Taylor Hall

[showtime-synergy1985-blog]

So reading At The Dark End of The Street evoked a lot of feelings within me that have been discussed in our class before. It discussed the lack of respect for a black woman’s virtue ( which was technically nonexistent) and the tactics used to keep the African American race, both men and women, under the heel of white supremacy but when I read Chapter 3, entitled “Walking in Pride and Dignity,” it just had me feeling conflicted about what I had just read. Chapter 3 discusses the first few women who actually refused to give up their seats before there was Rosa Parks. While the first few chapters involve revealing who Rosa Parks was before she became known for the police having “…arrested the wrong woman,” I was practically upset about the treatment of Claudette Colvin the young teenager who was arrested for doing exactly what Rosa Parks did. (McGuire 97) Colvin, who was pregnant at the time, was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white passenger who was inclined to stand. She refused because for one she was not breaking any segregation laws at the time (she was sitting in the designated“colored” section) and two to ask an obvious impregnated female is cruel because of the stress that can result from standing up too long. But again since black women lacked the ability of impersonating “white womanhood” such a courtesy was denied.  Alas she was arrested and charged with breaking the “segregation law.” She received assistance in taking her case to trial but when it came to the thought of making her the image of the bus boycott in Montgomery she was dismissed. Although Colvin came before Parks and shared a very similar situation, Colvin was dismissed because she did not fit into category of “Respectability Politics.” RP really rubbed me the wrong way because it sounds like a synonym for assimilation.  For instance, on page 91 of McGuire, Nixon states, “She’s just not the kind that we can win a case with…” In the eyes of R.P Colvin was not a good candidate because she lived in a not bad part of town and was an unwed pregnant teenager. According to Nixon, she was not worth the risk of going to the Supreme Court because she was not an example of good R.P. Rosa Parks however was a perfect match. Parks was fair skinned and had been a good citizen middle class hard working citizen. She was a respectable wife and active member of the Civil Rights Movement. To have this type of atrocity to happen to her was a strict violation of her 14th Amendment and people of all nationality would see that violation, with darker skinned Colvin, Nixon assumed they would not. Respectability Politics is just another factor that divides the black community. While Parks rose to notoriety for her act of defiance, Colvin was lost in history and never really mentioned throughout learning about African American history (I never head about her until I reached college)  R.P is oftentimes seen as the solution to the rise of blacks within America.

For instance the image above is a contemporary example of R.P. New York State Senator Eric Adams had campaigned for a ban on “saggy pants.” He states, “Raise Your Pants, Raise Your Image.” That message rang for me in the context of reading Chapter 3 as, “relate to white people as much as you can so you can “survive” and “matter” in this world. It read that way to me because R.P is just an excuse for assimilation. When the text pointed out the pigmentation difference between Colvin and Parks and Colvin being dark and Parks being light, not only was that an example of colorisum but it suggested and solidified the ideal that the closer to white you are the more acceptable by society you will be. Saggy pants is something suggested as a ‘black thing” therefore it is inexcusable in the white corporate world, therefore in order to not be seen as “other” black must pull up the image of the race by presenting and behaving themselves as “more white.” The senator’s billboard insinuated that African Americans can’t have “that kind” to be the representation of blacks to the world. So what message is R.P really sending to our community? Must we give in to what the world wants us to be and assimilate to fit in and be respected among our peers and the world? The sad answer to that is R.P seems to be the answer to the rise of the black person in America. While I commend Parks and other black activists for the role they played in advocating for our freedoms, I often wonder, well wished they could have achieved these same things without bashing members within their own communities.

Citations:

Pleltz, Jennifer. “‘Stop the Sag’ Billboards Battle Low-slung Pants.” Msnbc.com. 01 Apr. 2010. Web (When I did the Reverse Google Search multiple websites popped up and none claimed to be an original source. But NBC gave me more information about where the billboard originated from.)

[lovetaylordenise]

I agree with you,  earning respect and humanity for African Americans has always been tied inextricably to the ability to appeal and submit to the white gaze. @afsgsw5110

[lovetaylordenise]

On Being A Black Woman, A Target.

