Monday, April 29, 2019: Kimberle Crenshaw, Kenyette Barnes and Margo Okazawa-Rey - Misogynoir and sexual abuse of Black Women

Two recent true-crime docu-series about the sexual abuse by well-known singers have rocked the mainstream world. HBO's "Leaving Neverland" about Michael Jackson and Lifetime's "Surviving R. Kelly" about acclaimed singer and producer R Kelly are causing another round of contentious debate in this time of #MeToo. Despite the revelations and decades-long public discussions of the alleged abuses of these two popular cultural giants, the documentaries seem finally to be breaking through the denial of the last 25 years. But even so, there is resistance to hold the two accountable. This is partly because of Jackson and Kelly's beloved status and partly because of the country's history of lynchings and incarceration of black men based on transgressions fabricated by white women. This history is further complicated by the fraught history of white feminists failing to include race and racism centrally in their analyses of sexual violence. Both factors complicate accusations against black men. So today Lisa Dettmer presents the views of three black feminist women who have have been working to address the denial of abuse in the black community and who discuss how white supremacy and Misogynoir can help prevent this abuse of black women by black men from getting the attention it deserves.

In the first half of the show we will hear clips from a new podcast called "Intersectionality Matters" by renowned feminist and legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw who talks with #MuteRKelly co-founder Kenyette Barnes about her movement to expose R Kelly’s serial abuse of Black women and girls.

And then in the second half of the show renowned scholar, activist, and author Margo Okazawa-Rey talks to legal scholar and activist Kimberlé Crenshaw about how to understand and address the complex problem of sexual abuse and related trauma in black communities.

Kimberlé Crenshaw, is professor of Law at UCLA and Columbia Law School, and is a leading authority in the area of Civil Rights, Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism and the law. Her work has been foundational in Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. And she is the co-founder of the African American Policy Forum (AAPF), a think tank that works to dismantle structural inequality. Margo Okazawa-Rey is Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women's Leadership and Professor of Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and of Public Policy at Mills College. She also is one of the original members of the Combahee River Collective.


Click here to listen to the show. 59:50 min