Lizdst’s Weblog

You Better Recognize

Growing up as a Black female, I have been exposed to an infinite amount of music by other African American female artists. However, little did I know that many of the love songs performed by Black female artists posses elements of womanism, or the acknowledgement of Black women’s contributions to society within the lyrics. One of these many pieces of music include pop artist, Beyonce’s song, “Irreplaceable.” The growth of this song’s popularity transformed it into a strong women’s anthem, allowing the song to relate to all women, regardless of race, age, religion etc. Beyonce had women all over the world singing “I can have another you in a minute, matter fact he’ll be here in a minute,” to men. This sort of female liberation is the epitome of feminism and womanism. However regardless of all the female bashing music in our culture, men decided to remake this song from a man’s perspective, creating a whole new twist on the song and an overt rebuttal of feminism.

On youtube.com there are numerous remakes of this video/song ready to view by the public. One particular video made by “4everfaithfulun2Him” paints a picture of Black feminism and fits the original intent of this song. The young Black woman in this video simply sings in front of the camera, while an instrumental of the Beyonce song plays. Looking at this video from a Black feminist/womanist perspective I noticed that the young woman in the video connects to this song in a personal aspect, meaning that the lyrics in the song are relatable to her. The fact that the girl selected this song implies a stance of liberation and Black female independence, which is associated with feminism and womanism.

            On the opposite end of the spectrum, the male version of this video and song is somewhat of a rebuttal of what the original song stands for (i.e. Black womanist independence and the idea of not needing a male figure). It is interesting that Beyonce’s statement of Black womanist independence evoked such a negative and somewhat mocking response from mainly Black men. This factor is reminiscent of the Black man’s reaction to the Black Feminist Movement. It seems that when a Black woman makes a statement concerning independence, Black men find it necessary to “take back their rightful place as leaders in the Black community” (i.e the Million Man March).  Even during the Black Woman’s Club Movement, Black men had a multitude of opposing voices in Black women displaying such strength, unity and activism. It is because of this that the male remake of the “Irreplaceable” video/song was acceptable and somewhat expected. The youtube video by “louisht” displayed common images of disrespect from Black male to Black woman. The lyrics of the original song were changed in order to fit a man’s perspective, encouraging brotherly companionship, having multiple female partners, and most importantly, putting the Black woman in “her rightful place” as inferior to men.

In comparing and contrasting these two videos proves how patriarchy in our society is still evident and well defended. Furthermore, it is proven that womanism, or the recognition of women’s achievements and validating it in our society, is not supported as frequently as patriarchal ideas. However, through songs such as “Irreplaceable” the public is still able to see that Black women can stand strong on their own and validate their own achievements, so Black men and society, you better recognize.

Video Addresses: Male Video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1DHHmOOVFg

Female Video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qOC7uwuQ9c

Ange-Marie Hancock constantly defines what it means for one to carry a “public identity” in her book, The Public Identity of the Welfare Queen. She describes this term to be a preconceived notion(s) of a person or group of people (more specifically the African American female welfare recipient) from the viewpoint of society. However, Hancock also clarifies that the idea of public identity goes beyond stereotypes because when a group of people is thought to have developed a public identity, they have been generalized beyond the point that the public is conscious of. Public identity is more than just stereotyping, but an institutionalized concept in which the target group is unable to escape. This idea is manifested in two particular films, “Bush Mama” and “Dreamgirls.” I found it interesting that while these films were created by different writers and producers and created at two different times (the 1970’s and the 2000’s) it is not difficult to find a correlation between the main characters in these films.

The public identity of the welfare recipient has a few distinct characteristics: African American, female, single mother, poor, and uneducated/unskilled therefore limiting their employment opportunities, if they work at all. Effie, one of the main characters in Dreamgirls, and Dorothy, the welfare mother in Bush Mama both share these characteristics. However, although Effie and Dorothy are so similar, they also embody the public identity of both the welfare queen and the black woman in two completely different manners. The Bush Mama character, Dorothy is in some aspects portrayed as a jezebel. Dorothy illustrates this figure because she is a single mother who is dependent on male companionship, which is lacking at the time. Furthermore, Dorothy is portrayed as a neglectful mother because she is constantly away from her home and her daughter. In fact, she has her daughter taken by social services as a result of her getting pregnant again, which illustrates an image of hyper sexuality and hyper fertility, both characteristics of the jezebel. However, Dorothy does work daily in the film and therefore is not portrayed as completely lazy and unemployed as many jezebel figures are.

