This from the “Slate Looking More Like The Onion” files —
Of the catcalling video, yes, it appears the Left has acknowledged how the said catcallers were all ‘men of color’, but that doesn’t mean that Whitey ain’t doin’ the same, yo!
For all men, harassment of women has more to do with establishing power than it does sexual interest; they do it to control space, both public (the very street you both walk on) and personal (a woman’s self-set boundaries). Men of color catcall vocally and visibly on the sidewalk because they have to—not that there’s ever excuse for harassment. They need the “Sexy!” and “Smile!” to create the illusion of dominance in shared public spaces that social constructs and institutional racism have never afforded them control over.
White men, on the other hand, have no use for that sort of catcalling. They marked their territory centuries ago. So, instead, their sexual harassment is less invasive (“in passing,” as Bliss puts it) and harder to recognize—even when it’s staring you in the face. They do it in bars, at parties, on the frat row at your local college campus, in boardrooms, and other places men of color are never privy to, at least not in positions of power. As a biracial woman of color who, despite being half-white, likely “reads” black to many people, I’ve walked into parties thrown by traditionally white fraternities and bars with a diverse crowd, and white guys have gawked at me ever so slightly, engaging with me as they would an exotic animal at a zoo. Particularly when I’m in a group with other women of color, they circle us, giving off cues to dance in a way that suggests it’s nothing more than a social experiment for them; it’s as if they’re wondering, “what’s it really like to dance with a black girl?” And white men harass, sometimes most crudely, online—particularly, as I’ve experienced, when approaching women of color.
