Authors Such As W.E.B. Du Bois And Simone De Beauvoir,

With these mediums of oppression, her first theory, referred to as the Matrix of Domination is brought up. Previous models of oppression were considered additive, or hierarchal, meaning that they must be ranked. Collins uses the experiences of black women to explain that all these modes of oppression, gender, race and class are interlocking and equally important when viewing domination. This bleeds mores into Part II, but the essentials are discussed in this section.

   In his book The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois says “The negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second sight in this American world – a world which yields him no self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world” (pg 348). He uses the metaphor of a veil to describe the social distance between people. However as I read through chapter one, it was interesting for

As DuBois looks through the veil, he can see a world that he loves, but cannot belong to because it belongs to the whites. The veil perpetuates the concept of alienation from the world to which he knows he will never belong. From the other side, whites look through at blacks, and construct their own opinions of the opposing race, and in doing so, create an opinion that is accepted by blacks themselves. The distortion created by the veil muddles the world of the whites and also the self-knowledge within each individual on the black side of the veil.

The oppression of certain groups of people is nothing new. These oppressed groups tend to be looked at as different because of their physical features and/or cultural background. Many efforts to improve the lives of the oppressed have been achieved, but there is still a long way to go. These oppressed groups consist of women and different ethnic groups which have had to deal with being pushed around by the white man throughout history. Frantz Fanon deals with his experience as a black man in the French colony of Martinique. Simone de Beauvoir speaks about her experience as a woman in the French mainland. Both authors assert the idea that the man, in particular the white man, sets himself as the superior being that defines what it is to be human and views women and blacks or minorities as the “Other”.

In Dubois (1903) “The Soul of Black Folk” the ideas of double consciousness and the veil affect blacks. A veil is a piece of clothing that conceals a face. The veil is figurative and is presented in the film through Buggin outs questions Sal of the wall of fame. Even though it’s Sal’s pizzeria Buggin out raises a great point. Buggin out tells Sal that the clientele he attracts are black folk. While black folk are the majority of the customers they should have a say on the wall of fame. The veil is to conceal the importance of blacks. To Sal and his sons blacks are not important enough to put on the wall. The community is diverse but Sal’s son Pino view blacks with hate and resentment. Pino views blacks as apes and animals not people. Another example of the veil can be the conversation Mookie has with Pino. Mookie criticizes Pino for constantly critiquing blacks and questions his favorite entertainers. Pino’s

The two essays “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston and “The Fourth of July” by Audre Lorde, both have a similar, constant theme, women speaking back to racism. Black Americans face disadvantages everyday due to their skin color. In the 1800s-1900s, it was even worse for women. These ladies had to deal with both stereotypes of being black and a woman. A majority of white people around the time saw them as nothing but a waste of space. There was a constant struggle to be accepted.

The oppression of blacks by whites is largely depicted in Their Eyes are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, however, through metaphors and allusions, the internal oppression perpetrated by blacks themselves into future generations is shown to be just as big of a challenge to overcome in the fight for racial equality. Nanny, Janie’s grandmother and surrogate mother, raised Janie with the goal of marrying her off into a wealthier family and be provided for, which was the only way Nanny believed a woman could better her life. Later in life Janie realized that “she hated the old woman who had twisted her so in the name of love” (Huston, 89). Janie didn’t grow up during slavery, in which the only betterment for a slave was to be freed and the only

She describes how white women “ignore their built-in privilege of whiteness” when they ignore the black female’s point of view and focus solely on the white female’s view (117). She points out the hypocrisy of white feminists, in that they will refuse to read black females’ works because they are “too difficult to understand,” but will read the works of Shakespeare, Molière, Dostoyefsky, and Aristophanes (117) There’s an obvious contradiction between white feminists’ “incorporation” of black females into their movement and the exclusion of their literature, which Lorde later analyzes and determines is because white women would feel guilt upon recognizing and validating their experiences. Furthermore, the exclusion of black writings from the feminist movement weakens the strength of the movement, offering the opposite effect as desired. Lorde writes how “ignoring the differences of race between women and the implications of those differences presents the most serious threat to the mobilization of women’s joint power.” (117) Since the feminist movement seeks to apply social pressure to achieve social change, it would make sense to try to gain strength in numbers by including the most people possible; Lorde sees this strength in numbers and calls into question the consistency of the white side of the feminist movement with its