     On the other hand, Effie, the group member who was rejected in the film Dreamgirls, portrays more of an “overly aggressive black woman” or mammy stereotype within her role. Like Dorothy, Effie is reduced into a poor, unemployed single mother who must resort to welfare to support herself and her daughter. However, Effie’s role differs simply because of her strong, overtly aggressive and sometimes stubborn attitude. She carries the attitude that states, “I don’t need anybody but myself to succeed” which re-enforces the image of the mammy. Furthermore, Effie is dropped into the mammy role due to Deena, the light-skinned, thinner, character played by Beyonce. Because of Deena’s character, Effie is labeled as ugly because of her more typical African American features and overweight, another characteristic of the mammy character.

     I feel as though both characters were portrayed in stereotypical manners, which reiterated the idea of the public identity of the welfare recipient. Dorothy was a single black mother, waiting on her man to come home from jail, so the can finally live without the burden of financial strife…also known as, the welfare queen. Furthermore, Effie was transformed from a talented, rising star to a poor, single mother who was tragically the cause of the demise of her success. In other words, if Effie hadn’t been so strong willed and stuck on her principles, she would have succeeded…although different from Dorothy, Effie is also the welfare queen. Although these images are not unrealistic, they are all too often displayed as African American women. Unfortunately, the images displayed in these films are not merely stereotypes of welfare recipients; they are images that have been internalized by society as well as the individual group they target…thus, the public identity of the welfare queen lives on.

Many of my classmates’ first blogs were very insightful, informative and intelligent. There are a multitude of students to whom I would suggest Deborah Gray White’s book, Too Heavy a Load. However, there is one blogger in particular who would find this literature interesting. My classmate made several points regarding the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill case. She quoted facts from the case and elaborated on how these facts related to gender and race issues. However, I would have loved to read how the history of black women in society ties into this case. Therefore, White’s book could give this blogger great information concerning the history of Black women in American society. Furthermore, the book would inform her of the social relationships between black men and women throughout history which is very much related to the Thomas/Hill case.

Deborah Gray White’s book, Too Heavy a Load is a book that’s packed to the brim with information regarding the free Black woman in American history. This literature explains everything from her shortcomings and struggles to her advances and secrets to achieving such. While many of the facts within are incredibly informative, many of the historical statements were also controversial. For example, White discussed a major social activist for Black females and her mentality about “passing” for white. I was shocked to find that such an important Black women’s’ activist in her time was not opposed to passing. I saw this as slightly hypocritical and as a negative mentality that revolutionary groups of the time period should not possess. It is due to facts like these that my classmate would find Too Heavy a Load to her assistance. In documenting specific facts, White was able to give a two-sided explanation for the purposes, goals and practices of women’s clubs. The book shows that Black women’s clubs ware not always as progressive as one may believe. My classmate would find it insightful to learn of the positive and negative aspects of Black women’s movements as they relate to the history of the Black woman in today’s society.

Considering all of the factual information that White gave in her book, I would say that I definitely directly benefited from the Black women’s club movement. As seen in my first blog, I characterize myself as a Black woman; therefore, if I did not benefit from this movement then the movement itself would have been in vein. All black women’s clubs during this time period embedded a certain mentality in Black people as a whole, but especially in Black women. That mentality was one of extreme strength, courage and intelligence. The Black women’s clubs taught the Black woman to be independent, more than her sexuality and unashamed of her intellect. Black women wouldn’t be the beautiful, powerful and proactive group of people that we are if it were not for the Black women’s club movement. Despite the fact that black women slide back into stereotypes at times, when we speak as a unit we speak profoundly and in volumes.

            One specific organization that made an impact on my life is of course Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. If it had not been for this phenomenal organization, I would not have learned that I have a voice in changing injustice in my community and that I have the power to step out against societal norms when I see fit. Delta Sigma Theta instilled courage in me and hopefully all of the people that we have helped that allowed Black women to stand up on their own two feet and attempt to expel the images of the one-dimensional Black woman. Delta also showed me how powerful Black women can be when we unite and work as a unit, which was a recurring theme in all Black women’s groups. The time period in which Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and other similar groups were founded implies weakness. However, despite the negative aspects of Black clubs at this time such as hierarchy of complexion and economic class, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority’s strengths in community building then overshadowed and continue to outweigh weakness in any form.

