MISSING PRETTY WHITE WOMAN SYNDROME, PART 1

Last month, over at Alas, A Blog, I left some comments on a post (“It’s the Interracial Sex, Folks”:  http://amptoons.com/blog/?p=3481) that Rachel of http://www.rachelstavern.com  had submitted for discussion. This post concerned the media circus that surrounded the Bobby Cutts murder of Jessie Davis. This was the case of a white woman who had gone missing. Since she was a pregnant woman due to give birth at any moment, many people reading the newspapers and viewing television reports were understandably distraught over this woman’s disappearance. But, as the information on the case began to build, many people had to face facts that this case was more than just a case of a missing pregnant woman.

Unfortunately it was another example of the “Missing Pretty White Woman Syndrome” or, the “Pretty White Damsel in Distress Syndrome”. Missing white woman syndrome (MWWS), also known as Missing Pretty Girl Syndrome, is a term used to describe disproportionate media coverage of white female victims. The individual may be missing, murdered, captured, or even have faked her own abduction; the essential element of the syndrome is that her gender, race, prettiness, age, or social background is to have extended the media coverage and public interest in her case. And many people who want to face reality know that black women, and other women of color, do not rate the respect to receive the PMWWS treatment. Black women do not rate having their humanity validated if their relatives call the police and alert the news that they are missing. The foot-dragging, the callous disregard, the cold impersonal treatment that is given to the families of missing black women, black girls, black boys (and even men of all races who go missing) is rampant in this society. And in this case, especially since it involved a black policeman who now stands accused of murdering the white victim, many people saw this as just another example of the “Black Brute” gone wild. And also often left out of these discussions or acknowledgements is America’s denial of its sick sordid racist history and continued mistreatment and devaluation of black women and girls. Black women get none of the high profile treatment in the media that white women receive. When one of us goes missing we do not even register as a blip on the radar of the media, the police or the rest of non-black woman America’s conscience. Many black women, girls, men and boys go missing, but, because they are black, and not white women or girls, there existence is considered as less than and does not merit the public outcry that is so often accorded to white females. Therefore, my responses to Rachel’s post states that black women and girls continue to have to fight against the denigration of our womanhood, our humanity—-a vicious cycle set into motion over 400 years ago from the cruel hatred that white men and boys time and time again showed in their depraved and perverted mistreatment of black women, which is still an uphill battle we black women must fight. Not only must we fight against the racism and sexism from white men, but, we must also fight against the racist, sexist hatreds of men of other races—Native American men, Black American men, Black African men, Asian men, Latino men, Arab men—all the men of many races who have bought into the sick sadistic lies started by white men against black women over 400 years ago—-lies and myths to justify the abominations done to black women by white men——all men. Lies and myths that some men of other races are ready to believe at the drop of a hat. Lies, myths and stereotypes that many men of other races are ready to believe instead of looking at the inner beauty and worth of all black women as human beings with just as much right to live in this world as women of other races. Black women have been disparaged and attacked ever since we have been in this country since 1619, and America has not let up on her attack against us, and she never will. Four hundred years plus of deeply ingrained hatred against a race of women who have done nothing wrong against anyone in this country; a race of women who have given their very best to this country. Four hundred years plus of psychotic vicious hatred. Four hundred years plus of wrongs done against black women that would sicken and turn the stomach. Four hundred years plus of being torn apart, both figuratively, and literally. Until America comes to terms with her savage racist, sexist history, this country will continue to stay behind in improving its race relations. Until white-run America acknowledges publically the sick wrongs it has done to black men—-and especially the monstrous wrongs done to black women—expect this country to never rise above what it can truly become—a country that truly lives by the Bible, the US. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Civil Rights Act and Brown v. the Board of Education (which the U.S. Supreme Court recently gutted and destroyed last month). Until white-run America decides to grow some backbones and decide to stop being *white men and women* and worshippers of *whiteness* and instead decide to become *real men and women*  and confront their racist, sexist past, figure on America continuing down the road to self-destruction from her not acknowledging the sins of her bloody, sexist, racist history. Mandolin Writes:
June 26th, 2007 at 8:29 am

The following are my responses to some of the comments on the Cutts/Davis case:

I was particularly appalled by some of the “white women deserve it for getting with a Brother” sentiment, where the commenter seemed to be positioning hirself as a person of color? Am I unreasonable for suspecting that they lie?

