wilberger (May 24, 2004) - still missing, presumed dead; man arrested for murder
• Jennifer Wilbanks (April 26, 2005) - "The Runaway Bride." Went out for a jog and did not return; there was much media speculation that her fiancé had killed her. Found she had staged her own kidnapping when she was discovered alive several days later and admitted what she had done.
• Natalee Holloway (May 30, 2005) - still missing and presumed dead, last known location in Aruba, investigation closed[12] then reopened on February 1, 2008. Has become especially controversial because of the great duration of media coverage.
• Taylor Behl (September 5, 2005) - 17-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University freshman disappeared and was later found dead; murderer convicted.
• Madeline McCann (May 3, 2007) - 3-year-old blonde girl who has been the subject of a Europe-wide and Northern Africa search.
• Kelsey Smith (June 2, 2007) - 18-year-old woman found murdered
• Jessie Marie Davis (June 15, 2007) was reported missing and later found murdered.
The following are stories the media failed to address:
• Tamika Huston (May 27, 2004) - a 24-year-old black woman who went missing from her Spartanburg, South Carolina home. Described as "bright and beautiful," Huston's remains were found more than a year later in a nearby town, and her ex-boyfriend was convicted of her murder in 2006. Following her disappearance, Huston's relatives tried in vain to interest the national news media in her case; what little national coverage it received often focused on the relative lack of coverage Huston's story was receiving.
• Stepha Henry, a 22-year-old black woman who disappeared while on vacation in Florida.
• Latoyia Figueroa (July 18, 2005) - a 25-year-old woman of African-American and Hispanic descent who was reported as missing and later found strangled to death. Figueroa, who was five months pregnant at the time, was reported missing after she failed to show up to work. Police arrested Stephen Poaches, the father of her unborn child more than a month after she was reported missing. On October 17, 2006, Poaches was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Figueroa and her unborn child. Figueroa's case is especially relevant because it unfolded at the same time as Natalee Holloway's, and cable news channels, such as CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel, neglected to cover Figueroa's with the same intensity.
Natalee Holloway provides us with a good example. Between May 30 and July 28, 2005, there were over 500 stories on the major twenty-four-hour news stations related to her disappearance in Aruba (Pokorak 3). The media followed her story in intricate detail. They analyzed every police action and scrutinized every aspect of her life in the United States, providing the platform for broad commentary on our current culture (Id). News outlets even reported live from Aruba even when there was no news to report. Contrast that with Latoyia Figueroa. She had the hallmarks of a “damsel in distress” narrative: she was attractive, five months pregnant when she disappeared, and her disappearance suggested foul play (Id). The police suspected Stephen Poaches, Ms. Figueroa's boyfriend and father of her child, although there was no evidence to support that claim. Many comparisons to the Laci Peterson case arose, which was a major story for two years running. Unfortunately the media ignored Latoyia’s case while being more than willing to spend countless hours on white victims.
By only focusing its attention on white victims, the media is no different from the previously detailed societies’ magnification and admiration of white victims at the expense of black women. In fact, recognition of the relatively benign valuation applied by media corporations is only a second-hand way of identifying the truly pernicious attitude it reveals: white women are more important than black women and other women of color (Pokorak 4). Since the media is so ubiquitous, this valuation of white over black victims in the media must have some psychological impact on society. Keeping in line with this paper, the author once again feels this contributes to society eschewing the black female perspective. If all people see on the news is white victims, they will likely build sympathies for white women at the expense of black victims. Since we build so many of our opinions on past experiences, looking at a sterilized history of violence against women to form an opinion will lead to defining the attributes of a victim along race and class lines as opposed to the victimization itself. The zeitgeist then turns to defining victims as pretty white women, and any victim not comporting to those ideals is automatically disadvantaged. Couple that with stereotypes that black women are sexually promiscuous, liars and incapable of rape, and one can begin to see how far behind black women are today when it comes to recourse for victimization. All of this shows based on color of skin alone, the credibility of black women comes into doubt in any sexual violence or harassment case. Two real world cases, the Clarence Thomas / Anita Hill hearings and the Duke Lacrosse team, are perfect examples of this.
