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Rape in America, White People, and the 2022 Republican Party Anti-Human Political Agenda

Writer's picture: Dante D. KingDante D. King

Updated: Sep 16, 2022

America, under British rule, and later the United States, was founded upon the legal, moral, cultural principles and practices of rape and pedophilia. More specifically, as laws were developed by White male judiciaries across the country to protect women from rape, they were written to protect White women only. Put another way, rape laws excluded Black women and non-White women entirely. As I highlight in my book, The 400-Year Holocaust (referencing work by Patricia Hill Collins, Margaret Andersen, and Jennifer Wriggins), several examples can be observed here:


  • Kentucky 1802 Code (death penalty for rape of a white woman by a slave and term of years for rape by a white man)

  • Virginia Code of 1819 and 1823 Law (death penalty for rape or attempted rape of a white woman by a slave, Black, or mulatto and term of I 0-21 years for rape by a white man)

  • Missouri 1825 Statute (castration for rape or attempted rape by a Black or mulatto)

  • Arkansas Code of 1838 (death penalty for assault with intent to commit rape by a Black or mulatto).

  • Alabama Code of 1852 (death penalty for rape of a white woman by a slave or free Black)

  • Mississippi 1857 Statute (death penalty for attempted carnal connection with or rape of a white female under fourteen by a slave)

  • Tennessee 1858 Law (death by hanging for rape of a free white woman by a slave or free Black)

Most notably, in the array of rape laws that emerged throughout the United States in the 19th century, was the consistent and conclusive practice of isolating Black men as rapists; even though by custom and legal practice White men were persistent villainous perpetrators of rape, through the period of slavery and beyond. In states where rape laws began to be established, White men were excluded most times, providing them with the untethered "rite of passage" to rape and molest anyone they wanted without consequence.


In most of the examples above, there are no penalties for rape committed by White men. And, in cases where laws in fact constituted penalties for rape committed by White men, the penalties were substantially less severe.


As rape cases flowed through U.S. judiciaries, courts made-up of all White males, in and out of slavery through the mid-20th century, continued to rule that young Black girls and Black women could not be raped. Two specific examples of court rulings (Mississippi Supreme Court 1859, and Florida Supreme Court 1918), can be seen here:


Mississippi Supreme Court, 1859:


“The crime of rape does not exist in this State between African Slaves. Our laws recognize no marital status as between slaves, their sexual intercourse is left to be regulated by their owners. The regulations of law, as to the white race, on the subject of sexual intercourse, do not and cannot, for obvious reasons, apply to slaves; their intercourse is promiscuous, and the violation of a female slave by a male slave would be a mere assault and battery.”



Florida Supreme Court, 1918:


“What has been said by some of our courts about an unchaste female being a comparatively rare exception is no doubt true where the population is composed largely of the Caucasian race, but we would blind ourselves to actual conditions if we adopted this rule where another race that is largely immoral constitutes an appreciable part of the population.”


And so, because White men (along with the support of their wives, daughters, sisters, mothers, grandmothers, and aunts), through both legal and academic institutions, continued to rationalize and justify the rapes of Black women – thereby encouraging and facilitating continual terrorism throughout the Black community – White American morality and legal precedent consistently and persistently determined that Black women and young girls could not be raped.


As White men and women forged an impenetrable solidarity, advancing rape culture in America, Black women continued to be raped by White men rather conspicuously and notably throughout the end of the 1950's, with Justice being nowhere in sight. This was the case in 1944, concerning Recy Taylor, an Abbeville Alabama local whose rapists offered her husband $600; $100 for each teenaged White male rapist), if she would drop the charges. It was also the case concerning Lena Baker, in 1944; and Ruby McCollum, in 1952.