SamChevre Writes:
June 26th, 2007 at 8:44 am

I was particularly appalled by some of the “white women deserve it for getting with a Brother” sentiment, where the commenter seemed to be positioning hirself as a person of color? Am I unreasonable for suspecting that they lie?

Not unreasonable, but based on my experience probably wrong.

Two of my sisters (white, as I am) have black boyfriends. (They’ve been together for 5 years in one case, 7 in the other.) This is in the small-town South, so an area with a good deal of fairly open racism still. Both relationships get much more unfavorable attention (and more aggressively unfavorable) from black women than from anyone else.

Ann Writes:
June 26th, 2007 at 9:10 am

“Both relationships get much more unfavorable attention (and more aggressively unfavorable) from black women than from anyone else.”

Yeah, that’s the thing.

I guess for a black woman I must be an aberration to that so-called “norm”. I have never ever run after a BM/WW couple spewing hateful comments at them; I have never looked at and rolled my eyes upon seeing a BM/WW couple; I have never stared in disgust at a BM/WW couple. I don’t know, must be something wrong with me. If anything when I am walking past a BM/WW couple or glance their way, the black man looks down in shame upon meeting my eye contact. Hmm. Go figure. Why any black woman would worry herself about who a black man was in bed with makes no sense to me. For all she knows, no telling how that particular black man is treating that particular white woman. All is not always rosy behind closed doors.

But, I can understand where some black women who think that way feel the way they do.

This society devalues black women.

This society would rather see black men married to white women, rather than ANY MAN married to black women. (I know. Hard to believe, but true. The desire to see black women devalued is but one more form of white supremacist destruction of black people. Destroy the black woman, and you have completely destroyed the black race.) The media shows practically no positive images of BM/BW couples on TV or in films. Black women’s beauty is denigrated (”nappy headed hos”), and add to the fact the history of how white men have defiled and debauched black women for over 400 years, is it any wonder that so many black women fear the advances of white men? Could she be faulted for wondering if the white man is only interested in her for “perverted, wild animalistic sex”? Could it be that the black woman knows that she is rated less than in this society starting with all the lies and slander the white man has been telling on black women for centuries, for decades? Lies, stereotypes and slander started by the white man during slavery, and continued all the way through segregation for almost 90 years? Lies that some men of other races, along with white men, are all too ready to believe? And the white male run media that creates racist, sexist stereotypes against black women are not alone. There is a triumvirate that works against black women:  WHITE MEDIA PIMPS: the white men who own the corporations of newspapers, television, radio airwaves, and record producing companies, white men who create the controlling images of black women and girls and who get rich off the degradation of black women; BLACK RAPPER WHORES who spew hatred against black women in their racist, sexist so-called music, black men who are whores for currying favor with Massa, black men who love the almighty buck so much they are willing to destroy black women in the process to get rich quick, or at least to die trying; and the PROSTITUTOR/JOHNS PUBLIC that falls on its knees to open its mouth to receive this filth vomitted from the mouths of the white men and black men in the media industry who create the gangsta rap-filth that denigrates all black women, when that public buys this black-woman hating filth that masequerades as *music*.

Many black women would like to reach out and allow white men and men of other races into their lives. But, if most, but not all, of the men they meet treat black women with disdain; look at black women as if they have no right to be at that particular workplace, treat black women as if they are only “Good enough to fuck, but, not good enough to marry”, treat black women as if they have no right TO BE in this world, then many black women will continue to have fear and trepidation in seeking out IRs.

Most black women do not have utter hate for the white woman.

Most black women see daily how black women are discarded, ignored and left out of life in this country, especially in the dating/marriage aspects. Many black women know that no matter how beautiful, decent and marriageable they are, they will never be accorded respect and adoration that they are due as women. Many black women know that no matter what we do, it will never be enough in many people’s eyes, especially those men who have bought into the belief that black women are not to be cherished, not to be treated with love and adoration.

And that is the cruelest and most unkindest cut of all.

Mandolin Writes:
June 26th, 2007 at 9:22 am

Oh, absolutely. I think that’s a brilliant summation, Ann.

The commenter in question seemed, to me, to be positioning himself as a black man (although I might have been doing that default-to-male thing mentally), which was why it was so striking to me. But probably not legitimately, and I withdraw my comment.

