Why the ‘Jezebel’ Myth Is a Tragic Legacy of Slavery That Lingers Today

Black women continuously face the stereotype that they’re hypersexual, crazed nymphomaniacs ruled by lust. “Jezebels” is the term commonly used against them. 

White enslavers created this lie to justify their rape of enslaved Black women.  They dared to bring God into their “reasoning,” too.

Enslavers believed white women were “virtuous” in God’s eyes and therefore worthy of protection. Black women were painted as the exact opposite – sexual deviants worthy of violence. 

After emancipation, many Black people bought into white respectability politics. Black women, in particular, were impacted by this survival-mode reaction from our people.

To be seen as respectable, Black women had to fit into a “proper, composed, religious, sexually chaste” role. 

A primary reason Claudette Colvin wasn’t initially recognized as the first person to refuse to give up her seat on a segregated bus was that she was an unwed, pregnant teenager.

However, despite these stereotypes, Black women are and can be spiritual, successful, and sexual. Numerous African spiritual practices predating enslavement and colonization indicate the erotic is spiritually-based.

Let’s stop policing ourselves. What, or who, you do with your body isn’t anybody’s business but yours.