Sexual Assault and Racial Politics
6/30/09
Project Description:
The following data comes from an interdisciplinary case study
focusing on the ways that members of the large grassroots relief
organization, Common Ground Collective (CG), produced and responded to
incidents of sexual violence among volunteers engaged in post-Katrina
reconstruction and cleanup. The research consists of participant
observation and interviews with long-term (six months or more)
volunteers who were working with CG in the spring of 2006. The study
describes the ways in which volunteers and members of CG’s leadership
perceived these events, as well as identifies how intersecting ideas
about race and gender may have influenced those perceptions.
Key Research Findings: - Although almost all the
sexual assaults were committed by non-local, white male volunteers
against non-local, white female volunteers, the mostly white volunteer
membership displayed increased fear and mistrust of the surrounding
black community in the wake of the attacks.
- CG’s leadership initially downplayed the sexual violence being committed by its white male volunteers.
- Sexual
violence and an early reluctance to confront it was supported, in part,
by a heightened climate of “disaster masculinity” linked to the
intensive physical labor required for CG’s recovery efforts.
- Ingrained stereotypes about black male sexual violence impeded the
efforts to implement an effective campaign against the actual sexual
violence of white male volunteers. Even strongly countercultural,
activist communities, like CG, remain subject to the enduring influence
of racial and gender biases.
Researcher Recommendations: - Organizations
and individuals working on disaster recovery should pay special
attention to the intersection of race and gender as they go about their
work.
- Racial mistrust or gender violence may be countered, in part, by avoiding a climate of “disaster masculinity.”
Research Contacts:
Rachel E. Luft, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of New Orleans, 504-280-6301, rluft@uno.edu.
Related Bibliography:
1) Luft, Rachel E. 2008. “Looking for Common Ground: Relief Work in
Post-Katrina New Orleans as an American Parable of Race and Gender
Violence.” NWSA Journal, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 5-31.
The SSRC Katrina Task Force oversees a range of research projects
on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and acts as a clearinghouse for
information emerging from those projects. For additional literature on
Hurricane Katrina see our Research Bibliography. For more information about the SSRC Katrina Task Force see the Katrina Hub or contact Siovahn Walker at
walker@ssrc.org. For other Research Bulletins see our Archive.
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