Sexual terror is genocide

the rape of the black woman as a structural and structuring element of the diaspora -- for a quilombista analysis of antiblackness

Authors

  • João H. Costa Vargas Universidade da California, Riverside

Keywords:

Rape of Black Women , Sexual Terror , Genocide, Antiblackness

Abstract

In dialogue mainly with the critical intervention of Ana Flauzina and Thula Pires (2020), this essay proposes that, by analytically and politically centralizing the rape of Black women as a critical aspect of the contemporary social world, that is, of modernity, we define more precisely (a) the concept and specific processes of antiblackness (as distinct from racism), including genocide and sexual terror; (b) the possibilities of epistemological and political bridges between Black and Indigenous experiences; and (c) the parameters for a Quilombista analysis, which considers abolition a utopian and holistic project of contemporary society, different from those guided by anti-racism, which are often influenced by cisheteronormative and patriarchal, legalistic, politically reformist biases, and which, finally, believe in the redemption of the current project of multiracial democracy. Once we accept the analysis that links antiblackness, genocide, sexual terror, and the rape of black women, we conclude that there is nothing to save from this presently constituted social world. We have to invent another world.

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Author Biography

João H. Costa Vargas, Universidade da California, Riverside

Doutor em Antropologia pela Universidade da Califórnia em San Diego; Professor da Universidade da Califórnia em Riverside

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Published

2021-12-30

How to Cite

VARGAS, João H. Costa. Sexual terror is genocide: the rape of the black woman as a structural and structuring element of the diaspora -- for a quilombista analysis of antiblackness. Latin American Journal of Criminology, [S. l.], v. 1, n. 2, p. 35–67, 2021. Disponível em: https://www.periodicos.unb.br/index.php/relac/article/view/38611. Acesso em: 3 jun. 2024.