IV. Anita Hill
On July 1, 1991 George Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to fill the recently vacated seat of Thurgood Marshall. Toward the end of the confirmation hearings NPR's Supreme Court correspondent Nina Totenberg reported a former colleague of Thomas, University of Oklahoma law school professor Anita Hill, had accused him of sexually harassing her when the two had worked together at the DOE and EEOC based on a leaked Judiciary committee FBI report. (Clarence Thomas Supreme Court Nomination) The Senate Judiciary Committee then conducted hearings to investigate the matter. The major players in the committee were white males; Orin Hatch, Arlen Specter and Joseph Biden. Based on arguments posed above, Anita Hill was disadvantaged from the beginning. She was a black woman giving her testimony about Thomas’ sexual harassment to a white jury. Those who attacked Hill had the immediate advantage of not having to confront physical evidence or witnesses (Darwin). A commentator stated in normal hearings with no witness, “normal courtroom defense to such charge is to try to even the score by eliciting details that damage the accuser’s credibility and by testing various theories of her motivation” (Garment). This turned the ordeal into an attack on Hill’s credibility. This was easy to do with stereotypes.
The ordeal involved not only the stereotype of the Jezebel, but also the black matriarch. The black matriarch is the bad black mother who emasculates black men because she will not permit them to assume roles as black patriarchs (Collins 72). Black matriarchs have been held responsible for black men’s low educational achievements, inability to earn a living for their families, personality disorders, and delinquency (King 12). The black matriarch also applies to black women interested in their career and viewed as, “egotistical career climbers, better paid, better educated and more socially mobile than their male counterparts” (Ransby 169). We can look at the testimony for evidence of subversive use of these stereotypes by US Senators. The hypersexual Jezebel stereotype came out in full force during Thomas’ questioning by Orin Hatch. Hatch questioned Thomas if Hill ever asked him for rides home and then asked him inside. Hatch asked, “You never thought of any of this as anything more than normal for a friendly or professional conversation with a colleague. Am I correct on that or am I wrong?” (Bystrom et al 57). This question is an obvious attempt to conjure up the image of Hill aggressively pursuing Thomas. Hatch also took many opportunities to reread the most graphic portions of Hill’s testimony, implanting sexual imagery in any observer’s head. During the hearings white senators called her a heterosexual erotomaniac, a vengeful spurned woman, stridently aggressive, arrogant, ambitious, aloof, tough and opinionated (Darwin 199). Testimony from John Doggett claimed Hill fantasized about him (Id). This was thoroughly debunked days later (Abramson and Mayer 297). Hill’s questioners knew this testimony to be flimsy at best and that it would not be ruled admissible if given in an affidavit (Id at 296). This is direct evidence of her doubters attempting to discredit her through the use of racial stereotypes. They just wanted a man to testify Hill made passes at him, showing her to be a sexually aggressive Jezebel. They knew this testimony would not stand up but all they were worried about was public perception. All of these examples are directly attributable to the Jezebel and black matriarch stereotype used to discredit Hill.
One interesting facet of the hearings is the use of black male stereotypes against Hill. This was an interesting phenomenon because both the accuser and accused were black, but Thomas used racism as an excuse for his perceived mistreatment. Thomas used language conjuring up the imagery of slavery when he said, “I will not provide the rope for my own lynching or for further humiliation” (Flax 88). The largest bombshell came when he said, “This is a circus. It is a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, as far as I am concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and that unless you kow-tow to an older order this is what will happen to you, you will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the US Senate, rather than hung from a tree” (Flax 89). To use this imagery was a brilliant move because it immediately shifted the sympathy to him and away from Hill. As argued earlier males have a monopoly on black history, and nothing is more apparent than the lynching of black males in the past. This is a perfect example of the casting aside of the black female point of view. Examining his statement, how is he distinguishing himself from Hill? She can apply to all of the ways Thomas describes himself. She, just as much as Thomas, thought for herself and did not kow-tow to an older order. She is a black conservative and served in a Republican administration. Testifying in front of the Senate committee shows she did not just kow-tow to an older order by accepting the status quo. She also thought for herself when she supported the nomination of Robert Bork. What Thomas did here was position himself as the black American involved in the case (Flax 90). By claiming he was the black American involved in using the lynching imagery, he implicitly denied the painful history of the black woman. The history of lynching was white men hanging black men for having sexual relations with white women. This lynching analogy does not hold up because both the hangman (Hill, not the white committee members) and victim were black. Furthermore, no black man was ever lynched for raping a black woman (Flax 90). The public commiserated with Thomas, thereby denying any potential claims Hill had about mistreatment due to race. Thomas had a long history of denying the ability to play the race card but chose to use it here to completely change the atmosphere of the hearing and discredit Hill in the process. Both the accuser and accused being black, and the male accuser succeeding in his claim of racism just shows how much Society threw away Hill’s perspective.
