Lately, we’ve seen more people comparing sex-based boundaries for women and girls (like in shelters, sports, prisons, bathrooms) to Jim Crow-era racia
Lately, we’ve seen more people comparing sex-based boundaries for women and girls (like in shelters, sports, prisons, bathrooms) to Jim Crow-era racial segregation.
As a Black woman, I need to say this plainly:
Those are not the same.
And confusing the two does more harm to the most vulnerable than good. In fact, there is no good for the vulnerable.
Let’s talk about why.
1. Jim Crow Was Rooted in White Supremacy, Not Protection
Jim Crow laws weren’t about keeping people safe — they were about maintaining a violent racial caste system.
- Black people were denied access to education, healthcare, and safe housing
- Interracial marriage was banned to “protect whiteness”
- Separate spaces were unequal by design — degrading, dangerous, and meant to keep Black folks “in their place”
Jim Crow wasn’t about privacy or fairness. It was about dehumanization.
2. Sex-Based Boundaries Are Rooted in the Realities of Sex-Based Violence
Women and girls have historically — and currently — faced violence because of our sex:
- Sexual assault
- Reproductive coercion
- Domestic violence
- Sex trafficking
- Exploitation in prisons and shelters
Sex-based boundaries (like single-sex shelters or sports) exist to create space for recovery, safety, fairness, and dignity.
They are not built to degrade or exclude — they’re built to protect.
3. Intentions Matter
Jim Crow:
- Intended to oppress, exclude, and humiliate
Sex-based boundaries:
- Intended to protect, support healing, and acknowledge real risk
When we ignore the intentions and outcomes behind a policy, we miss the truth — and truth is the foundation of justice.
4. It’s Harmful to Compare These Two Realities
When people equate sex-based protections with Jim Crow segregation:
- They erase the brutality of anti-Black racism
- They ignore the specific, targeted harm faced by women and girls — especially Black women and girls
- They silence Survivors who are asking for safety, not supremacy
Words carry weight. And these comparisons flatten two different kinds of suffering into a soundbite — and that helps no one.
5. We Deserve Room to Name Our Realities
Black women and girls have long had to survive both racial violence and sexual violence.
We know what it means to be harmed, overlooked, and then told to be quiet about it.
We know the difference between boundaries for protection
and barriers for oppression.
We’ve lived both.
Final Word
We can fight for justice without erasing anyone’s truth. But to do that, we have to tell the truth — about history, about harm, and about who policies were built to serve or suppress.
Jim Crow and sex-based boundaries are not the same.
And pretending they are dishonors both our ancestors and the Survivors still fighting for safe spaces today. The only winners are the same people holding power both then and now.
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