Page 175 |
Save page Remove page | Previous | 175 of 200 | Next |
|
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
Large (1000x1000 max)
Extra Large
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
All (PDF)
|
This page
All
|
170
8 The Mammy and Jezebel are archetypal figures for African American women.
Both images are highly racist. The Mammy is an overweight, very dark-skinned
domestic black woman (originally a slave) who serves her white family with
unflagging loyalty. Mammy subverts her own needs (indeed, she is not thought
to have any) for the white family. She has no sexual life; all her energies go into
providing food and comfort for her masters. Jezebel, on the other hand, is a
beautiful (often lighter-skinned) young woman who is driven by her sexual
appetites. She seduces men of both races (white and black) but her supposed
seduction of white men was used to justify the raping of black women by white
men, particularly during slavery. See Gloria Wade-Gayles, No Crystal Stair:
Visions of Race and Sex in Black Women's Fiction (New York: Pilgrim Press.
1984); Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge,
Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (Boston: Unwin Hyman,
1990); K. S. Jewell, From Mammy to Miss America and Beyond: Cultural
Images and the Shaping of U.S. Social Policy (New York: Routledge, 1993);
Deborah Gray White, Ar'N't I A Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South
(New York: Norton, 1999).
9 In a society where black women are routinely dismissed as sexually
promiscuous and black men as sexually violent (as rapists), Sanchez’s poem
takes on further importance and power. Love is one emotion not generally
associated with African Americans – a denial of humanity and trivialization of
the emotional lives of black people that dates back at least as far as the founding
of the nation. See, for example, Thomas Jefferson Notes on the State of Virginia
1785 (New York: Penguin, 1998).
10 Both Sanchez and Baraka use “grey” to denote mixed-race or mulatto people.
11 Sonia Sanchez, “to all brothers,” The Black Poets ed. Dudley Randall (New
York: Bantam, 1971) 231.
12 The rule of hypodescent is often known as the “One-drop Rule.” Instituted as
a way to keep black people in subjugation, it states that any person with “one
drop” of “black blood” is by definition a black person. This rule is never applied
in the reverse (that is, a person with “one drop” of “white blood” is never defined
as white). Obviously problematic are the notions that race 1) exists and is
quantifiable and 2) is contained in the blood. This would have far-reaching
implications, including the enslavement of mixed-race people, the Jim Crow
subjugation of people who were only partially (and perhaps not phenotypically)
of African descent, racial passing, and the prohibition of blood transfusions
between people of different races. Although we now know that race is a social
Object Description
| Title | "As shelters against the cold": women writers of the Black Arts and Chicano movements, 1965-1978 |
| Author | Ryder, Ulli Kira |
| Author email | uryder@usc.edu; uryder@gmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | American Studies & Ethnicity |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-08-27 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Restricted until 27 October 2010. |
| Date published | 2010-10-27 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | McKenna, Teresa |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Sanchez, George J. Johnson, Dana |
| Abstract | This dissertation examines the work of women writers in the Black Arts and Chicano movements during the years 1965-1978. I argue that understanding the intersectional nature of the women's experiences is crucial for understanding their literary output. Further, I argue that Chicanas and African American women of this era challenged homogenous notions of community and racial identity and that we can trace the development of the Third World feminism and multiculturalism that came to the fore in the 1980s to this earlier period. Thus, this study also impacts the way we conceptualize identity formation and the creation of the literary canon. Investigating the ways in which these women integrated nationalist and feminist rhetoric and activism in their work is crucial for a full understanding of this critical period in U.S. history. At stake is an understanding of how Chicana and African American women in the United States have formed identities and communities; struggled for liberation and equality; and become part of the U.S. literary canon. |
| Keyword | Black Power; Black Arts movement; Chicano movement; civil rights; racial identity formation; womanism; borderlands theory; feminism; Third World feminism; nationalism; intersectionality |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA |
| Coverage date | 1965/1978 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1698 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Ryder, Ulli Kira |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Ryder-2415 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume40/etd-Ryder-2415.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 175 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 170 8 The Mammy and Jezebel are archetypal figures for African American women. Both images are highly racist. The Mammy is an overweight, very dark-skinned domestic black woman (originally a slave) who serves her white family with unflagging loyalty. Mammy subverts her own needs (indeed, she is not thought to have any) for the white family. She has no sexual life; all her energies go into providing food and comfort for her masters. Jezebel, on the other hand, is a beautiful (often lighter-skinned) young woman who is driven by her sexual appetites. She seduces men of both races (white and black) but her supposed seduction of white men was used to justify the raping of black women by white men, particularly during slavery. See Gloria Wade-Gayles, No Crystal Stair: Visions of Race and Sex in Black Women's Fiction (New York: Pilgrim Press. 1984); Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990); K. S. Jewell, From Mammy to Miss America and Beyond: Cultural Images and the Shaping of U.S. Social Policy (New York: Routledge, 1993); Deborah Gray White, Ar'N't I A Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South (New York: Norton, 1999). 9 In a society where black women are routinely dismissed as sexually promiscuous and black men as sexually violent (as rapists), Sanchez’s poem takes on further importance and power. Love is one emotion not generally associated with African Americans – a denial of humanity and trivialization of the emotional lives of black people that dates back at least as far as the founding of the nation. See, for example, Thomas Jefferson Notes on the State of Virginia 1785 (New York: Penguin, 1998). 10 Both Sanchez and Baraka use “grey” to denote mixed-race or mulatto people. 11 Sonia Sanchez, “to all brothers,” The Black Poets ed. Dudley Randall (New York: Bantam, 1971) 231. 12 The rule of hypodescent is often known as the “One-drop Rule.” Instituted as a way to keep black people in subjugation, it states that any person with “one drop” of “black blood” is by definition a black person. This rule is never applied in the reverse (that is, a person with “one drop” of “white blood” is never defined as white). Obviously problematic are the notions that race 1) exists and is quantifiable and 2) is contained in the blood. This would have far-reaching implications, including the enslavement of mixed-race people, the Jim Crow subjugation of people who were only partially (and perhaps not phenotypically) of African descent, racial passing, and the prohibition of blood transfusions between people of different races. Although we now know that race is a social |
