ABSTRACT
Discussing violence in the black community is a controversial exercise for a black woman such as myself. On the one hand, one risks being accused of fuelling damaging racist constructions of black people. On the other, one risks provoking the ire of one’s peers, many of whom are defensive because they are only too well aware of the dominant society’s portrayal of them. Because racists presume all blacks to be violent, black people prefer not to discuss black violence. Violence against black women is a particularly unpopular topic, unless it has been perpetrated by white racists or the police. When black men are violent towards black women, the ideologues amongst us would rather blame racism than look critically at black gender relations. Racism is the problem, according to this line of thought, and sexism is a white woman’s preoccupation. Either way, myth obscures truth, clouding the distinctions between racial fiction and social fact.
