Research on Black Sexuality: Its Implication for Family Life, Sex Education, and Public Policy

In American society there exists a cultural belief that Blacks have lower morals than whites. The higher rate of out-of-wedlock births, a greater incidence of consensual unions, the sexual liasons of white men with Black women all serve to fortify this cultural image of Black people as a sexually animated group that is immune to any restraints on its sexual conduct. This image of Blacks as a sexually liberated people has inculcated in the public mind a host of myths concerning the sexual behavior of Afro-Americans. It should be understood that Blacks arrived in this country from societies where the sexual impulse was under firm family and community controls. (De Rachewitz, 1964) It was under the experience of slavery that pronounced alterations of Black sexual behavior transpired. The practice of breeding slaves like animals, the coercive nature of sex relations between white men and Black women, the lack of a legal basis to marriage all tended to encourage permissive sexual behavior among America's Black population. (Frazier, 1939) These are historical events which left their imprint on any sexual sub-culture found in the Black community. Class factors must