The Right to Rape
It is difficult to use the title that this commentary bears, but upon reflection, it must be so, for the truth supports it.
For the truth is, this nation was born in rape. The rape of indigenous women (so called “Indians”) was considered but a spoil of war.
African women were ravished aboard slave ships, clad in rags and chains. Many women leaped into the dark, roiling sea, preferring death to how they were treated onboard by seamen.
Indeed, if the slave ships were a horror, American slave plantations were worse, for here women were raped systematically. Why? Because the more they became pregnant, the more wealth they produced for the master class.
Black male slaves also played a role in this tragedy, for by raping women, they also increased a slave-owners wealth. Such men were considered prize bucks for the wealth they created for masters.
Indeed, up until the dawn of the 20th century, it wasn’t considered a crime to rape Black women; it was considered a white rite of passage!
Could those days, which lasted for centuries, not have radiated into the ignoble present?
Consider the commonality of sexual harassment and sexual assault in modern American life. Does anyone remember the Tailhook Scandal, where U.S. servicemen took gross advantage of women in the ranks?
Everywhere we turn, we find evidence of clear misogyny against women, which, while expressed in rape, has its origins in an intense hatred and disregard of women.
One need look no further than the highest office in the land—the U.S. presidency.
We witnessed it in the recent senatorial so-called “hearings” in the Kavanaugh nomination, where women were ignored, unheard and dismissed—even by other women!
But I guess “‘boys will be boys,” huh?
—San Francisco Bay View, October 30, 2018