Broken Bonds In African American Home

During the mid-1800s, it was challenging being a slave. Belonging to another human being instead of being free brought numerous hardships African Americans had to endure. It brought about unimaginable pain, frustration, disruption, and stress. In America, slavery was glorified, even though, families were separated and destroyed. Slavery made it tedious to have stability in families because of the effects it had on the African American people. After reading “How Affected African American Families” and “Narrative of Jenny Proctor,” slavery caused African American families to cope with separation, unfair marriage stipulations, horrible living condition, mistreatment and labor, and also the ending of slavery.

For Hundreds of years a wall of separation has existed among the Black community. Whether it involved the skin color, hair length, nose size, or social standing, Blacks have always found someway to distinguish themselves away from the masses of their culture. In Malcolm X's essay "Message to the Grass Roots," and Shelby Steele's excerpt "On Being Black and Middle Class," Black separatism can be traced to the times of slavery. House Negroes wanted to disassociate themselves from the field Negroes. Today, the question is whether the Black community has let the house Negro mentality transcend through time to be emulated by the Black middle-class.

replacement of stereotyped images of black womanhood with those that are self defined, 4) black women’s activism, and 5) sensitivity to black sexual politics. The first three themes correlate to black motherhood and living in a binary environment, one in which black people are the oppressed and white

In “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens”, Alice Walker looks to educate us on the hardships that almost all black women face when trying to express themselves through things such as art. She delves into many sociological and psychological concepts that have affected black women throughout human history. These concepts and ideologies created a realm for mass exclusion, discrimination, and oppression of many African American women, including Alice Walker’s Mother, who Alice utilizes as one of her particular examples. The writing thematically aims to show how these concepts of sexism, racism, and even classism have contributed to black women’s lack of individuality, optimism, and fulfillment for generations. The author does a tremendous job of defending and expanding upon her arguments. She has a credible background, being a black woman that produces the art of literature herself. As well as being raised by one, Walker’s first-hand experience warrants high regard. Therefore, her use of abstract and introspective language is presented clearly and convincingly. Also, her use of evidence and support from sources like Jean Toomer, Virginia Woolf, and Phillis Wheatley, all produce more validity for her stance through poems, quotes, and even experiences. All these individuals have their own accounts pertaining to the oppression of black women and their individuality. Successfully arguing that the artistry plights of black women described in “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens” are

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

When I survey the landscape in black America, it does not take long for me to recognize the massive impression of a vehement struggle of a collective group of people to simply keep their head above water. The problem in the black community is that it is where every ill of this nation is felt first. It is the place in which much of the economic devastation is felt and absorbed in order to relieve some of the pressure off of this nation’s more affluent citizens.

There is value in togetherness and whole families that should not be absentmindedly discarded. Families at this time proved especially important, due to the fact that there was little else to enjoy. Work proved exceptionally difficult with little potential for promotion or change. All three provide books covered situations where the hope of escaping the same continuous struggle was a possibility; nevertheless, all three have inspiring outcomes. Hickam subconsciously portrays African Americans as less than perfect. Telling the story of an African American man who leaves his wife for another woman. In Hickam’s novel “We Are Not Afraid,” the young man caught in this mess did not want to hurt his family, “I’m a good man, he kept telling himself. I just wanted to be happy” (Hickam Pg. 135). Hickam portrayed this man as a hard worker and upstanding man, nevertheless chose his embarrassing encounter to share with the world. Looking back in history, African Americans show the importance of resilience. For generations, they were not treated fairly. The world does not always provide the same opportunities to everyone who deserves

The focus of this paper is detail commentary and evaluation of four different readings. The reviews will summarize the readings, provide authors arguments, and evaluate them. The readings are: An End to the Neglect of the Problem of the Negro Woman by Claudia Jones, Black Macho and Myth of the Super Woman by Michele Wallace, The Myth of Black Macho by Robert Staples and The Negro Family by Daniel Moynihan.

