Article Summary: 'Jim Crow And Jane Crow'

n this essay, Murray's main argument is simply that black or nonwhite women are the most discriminated group of people in America (most likely the entire world) and they're still searching for their liberation. Murray begins to talk about the trials and tribulations that black women have faced in America since being enslaved. Not only do Black women face racism but also sexism, which gives them the burden of being the least desired and least acknowledged group in America. These dual barriers are known as "Jim Crow and Jane Crow". In the text, Murray says "Traditionally, racism and sexism in the United States have shared some common origins, displayed similar manifestations, reinforced one another, and are so deeply intertwined in the country's

Murray states "With dignity they have shared with black men a partnership as members of an embattled group excluded from the normal protections of society and engaged in a struggle for survival during nearly four centuries of slave trade, two centuries of chattel slavery and century of struggle but they continued to stand firmly when their men were destroyed by it". While everything else around them seemed to be dismantled and destroyed, black women have kept their husbands and families intact. This characteristic was a known necessity for black families if they wanted to survive. Although Black women were essentially still women, they still didn’t face same scrutiny and misfortune that white women did. Murray even states "she emerged from slavery without the illusions of a specially protected position as a woman or the possibilities of a parasitic existence as a woman". In spite of the fact that misogyny is sexist, it sometimes has its benefits. For example, having everything you need paid for by a man or your husband. This benefit didn’t apply to black women after slavery and that’s exactly what Murray meant with that