For example, mixed race couples that chose to live together were sought out and lynched by the KKK. This was not just senseless violence, but an attempt to preserve 'whiteness' and prevent racial blur some racist whites wanted to continue a racial separation and make sure there was no interracial sexual activity. There was a rise in lynch-mob violence wherein many black men were accused of rape. The Ku Klux Klan then formed in 1867, which led to violence and terrorism targeting the black population.
There were general heightened tensions following the end of the civil war in 1865, and this increased the sexual anxiety in the white population. There was an increase in the sense of white dominance and sexual racism among the Southern people. This radical reconstruction of the South was deeply unpopular and slowly unraveled leading to the introduction of the Jim Crow laws. Additionally, the white Democrats were not pleased with the outcome and felt a sense of inadequacy among white men. Many whites struggled with this reformation and attempted to find loopholes to continue the exploitation of black labor.
The Southerners who were used to being dominant were now no longer legally allowed to run their farms using slavery.
The Reconstruction Era following the Civil War started to disassemble traditional aspects of Southern society. There are a few potential reasons as to why such strong ideas on interracial sex developed. This created tension, implying that white men were having sex with black women because they were more lustful, and in turn black men would lust after white women in the same way. Similarly, black men were stereotyped for having a specific lust for white women. As the men were not used to the extremely hot climate, they misinterpreted the women's lack of clothing for vulgarity. This idea stemmed from the first encounters between European men and African women. This increased white anxiety about interracial sex, and has been described through Montesquieu's climatic theory in his book The Spirit of the Laws, which explains how people from different climates have different temperaments, "The inhabitants of warm countries are, like old men, timorous the people in cold countries are, like young men, brave." At the time, black women held the " Jezebel" stereotype, which claimed black women often initiated sex outside of marriage and were generally sexually promiscuous. There was a widely held belief that uncontrollable lust threatens the purity of the nation. The remnants of the racial divide became stronger post-slavery as the concept of whiteness developed.
While partially based on physical similarities within groups, race is understood by scientists to be a social construct rather than a biological reality. ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Ĭoncepts of race and sexuality have interacted in various ways in different historical contexts. ( August 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. This article is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic.