BODY AUTONOMY MATTERS

“No Exceptions” Bill is One of the Most Disrespectful Blows to Black Women

America’s legacy of misogynoir deprives Black women of agency

Black women’s bodies are often seen as a commodity in America. But, this dynamic isn’t due to chance. Nor did the Jezebel or Sapphire stereotypes pop up overnight. For hundreds of years, White men openly raped enslaved Black women, sometimes in front of their husbands or other family members. Stereotypes became a tool to justify the mistreatment and dehumanization of Black women. As long as people fed into the lie that Black women were promiscuous, White men could convince the public to turn a blind eye to their abuse.

America has never reckoned with the violence perpetrated against Black women, which is why it was kind of disturbing to see the New York Post published an opinion piece on “Why More Black women Should Consider Marrying White Men.” To be clear, folks should marry whoever they want, as long as that person makes them happy, but the history of White men forcing themselves on Black women in this country taints the conversation about pressuring Black women to date outside their race.

Also, when it comes to the debate over the “right to choose,” it’s clear that Black women have endured the most forfeiture of that right. For instance, Former President Thomas Jefferson’s forced himself on 14-year old Sally Hemmings, and she had four children while enslaved. But, Sally’s case wasn’t rare. To put it into perspective, Dorothy Roberts wrote in The 1619 Project that even “though a majority of the more than 12 million enslaved people who arrived in the Americas were men, enslaved women contributed more to the gene pool,” and “enslaved women were often raped by White men and forced to bear their children.” Black women did not have the legal right to say “no,” and the story of 14-year old Ceilia shows the consequences for rejecting a White man’s advances would be death by hanging.

The same white men who professed a fanatical concern for white women’s purity and safety held tightly to the social and legal view of Black women as promiscuous, lacking virtue, and without the right to refuse the lust of any white man — Reconstruction in America

During the 1830s, Maria Steward, a Black abolitionist, advocated for a law to recognize Black women as full humans with “rights to control their bodies and grant or withhold consent.” She was considered America’s first Black feminist. Still, there was no political appetite to pass legislation to protect Black women. As a result, the abuses continued unabridged for generations. In the May of 1850, a group of 15 White men raped a Black woman and then lynched her husband in North Carolina. “The Georgia Code of 1861 specified a mandatory sentencing range for raping a white woman but let courts decide whether and how to punish rapes of Black women.” This law made it clear that Black women would not receive the same protections as White women. And as Hale wrote, “these women endured sexual rape and strenuous physical labor. Women were often forced to work as hard as men, even during pregnancy.”

Many White women who warn of a foreboding “handmaidens tale” type of situation if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade seem wholly unaware that Black American women already endured a real-life dystopian scenario where White men forced Black women to have kids for them, to expand their enslaved population. White women were the “wives” in this scenario, failing to protect Black women from cruelty or even advocate for all women’s rights. In some regions, up to 40% of White women enslaved people. White women’s empowerment has not consistently helped Black women. On the contrary, White women’s version of feminism is exceedingly racist and harmful towards Black men and women. Allow me to expand on that point.

In the modern era, the conversation about women’s rights focuses on equal pay even though White women make more than Black women, abortion rights, for which White women have greater access to travel and skate past restrictive laws. And rather interestingly, White women, with the exception of some like Senators Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, have not concerned themselves with the high rates of maternal mortality amongst Black women. Not only should women have the right to terminate a pregnancy, but they should also have the right to safe pregnancy. Currently, Black women are four times as likely to die during childbirth compared with White women. Yet, the racial neutrality of white feminism seems to be tanking the ship. We should focus on women’s health, no matter their choice.

Oklahoma just passed the most restrictive anti-abortion bill since the Roe v. Wade decision supposedly codified women’s right to choose. “Senate Bill 612 would make performing an abortion or attempting to perform the procedure a felony punishable by a maximum fine of $100,000 or maximum 10 years in state prison, or both.” And as if taking away women’s right to choose isn’t bad enough, there is “no exception” in the bill for rape or incest. Here are some things to keep in mind about that.

♀︎ In America, a woman is sexually assaulted every 68 seconds.

♀︎ “1 in every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime (14.8% completed, 2.8% attempted).”

♀︎ “66% of victims of sexual assault and rape are age 12–17.”

Anti-choice conservatives are trying to gaslight the American public about the depth and breadth of sexual assault. But, in reality, rape is prevalent and denying a girl or woman the choice over her body after an assault has no place in a supposedly civilized nation. Yet, despite harming all women, Oklahoma’s latest anti-abortion legislation is the most disrespectful blow to Black women because, throughout history, Black women have been consistently forced to have children who were the product of rape in America. Furthermore, a study showed Black women are 2.5 times more likely to experience sexual assault than White women, a continuance of the disproportionate disrespect Black women endure.

The Women’s Health Protection Act, if passed into law, would ensure equal access to “reproductive autonomy” for all women in America. But like Steward’s 1830 attempt to ensure Black women have “the rights to control their bodies and grant or withhold consent,” we’re still having the same debate about women’s rights, yet there is little momentum to ensure Black women can enjoy equal civil liberties.

🌹Learn more about the author here. 🖊Sign up to read all my stories and thousands more.