Poet, Enrique Dussel's 'Myth Of Modernity'

The ‘Myth of Modernity’ is a concept constructed by writer, philosopher, Enrique Dussel. Dussel describes ‘modernity’ to be a European theory, but applied to those regions that have been colonized by European nations. To be specific, Africa’s modernity would be the enslavement of thousands and the Americas’ would be the genocide thousands. The idea is that Europe is the most developed civilization in the world so it is their obligation to develop and modernize the uncivilized and backwards people in the rest of the world. With the colonialism brought by Europe came genocide and violence to ensure the civilizing process. Following the violence is the victims being active in their redemption and pressure to feel guilty of their primitive state,

One example would be the economic hardship these black woman went through daily. In a statistic of 1940, two out of every five black woman worked full time while two out of every eight white women worked full time (Jones, 109). Black woman were the main bread winners of their family and they made less than the average black man “but despite the shift in employment of Negro women from rural to urban areas, Negro women are still general confined to the lowest-paying jobs.” (Jones, 110). Jones states that black women were earning low scale salaries because they were excluded from working at any other type of profession beside the under paying jobs that tended to be domestic services. The reason why these woman were taking the domestic service jobs was because they were the only ones available and during times of large amounts of unemployment, black women were always the ones to get impacted first by the effects of it. Jones also covers the portrayal of black women in the entertainment industry. They are portrayed as “this traditional stereotype of the Negro slave mother, which to this day appears in commercial advertisements, must be combatted and rejected as a device of the imperialists to perpetuate the white chauvinist ideology that Negro woman are “backward,” “inferior,” and the “natural slaves” of others.” (Jones,

Pan-Africanism can be defined as a movement that strengthens the unity of people with African descent, to uplift and unify people of African descent socially, economically, and politically. This social movement included anti-racism, national liberation, and African redemption which are concepts that are parallel to “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!”. Along with the social movements, Marxist and communist trends and ideas are in alignment with Pan-Africanism and Jones’s philosophies. Jones explains, “our Party, based on its Marxist-Leninist principles, stands foursquare on a program of full economic, political, and social equality for the Negro people and of equal rights for women.” (Jones, 122). Jones adds that the Communist Party is the only party that will achieve equality for black women, where men and women could contribute and receive according to their needs. In the section of the reading called “The Struggle for Peace”, Jones mentions that “Negro people’s liberation movement, for cementing Negro and white unity in the struggle against Wall Street imperialism, and for rooting the Party among the most exploited and oppressed sections of the working class and its allies.” (Jones, 122-3). Communism was also important to Jones’s argument because it is the only party that fights against all manifestations of white chauvinism (Jones,