In the debate over equality for both African-Americans and women, the question of 'nature versus nurture' inevitably arises. Although most authors acknowledge that there are differences between these historically discriminated-against groups and members of the hegemonic culture, the origin of those differences has been hotly debated. While the African-American intellectual W.E.B Du Bois was inclined to conceptualize African-Americans as 'a race,' feminists of the 1950s like Simone De Beauvoir were more inclined to see the values ascribed to the genders as mainly rooted in cultural norms established by men, not as essential attributes of women.

The veil can suggest to the darker skin of Blacks, which is a physical separation of difference from whiteness. Or the veil suggests white people’s lack of precision to see Blacks as “true” Americans. The veil can also refers to Blacks’ lack of clarity to see themselves outside of what white America describes and advocates for them to be. Du Bois believed that black people have a "veil" that covers our faces figuratively speaking, this is why, in his opinion, black people can usually understand white people a lot easier than the opposite. Simply put, black people must look at everything from a dual standpoint, rather than a singular one.

The veil, was something that really stood out to me after reading chapters 1-3. Du Bois explained the veil as, the way African-Americans dealt with social relations in the United States. In other words, although you might be African American you are subject to have another identity: the identity of a person of a black man or woman, which he or she cannot extent him or herself. A black person in the United States, does not carry only one identity, but two conflicting identities that can never be separated from each other. As a child my parents always told me be on my best behavior out in public. I was not a loud to touch anything if we went to the store, but to only stand next to my mother and be quite. Well once I finished chapters 1-3 it

Black women cannot allow themselves to become clowns of the educated, hence, the use of the wisdom of knowing as a protective measure (Collins, 2002, p. 257). Black feminist epistemology then originates through the connectedness of their experiences.

The veil was such a hindrance that the author made a whole chapter about it ironically calling the chapter “veil,” but that’s not wear the inequality ends, not only was it the fact that women had to wear the veil, but the men were free to express themselves, they could wear what they please and not have to be worried about being set on fire for breaking the

Two known scholars, Du Bois and Faulkner, have both attempted to tackled the difficult questions, why is race a problem and what are some ties between race relations among blacks and whites, and economics. Du Bois’s, Dusk of Dawn, addresses these questions by giving a historical and personal account of what actually takes place behind the color line. He breaks down the idea of race as a biologically constructed fact and argues that race is socially constructed. T. Lott’s article "Du Bois and Locke on the Scientific Study of the Negro” further deconstruct the idea of race as a solely biological construction and establishes that race is can be biologically, socially, and culturally constructed. Furthermore, he explains that white society clings to the idea of race because of its ability to create caste system based on race that affords whites with exclusive economic privileges. From there, he uses a personal experience in college to further explain the connections between economic, social, and racial status and how race helps maintain a system of superiority and inferiority because of the economic motives and societal status. Du Bois better explains from a socio historical perspective how the construction of race has helped perpetuate inferiority, created economic advantages that are still present today, and how the separation of races maintains this gap; while Faulkner illustrates how these racial divides would play out in a society. Faulkner’s, Absalom, Absalom, subtly

Mary’s statement reflects a form of covert racism. This quote tends to depict the hardships of African Americans as merely inconvenient aspects of everyday life. Instead of viewing Jim Crow laws as inhumane, many Whites neglect to comprehend the damage that these laws had on Black families. This quote also embodies the notion of the “veil” that Dubois described. African Americans had to hide their true intentions behind a smile when in the presence of Whites. As a result, some Whites believe that African Americans were accepting of the systematic racism that they