On Being Young -- A Woman -- And Colored by Marita O. Bonner

 Marita O. Bonner’s words caught me once before in another class, but as I was finishing the reading of Danielle McGuire’s At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance I found myself remembering Bonner’s words in her essay “On Being Young—A Woman—And Colored”.  In her essay Bonner details the oppression of  young, female and black separately and even tells you how to fight. It was written in the 1920′s and though used to compare to McGuire’s 1950′s, 1960′s black female experience it still holds true. Specifically, in Bonner’s essay she brings the reader’s attention to the discrimination black women receive and how it differs from that of white women. In her essay she says, “Why can’t they then perceive that there is a difference in the glance from a pair of eyes that look, mildly docile, at “white ladies” and those that, impersonally and perceptively—aware of distinctions—see only women who happen to be white?” (Bonner 1246)  Here she states clearly that from her experience and that of many other black women it’s very clear to them that her being a woman is invisible. I think of McGuire’s chapter 6 of her book, titled “A Black Woman’s Body was Never Hers Alone” (McGuire 207-209) in it she details many issues of sexual assault from white men onto black women and how ubiquitous it was for black women and girls to fall victim to these assaults. On the flip, she describes how white supremacist utilized the fear of race mixing, or the sexual assault of black men onto white women to garner resistance to the civil rights movement. There were serious consequences for black men that even dared to look at a white woman, and for white men that assaulted and brutalized black women, sometimes they met justice but mostly they got off without a scratch. The distinctions between which women are worthy of the protection from men’s unwanted advances showed a clear difference or as Bonner puts it –distinction that the only women anyone saw was white.

 In her essay Bonner states, “Why do they see a colored woman only as a gross collection of desires, all uncontrolled, reaching out for their Apollos and the Quasimodos with avid indiscrimination?” Here plainly, Bonner tells us that black women are only what they think they are, sexual deviants ran by their libido with no real control and no discrimination. A notion that holds true even in McGuire’s book that black women are so sexual that they don’t care who he is, what he does or where it happens an excuse used for years to justify the common occurrence of sexual assault perpetuated by white men onto black women.

Bonner, Marita O. “On Being Young, A Woman and Colored.”  Denver School of Arts. Web. 23 February 2016.

McGuire, Danielle. At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance. New York: Random House. 2010. Print.

[lovetaylordenise]

Does Freedom Exist in Sex?

In The Politics of Black Sexuality in Blues by Victoria C. Granda, Granda focuses attention on how feminist scholars have examined black female blues singers’ lyrics and lives as ownership of black female autonomy. Granda examines how previous depictions of black women’s bodies and sensuality did not belong to black women and says that when we consider blues music we shouldn’t only think of it as sexual liberation for black women. Granda says, “Many white Americans, particularly in the years before emancipation, characterized black women as Jezebels: “Female figures governed almost entirely by their libido.”… After emancipation…” She goes on to say,”…White belief in the lax morality of black women was not eradicated.”(Granda 7)  Granda doesn’t want us to forget that black women’s bodies and sexual lives have never belonged to them and that these controlled images of black women, particularly the Jezebel didn’t go away simply because slavery ended.

However,  in Angela Y. Davis’ “I Use to Be Your Sweet Mama” from Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday we see Davis create a detailed analysis of how African American women used blues music to express a multitude of things, but she focuses mostly on black female sexual liberation. Davis says, “…Masses of black women and men were in a position to make autonomous decisions regarding sexual partnerships into which they entered. Sexuality was thus one of the most tangible domains in which emancipation was acted upon and through which its meanings were expressed.” (Davis 4)  Here Davis wants us to understand how African American’s were able to lay claim to their lives and she utilizes sexuality as an avenue of freedom that African American women experienced. It seems where Davis suggest “Sexuality was a way emancipation was acted upon…”  Granda wants us to remember past views of black female sexuality. In Granda’s critique of Davis, and blues legends Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith she believes that these women allowed themselves to be exploited as stereotypes instead.  In Granda’s critique she doesn’t see freedom via sexual liberation, she believes if anything Smith and Rainey sold themselves directly into the idea of black women being hypersexualized.

Considering these two analysis of Smith and Rainey’s blues music and sexual lives the question I couldn’t let go of was this: How do black women claim autonomy without it seeming as if they are also exploiting themselves? How do black women find the space to say, “This is my body and I do what I want” and have people respect it while managing to evade falling directly into the stereotyped image of a Jezebel?

Davis, Angela Y. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. New York: Vintage, 1999. Print.

Granda, Victoria C. The Politics of Black Sexuality in Classic Blues Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology: Vol. 4: Iss. 2, Article 7.