I undewrstand why there is so much tension along the lines of interracial dating. From some positions (frex: what Ann outlines above) it makes more sense than from others (frex: white men who want to see “savages on blondes”). I think it’s one of the places where intersections of race and gender are most clear and bizarre…

Rachel S. Writes:
June 26th, 2007 at 11:23 am

Ann that was very well put. I think people have the mistaken notion that black women hate interracial relationships btw BM and WW, but as Ann said black women hate being denigrated and put last in line when it comes to desirability as mates.

I personally get very little opposition from black women, and much of that has to do with how my partner and I interact with the black women we know and encounter. I know white women in IR’s who make derogatory comments about black women, and are afraid of black women. That subtle fear show through in their interactions, and I think that makes black women upset. Also, many black women get upset when black men accept racist stereotypes about attractiveness or date white women who do so. (This is not speaking to Sam’s sisters mentioned above. I’m talking about people I know.)

SamChevre Writes:
June 26th, 2007 at 12:25 pm

I’m apparently bad at making my points clear.

I like Mandolin’s point in her post, but (I think) mine is somewhat different.

My point is that “people who noisily dislike your interracial relationship” does not necessarily include most of “people who harm you because of your interracial relationship.”

SamChevre Writes:
June 26th, 2007 at 11:59 am

It seems I ought to follow up and make two points.

Both my sisters would say that black women are overwhelmingly supportive of them and their relationships. Of the small group of people that noisily oppose their relationships, black women are an large majority–but that’s a majority of a quite small group.

There’s a key word in the paragraph above–did you notice it? That word is noisily. The person who yells at you randomly on the street is noisy, and easy to identify–but fairly ignorable. The person whose rental property is no longer available because he dislikes the fact that your partner is black is not as identifiable, and not as noisy–but is much more damaging.

Ann Writes:
June 26th, 2007 at 3:03 pm

“The person whose rental property is no longer available because he dislikes the fact that your partner is black is not as identifiable, and not as noisy–but is much more damaging.”

And how many black women are in that category who are in the position to deny white people rental property, housing, a good job, a better education?

What Rachel said is true.

How white women in relationships with black men treat black women sends the message to black women what that white woman thinks of black women. And yes, many white women are afraid of black women. They know that in addition to the hateful way that white men mistreated black women and girls (yes, little girls, when white men committed acts of pedophilia on little black girls by raping them during slavery and segregation), during America’s extreme racist history, white women also see how this society degrades and devalues black women in present-day America.

Tell me, when was the last time you saw on TV stereotypical, insulting images of Mammy, Sapphire, Slut/Jezebel/Whore, Welfare Queen stereotypes that constantly disparaged the gender AND race of white women? When was the last time, if you hear it blasting from some human being’s car stereo, “Bitches…hos….suck my d++k!” directed at white women? When was the last time you saw ad after ad after commercial that celebrated the beauty of a black woman’s features with a black actress/model who had very black skin, natural hair, full lips? Where have you seen commercial after commercial, magazine spread after magazine spread, where you saw ads of dark-skinned black women in over 50% of the ads?

If you are like most Americans, practically none, unless you subscribe to a black publication.

And I will echo, Rachel.

It is hellish enough that white men through the media, through films and through their distorted lies of history, have done all the damage they could to destroy the image of black women. I expect that from them. They are the ones who have left this legacy of hatred of black women. They are the ones who have polluted and poisoned people’s minds against black women. White men have been trying to destroy black women ever since we have been in this country, and they still have not let up. Yes, they can no longer fuck, rape, impregnate us against our will nor fuck over us the way pappy and grand-daddy could a few decades ago, but, the mistreatment has only morphed into a more subtle attack with the use of the media.

It damnable enough that there are many white women who hate that black women have been able to survive all of the sick, twisted, perverted shit that white men did to black women and that we came out better humans than all the filth through the many years that sought to destroy us.

But, it hurts even worse, when it hits close to home. It hurts when the men of your own race in trying so desparately to curry favor with Massa (and Missus) are more than ready to tear down the women of their own race.

It is bad enough when black women have to fight a battle on two fronts (the hatred and venom of white men and white women); it’s doubly painful when some of the black men of your own race join in on the attack. Men who have internalized racist, sexist hatred of black women.

“Both my sisters would say that black women are overwhelmingly supportive of them and their relationships.”

Good to hear that.

But, the majority of white women behave coldly, nasty (rude, snappy comments), indifferent and in many case just plain hostile to black women. They know in what they see and hear, that this society beats black women down every chance it gets. They know that this society hates that black women have survived and shown that no white man, white woman or anyone else could destroy us. But, on the other hand, this continued barragement of anti-black woman treatment from the general society (i.e., anyone who is not a black woman) can, and does, take its toll.

