Sexism in the Context of American Racial

Sexism in the Context Of American Racial Identity

"That's sexist." The term 'sexism' is often used by both feminist and anti-feminist writers as a way of constructing men and women as opposite entities. Sexism presumes an inherent difference between the genders as a matter of course. In the usual dichotomies constructed by a 'sexist' mentality, women are perceived as weaker and less capable then men, while men are associated with the more intellectual, active essence of what is human. Males are the neutral and the positive forces of culture, in sexist ideology, while women are what is negative, physical, and weaker that 'the male' or 'the human.'

However, such a construction of sexism when race is 'thrown into the picture' of the sexist ideology, of men vs. women, renders sexism more complicated. Firstly, the construction of men as powerful in relation to women denies the marginal status of Black men in relation to White men, and also to White women, as White men have often used the images of vulnerable female sexuality to justify oppressing African-American males. Secondly, the inability of Black women to conform to the white female stereotype has also been used against Black females, as denoted in the essay, "Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images," by Patricia Hill Collins, as cited in Abram's Section 2, Chapter 5 of her textbook on Race, Gender, and Sexuality.

Collins suggests that, bluntly put, rather than being marginalized for being weak, Black women have been marginalized by hegemonic culture for being strong and for the fear that they are so empowered they will exert a controlling influence upon Whites. Because of fears of being controlled by Black women, American culture has constantly attempted to denature the image of the powerful Black women into domestic images. White culture has simultaneously put African-American women in the place of caring for 'their' children in a physical, maternal role, yet also demanded backbreaking labor of the same strong Black maternal body. The result is a powerful image, a vision of unquestionable Black female power that is frightening to sexist assertions that polarize women as weaker.

Of course, African-American women are regarded as 'of the body' in a way commensurate with the male/female, mind/body sexist mind split. But this has seldom been enough to explain away the discomforting contradictions of racist and sexist ideology. By denaturing Black men, by stating that African-American males are less masculine, and thus require Black women to assume a more masculine role has been one way, particularly in the logic of the anti-welfare crusaders in America, to rationalize the discomforting and anti-stereotypical roles of powerful Black matriarchs in Black societies and Black women of power in white domestic life. It is also a way to explain away Black men's relative lack of power in comparison to white men, vocationally and economically. But then, White women are often told to be afraid of Black male sexuality, in another contradiction of the prevailing stereotypes.