My research paper analyzes the development of "the Jezebel" stereotype of Black women throughout United States history. In this, I stress how White men have historically deployed rhetoric (and continue to do so) as a means of racist, sexist “truthmaking” to oppress Black women in the United States. In addition to this, I highlight how Black women have taken “an oppositional gaze” to look back at the racist, sexist rhetoric of White men to create a rhetoric as a means of their own “truthmaking” that rehumanizes Black women and as a means to fight back against White men’s rhetorical oppression. This paper contributes to the scholarship by tracing how oppressive rhetoric has transformed itself over history to oppress Black women, and this paper begins asking questions about rhetorical reparations that are necessary for ending the rhetorical oppression of Black women.

Joe would like to thank their faculty sponsor Dr. Ellen Crowell for their support of this project.