And as for those few black women who “noisily” berate your sisters in public, think of what must have happened to them at the hands of white men, black men, and men of other races.

(”And the less privilege the person who’s making the criticism has, the more it feels like an attack. In this post, Ginmar quotes Amanda Marcotte: “The less right you have to talk in the eyes of the hierarchy, the louder you seem. Which is probably why black women are seen as the loudest people ever.”* from Mandolin’s post)

Black women have been through some vicious hells in this country. We have never been treated as worthy of having our bodies, spirits and minds treated with overwhelming respect and consideration. We have never been worthy of having our voices heard through all the hate and disrespect that has been shown towards us. We HAVE to speak up vocally for ourselves, because no one else (save a few people who care about us)  will do it for us. We speak up for ourselves the most. We’ve had to. America has never wanted to listen to the voices of black women. America still does not.

The truth still stands.

Black women get the shitty end of the stick in this country.

We always have.

Bobby V. Writes:
June 29th, 2007 at 9:08 am

Our shameful history of miscegenation carries deep cultural significance on many levels. For males, associating sexual performance with penis size reinforces the belief that an erect penis, the larger the better, is a sine qua non of any successful hump. Combine this with the racist myths of the black male’s unlimited sexual prowess and his concupiscence for white women, and one can begin to fathom the emotional weight associated with interracial sex.

Ann Writes:
June 29th, 2007 at 9:38 pm

“Our shameful history of miscegenation carries deep cultural significance on many levels. For males, associating sexual performance with penis size reinforces the belief that an erect penis, the larger the better, is a sine qua non of any successful hump. Combine this with the racist myths of the black male’s unlimited sexual prowess and his concupiscence for white women, and one can begin to fathom the emotional weight associated with interracial sex.”

True.

But, you leave out a very important factor in racist miscegenation.

In order to get to the “black savage brute” who would violate any white woman, you cannot leave out the most important aspect of this dynamic:

white men’s mistreatment of black women during slavery and segregation.

You cannot leave out this very important part of this dynamic. You cannot talk about one (WW/BM) without speaking of the other (BW/WM). Because this is what set into motion the white man’s fear and digust of white woman/black man sex. It was what was done to black women by white men that set into motion the position and condition we are in in this country today.

Because of the massive gang rapes committed by white men during slavery and segregation, the white man had to justify his defilement of black women. He knew that his wanton degradation of her was seen by the black man, daily, monthly, yearly. The white man fathered tens of thousands of children with the black woman, children he denied. Because the white man raped and debased the black woman he knew in his guilt that he had created a race of people raped into existence and therefore, he feared that the black man would do to the white woman what the white man had done to black women for over 400 years.

Four hundred years is a very long time.

Rape. Pedophilia. Acts of outrages and sexual excesses that would shame a rabid dog were done to black women. And the white man saw that the sexual cruelties done to black women and girls and the resulting progeny were a daily reminder of his psychotic mistreatment of an entire race of women.  Also, with the end of slavery, the white man feared that he would no longer have ease of access to the black woman’s body. This further enraged him because with the debauchery of black women’s bodies during slavery, it was accepted that black women were to always and forever more be sexual outhouses for the white man, that he would forever have free, unlimited sexual access to her body, and fearing the abolition of slavery would end his continued wanton and degrading mistreatment of black women and girls, the white man flew into a rage, that what was for so long his and his alone (the greedy hoarding of both the black woman AND the white woman) would come to an end, the white man enacted segregationist laws that would continue to keep the black woman in a state of de jure and de facto degradation. In essence, the white man wanted to forever keep the black woman as a sexual latrine for his most basest, grossest and inhumane sexually degenerate practices.

Knowing that the result of his actions (his mixed-blood children) walked around as living reminders of his cruelty, he began to fear the black man’s vengeance. He began to fear that what he did to the black woman things that were so shameful and hateful, that words could not begin to describe the unspeakable acts of the most grossest abominations that he did—–then and there the white man began the act of  projection against his perceived fears of the black man:

“Since I have degraded the black woman so, when will the black man eventually start to do to my “women” what I have done to his “women” for centuries? His sister? His aunt? His daughter? His mother?”

Then and there the die was cast.

Because of the white man’s guilt, and fear and rage, he projected onto the black man the image of bestial beast, of savage brute, when in reality it was the white man who was the bestial beast, savage brute who caused an entire race’s bloodline to be polluted (with rapist white blood).

