against the males of that race, class, or nationality. Eldridge
Cleaver in
I became a rapist. To refine my technique and modus operandi I
started out by practicing on black girls in the ghetto. . . and
when I considered myself smooth enough, I crossed the tracks
and sought out white prey. I did this consciously, deliberately,
willfully, methodically. >.
Rape was an insurrectionary act. It delighted me that I was
defying and trampling upon the white man’s law, upon his system of values, and that I was defiling his women—and this point, I believe, was the most satisfying to me because I was very resentful over the historical fact of how the white man has used the black woman. I felt I was getting revenge. 38
In this sort of rape, women are viewed as the property of men
who are, by virtue of race or class or nationality, enemies.
Women are viewed as the chattel of enemy men. In this situa
tion, and in this situation only, bonds of race or class or nationality will take priority over male bonding. As Cleaver’s testimony makes clear, the women of one’s own group are also viewed as chattel, property, to be used at will for one’s own
purposes. When a black man rapes a black woman, no act of
aggression against a white male has been committed, and so
the man’s right to rape will be defended. It is very important
to remember that most rape is intraracial—that is, black men
rape black women and white men rape white women—because
rape is a
to as a function of their masculinity and as a signet of their
ownership. Cleaver’s outrage “at the historical fact of how the
white man has used the black woman” is wrath over the theft
of property which is rightly his. Similarly, classic Southern
rage at blacks who sleep with white women is wrath over the
theft of property which rightly belongs to the white male. In
the Notre Dame case, we can say that the gender class interests of men were served by determining that the value of the black football players to masculine pride— that is, to the
championship Notre Dame football team—took priority over
the white father’s very compromised claim to ownership of his
daughter. The issue was
committed against a particular woman.
Now, I have laid out the dimensions of the rape atrocity. As
women, we live in the midst of a society that regards us as
contemptible. We are despised, as a gender class, as sluts and
liars. We are the victims of continuous, malevolent, and sanctioned violence against us— against our bodies and our whole lives. Our characters are defamed, as a gender class, so that no
individual woman has any credibility before the law or in society at large. Our enemies—rapists and their defenders—not only go unpunished; they remain influential arbiters of morality; they have high and esteemed places in the society; they are priests, lawyers, judges, lawmakers, politicians, doctors, artists, corporation executives, psychiatrists, and teachers.
What can we, who are powerless by definition and in fact,
do about it?
First, we must effectively organize to treat the symptoms of
this dread and epidemic disease. Rape crisis centers are crucial. Training in self-defense is crucial. Squads of women police formed to handle all rape cases are crucial. Women prosecutors on rape cases are crucial.
New rape laws are needed. These new laws must: (1) eliminate corroboration as a requirement for
