I was going to post a clip from the movie The Butler where the main character Cecile's mother played by Mariah Carey gets raped by one of the "masters" in a shed by the cotton fields. Cecile ask his father what was he going to do about, when Cecile's father yelled "hey" to the white man, he responded by pulling out his gun and shooting Cecile's father in the head in front of everyone working the field. As Cecile cried over his dad's dead body an older white lady comes running into the fields and approaches Cecile and says "Stop crying, I'm going to make you a house nigga." Cecil's mother ends up traumatized by the whole ordeal and never speaks again.
This clip shows how the masters used the women to emasculate the men who could not protect their women because they knew they would be beaten or even killed. Black men watched their mothers, daughters and sisters get raped and beaten and had no power to do anything, which lead black women to be strong and independent as they are today.
I definitely agree with you. Black men, let alone Black women, did not have any power. Therefore, most times than not, Black women were put in positions that did not necessarily favor them. I believe that Black Women's Bodies have been used as a site of empowerment. Fairly similar, yet a tad different from yours.
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