Then in the late 1890s, the vicious lynchings started.

The “over-sexed, hung like an ape, walking life support system for a huge insatiable penis” image of the black man was born. The savage “can’t wait to lay up with a white woman brute” black man was born. The “we must protect, defend and honor our white woman” psychosis was born. And soon, black men’s (as well as black women’s bodies) were hanging from Southern trees; black men’s bodies were tortured and burned; black men’s bodies had sex crimes committed against them ( for what is castration if not a sex crime?)

And the savage lynching bee spectacles that lasted for nearly 100 years occurred.

The white man projected onto the black man all his sexual transgressions that he had committed against innocent black women and girls.

Then and there the black man as “Brute” as “Black Beast” was born.

Therefore, the white man was punishing the black man for the transgressions he had committed against the defenseless black woman.

And the more he raped the black woman, the more he put the white woman upon that pedestal.

The more he creeped down to the black cabins during segregation, the more his guilt grew.

And the more his fear grew.

To even think of a white woman being with a black man sent him into a rage. No white woman in the white man’s mind could possibly love a black man; no white woman could possibly find a black man as having any humanity. No white woman could possibly desire a black man.

Therefore the white man greedily kept the white woman away from the black man and constantly told her, (and himself as well) that no sane, pure white woman could possibly have anything whatsoever to do with a black man. And the white man set about to destroy the “beast” he had created in his sick, demented mind. No white woman was safe around a black man, so the slightest look at a white woman brought with it death.

The legacy of that twisted perversion of sex by the white man still lives with us today:

*Black man as brute beast rapist (no white woman could possibly want anything to do with him. If she does, she is the lowest of the low, insane, demented, trash)

*Black woman as animal, “good enough to fuck, but, not good enough to marry”; insatiable “Whore/Jezebel/Slut” not worthy of having her humanity validated.

Even today, when a WW/BM couple is seen it illicits rage and torment in the white man. Since the white man can no longer castrate and lynch the black man physically before the white woman’s eyes, he feels he must lynch the black man in her eyes by not hiring the black man for high positions/careers, by economically tearing him down; allowing in many instances the black man only obtaining employment in certain low-paying jobs. He can no longer physically tear the black man apart, but, he constantly strives to tear him down economically and socially in the white woman’s eyes. But, on the other hand, the site of a BW/WM does the opposite because it is still acceptable in this scociety, this country that a black woman is to be given no human regard and is to always be used, not just by the white man, but, by ALL men. Lay up with her, sexually use her, maybe even get her pregnant like in the good ‘ol days; abandon her and her child, but, under no circumstances honor and respect her in marrying her. Make no mistake, the white man has not stopped working on destroying the black woman either. He disparages her beauty. He negates, marginalizes and erases from people’s psyche’s her womanhood—–he in essence renders her VISIBLE BUT YET STILL INVISIBLE. Not worthy of love or respect.

Whereas on the other hand, the white woman is to always be accorded the utmost respect and to always have her humanity validated.

That is why many people look at a white woman and question “Why should she be with him (the black man)?”

On the other hand, a black woman is seen as having no right to have the love and adoration of any man, and that her womanhood has to constantly be impugned and assailed every chance anyone gets to do that to her. She is to be used and then thrown into the garbage dumpster by all men, no matter what their race. Those men who have not the backbone to think for themselves but are all too ready to believe any and all hated lies and disparagements that are said about all black women. Men of many races who don’t have the balls to stand up and think and reason for themselves and see the humanity of all black women.

So, you see, you cannot speak of the BM/WW aspect without mentioning the BW/WM aspect of this dynamic, the residue of which is a holdover from the depravities of slavery and Jim Crow segregation.

It did not start with the white woman/black man.

It started with the black woman/white man binary where the debauchery of black women set this dynamic of black sex/black privates/black bodies were vile, evil, filthy, and perverse into motion.

But, it also set into people’s psyche’s the dynamic of white bodies/ white sex/white privates as pure and normal.

It is the white man’s perversion and filthying of interracial sex that has left a damnable and twisted sexual fabric in this country that exists to this day.

And it started with the white man’s subjugation and defilement of the black woman.

Which is why the white man feels that he is to always have all the women he can greedily get his hands on; the white woman is not to have anything to do with the black man; the black man is to be looked upon as a sex beast; and the black woman is to be looked upon as a mule, as an animal to be worked to death, fucked to death, kicked to death both figuratively, and literally.