Expendables for Whom: Terry Crews and the Erasure of Black Male Victims of Sexual Assault and Rape

Abstract

The sexual assault of Terry Crews by Adam Venit raises all sorts of questions about the nature of sexual violence and our reluctance to see Black men as victims of sexual assault in the United States. Despite a history of Black men and boys being raped by White men and women, there is no effort to connect the centuries-long record of sexual violence against Black males to the sexual victimization of Black men and boys currently. This article analyzes the language, history, and stereotypes deployed in our understanding of Terry Crews’s victimization, even those he uses to describe himself, to better situate and describe the vulnerability of Black men and boys to sexual violence in the United States.

Keywords:

• Black male studies
• Black male victims of rape and sexual violence
• Black male vulnerability
• Terry Crews
• racism