JoAnn Marshall - The Roles of Southern Women, Black and White, in Society Lillian Smith provides a description of the typical black woman and the typical white woman "of the pre-1960's American South" (Gladney 1) in her autobiographical critique of southern culture, Killers of the Dream. The typical black woman in the South is a cook, housekeeper, nursemaid, or all three wrapped up in one for at least one white family. Therefore, she is the double matriarch of the South, raising her own family and the families of her white employers: "It was not a rare sight in my generation to see a black woman with a dark baby at one breast and a white one at the other, rocking them both in her wide lap" (Smith 130). The southern black woman's duties extend far beyond rearing children, as she also serves as a family counselor, confidant, and nurse for the entire white family (Smith 129) and her own if time permits. She can do all this and more because she is strong, wise, and insightful in all areas of life (Smith 119). In short, the southern black woman is the cornerstone of the southern, domestic life. The white woman in the South has an equally important role. The southern white woman is responsible for maintaining southern social order, better known as Southern Tradition. She establishes "the 'do' and the 'don't' of behavior" (Smith 132) in her children and believes, "If you could just keep from them all the things that must never be mentioned, all would be well!" (Smith 142). At the same time, the southern white woman sits atop the pedestal of Sacred Womanhood that her husband and his ancestors built for her (Smith 141). She meekly sits there, a symbol of southern society used to benefit men's ideals, feeling empty and powerless against everything going on around her (Smith 141-2). The whispers in her children's ears and her presence on that pedestal fulfill the white woman's role as protectress of Southern Tradition, but does not fulfill the southern white woman. In fact, the roles of the southern black woman and the southern white woman are equally important and equally oppressive: "In a culture where marriage and motherhood were women's primary roles, neither black nor white women were free to be fully wives or mothers, and neither were able to shield their children from the physical and psychic destruction of the racist society in which they lived" (Gladney 6).
Still, her deviation from the confederate mindset did not cause her to necessarily promote total equality between men and women. As an abolitionist, Grimke suggested that women use their submissive positions in the household in order to influence heir husbands. Furthermore, Grimke’s tone and proposals differed as she targeted women from the North and the South. Grimke recognized that in the common Southern household, the woman would take the place of a homemaker and nurturer, qualities still primarily associated with women, and she used these stereotypes to the abolitionist advantage. In her four pronged “An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South”, Grimke states that the Southern Christian Woman has four duties in regards to abolition: to read, pray, speak and act. These four steps to abolition use the place of white women in the common household to circumvent around the little power that they had at this time. Grimke’s tone changes in her “Appeal to the Women of the Nominally Free States”, as she now refers to black women as not just slaves but “sisters” to whom white women owe humanization. In a
Moody’s position as an African American woman provides a unique insight into these themes through her story. As a little girl, Moody would sit on the porch of her house watch her parents go to work. Everyday she would see them walk down the hill at the break of dawn to go to work, and walk back up when the sun was going down to come back home. At this time in her life, Moody did not understand segregation, and that her parents were slaves and working for a white man. But, as growing up poor and black in the rural south with a single mother trying to provide for her family, Moody quickly realized the importance of working. Working as a woman in the forties and fifties was completely different from males. They were still fighting for gender equality, which restricted women to working low wage jobs like maids for white families. Moody has a unique insight to the world of working because she was a young lady that was working herself to help keep herself and her bother and sister in school. Through work, Moody started to realize what segregation was and how it impacted her and her life. While working for Mrs. Johnson and spending the nights with Miss Ola, she started to realize basic di...
Racial inequality was a big thing back in the day, as the blacks were oppressed, discriminated and killed. The blacks did not get fair treatment as the whites, they were always been looked down, mocked, and terrified. But Moody knew there’s still an opportunity to change the institution through Civil Rights Movement. As she matured Anne Moody come to a conclusion that race was created as something to separate people, and there were a lot of common between a white person and a black person. Moody knew sexual orientation was very important back in the 1950s, there was little what women can do or allowed to do in the society. For example, when Moody was ridiculed by her activist fellas in Civil Rights Movement. Women indeed played an important role in Moody’s life, because they helped forming her personality development and growth. The first most important woman in Moody’s life would be her mother, Toosweet Davis. Toosweet represent the older rural African American women generation, whom was too terrified to stand up for their rights. She was portrayed as a good mother to Moody. She struggled to make ends meet, yet she did everything she could to provide shelter and food to her children. Toosweet has encouraged Moody to pursue education. However, she did not want Moody to go to college because of the fear of her daughter joining the Civil Rights Movement and getting killed. The second important woman to Moody would be Mrs. Burke, She is the white woman Moody worked for. Mrs. Burke is a fine example of racist white people, arguably the most racist, destructive, and disgusting individual. In the story, Mrs. Burke hold grudge and hatred against all African American. Although she got some respects for Moody, State by the Narrator: “You see, Essie, I wouldn’t mind Wayne going to school with you. But all Negroes aren’t like you and your
Ann Petry’s The Street In our society today, there are many images that are portrayed through media and through personal experience that speak to the issues of black motherhood, marriage and the black family. Wherever one turns, there is the image of the black woman in the projects and very rarely the image of successful black women. Even when these positive images are portrayed, it is almost in a manner that speaks to the supposed inferiority of black women.
This single short quote from the first section of Lillian Smith’s Killers of the Dream is a perfect summation of the changing world many Southerners were facing as they approached the 20th Century. Gone were the days of plantation homes, housewives overseeing 50 black slaves, and many of the ideals that this lifestyle carried with it. As the Civil War ended and Reconstruction worked its way through the South, much was uprooted. This change was hard for this “landed aristocracy.” However, it was equally hard on the children.
