Kali Gross Colored Amazons Summary

Kali Gross’ Colored Amazons sheds light upon African American women’s persona and struggles during post-reconstruction Philadelphia. Not all black women committed crimes during this period, but some became well known for badgering and other property crimes. Reporting of these crimes alienated black women from society with criminally bias headlines, also the African American women’s body was manipulated and punished by the power of the state and the minds of the people. Just as Foucault, Gross believes that the state wanted to control the hierarchy of African American women because they infringed upon white male dominance, and race, gender, and sexuality played a crucial role for women. African American women became victims of a powerful state
When black women committed crimes against whites bias headlines read, “Negro Women Rob and Kill Farmer in Den” which caused the dehumanizing of black women. Reports used rhetoric that favored white supremacy and relied on the public to get behind this rhetoric of black women of being brutal, unrelenting killers that hurt white male life and property. This reporting was used by the state to turn black women’s bodies far from white female sexuality, just as Foucault expressed, the bourgeoisie used the body as a way for the state to express power. Creating a bias against black women leached into the courtroom, and caused judges to convict criminals based upon race, and black women went against white femininity so they became victims. The body of the African American women became a ground for reporters and citizens to deem un-womanly and against the true nature of femininity. People played a crucial role in criminalizing African American women. Mug shots became a tool the public used to show black women as criminals, “looking at a mugshot meant one was looking at a criminal, not a citizen.” By using mugshots the state engrained black criminality through the people. The revolving door of this rhetoric caused the body of the black woman to be dehumanized by the press, the state, and by the
Black women threatened to take attention away from white male masculinity. Therefore, in an effort to dehumanize these women the criminal justice system portrayed black women as large, dark and dangerous individuals whose hyper sexuality conflicted with symbols of white domesticity. The apparatuses of the state constructed black female crime within this framework, by using sentences that stretched longer than others, using whiteness as a degree of crime, and to set examples to other women. The state enacted these punishments because they feared that black women became a growing danger and nuisance to white domesticity. Race, gender, and sexuality impacted African American women within the criminal justice system. Race played a crucial role within the states apparatus of the criminal justice system. The words of black women were thrown out when white accusers spoke, and one judge even stated, “This court will never take the word of a n***** against the word of a white man.” Black women’s voices were thrown out because judges, jurors, and citizens believed them to be a threat. Believing that African American women were innate habitual criminals, the state began to garner longer jail sentences and harsher punishments based on gender. Black women broke away from social norms and began to infringe upon white male gender norms. African