The Black women’s club movement’s nation building efforts were progressive and inspiring. However, while these efforts contributed to the progression of the nation as a whole, I feel that they more so contributed to the advancement of the Black woman and the Black community. As I learn of the many actions that Black women’s groups took such as anti-lynching campaigns, literacy programs and voting rallies, I view these as factors that were intended to help the Black community. Therefore, if the many efforts that Black women’s clubs made resulted in the advancement of the nation as a whole, it seems to have been unintentional. The inspirational women and women’s’ groups described in this book were primarily concerned with bettering their race and many focused primarily on women as opposed to all the people of America. However the efforts and successes that were achieved during the club movement created a snowball effect that began as a means to better the state of Black women and ended as a means that inadvertently helped men and women of all races.  

Race in many parts of the world and especially in American society is a factor that does indeed categorize and separate people. When introducing racial identity, one is inadvertently attached to a plethora of pre-conceived notions concerning one’s character. Knowing this, I am aware of the baggage that my race carries and am proud of all African Americans have overcome. Although many people think I’m biracial (black and white) I characterize myself as an African American woman. Both of my parents are African American, however, like most black people, my family is mixed with other ethnicities such as Native American.

As I learn more facts about the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill case, I realize that this situation is more an issue of race and gender rather than one of gender alone. Throughout history, there has been a clear hierarchy of race and gender, in which black women have been placed at the very bottom. Many people, black men included, associate black women with either one or both of two factors: anger/poor attitude and/or promiscuity. These stereotypes of the black woman come from the roles of black women in history. The rights awarded to black people and women many times did not apply to black women. Therefore, boundaries had to be broken, feelings had to be hurt and toes had to be stepped on in order for black women to receive the pseudo-equal rights in which we experience today. It is in the process of achieving these goals and gaining these rights that black women have been misunderstood and mistaken for short tempered, overly masculine and overall one-dimensional in being this way. Furthermore, black women have been made into sexual objects from even before the time Africans were taken through the middle passage. An ancient ritual in which African women underwent a procedure so they will not feel sexual pleasure is still practiced to this day, and contributed to the idea of the black woman as nothing but a means of reproduction. In this aspect, the black woman was reduced to an animal, as animals only engage in intercourse for reproduction purposes. This idea was carried onto slave plantations where black women were raped and often impregnated by white slave masters. Because of this, the black woman has formed and some have internalized these stereotypes to a certain extent. This explains the multitude of images that we often see in historical as well as modern-day media of scantily clad, overly sexed, animalistic, dependent black women. Due to these traumatic and frequent historical experiences, and to the times where black women (myself included) cater to the many stereotypes in which we carry, Anita Hill and other accusers in Clarence Thomas’ case had to suffer.

The fact that an educated woman of stature such as Anita Hill was reduced to a lying, destructive, sex addict is an absurdity in the legal system. This case just goes to show that the word and opinion of a black woman is lessened in our society.  There was a point made in class that in the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinski impeachment case, the testimony in which Lewinski gave to the court was never once questioned. Lewinski’s word as a woman was trusted by the court and by America. However, when Anita Hill had testified in court with a clear and detailed story, she was stripped of all her integrity as a college educated, intelligent and professional woman. Was this merely a difference in scenario? Or could this possibly be an illustration of my several points above, where stereotypes of the black women lessened her integrity? This case of sexual harassment may have also been acceptable if there weren’t so many other cases involving physically, sexually or emotionally abused black women similar to Thomas’ case. This includes the Duke lacrosse team rape case, in which a young black woman accused several members of the team of rape and derrogatory, racist verbal abuse. Within trial, the woman was slandered and accused of being promiscuous. In turn, the athletes were given minimal punishments.

In addition, black women still remain the most unlikely group of victims to report rapes, domestic abuse, murders and other crimes. The reason is simple; black women everywhere in the world are silenced when they undergo injustice. The trend throughout history seems that when a black woman speaks up, she’s either a whore, trying to be too masculine or generally insane for defending herself and her dignity.   However, the fact is that if black women don’t speak for themselves then who will? Clarence Thomas knew what was right and he didn’t speak for Anita Hill. Also, at times black men won’t even speak for their own black women, and sometimes add to the destruction of them (i.e. rap videos) leaving us to fight for our own rights, beliefs and values in spite of ridicule and stereotypes. 

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