Women, Race & Class

Davis extensively explores the creation of the “Black rapist” myth and its effects. Davis finds it troubling that the charge of rape has historically been disproportionately directed at Black men, guilty or not. For instance, between 1930 and 1967, 405 of the 455 men convicted of and executed for rape were Black. Conversely, rapes committed by white men against working-class or Black women have been relatively ignored. As such, Davis argues, there is a “historical knot binding” Black women (173), long abused by white men, and Black men, lynched due to racist false rape charges.

In a study done by Ida B. Wells, she calculated that between 1865-1895, there had been approximately 10,000 lynchings and that only three white men had faced execution for their role in the violence. Although not the original justification, rape eventually emerged as the key pretense for lynching; it was a particularly effective weapon because people were hesitant to defend rapists and protest associated lynchings, leading to a decline in white support for Black liberation overall. Most lynchings, however, did not use rape as an excuse. This racist ideology also had the effect of bringing white working-class men into racial solidarity with other white men, including their employers, ultimately benefiting the capitalist class.