[lovetaylordenise]

The Exclusive Club: White Womanhood

 Huffingtonpost Article, The History of Using White Female Sexuality to Justify Racist Violence by Emma Gray

In this Huffingtonpost article by Emma Gray she discusses the 2015 Charleston Shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. She specifically focuses on a statement made by the Charleston shooter, a white man, he said, “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.”  Gray goes on to explore the historical context behind violence in the name of protecting white womanhood and the inaccurate depiction of sexual crimes committed by black men onto white women.  As I refer back to the reading, in Ida B. Well’s essay, The Southern Horrors she lists and details occurrences of accused rape of white women. She list case after case of black men accused of raping white women and the violent response from white men.  In the late 1800’s lynching was the consequence of rape and in the instances where white men found no justice for the defiling of white women they took it upon themselves to exact justice. Specifically on page 37, Well’s discusses an incident involving a black man that had been charged with raping a white woman. This man was taken from jail while government officials stood by, dragged through the street, stabbed and toss off of a bridge. Throughout the text she gives gruesome details of how white men exacted revenge on black men if they were thought to have been involved with a white woman. On the flip, occurrences of rape of black women and girls led to no lynching or justice for those women. It’s here that Well’s explains implicitly the way white womanhood is to be protected and honored whereas black womanhood is not given any of the same sentiments. 

 In her article Gray states, “If the Charleston shooter's comments are any indication, these sentiments are still depressingly ingrained in our culture. White women's bodies are still used to explain away the destruction of black bodies and lives -- both male and female.”  Here, I like how Gray includes how this worshiping of white female bodies also negatively affects black women. White womanhood was and is viewed as virtuous – the end all, be all. White womanhood is viewed as true womanhood, something that black women will never have access to and black men should never have access to. The supposed violation of that white womanhood was the Charleston shooter’s justification for violence, just as it was justification of violence against black men in the 1800’s.

[aisforaudre-blog]

What Janese Talton-Jackson’s Death Teaches Us about Black Women’s Lives

We must all say her name.

Reading  Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, particularly chapter fourteen, I am called to reflect on the ways in which Black women and femmes are forced to deal daily, not only with the various ways in which violence manifests itself upon their bodies as Black people, but the unique and inextricable ways this violence is compounded and intensified because of their genders. In chapter fourteen, Jacobs discusses the instances in which her master would try to coerce her into sex and the consequences for when she refused. Pages 118-119 demonstrate this; from the physical abuse Linda endured via the cutting of her hair by Dr. Flint, to the instances in which he beat her. What Jacobs is trying to portray ultimately, as she says, is that “slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for woman,” which is to say that it is important to name the gendered racial violence Black women, girls, and femmes endure because not doing so, not acknowledging the threat of fatality in refusing the abuse and violence they deal with under misogynoir and patriarchy, maintains said violence and often times kills Black women, girls and femmes.

Contemporarily, this part of the book reminds me of the recent murder of Janese Talton-Jackson who, as reported by For Harriet, an only community that encourages the storytelling of Black women and femmes to give space and voice to their experiences, was murdered by a man for refusing his advances. Like Linda, in Incidents, the compounded violence of racism, misogynoir, and patriarchy work to uniquely deny women and femmes bodily autonomy, the right to say no, or the right to dictate when, where, and with whom they would like to engage romantically or sexually.

The machinations of anti-Blackness, misogyny, and patriarchy have institutionalized the presupposed availability of women and femmes, Black women and femmes especially, to men, to the extent that it becomes logical to some people to believe that women, girls and femmes who refuse men, who resist historical violence that denies them autonomy, deserve to die. This current movement for Black lives consistently seeks to address the myriad violences that Black people endure – but as Jacobs said, while slavery (which by extension can contemporarily be used here to mean the structural realities of anti-Blackness and white supremacy) is bad for all Black people – it is especially detrimental and often fatal for Black women, girls and femmes, which is why it has to be as much a part of the conversation as everything else.

[lovetaylordenise]

I really like how you picked that quote from Incidents and used it to speak specifically on gendered racial violence. Your analysis is amazing.

@afsgsw5110

[knowledgefromthespicequeen-deac]

While reading Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl I continued to refer back to the relationship between “Linda” and Dr. Flint.  At the young age of fifteen “Linda” was defending herself against sexual advances from forty year old Dr. Flint.  Yes, Dr. Flint saw “Linda” as a sexual property at fifteen years old. …..This type of behavior reminds me of the Hypersexualized idea of the black women and the property rights that white men felt they had over them in the past.  During slavery there was the assumption that black women were “Jezebels” or overtly sexual. As “Jezebels” black women were seen as sexual animals that wanted to have intercourse regularly in contrast to asexual white women.  Therefore many white men would assume that black women wanted sexual attention or sexual intercourse.

       Couwenbergh, Christiaen Van. Three Young White Men and a Black Woman. 1632. Oil on Canvas. Musee Des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg, France.

