“The forces that came together to inflict that pain”Class, race, and sexuality in Ellen Feldman’s Scottsboro
- 1 Universidad Santiago de Compostela
ISSN: 1133-309X, 2253-8410
Datum der Publikation: 2022
Nummer: 26
Art: Artikel
Andere Publikationen in: Revista de Estudios Norteamericanos
Zusammenfassung
En el infame caso de Scottsboro (Alabama, 1931), nueve jóvenes negros fueron acusados falsamente de violar a dos jóvenes blancas de clase baja y conocidas por su promiscuidad sexual con hombres blancos y negros. Los Chicos de Scottsboro fueron víctimas inocentes del llamado “southern rape complex” y del linchamiento legal automático de cualquier varón negro acusado de violar a una mujer blanca. La protagonista de Scottsboro, basada en gran medida en dos reporteras progresistas del Norte, Mary Heaton Vorse y Hollace Ransdall, que investigaron el caso, aprende sobre las complejas relaciones raciales y de clase vigentes en el Sur, así como sobre su propios prejuicios y privilegios de clase. Al igual que Ransdall y Vorse, informa sobre un episodio en el que dos víctimas de la opresión capitalista son elevadas del nivel de "basura blanca" para convertirse en representantes de la feminidad blanca "profanada", mientras ocho de los nueve jóvenes negros, estereotipados como hipersexualizados e intrínsecamente criminales, reciben sentencias de muerte, todo ello debido a la tiranía de unos valores que no significan nada en la vida de las jóvenes que les acusan.
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