juneboba reblogged
Marriages between black women and white men could be tolerated during slavery because they were so few in number and represented no threat to the white supremacist regime. After manumission they were no longer tolerated. In the state of Kentucky, the Supreme Court was asked to judge insane a white man who desired to marry a female slave he had once owned. Once slavery ended and whites declared that no black woman regardless of her class status or skin color could ever be a “lady”, it was no longer socially acceptable for a white man to have a black mistress. Instead, the institutionalized devaluation of black womanhood encouraged all white men to regard black females as whores or prostitutes. Lower class white men, who had had little sexual contact with black women during slavery, were encouraged to believe they were entitled to access to the bodies of black women.
bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman (via wretchedoftheearth)
#ain't i a woman#awareness#bell hooks#black people#entitlement#equality#history#justice#marriage#marriages#misogynistic#misogyny#privilege#race#racism#racist#sexism#sexist#slavery#social awareness#social equality#social justice#society#supremacy#white people#white privilege#white supremacists#white supremacy#women#women of color