Understanding Jim Crow by David Pilgrim

Author:David Pilgrim
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PM Press
Published: 2015-08-12T16:00:00+00:00

Preying on Black Women

The portrayal of black women as lascivious by nature is an enduring stereotype. The descriptive words associated with this stereotype are singular in their focus: seductive, alluring, worldly, beguiling, tempting, and lewd. Historically, white women, as a category, were portrayed as models of self-respect, self-control, and modesty—even sexual purity—but black women were often portrayed as innately promiscuous, even predatory. This depiction of black women is signified by the name Jezebel.25

Sue Jewell, a contemporary sociologist, conceptualized the Jezebel as a tragic mulatto—“thin lips, long straight hair, slender nose, thin figure and fair complexion.”26 This conceptualization is too narrow. It is true that the so-called tragic mulatto and Jezebel share the reputation of being sexually seductive, and both are antithetical to the desexualized mammy caricature; nevertheless, it is a mistake to assume that only, or even mainly, fair-complexioned black women were sexually objectified by the larger American society. From the early 1630s to the present, black American women of all shades have been portrayed as hypersexual “bad-black-girls.”27

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