The black woman, she is as diverse and as beautiful as the billions of humans she gave birth to. The first homo sapiens to appear in the fertile land of East Africa were nurtured from her bosom; the wisdom and strength that is characteristic of the black woman today is not a recent acquisition but qualities that were honed over thousand of years. Every woman on this earth has mitochondrial DNA (mitochondrial DNA is the DNA transferred from mother to child and the only genetic material that stands the test of time)from Lucy, the small black woman found in the Awash Valley in Ethiopia. Lucy is her English name but I prefer the appellation given to her by the Ethiopians, Dinkesh, which means "you are beautiful" or "you are wonderful." Her dark skin, beautiful lips and course hair is not a sign of shame or inferiority but of the dominance of her genes. The fact that any baby born by a black woman and a male of another race will more likely resemble its mother is a testament to that dominance, a testament that within the veins of a black woman lies the blue print to life. However, put aside all that I have stated and yet the black woman is still not given the respect that is due to her. A travesty has been committed that leaves the black woman dying alone and her offspring fatherless. Single black mothers are ubiquitous to every black neighborhood and casts a negative cloud on a whole people who have lost the basic atom of what makes a people a people: family. The black woman in the U.S. holds a precarious role: she is a woman, she is black and she is quickly becoming the dominant force of her people. The black woman is increasingly the sole bread winner in her household because she is forced into that position because of the... ... middle of paper ... ...r Era black men and their wives were powerful tandems that endured the struggle hand in hand. The Civil Rights Era is a period in U.S. history that conjures up painful memories yet it can be looked back upon as our finest hour. In U.S. history the phrase the "greatest generation" is used to describe the generation that fought in WWII yet their is another less mentioned "greatest generation" and it is the generation that navigated the turbulent waters of the Civil Rights and Black Power Eras. A well known fact of that period that continues to perplex scholars is the fact that during the time of Jim Crow and open racism ninety eight percent of all black families consisted of a man and a woman. What can be ascertained from that period is although we were oppressed and alienated we were unified. We loved and took care of one another because all we had was one another.
Collins, Patricia Hill. "Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images." Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge, 2000. 89. Print.
In 1997, Dorothy Roberts wrote a salient book titled Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty. Roberts explicates the crusade to punish Black women—especially the destitute—for having children. The exploitation of Black women in the U.S. began in the days of slavery and, appropriately enough, Roberts introduces her first chapter with an illustrative story:
Since her first soiree in the public eye the Black women has been the token friend on the guest list. Doing her best to socialize, she is first ignored, then overly simplified and surmised to be one dimensional. First, the “mammy.” Then, the “Jezebel,” the “baby mama,” the “gold digger,” and the “sassy sidekick.” Why has no one taken the time to get to know her? Society’s perception of black women has been molded by media portrayal. This has misaligned the trajectory, and their image is not congruent with their progressive impact on society. The hackneyed ideals imposed upon this demographic must dwindle as successful, educated black women become the new standard.
The third article goes over the problems in organizing black feminists while the fourth article goes over black feminist issues and practice. In the third article, the author explains how they not only have to fight just one oppression, rather than a whole range of oppressions. The fourth section goes over the idea of equality between white women and black women. The black women strive to allow the white women to see things from their point of view and are attempting to allow others to have an idea of how much racism there truly is for them. Overall, this book explains the experiences that black feminists faced from their own
Ruiz, Delia. Women of Color in Modern Society. New York, NY: Harper and Row Press,
Ta’ nehisi Coates wrote a letter to his son and one of the statements he made said, “I remember being amazed that death could so easily rise up from the nothing of a boyish afternoon, billow up like a fog.” The interpretation, “It is amazing how quickly death can overtake an African American male at any moment.” Eric Garner, a witness to this statement, and now a part of the Black Lives Matter movement. Black people are slowly divided by what really matters more injustice itself or injustice of a race that cannot and never existed. Have we become so blind that we forgot the many Sandra Blands that risked it all building the African American race? They then begin to categorize this as Black Women Matter. A parallel statement that not only applies to injustice but to black people themselves. Black men bash the bodies that birthed them and give them to the system to finish the job they have already started. If black women cannot be respected by their own what makes you think the next white man or cop will give them that
On Being Young-A Woman-and Colored an essay by Marita Bonner addresses what it means to be black women in a world of white privilege. Bonner reflects about a time when she was younger, how simple her life was, but as she grows older she is forced to work hard to live a life better than those around her. Ultimately, she is a woman living with the roles that women of all colors have been constrained to. Critics, within the last 20 years, believe that Marita Bonners’ essay primarily focuses on the double consciousness ; while others believe that she is focusing on gender , class , “economic hardships, and discrimination” . I argue that Bonner is writing her essay about the historical context of oppression forcing women into intersectional oppression by explaining the naturality of racial discrimination between black and white, how time and money equate to the American Dream, and lastly how gender discrimination silences women, specifically black women.