 In reality black women did not choose to become sexually active with white men. In the picture above it depicts nude (or close to nude) white men holding down a nude black woman. Due to the state of their undress, the look of horror and the apparent struggle of the black woman, it can be inferred that these men plan to rape this woman. White men would use the “Jezebel” stereotype of the black woman as an excuse to force them to have sexual intercourse against their will. It is important to point out the black women’s struggling body and how the white men seem to be holding her down and mocking her by pointing or waving their hands at her. This demonstrates that the men saw this woman as a piece of property.  A piece of property that did not have a voice or will of her own. In Incidents “Linda” stated: “He told me I was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all things (pg 46).” The body of a black woman is seen as sexual property in the photo above and in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. These women were not given a choice because no one ever thought to give them one.

References

Gordon, T. (2014). 10 Horrifying Facts About The Sexual Exploitation of Enslaved Black Women You May   Not Know. AtlantaBlackStar. Retrieved from http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/11/05/10-horrifying-facts-about-the-sexual-exploitation-of-enslaved-black-women-you-may-not-kn

[lovetaylordenise]

Rape/sexual assault is about power. It makes you wonder, was the sexual assault of African American women just a statement of their place in society? I think you answer that when you say, ” ...The mean saw this woman a s a piece of property. A piece of property that did not have a voice or will of her own.”

@afsgsw5110

[showtime-synergy1985-blog]

Chapter 15 of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, was one chapter in particular that made me cringe just a bit more than others. It was compelling because within this chapter, Linda was torn over the happiness/pity of her 2nd child being born a girl. She states on page 119, “When they told me my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had ever been before. Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.” When I read this quote from the book, it made me quite upset. I was upset because I extended this thought and replaced the word, “Slavery” with “Life.” “Life” is terrible for men; but far more terrible for women.” Life for Linda, for example, reveals the anguish Linda felt after learning her baby was a girl was due to her life experience as a woman. The treatment Linda endured from Dr. Flint shortly after giving birth to her child was unbelievable. Dr. Flint’s lack of compassion for the fragile condition Linda was in just after giving birth displayed his inhumanity and his lack of compassion for life. He commanded her to get up from the birthing bed and stand in front of him until she fainted with newborn Ellen in hand. This image represents the different “lives” that women in slavery endured. While Linda’s sufferings were her own individual experiences, the image reminds us that Linda’s life sufferings, were universal among many enslaved women’s sufferings. The pale ghastly creatures in the photo are at the center of turmoil in the lives of these women. Each women in this image is tormented by the replica of the many Dr. Flints that existed.

Citation for image:

Unknown Author. “Category: History.” The Wandering Eyes Blog. Web. 26 Jan. 2016. <http://wanderingeyes.weebly.com/home/category/history/2>.

[lovetaylordenise]

This photo is powerful and compelling. I specially like where you said these creatures that can represent Dr. Flint or any white male slave owner are at the center of the turmoil in the lives of slave women. I think what stands out the most in this picture is the black woman being dragged away from her child, it definitely makes me think of how black women were ripped away from the lives of their children or were forced to witness their children being ripped away from them.

@afsgsw5110

[lovetaylordenise]

You OK, sis?

The Atlantic, Interview with Feminista Jones about #YouOKsis campaign.

In 2015 the ‘You OK, sis?’ campaign swept social media. The campaign was a show of solidarity of black women from different backgrounds as they expressed their shared experiences with street harassment. In an interview for The Atlantic, Feminista Jones, writer, social worker and activist describes the exchange of street harassment, “…We have been socialized to believe that interactions between men and women are about men being predators and women being prey.”  This quote made me think of chapter four, five and six of Jacob’s narrative and how she detailed the many ways Dr. Flint would employ to interact with her and the tactics she employed to avoid his advances. 

In Jones’ interview she goes on to speak about the particular experience of black women when it comes to street harassment, she says, “The police won’t help us. A lot of our men won’t stick up for us, unfortunately. People know this. We are the women people can take these things out on. They can sexually harass us, they can rape us and who’s going to believe the word of a black woman?”  Here I believe she explains the idea that black women are both strong and sexually deviant plays a role in how black women’s experiences with street harassment are handled. Their complaints often go ignored and overlooked.  In Jacob’s narrative we see the exact same tropes. The lack of power, the idea that black women are sexual deviants and the knowledge that no law protects them. In her narrative Jacob’s states, “No matter whether the slave girl be as black as ebony or as fair as her mistress. In either case, there is no shadow of law to protect her from insult, from violence, or even from death; all these are inflicted by fiends who bear the shape of men.” (Jacobs 45) Black women have been and continue to this day to be subjected to violence not simply because they are women but a special brand of it because they are also black. Where these intersections meet put black women in a space that requires that all encompassing strength they are thought to possess. Where, like Jacob’s, one must find a way to evade these advances without subjecting themselves to violence.

  #35Rk