Summary

Tough policies on crime continued to dominate the political discourse in the late 1980s with the election of President H. W. Bush in 1989. In the same period, "Hip Hop and Black Studies programs blossomed together" (442). Intersectional race theories began to emerge in academia as scholars acknowledged gender racism, queer racism, ethnic racism, and class racism. Angela Davis, now a professor at San Francisco State University, called attention to the continued progression of racism which angered believers in racial progress. Young black women continued to be blamed for alleged "loose sexual behaviour" and racists pointed to false statistics on the increase of Black single mothers. The AIDS epidemic also perpetuated the stereotypes of Black people as "ignorant [and] hyper sexual" (449). In the early 1990s, the beating of Black motorist Rodney King by police sparked serious riots in Los Angeles...