The late 60’s and early 70’s were a time where African Americans held legal rights mostly equal to those of whites but faced major challenges in many aspects of life. Gloria Naylor’s short story “Kiswana Browne” seamlessly intertwines the author’s experiences, showcases the frustration of a mid to late 20’s African American woman and the conflict between her and her mother’s ideology. The differences in attitude between Kiswana and Mrs. Browne are widely due to the differences in the treatment of African Americans in Mrs. Browne’s young adulthood as opposed what her daughter is currently experiencing. Mrs. Browne’s struggles in the early part of her life were to secure the legal rights of

Family dynamics across all races are complex. For the state of the black family is made even more complicated by a history rooted in slavery. Fractured families were born out of a system where husbands were taken away, jailed or killed, leaving the family weakened with a mother and/or grandmother at the helm. While these historical facts may be true; that the black family is weak, can be argued. Yet, the family for many in the black community and other communities of color extend to include a large number of kin. On the other hand, it can also be argued that since families were ripped apart during the slave trade it created an opportunity for setting up networks of support and family units to include members who may not be blood related. You often hear black people refer to an elder as “aunt” or “uncle” these networks were put in place as protective factors in the event that parents were sold there was an assurance that someone would care for the children. To an extent this behavior continues to this day as we see many fathers sentenced to long jail terms for petty crimes or killed. The family structure makeup may be a blood relative and it may also be kin of another kind. LaShawnDa Pittman discusses how these factors shape the African-American family and how slavery impacted the role of the mother and father within the family system. During slavery there wasn’t any possibility of childhood. Children were socialized to begin work at the age of

Life involves many hardships that may seem impossible to overcome, but with the right amount of strength, one can move beyond the wall of struggle, pain, hate, depression, and any set back. Many can relate to the events in this book because it was written by a normal person, living a normal life, who faced many problems just like any human being, yet, these struggles relate just as much to various theories. Some experiences in Buck come from the negative representation of woman, oppression of Malo, Amina, and Uzi, and Afrocentricity of Chaka. By observing this, M.K. Asante’s book, Buck, can be viewed through a Feminism, Marxism, and New Historicism theoretical lens.

The Campaign rhetoric of Horace Greeley in 1872, the religious revivals of D.L. Moody, and the yellow fever epidemic of 1878 influenced northern white attitudes regarding African Americans in the South in a way that actually had a negative impact. I had no idea these three events could have had the ability to, in a sense, set back the progress that could and should have been for African-Americans. To me, it is not so much of an attitude whites had regarding African-Americans as much as a complete erasure from their memories as to what should have been happening with regard to helping the African-American population to properly integrate into American society.

   Historically, the job of women in society is to care for the husband, the home, and the children. As a homemaker, it has been up to the woman to support the husband and care for the house; as a mother, the role was to care for the children and pass along cultural traditions and values to the children. These roles are no different in the African-American community, except for the fact that they are magnified to even larger proportions. The image of the mother in African-American culture is one of guidance, love, and wisdom; quite often the mother is the shaping and driving force of African-American children. This is reflected in the literature of the

Shielded from the atrocities of slavery during her childhood, Jacobs depicts family life among slaves as one that remains intact in a “comfortable home” (29) through the example of her own family. Each member held limited rights along with the ability to work and the privilege to use their earnings as they pleased. It is not until the death of her mistress where she finally begins to feel the effects of slavery in the sudden separation of her family who are “all distributed among her [mistress’s] relatives” (Jacobs 33). The separation of family is one of the most integral subjects of her narrative since “motherhood [plays a great role] in her life” (Wolfe 518). Jacobs appeals to the emotions of her female audiences by contrasting a slave mother’s agonies in her separation from her children with the “happy free women” (40) whose children remain with her since “no hand” (40) has the right to take them away. The separation of families in Douglass’s narrative does call for some pity but the event is not as tragic in comparison to

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