A final look at why the committee overlooked the black female perspective comes from Hill herself. In her opinion, the public did not believe her because she did not go in front of the committee with a patron (Hill 271). Thomas had the patronage of his nominee President Bush as well as the white senators defending him during the hearings. A patron is a powerful white person willing to vouch for her trustworthiness and worthiness (Id. at 276). In her opinion this is necessary if a black person is to effectively have their voice heard. This comes from the times of slavery and the need for slaves to have a white patron to do anything on their own volition. She points to its lasting effects remaining in the criminal justice system with the practice of the police’s refusal to release a black suspect until a white patron or institution aids them.
V. The Duke Lacrosse Case
A very recent case gives us an up to date look at how the media perpetuates the discrediting of black females. This case arises from a March 13, 2006 lacrosse party. The basic facts involved members of the school's lacrosse team hiring two strippers to perform at the home of several players. Although the events of the evening are hotly contested by the parties, one of the women alleged that she was raped, sodomized, strangled and beaten by three of the partygoers (Kosse 258). This case is germane because the accused are upper class white males while the accuser is a lower class black female. Because this was a high profile case, attempts were made to discredit the victim.
Susan Kosse preformed a lengthy analysis of the press coverage and found some interesting results. She found the media’s statements placed offenders (61%) in a better light than the victim (39%) (Kosse 269). In her study she looked for the Jezebel stereotype. “Primarily, the constant reference to the races of the people involved seemed unnecessary. The media's highlighting the fact that she was black and the men were white insinuates that this is relevant. In one article readers were even told that the men had requested a white and Hispanic dancer but received two black women, as if this somehow was important information to know.” (Id). She also found, “The media's constant reference to the woman as a stripper and exotic dancer created a problem because it took the focus away from the violent sexual allegations of rape, and instead focused on her conduct before the alleged violation. By bombarding the public with those terms, the myth that the woman provoked or deserved to be raped was reinforced” (Id). Again we find lasting imagery of the Jezebel. She continues with, “Such coverage promoted the myth that somehow strippers consent to being raped. Her being black made it that much easier to accept. Although one mention of her profession may be necessary to convey context for the events, repeating the term multiple times in an article becomes pejorative” (Id). This lines up directly with the previous arguments saying black female credibility is attacked by attributing a hypersexual nature to the accuser while also claiming her consent to rape. Criticism comes from Cash Michaels. He said the media only saw her as “trash,” a “false accuser,” “a hooker,” and a “stripper” instead of a “27-year-old-mother of two children, a second-year honor student at North Carolina Central University who hoped to become an attorney, an idealistic young woman who helped her ex-husband learn how to read, worked for low pay on a computer factory assembly line, cared for the elderly in a nursing home, and once enlisted in the U.S. Navy to serve her country” (Michaels).
Kosse even picked up on the media eschewing the black female perspective. She found, “Several important observations can be made about the media's treatment of the characters in this most recent high profile rape case. Like previous coverage of rape cases, the media seemed overly concerned with the effect the rape charges had on the men while all but ignoring the implications the event had on the woman's life. The Sports Illustrated ten-page article titled, “The Damage Done,” may be the best illustration. Although the writers mentioned in the first paragraph that the players, dancer and the university were forever changed, the article spent five full pages on the accused, the coach and the school with only thirteen paragraphs devoted to the accuser” (Kosse 272). This recent case clearly shows society still overlooks the black female in sexual assault cases. Language from the media shows the accuser’s credibility was attacked by constantly referring to her job as a stripper in an attempt to hypersexualize her.
VI. Conclusion
As the emblematic woman is white and the emblematic black is male, black women generally are not as easy to comprehend symbolically. (Painter 211) Looking at the history of black women in this country, we see them depicted as sex-crazed women who are not to be trusted. For hundreds of years the rape and dehumanizing of black women by treating them as property was not even illegal. Instead of looking at rape as the long practice of white slave owners on black women, society has transformed it to black men on white women, thereby cleansing the longer and more widespread practice from society’s consciousness. This paper shows how this treatment has a continuous effect to this day. Because of the systematic mistreatment and casting aside of the black female perspective, we now have disparate treatment of victims of different races in the most heinous of crimes. Not only that, society automatically questions the credibility of these victims based solely on the color of their skin. We look to the media’s portrayal of victims and see it is directly contributing to this callous indifference to the black woman’s plight. In one high profile case, we see how perceived racism against black men can even be used against black women. In another we see the media still portraying the Jezebel stereotype to this day. Perhaps we will soon see a movement urging society to take into perspective the black female point of view, thus finally promoting “liberty and justice for all.”
Friday, October 23, 2009
Ralph Nader
"Obamacare is a fraud on the American people."
