Law Commons^™

Rape, Racism, And The Law, Jennifer Wriggins

Faculty Publications

The historical legacy of the racist social meaning of rape and the consequences of that legacy are the focus of this article. The article, written in 1983, analyzes the U.S. law of rape, its history, and its legacy, from a perspective that is both feminist and antiracist. It examines the intersections and interactions of race and gender subordination in the context of rape, particularly looking at race and gender issues involving African-Americans and whites. It describes how the legal system’s selective acknowledgement of rape has disproportionately targeted African-American men for punishment and made African-American women both particularly vulnerable and particularly …