In chapter three of this report a section is established exclusively for matriarchy in the Negro American family. Based on the Moynihan Report, the role of the black woman in the family is to be aware her sense of self, financially, academically, and emotionally, while also uplifting and solidifying the status of the Negro man, as well as her children, both male and female. The genesis of matriarchal dominance amongst the Negro family is, according to Moynihan, education. Moynihan compares various educational rates of white males and females and nonwhite males and females. Statistically sh...
There are two ways to approach searching the manuscripts collection. You can use the site specific google search on the Manuscripts Department website, or you can search the library catalog and limit the results to the Manuscripts Department. I chose to use the search engine on the Manuscripts Department webpage because it includes brief snippets from the results that allowed you to quickly look at some description and rule out the results that are totally irrelevant to your search without having to open each one individually. As you look at search results, you will notice that the results have names like papers and collections. This is because archival and manuscript materials are organized by provenance rather than subject. What this means is that materials are grouped together the way they were received. All of an organization’s, individual’s, or family’s papers will be grouped together and as much as possible they will be kept in the original order that the creator stored them in. This means that most collections have materials related to a wide range of subjects and gathering all the material on a particular topic or person requires looking at multiple collections.
To begin with, there are many events in United States history that have shaped our general understanding of women’s involvement in economics, politics, the debates of gender and sexuality, and so forth. Women for many centuries have not been seen as a significant part of history, however under thorough analyzation of certain events, there are many women and woman-based events responsible for the progressiveness we experience in our daily lives as men, women, children, and individuals altogether. Many of these events aid people today to reflect on the treatment of current individuals today and to raise awareness to significant issues that were not resolved or acknowledged in the past.
In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author subjects the reader to a dystopian slave narrative based on a true story of a woman’s struggle for self-identity, self-preservation and freedom. This non-fictional personal account chronicles the journey of Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) life of servitude and degradation in the state of North Carolina to the shackle-free promise land of liberty in the North. The reoccurring theme throughout that I strive to exploit is how the women’s sphere, known as the Cult of True Womanhood (Domesticity), is a corrupt concept that is full of white bias and privilege that has been compromised by the harsh oppression of slavery’s racial barrier. Women and the female race are falling for man’s
It is important to identify at risk populations who suffer from health care disparities in order to decrease these disparities. Health care disparities can result in negative health outcomes when at risk populations are not afforded proper health treatment. According to Ranji, Beamesderfer, Kates, and Salganicoff (2014) health concerns and risk factors affecting the LGBT community include HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), drug abuse, mental health issues, and sexual and physical violence. The LGBT community is an at risk population due to barriers in health care linked to discrimination, prejudice, social stigma, and lack of access to health insurance especially for same-sex couples. (Healthypeople.gov 2013). It is important to identify community resources in the city of Houston for LGBT people in order to improve the health, safety, and well-being of these individuals. In an effort to promote the health of LGBT people, a health and wellness plan should be targeted within the LGBT community in the city of Houston.
The first reasons to think that foreign aid should be spend is that “Aid saves lives” which is clearly illustrated by the researches conducted. Compare 1990 to 2010, as a result of aid in vaccines and health, there was a decrease in number of children who died from illness of pneumonia and diarrhoea (BBC). For example, in Botswana, the foreign aid fund had provided a test of HIV for pregnant mothers and therefore decrease the amount of newborn babies which catches HIV. Furthermore, in Bangladesh, there is a 62% drop in death rate for the under five children, the aid fund allows the government to be able to afford “vaccines and trained the midwives”.
International Aid operates in almost every corner of the globe, is part of the transfer of billions of dollars of assistance through countless organizations, charities, and funds; and involves the efforts of hundreds of thousands of dedicated workers and affects billions of people. . This paper will provide a historical summary of how aid has grown and developed in stages, from a humanitarian concept first applied in the 19th century to established international policy and law following the Second World War and later the Cold War. We will review the impact of the wave of newly independent nations in the 1940’s and 1950’s and the rise of multinational aid organizations in the 1970’s and non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) in the 1980’s. We will conclude by detailing recent emerging trends in aid through the 1990’s into the present day.
As written in Literature and it's Times, a distinct place where racism and prejudice took place was the South. In the early 1900's, the South remained mostly rural and agricultural in economy. Poverty was everywhere, and sharecropping had replaced slavery as the main source of black labor. Blacks who remained in the South received the burdens of poverty and discrimination. The women faced sexual and racial oppression, making th...
...knowledge about their specific health needs. They also can implement medical education classes for LGBT issues in healthcare. However, all these ideas is just simply a start, with new data of the numbers of the minority group, we can measure how much the federal government can fund for the specialized education and or medical needs. Also educating the staff and medical students is important to help create any facility whether it is a hospital or small clinic to become a LGBT friendly environment. This helps decrease the need for specialized facilities for the LGBT community because of hospitals denying individual’s treatment because of their orientation will be diminished.
Voluntary carbon markets apply to everybody that are not subject to mandatory limits, such as individuals, companies, and other entities, whom wishes to offset their emissions by buying CER’s. They are used for various applications such as neutralizing their carbon footprints. There is no specific emission allocation, but carbon footprints are used as the baseline from which emission reduction targets are set. This type of market is referred to a ‘buyer beware market’, because credits undergo less rigorous verification methods. Overall, the carbon market grew to $126 billion in 2008 from the $63 billion in...