AOL Member Services Racism T he combination of sexism and racism places heavy demands on those of us who are women of color as we strive to be and feel powerful. How this affects our sexuality is an immense and important topic, which is connected to our particular history of struggle in the U.S. and to the experiences of women of color worldwide. Within the limited space in this chapter, we can only scratch the surface.
Many racial stereotypes focus on our sexuality through the use of racist myths.
Latinas and Native American women and other women of color confront equally demeaning stereotypes on a daily basis. The stereotypes that perpetuate racism and sexism often arise from contexts in which women and men of color were historically, or are in the present, subordinated, colonized, and enslaved by white people. During the enslavement of Africans in the U.S., for example, white slave owners and overseers raped African-American women freely, yet the stereotypes that developed at that time and continue to this day blamed the women rather than the men who raped them. These and other destructive sexual stereotypes, along with the racial and sexual assaults that are a reality for many of us, influence the ways we do or don't assert our desires. They affect how others treat us, and when we internalize them and believe them, they affect how we treat ourselves.