The Polished Hoe Analysis

Part II: Core Themes in Black Feminist Thought tackles five themes: 1) a legacy of struggle, 2) treatment of the interlocking nature of race, class, and gender, 3)

The articles “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” written by Juthish Oriz Cofer and “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh are two essays covering the topic of race and gender. With a focus on privilege and race, one may assume that these two articles say the same thing, while in reality that is not true. As McIntosh and Cofer come from two different backgrounds and social standing, the authors offer two very unique views on the subject matter. Due to Cofer being a Puerto Rican woman and McIntosh being white woman, the two are opposites when it comes to white privilege and how it has effected them. This allows for them to give different views on the subject within the papers. Each articles differ in the audience, the purposes, and the appeals used within. On the other hand, both works are similar with the end goal and intended audience. As a member of the audiences targeted by both of these authors, I was able to connect to both of their writings due to the many different ways the two authors connected to their audiences.

Patriarchy’s Scapegoat: Black womanhood and femininity – A critique of racism, gender inequality, anti-blackness, and historical exploitation of black women.

Ever since the period of slavery, Black women have described the different forms of multiple oppressions they face of race, class, and gender with terms like “interlocking oppressions,” “simultaneous oppressions,” “double jeopardy,” “triple jeopardy” and so on.

Throughout history, race, social development, politics and colonization have played a major role in the indoctrination of modern day Caribbean peoples mind subconsciously. Haiti and the Dominican Republic are two countries that were once one nation, however, the long-lasting effects of colonialism have separated the island which the nations sit into two independent Caribbean countries. Numerous events have led to the modern day conflicts and issues between these great nations, which include violations of civil rights, deportation and violence. To illustrate, relations that developed after the Parsley Massacre and the independence of these nations played a major role in their current social and racial battles. While the nations hatred for each other is clear today, it is important to note that the feud between Haiti and the Dominica Republic has been going on for more than 400 years.

Since the dawn of early civilisation and subsequent traditional gender roles, one of the most prominent issues with which society struggles is gender inequality. The Book of Negroes illustrates Aminata’s worries as she is provided only one option: to entertain men with her body. “...I wondered how I would earn enough for food, clothes and repairs for my shelter. ‘What?’ Sam said. ‘You think rebels don’t have brothels? As long as there are fighting men, there will be work for girls like Rosetta - and work for you as well.’” (Hill 312) British soldiers and American rebels both sexualised the bodies of black women to the point of encouraging the prostitution of young girls. In a similar context, a 2008 study conducted by researchers from Wesleyan

This is a large issue in society and why people are not treated equal. In the reading “America’s On Sale” a valid point is written with the text, “AMERICA’S ON SALE! (restrictions may apply if you’re black, gay or female) which subsequently means those specific people are unlike the American dream, society doesn’t want the individuals to have the opportunity to achieve the dream because they are classified as different and not the ideal stereotypical white American. In the novel “The Great Gatsby” inequality of class is shown through two female characters, Jordan and Myrtle. Fitzgerald proposes that “She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can.

Race and class can play powerful roles in people’s family experiences. Race is defined as a socially constructed category of individuals who share common inborn biological traits (Newman 2009). Class is defined as groups of people who share a similar position in society based on their wealth and income (Newman 2009). Social class and race shape family lives in many ways, which in return reproduces class and race inequalities. In Annette Lareau’s study of families, she uses real stories of real families to show important social patterns.

African American men often do heavy jobs. For example, plant tobacco and other things. And their masters often use lots of dollars to buy them or transfer them with a huge price. And if the slaves have special skills, they often will worth more. Then a lot of tragic things happen, when their masters have debt which they can repay them. They will use slaves to repay. Even Kentucky men still do those things. Just like this book’s protagonist Tom’s master to repay the debt to sell Tom. However, the women have different situation, but it also decided by their masters. Good masters will treat them very well, if their master is terrible, they will dead by tired of working. To their masters, they thing African women’s duty just is doing some easy jobs and generation. And these mothers often will lose their children by their master’s actions.

In this novel, there is a strong display of the division of the country, St. Kitts, by social class. One evidence of this division would firstly be the separation of the social classes by schools. Where the children from families of higher social status would go to Duncan’s Academy, which is said by many characters in this novel to be the “rich” school and where the majority of student body was white, and the children from families from the middle and lower classes would go to St. George’s Public High School. Distaste for each other was expressed from both sides of this split society and examples of this would have been when Richard Carlston screamed “Have a nice day at ‘Garbage High’….” (Chapter 1.

In Patricia Hill Collins’ “Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images,” she illustrates four main stereotypes that Black women face. The first controlling image applied to African American women is “The Mammy.” The mammy is the faithful, obedient servant to the white family and the stereotype attempts to hide the fact that black women who work for white families are being exploited. By loving and caring for her white “children” more than her own, the mammy symbolizes the dominant group’s perceptions of the ideal black female relationship to elite white male power. The smiling mammy signals her agreement with the situation, seemingly accepting her subordination (Collins, 71). Next is the image of the Black matriarch (Collins, 73). According to the stereotype, they spend too much time away from home, are overly aggressive and unfeminine, and allegedly emasculate their lovers and husbands. This stereotype attempts to control conduct by punishing black women for assertiveness and hides the oppression by making it seem that black women are naturally this way (Collins, 74-75).

As African-American women address social issues that are important to their life experiences, such as class and race, instead to acknowledge “common oppression” of gender inequality, they are often criticized by “white bourgeois feminists” (hooks, 2000). Their ability to gain any form of equality within society is tarnished by such groups as they develop a “fear of encountering racism” from simply joining this movement (hooks, 2000). As white men, black men, and white women oppress them, their issues are often ignored due to reoccurring stereotypes and myths that claim black women are strong, independent, and “superhuman” (hooks, 2000). It becomes extremely difficult to seek liberation and equity within a “racist, sexist, and classist” society, as their gender and race causes them to be at the “bottom of the occupational ladder” and “social status” (hooks, 2000, pg. 16). As black women are perceived to demonstrate strength and dynamic qualities as white women perpetrate the image of being

Jafari S. Allen’s “Venceremos? The Erotics of Black Self-Making in Cuba,” and Deborah Pruitt and Suzanne LaFont’s article “For Love and Money: Romance Tourism in Jamaica,” both assert arguments on how the changing of established gender roles impact the interactions between members of different sexes. As hegemonic masculinity was heavily emphasized during the Cuban Revolution, Allen shows his readers how heteronormative masculinity and expected female receptivity is still clearly presented in Cuban culture today. Pruitt and LaFont explore in their article what happens when resistance to an established heteronormative masculinity in a culture is present, as Euro-American women adapt masculine characteristics and assert authority over their male Jamaican lovers. Therefore, this paper will investigate how both authors explore masculinity and femininity as heteronormative constructs and how they must be looked at in regard to specific localities to see how individuals are affected in everyday life.

Patriarchal households have become less the Caribbean. “Patriarchy is a system of society where the men are the head-of-the-household, carry the most power and where the family lineage passes on through men” (www.yourdictionary.com). Directly after emancipation from slavery in the Caribbean, jobs, and education opportunities favour males. This leads to the females to stay at home to take care of the children or household chores. If women had jobs, they were usually as domestic workers. In the Caribbean, men are normally considered as the head of the household since they were the sole “breadwinner”. As time goes on, women slowly gain access to education and better jobs opportunities

This demographic revolution had important social consequences. Rather than being a relatively homogeneous ethnic group divided into categories based on economic criteria, Caribbean society