Sexual Racism Research Paper

Racism comes in many shapes and sizes. It can be a slur. It can be a gun pointed at child, or a body hanging from a tree. These days we see it far more in more subtle ways, distrustful looks from store managers or off-hand comments like, “You’re really pretty for a black girl.” Racism is not the same everywhere, and everyone experiences it differently. Sexual racism is one of those facets. People experience the phenomenon every day, but it wasn’t until recently that there was a phrase for people to label the experience. With that in mind, sexual racism deserves a careful analyzation, and a discussion. And, if only to help those it affects, it will be a worthwhile endeavor. This paper seeks to discover what it really is, and how it’s progressing.

In this case, these words can be defined separately to give a whole picture. The dictionary definition for sexual is “relating to the instincts, physiological processes, and activities connected with physical attraction or intimate physical contact between individuals.” This seems simple enough. The more difficult concept is that of racism. Most people believe racism to be discrimination, and/or prejudice against other races based on a belief of superiority of one’s own race. This definition doesn’t work for what is being explained here, especially as types of sexual racism are examined. In this case, racism as a set of beliefs or feelings about a certain group based on their race or ethnicity is far more accurate to this subject. With these definitions in mind, we get sexual racism as a set of beliefs or feelings about a group based on race or ethnicity about their activities connected with physical attraction or intimate physical contact between individuals. This may seem odd or specific, and some may find this to be a niche way of participating in racism, but that is simply untrue. Sexual racism is prevalent in the daily lives of everyone, in such small quantities that they may not even know it’s there. For example, the structure of colorism is based in sexual racism. Colorism is a social system in minority communities that benefits lighters members of minority races. They are seen as superior and more desirable. This leads to

The idea of a sexual superior has been around since the founding of our country. In the beginning, White and Black weren’t allowed to mix legally. Black people were seen as breeding stock, something to be treated like cattle. Even with the end of slavery, there were rules banning interracial marriage, and copulation in order to keep the White race “pure”. The earliest instances of sexual racism and racial purity are document in an article called, “Sexual Racism: A Legacy of Slavery,” by K. J. Lay. Lay recounts an occasion where a white man was whipped for, “abusing himself to the dishonor of God and shame of Christians by defiling his body lying with a Negro” (Lay 166). Anti-Miscegenation is an early and readily available example of sexual racism. Lay explains that anti-miscegenation and rape laws were used not only to keep white women and black men apart, but to permit the abuse of black women by white men. They managed to do this while pushing the idea that Africans were victim to a “beastly sexuality,” (Lay 166). This early narrative set up a foundation, and started a pattern of Black Americans being treated as a sexual other. This is seen in later years with the rise of AIDS in America. At this point, black sexuality had been under stack for decades, “for purposes of subjugation and control,” (Stevenson 63). Sexual Racism in medicine is not an uncommon occurrence, and should be looked at closer in order to see how pervasive this line of