The Courage To Defend

Patty Hearst is the granddaughter of American media magnate William Randolph Hearst. She is well known all over the world because of her kidnapping in 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army, or SLA and the events that followed after it. At her trial, the prosecution suggested that Hearst had joined the Symbionese Liberation Army of her own volition. However, she testified that she had been raped and threatened with death while held captive. "It's no secret that I was abducted, raped, and tortured at 19," she said in a statement. "What followed was a series of events that were the direct result of a child having been destroyed both inside and out. In 2020, there were 126,430 reported rape cases in the United States. This figure also includes attempts and assaults to commit rape, but unforced statutory rape and other sex offenses are excluded. What is particularly common when it comes to sexual assault, is that most survivors are aquatinted with the rapist. Many countries are fighting up hill battles when it comes to adults preying on children. The Philippines congressional bicameral conference committee just approved a measure raising the age of statutory rape from the current 12 years old to 16 years old to protect young people from sexual exploitation and abuse. This means any sexual intercourse with a minor who has not reached the age of twelve is automatically regarded as rape, regardless of whether they say or appeared to have voluntarily engaged in the sexual act. However, the moment that child reaches the exact age of twelve, the law assumes that the child is mature enough to give consent to another person for any sexual activity,” If the bill is passed into law, any adult who has sexual intercourse with a minor below 16 years old will be guilty of rape even if the minor has given his or her consent to the sexual act. Why do sex between adults and minors need clarification when the TORAH says all fornication is sinful and violaters should be punished. And what about rapists that commit sex crimes but because of financial or political influence are either given a slap on the wrist or never face prosecution at all? Rape was so common between slave owner and slave that the mental scars have a profound effect upon the generation of today. History must be told of the colonial slave auction block, where captive Africans were stripped of their clothing, oiled down, and poked and prodded by potential buyers. The erotic undertones still carry weight today when it comes to the anatomy of black people. Slavery in America, is a subject most Europeans wish not to discuss or paint a variable picture but still today, society in general believes women (especially women of black, brown and carmel hue) to be innately lustful beings. Films, books and mainstream media portrayal of the ideal caucasian woman as being God fearing christians while the perception of the darker hue woman as hyper-sexual beasts made her both the object of fantasy and lust. Within the bonds of slavery, it was the masters right to engage in sexual activity with female or male slaves as young as 12 whenever they so desired. It was not uncommon to witness slave owners violating slaves by force in the presence of parents and other slaves. It was also common for female slaves to accept the sexual advances of both slave master and plantation overseers in the hopes that such relationships would increase the chances that they or their children would be liberated by the master or allowed to work away from the fields.

The slave master and overseers control over both children and adult females, reduced the slave male head of household role outlined within the TORAH. What is more, labor segregation by sex and the frequency with which male slaves were sold meant women were not only left to raise their children alone, but also to rely on female friends and the slave master and overseer for moral and physical support. From the 1660s to the 1860s, the overwhelming majority of slave owners were white, and the overwhelming majority of slaves black. There was probably more black-white sex during this period than at any other time (thus far) in American history. Most of it was unwanted sex, stemming from white males' exploitation of black children and women. Let's take for example Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson? Do you think he would be considered within the me too movement as a pedophile and rapist and what about the children from his lustful desires, should they be recognized as heir's to his estate? Many arguments arise between sexual intimacy between enslaved children and woman and the slave owner or overseer but in my opinion, mutually desired sex requires choice, a power denied to slaves by bondage. Many European americans attempt to downplay the effect that slavery and institutional racism has within American culture but slavery created an extreme dependency between slave master and children and adults held in bondage. As a result, all of the sex that took place on the plantation constituted some form of sexual assault. Professor Angela Davis is among those who make this argument. Criticizing the notion that a slave woman could consent to have sex with a master, Davis maintains that "there could hardly be a basis for delight, affection and love' as long as the slave owner and overseer by virtue of their economic position, had unlimited access to kidnapped children and adults bodies.

The question for discussion is the aftereffects of slavery and the mental chains weighting down all Americans. Do you think families birthed from slave owner sexual assaults should be documented and granted American privileges as those of family members of slave owners? Should American history text books be rewritten to reflect the impact that sexual assault during colonial era has on our generation today? Should families of former slave owners and overseers be held financially accountable today?