Nineteen Fifty-Six Vol.4 Issue 2

The oversexualization and fetishization of Black
children is not a new phenomenon but one that
has begun to interest scholars in recent years.
Current scholarship has shown that Black children are
often hypersexualized more than children of other
races. An article published in The Observer detailed the
discourse on the topic, stating that “The treatment and
imposed expectation of how Black children should act is
a loss of their innocence.”
This unconsciously manifests in Black communities in
many ways. Makayla McLaughlin, a sophomore majoring
in history, said the oversexualization of young Black girls
needs to be discussed more.
“Every Black girl I know has a story about an uncle they
can’t go around, or how they have to cover up around
family, or can’t dance in a certain way,” McLaughlin said.
“It’s so normalized that people don’t see that it’s weird.
There’s no reason to police what a 5-year-old girl is doing
like that, but it happens all the time.”
K.T. Ewing, an associate professor in the department of
gender and race studies, said the sexualization of Black
children is rooted in slavery and the dehumanization of
Black bodies.
“As people who were brought to this country to be
laborers, Black women, and therefore Black children
and Black men, of course, are immediately denied
personhood,” Ewing said.
The oversexualization of Black children may, also, be
connected to the high rates of sexual violence they face.
According to the National Center on Violence Against
Women in the Black Community, the rates of sexual
violence towards young Black women are higher than the
national average. 1 in 4 Black girls under 18 will likely be
sexually abused, and 40-60% of Black girls under 18 have
reportedly been coerced into sexual contact.
However, there is little acknowledgment of Black boys in
statistics concerning sexual violence, but that should not
be an indicator that it is uncommon.
“Sexual violence against Black men and boys has remained
a routine, and historically denied, aspect of anti-Black
racism,” wrote Tommy Curry, a Black male studies
professor at Texas A&M University in his 2017 book “The
Man-Not: Race, Class, Genre, and the Dilemma of Black
Manhood.” “Despite the violence that defines their lives
under racism, their stories and these public displays of
racism’s sexual components remain an unapproachable
area of study under our current disciplinary arrangement
of knowledge - specifically, the gender category itself.”
Stacey Patton, a research associate at Morgan State
University, said that sexual violence towards young boys
has become normalized and examines a few celebrity
examples.
“In more recent times, Black male artists will talk about
having their first early sexual experiences as little boys,”
Patton said. “Lil Wayne is someone who’s talked about it
a lot.”
Patton said the issue has been reframed as a rite of passage
into masculinity that some male adults encourage or even
initiate for their young sons.
“Then you have, more recently, these artists who rap
about exposing their sons to having sex with strippers
and prostitutes as a way to introduce them into masculine
sexuality early on for fears that their boys may be gay,”
she said.
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