Kristin Figg

WS 202
Reading Reflection 7/17/15
The Belle Hooks chapter from Aint I a Woman discusses the
historical and present day social implications through the repeated and
purposeful rape of black women in both slave culture and during the
Civil Rights movement. She makes he point that these kinds of actions
instilled a sense of gender and racial social hierarchy in which white
men were at the top and black women were at the bottom. This kind
of discrimination can be seen in todays culture in America. She begins
arguing her case by giving historical background on the discrimination
and mistreatment of black women and talks about how white people,
especially white men, always saw black women as a fallen woman,
whore, slut, or prostitute. They have always been labeled as sexually
promiscuous. This happened despite the fact that black women were
taught about virtue and emulated the conduct of white women.
Because black women were seen to have a lack of morals, they were
often the targets of rape.
This became even more of an issue after slavery when it was
declared that black women would never be a lady like white women.
While black men and white women were increasingly becoming
involved romantically, white men and black women could not do this
without severe social consequences. Black women have been

constantly targeted in the media too. They have often been portrayed
to look less attractive than they really are and even have been mocked
by having black men pretend to be black women. The idea of racial
solidarity was promoted heavily between both races. However, this
kind of control only helped to re enforce patriarchy and white men
wanted to keep white women subordinate. Black men often felt
threatened by black women because they were seen as matriarchs and
as taking over the male role. This kind of thinking made it so that
women had more pressure to take on a more inferior role.
I think Belle Hooks made some really interesting points about
how the treatment of slave women and on has effected black women
in modern times. One thing that I thought was interesting is when she
talks about the psychological warfare from white men to make black
women feel insignificant. I thought back to the reintegration of the
high school in Little Rock Arkansas and thought about how this kind of
warfare seemed to happen from both white men and women. I think
the patriarchical social standard of that time can shed light on to why
women would ever treat women this way. Because of the social
hierarchy, not only were white women trying to maintain their place in
this order, their actions and even thoughts were often times greatly
controlled by the men in their lives. While it is in no way an excuse for
white womens actions, black women were negatively affected often
because of white male control over white females.