In a racist world, nobody has to be convinced that a black man is a rapist. #notallms are easy to say if you white are.
Who is charged?
In the media are R. KellySean Diddy Combs and Jay-Z no more celebrated rappers. Sean Diddy Combs is no longer called his singer-alias. His bourgeois name takes care of the headlines. Tens of complaints about sexual violence. And that for each of them.
Kelly has been charged before, that was before #metoo. And he was acquitted. #metoo has pointed out that sexualized violence does not consist of isolated cases, but is embedded in structures.
More and more research shows a clear picture. So that gives “Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ)“It is that” every third woman becomes a victim of physical and/or sexualized violence at least once in her life; about every fourth woman becomes a victim of physical or sexualized violence through her current or through her former partner. ” (As of April 10, 2025)
Now R. Kelly was charged again, but this time he no longer left the courtroom as “not guilty”. The plaintiffs are no longer primarily considered to be RufmÖrder: insidewhich scratch the shine of the icons without a mistake.
Privileges and forms of discrimination
Even if the discourse on sexual violence is a new discourse, it takes place in social conditions that are characterized by privileges and forms of discrimination, which revive in a new discourse.
How different privileges and forms of discrimination are intertwined and the discourse on sexualized violence can sometimes be determined in the way reporting on sexual violence can be identified. The role that racism, classimus, (hetero) sexism, fat shaming and disposable in the selection of cases that are publicly discussed also affects the selection of cases, public attention.
As many privileges there are, there are so many forms of discrimination. If you look at them in isolation, you get a result with coarse restrictions. Taken together, the overview goes.
So how can you work out with such a delicate topic, where different forms of discrimination against privileges interlock and confirm prejudices, such as that of the black rapist?
The technical term for this is called “Intersectionality“
Dr. Emilia Roig explains that any form of identity, form of discrimination and privilege influences the everyday life of everyone, which shaped society. The following pop cultural example: A scene from the TV series “Scrubs” shows the interrogation of forms of discrimination and privileges. The black surgeon Christopher Turk and the white Internist Elliot Reed argues who has it more difficult in professional life: a black man or one white Woman. The camera swings to a black doctor – the two are entered and give her kudos.
It is not possible to disguise intersectionality, but it helps to show that certain prejudices against a group can be used to “protect” another group.
We come back to the three rappers. R. Kellys, Sean Diddy Combs ‘and Jay-Z’ have several privileges. First of all: all three are famous musicians, big celebrated with a lot of influence in their industry. In addition, everyone unites US members of the fact that they are CIS men, hetero, able-bodied and hand over. A standard combination in a prestigious music business.
Apart from that, they are also all: black. No matter how many privileges you have, it only needed a form of discrimination so that they became scapegoats. With which sexualized violence can be considered morally reprehensible and at the same time it can be clearly assigned to guilt. If the black man or the man with a migration history is evil, it relieves it automatically white Men and directs the view of partiarchal structures. This reproduces racist prejudices.
The focus on a few black men as a perpetrator in cases of sexual violence not only passes structural conditions that are fed out of privileges and forms of discrimination, but also reduces the problem to rare “isolated cases”. The denies what was so noticeable with the #metoo movement. Sexualized acts of violence are not uncommon, but concern the majority of all flinta*people and the perpetrators are usually men-whether black or white – and they come from all social classes.
In many media, however, reports of black men and men with migration are increasing who use sexual violence. This distorts the perception of what actually happens and increases discrimination structures by offering an apparent basis for justification.
The power gap
Unequal distribution of privileges and characteristics that lead to discrimination between people ensures unevenly distributed positions of power in a society that thus discriminates on a structural level. Such power gaps arise as soon as one of two people has a privilege that the other does not have. It becomes more complex if you do not share the same privileges. And the power gap is getting steeper the more privileges one of two people compared to the other.
In itself, a power gap is only a basis that favors violence and no reason to be violent. But as soon as a person uses the power gap, they become violent.
And that is exactly the thing.
Prevent sexualized violence
In principle, sexual violence also means to prevent the power of privileges and forms of discrimination. The subject of sexual violence Mostly with perpetrators who are black to fill, covers that rape can be carried out by any person.
It is not enough to sort out perpetrator. Perpetrators are not the cause. The reasons lie deeper and apply even with apparently everyday misogynia, as with contemptuous statements about Flinta*people.
The Pyramid of violencea model from social psychology, illustrates the course of normalization and extreme violence: the basis is discriminatory structures, the pointed homicide. Right below: sexual violence. And in a descending order: verbal expressions and microagdression.
In order to put an end to sexual violence, the already enlightening and preventive measures are required. These can be implemented structurally via laws, but also individually in your own environment.
Daniel Sloss has set up the following equation in his stage program “X”: Since he had his friend* enemy statements, he has a complicity that his friend raped a woman*.
The excerpt from Daniel Sloss’ “X”
Specifically, this means that so that #notallms can apply, men* are needed* who are committed to the rights of all people who are not men*. Or simply said: men* are needed* who do not let their friends go through that they can devalue women*. Instead of men* who lean back because they have not raped a woman*.
You will probably be able to write that
Media distort who exercises sexual violence. The presentation of the black man as a rapist to consolidate reproduces prejudices that stir up hatred against a marginalized group, even if the accused people are actually guilty. With #notallms you can neither wash your hands innocently nor unload your own dirt on #ONLYBLACKMEN.
If you want to take up the complexity of sexual violence, you can move away from the question of guilt in individual legal processes and devote yourself to power dynamics. This also means dealing with how sexual violence can be structurally prevented.
While Daniel Sloss tells an example that focuses on interpersonal prevention work, the media for prevention work need a reporting method that does not distort the discourse on sexual violence through forms of discrimination and reduces to perpetrator-victim dynamics. To remain in the event of structural conditions: there are not a few outliers of a non -violent society, they are an expression of a violent and preserving structure. Sexualized violence is anchored in social power dynamics, for which reporting is required, which shows the relationship between acts of violence and social conditions.
In “Black men bothered white women – such pictures are dangerous!“Katharina Alexander stated that the black man’s stereotype is very sexually active, violent and attacking at the same time racist and sexist and has been reproduced for centuries. The stereotype is like the stereotype of the whitedefenseless, innocent woman to justify the oppression of black people. From a racist point of view, the white Breed or the white Childrene maker are protected.
In addition, Katharina Alexander states that the stereotype of the sexually overactive, violent and attacking man cannot be refuted through police statistics, but: “The proportion of German perpetrators clearly outweighs that of non-Germans.”
To behave as if there are only a few who rape or, as soon as there are more than just a few, to pretend as if they were “not (#notallms)”, by using a racist social marker, shows that you do not listen to women* and neither take them seriously. Because sexualized violence is not an outrageous event but everyday.
In order to find back to intersectionality, which helps as a tool to capture the complexity, Audre Lorde can be used: “There is no search thing as a single-issue struggle Because we do not live single-issue lives.”