It is important to note through the period of the 1840’s and beyond, that while White men continued to rule that Black women could not be raped, White women were gaining political, legal, and economic power that provided them the right to vote, own property, and a plethora of opportunities, through one of the fiercest suffrage movements this country has ever experienced. Because the White women’s suffrage movement excluded Black women, there was no solidarity in the struggle to fight against the ongoing sexual assaults and rapes of Black women and girls. Black women and girls were left to survive White terrorism all by themselves.


And so, we should not be alarmed in this moment, as we observe White men and women conspiring together to pass anti-abortion laws that do not make exemptions for rape and/or incest. The tragedy of it all is that there is so much legal historical context omitted from our education, that Americans and many around the world do not understand the nature and culture of White American legality, government, politics, and culture. This leads to misinterpretations and miscalculations regarding American legality, as well as a culture of people who are oblivious to the subjective and political nature of American law and politics. This is why some people are utterly surprised about decisions such as the repeal of Roe v. Wade.


White Americans have been duped into thinking that they live in a democracy, rather than interrogating and investigating the ways that the legal system has functioned to govern non-White people. Most Black people know that America is not a democracy. Most Black people know and understand that America is the land of White supremacy, and that this country is just as authoritarian as other countries that are often critiqued by American leaders.


I am convinced that if we all, especially White people, understood the true history of this country as it pertains to the legal and political actions that this country has taken against African Americans, we would find ourselves questioning White morality, White authority, and everything about this country that people think makes it great. In addition, it would also lead us to understand the inherent nature of Whiteness, as well as the cultural landscape of the empathy deficit that exists towards the humanity of people (especially people referred to as "people of color"). It would also enable American citizens, and others around the world, to understand the unrelenting cultural contempt and hatred that is consistently aimed towards Black people.


As I close, I am reminded about the perspective put forth by Dr. Alvin Poussiant, who previously was the Dean of Psychiatry at Harvard. Dr. Poussaint stated, “I think we have to establish that racism, White racism, is a mental illness. Many White social scientists would like to define racism as something that is normal, as a cultural variant. As long we as we approach it that way, we really don’t deal with the pathology of racism itself. It’s like saying that cancer, because a lot of people have it in this society, is somehow normal.”

I am also reminded of Dr. Bobby Wright’s writings on the Psychopathic Racial Personality. Dr. Wright wrote, “In their relationship with the Black race, Europeans (Whites) are psychopaths, and their behavior represents and underlying biologically transmitted proclivity with roots deep in their evolutionary history. The psychopath is an individual who is constantly in conflict with other persons or groups. He is unable to experience guilt, is completely selfish and callous, and has a total disregard for the rights of others.”


Dr. Wright also penned, “One of the best methods that can be used to measure the psychopathic traits of the White race is observing and analyzing their universal overt behaviors and attitudes towards Blacks. Psychopaths simply ignore the concept of right and wrong. By ignoring this trait in the White race (the lack of ethical and moral development) Blacks have made and are still making a tragic mistake in basing the worldwide Black liberation movement on moral suasion. It is pathological for Blacks to keep attempting to use moral suasion on a people who have no morality where race is the variable.”


And so, what does it mean to be right or wrong based upon the compass of White morality?


For the first time in this moment, White progressives are realizing that many White men and women could care less about the humanity of children and women’s abilities to take care of their own bodies. They are witnessing the very extremities of Whiteness by people in positions of legal and political authorities who are focused on the Save America agenda. To some, it is riveting. Others remain in disbelief.


Many Black people are witnessing this moment, as though we are at a movie, with popcorn and soda in tow. The conspicuous pervasive nature of Whiteness, White privilege, and White supremacy are very well understood by Black people. We are not shocked. On the contrary, we are resigned to our normal oppressed condition, while many Whites, particularly White women, realize just how oppressed they still are. The White men that they have supported for so long do not care whether they are raped, or their children are put at risk of pedophilia. They are waking-up to this reality, the reality of systematic legal terrorism that they thought they had escaped.


We are all watching as the American dream (that has remained just that, a dream, for so many Americans), is challenged to its core.


Where is the United States of America headed?


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