Feminist Criminology 5(3) 244–262 © The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1557085110371634 http://fc.sagepub.com The Internet as a Tool for Black Feminist Activism: Lessons From an Online Antirape Protest Laura Rapp 1 , Deeanna M Button 1 , Benjamin Fleury-Steiner 1 , and Ruth Fleury-Steiner 1 Abstract This article explores how the Internet is a tool for Black women to challenge violence against women of color. It highlights online protest in response to the actions of civil rights organizations’ narrow focus on the treatment of Black male offenders while overlooking the civil rights of Black female victims. Specifically, the article examines a protest focusing on the reactions of racial justice leaders to a brutal gang rape in a Palm Beach housing project known as Dunbar Village. Drawing from the literature on collective action frames, this article illustrates how the Dunbar Village protest evolved from an online dialogue to social protest. Keywords Black feminism; activism; internet; sexual assault Racial Differences: Boca Raton and Dunbar Village Rape Cases On June 18, 2007 a gang-style rape occurred in Dunbar Village, an impoverished, predominantly Black housing project in West Palm Beach, Florida. On this date, at least four 1 Black male assailants knocked on a Black Haitian woman’s door stating that her car had a flat tire. Once outside, the woman and her young son were con- fronted at gun point. Forced back in their home, the woman was beaten, raped, sodomized, and forced to have oral sex with her son. Both of them were then tortured 1 University of Delaware Corresponding Author: Laura Rapp, University of Delaware, Sociology and Criminal Justice, 322 Smith Hall, Newark, DE 19716 Email: lrapp@udel.edu at UNIV OF DELAWARE LIB on January 19, 2016 fcx.sagepub.com Downloaded from