Abstract

Scholarship has long recognized the centrality of white racial sexual fears in the rhetoric and practice surrounding the lynching of African Americans in the U.S. South in the decades around 1900. The topic has not previously been taken up for systematic study beyond event-level analyses. This article presents theoretical and empirical evidence that whites’ intersecting racial and gender concerns converging in racial sexual fears were conducive to lynching related to interracial sex, but not to those unrelated to interracial sex, under certain conditions. The empirical findings, based on lynchings in 11 southern states from 1881–1930, demonstrate that lynchings related to interracial sex were more likely to occur in contexts characterized by higher levels of white female dependents residing with white male householders, higher levels of white female school attendance, and higher levels of adult black male literacy. These findings suggest that interracial sex-related lynching served to recover and retain white men’s racial and gender status, which postbellum developments had undermined, by oppressing not only African American men and women but disempowering white women as well. White racial sexual fears during the lynching era should, therefore, be seen as constituting a social force in their own right with long-term consequences for race and gender relations and inequalities.

中文翻译：

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1881-1930年在美国南部的种族，性别和强奸暴虐的同伙

摘要

长期以来，奖学金一直承认白人种族性恐惧在围绕美国南部非裔美国人私刑的言论和实践中的中心地位，这种现象在1900年左右的几十年中一直存在。除事件级分析之外，该话题以前没有被系统研究过。本文提供了理论和经验证据，表明在某些条件下，白人在种族性恐惧中交织在一起的相交种族和性别问题有利于与种族间性相关的私刑，但不利于与种族间性无关的私刑。根据1881年至1930年南部11个州的私刑，经验结果表明，与种族间性行为相关的私刑更可能在以白人男性户主居住的白人女性受抚养者数量较高为特征的情况下发生，白人女性上学率较高，成年人黑人男性识字率较高。这些发现表明，与性别有关的跨种族私刑不仅恢复了白人男子的种族权势，而且还压迫了白人女性的权力，从而恢复并保留了白人男子的种族和性别状态，而战后的发展已经破坏了白人的种族和性别状态。因此，应将私刑时期的白人种族性恐惧视为本身构成一种社会力量，对种族，性别关系和不平等产生长期影响。不仅压迫非洲裔美国人的男人和女人，而且还压制白人妇女的权力。因此，应当将私刑时期的白人种族性恐惧视为本身构成一种社会力量，对种族，性别关系和不平等产生长期影响。不仅压迫非洲裔美国人的男人和女人，而且还压制白人妇女的权力。因此，应当将私刑时期的白人种族性恐惧视为本身构成一种社会力量，对种族，性别关系和不平等产生长期影响。