Molestation, Incest and Rape in African American Families

Hodges, 2009). When we succumb to this suggestion, the result of this type of occlusion of the
traumatic reality of chattel slavery in the U.S. leads to a situation in which the African American
family becomes the place where the victims of racism and slavery are ambiguously adumbrated
as their own victimizers. While it is imperative that we develop an understanding of the need for
accountability as it pertains to effectively addressing the issue of incest and rape in the African
American community, we must not allow ourselves to lose sight of the causality of the aberrant
behavior of African American men in the first place.
While the defense of a child predator should not be acceptable, under any circumstance, it is
important to understand why it is so prevalent in the African American collective. While the
reluctance of Black women to report incestuous behavior by Black men may appear to be a freepass,
what it reflects most is the major distrust that black women have toward white male
authority figures — which can be viewed as an extension of white slave masters and overseers.
In an environment in which sharing the illegal behavior of a loved one with the authorities can
possibly lead to their death, black women balk at the opportunity and responsibility to report
incestuous behavior. This inherent circumspection of white authority that is learned from old
stories shared with the family, portraits of white lynch mobs or the explanation of how that
extremely light-skinned cousin came to be. In the eyes of the black women, she and her family
have been victimized far more frequently by the white power structure than by the black men in
the family.
It is also important to understand that black women have been forced to come to the aid of black
men who were wrongfully accused of sexual assault for years. This can best be illustrated by
evaluating the facts associated with the Rosewood Massacre. While it is hard to believe, what
was ultimately presented in the form of a motion picture, was true African American history,
uncensored. This was not just another movie; it was a retelling of a historical event. In 1923, a
white woman falsely claimed that she was attacked by a black man, and that false claim led to
the massacre of blacks and the complete obliteration of a black town. Unfortunately, this type of
behavior among whites towards African Americans has been more common than anyone really
cares to admit.
It has been this type of hostile behavior on the part of white authority figures, conjoined with
other underlying factors that has led to an elevated level of distrust that makes it difficult for
black women to report incest to the authorities.
It has also been postulated and hypothesized that silent condonation of incest within the black
family can be contributed to a developed behavior during slavery to silently condone the liaisons
between white fathers (slave masters and overseers) who saw their brown reflections in
daughters they conceived with black slaves — yet, choosing to procreate with their brown
offspring. It has been suggested that it became more psychologically plausible for African
American women that such liaisons could also occur between the black father and his female
progeny (Fenton, 2012).
With that being said, there is no excuse for not holding the black men who commit these
atrocious acts responsible for their behavior.