As if he didn't hurt the country enough in 2000? I like Ralph Nader a lot, but he needs to get his arrogant ass off his derailing soapbox and realize he is not living in a vacuum. No matter how much we don't like it, we have to go through a political process in order to accomplish anything. Doing something as big as single payer so fast goes against the best interest of our country. Part of the political process is making sure we do not act too quickly without careful consideration of possible consequences. Remember when we rammed our way into Iraq, Afghanistan and the USA PATRIOT Act without following the political process? Anything that goes wrong (real or fabricated) will be blamed on the person in charge of putting us there. If we go more slowly, the blame is shared by all of us because we as Americans decided to do something together.
Do we really want to give the Republicans ammunition to capitalize on early failings of a single payer plan and enable them to throw the baby out with the bath water? You don't just jump into a hot bathtub. Responsible politics would have single payer in mind as the end result, but taking small steps to ensure we get there. Because we do not agree with the political right does not make them impotent (yes, that was an old, white men need Viagra joke).
The present plan (why do people keep calling it Obamacare when Congress is writing it? As an aside, that seems like horrible long-term planning by Republicans considering, if successful, people will associate the greatest political achievement in modern history with Obama) is not likely the end result. Our country is creeping toward becoming a banana republic, and it is naive to think we can forcibly go up against the established system and oust the leviathan moneyed interests with a 26 page bill. It will take incremental steps; and if it means we have to concede some things in order to move the political process along, so be it. One initial step could be a government option to show people shouldn't fear the idea of the government running something as important as health care. Considering how much Republicans have tarnished the government since Reagan, that will be tremendously difficult. Remember, "Government is not the solution to our problem; it is the problem"? Regardless of the validity of that statement, a huge number of people base their worldview off of it. Believing you do not have to deal with these such people is hiding your head in the sand.
I like Nader and applaud his ideals. But throwing his hat in the ring with the political opposition is doing nothing but hurting his own cause. He is too arrogant to see that.
As if he didn't hurt the country enough in 2000? I like Ralph Nader a lot, but he needs to get his arrogant ass off his derailing soapbox and realize he is not living in a vacuum. No matter how much we don't like it, we have to go through a political process in order to accomplish anything. Doing something as big as single payer so fast goes against the best interest of our country. Part of the political process is making sure we do not act too quickly without careful consideration of possible consequences. Remember when we rammed our way into Iraq, Afghanistan and the USA PATRIOT Act without following the political process? Anything that goes wrong (real or fabricated) will be blamed on the person in charge of putting us there. If we go more slowly, the blame is shared by all of us because we as Americans decided to do something together.
Do we really want to give the Republicans ammunition to capitalize on early failings of a single payer plan and enable them to throw the baby out with the bath water? You don't just jump into a hot bathtub. Responsible politics would have single payer in mind as the end result, but taking small steps to ensure we get there. Because we do not agree with the political right does not make them impotent (yes, that was an old, white men need Viagra joke).
The present plan (why do people keep calling it Obamacare when Congress is writing it? As an aside, that seems like horrible long-term planning by Republicans considering, if successful, people will associate the greatest political achievement in modern history with Obama) is not likely the end result. Our country is creeping toward becoming a banana republic, and it is naive to think we can forcibly go up against the established system and oust the leviathan moneyed interests with a 26 page bill. It will take incremental steps; and if it means we have to concede some things in order to move the political process along, so be it. One initial step could be a government option to show people shouldn't fear the idea of the government running something as important as health care. Considering how much Republicans have tarnished the government since Reagan, that will be tremendously difficult. Remember, "Government is not the solution to our problem; it is the problem"? Regardless of the validity of that statement, a huge number of people base their worldview off of it. Believing you do not have to deal with these such people is hiding your head in the sand.
I like Nader and applaud his ideals. But throwing his hat in the ring with the political opposition is doing nothing but hurting his own cause. He is too arrogant to see that.
Friday, October 16, 2009
JT
This is a post for the best offensive lineman in the NFL, Joe Thomas. Yes, the man who decided going fishing was more important than draft day.
Jared Allen from the Minnesota Vikings is currently tearing up NFL offenses. He has 6.5 sacks, a safety, three forced fumbles and a touchdown. The man is an animal.
What did Jared Allen do against Joe Thomas? 1 tackle. The whole game. That's it.
If not for problems at EVERY OTHER POSITION OTHER THAN PUNTER, the Browns would be pretty damn good right now.
Jared Allen from the Minnesota Vikings is currently tearing up NFL offenses. He has 6.5 sacks, a safety, three forced fumbles and a touchdown. The man is an animal.
What did Jared Allen do against Joe Thomas? 1 tackle. The whole game. That's it.
If not for problems at EVERY OTHER POSITION OTHER THAN PUNTER, the Browns would be pretty damn good right now.
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