...n ground in the midst of the selection of preferences. African American women with darker and lighter complexions suffered some type of emotional baggage and rejection at a point in their lives. Although one is seen to have privilege, it was never the light skinned woman’s intention to be as superior as she is. She carries privilege but, “both experienced the same things but just on the end of two different spectrum”, states American Inspirational Speaker, Iyanla Vanzant. The Secret Shame has always perceived dark woman as being the inferior but at the end of the day Colorism not only effects woman of darker complexions but woman of lighter complexions as well. No matter how hard one tries to change who they are they have to understand how this really affects the other and until then things have to be said, feelings have to surface, and hearts have to be mended.
What is position do Black American hold in society today? If Black Americans were to just disappear without a trace, would it effect America economically, politically, and socially? The answer is yes, but we would not have the power to survive on our own. The only power that we truly have is buying power in America. Black Americans are infamous for putting their money into things that are materialistic rather than things that will turn their money over. Things that will build up the community such as black owned establishments. Despite the economic set backs we place ourselves in, politically we have no strong voices and our social leaders do not seem to understand how to elevate the problems that continue to plaque our society. Who can we turn to? I am convinced that if we trace back to learn theories of past African America leaders on these issues then we can eventually come to new heights. This paper will identify the primary economic, political, and social needs of African Americans at the turn of the century and determine if the philosophies of Booker T. Washington, WEB DuBois, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X can eliminate some of these issues.
Many women during the 20th century were having problems with their husbands because of their regular alcohol consumption. Men became violent with their wife’s and children, they would forget about God, they would lose their jobs for coming into work drunk or late, and they would waste life savings to buy alcohol. These problems continued and worsened, not only were women concerned but also some men, African Americans, and church leaders. As more and more problems started to arise something had to be done, the prohibition movement was on its way to help rid what many defined as the “American Problem”.
Black Women’s Studies plays an important role in the discipline of Africana Studies. Black women studies is the history, cultures and experiences of black women. The important subjects of black women studies are, gender,race, and class. These studies look at the social context to understand racism and sexism. Black women who are not always represented as intellectuals have been able to rearticulate the knowledge of everyday Black women as Black intellectuals. A large number of scholars from the working class and poor Black areas entered schools during the period of social upheaval in the 60s and 70s. Spaces opened up in graduate schools through struggle, and traditionally white departments in the social sciences and the humanities expanded
Black women empower themselves by creating self definition and self-valuations that enable themselve to establish positivity. This would be known as the meaning of self-definition and self-valuation. Studying the social reality of black women, to take the positive and multiple that image and repel the negative. It is also controlling the representation of black womanhood. Society has taught black women that racism, sexism, and poverty are inevitable for them and keep them oppressed. However, black women are confronting and dismantleing the interlocking of the overarching structure of domination in terms of race, gender, and class oppression.
Smith, Barbara. "Toward a Black Feminist Criticism." JSTOR. University of Illinois Press, Mar. 1978. Web. 27 Aug. 2013.
Hartford Publishing 2015, Black Feminist Thought in the Matrix of Domination, viewed 3 September 2015, http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/252.html
...ther women were presented as objects and deemed inferior to men due to the working of the patriarchal society’s construct of femininity. Also the she came to the conclusion that the controlling images of black women that are used by the white male in an attempt to suppress black women’s vocal resistance to their subjugation and inequality. Ultimately Collins conclude that The perpetuation of sexual oppression does commit violence not only to racial equality but also to the gender and sexual differences among blacks, which damage the construction of commonality within the black community, and between men and women. She also stresses, however, that the perseverance, and changing contours, of racial inequality in our globalizing world is dominated by mass media that produces beliefs that seek to deny racism and undercut mass awareness of its ongoing subtle influences.