So long as sexual unions with black women and white men took place in a nonlegalized context, within a framework of subjugation, coercion, and degradation, the split between white female’s status as “ladies” and black women’s representation as “whores” could be maintained. Thus to some extent, white women’s class and race privilege was reinforced by the maintenance of a system where black women were the objects of white male sexual subjugation and abuse.
