Slavery and the Black Feminism Movement

by Aniysha Tate

This lecture series went in depth about the beginning of the Atlantic Slave trade as well as hit on the Black Feminism movement of the 1970’s. I thought it was interesting to cover both topics within the same series because the histories of both of these events are prevalent to our society today. I believe with the issue of the slave trade and giving birth to the racism that still exists in our modern society as well as the gender conflict between the modern black man and black woman have yet been swept under the rug of mainstream America. Although we know these problems are alive and well, there is little dialogue being taken, especially in the African American community to discuss and work towards resolutions of these problems. I had the pleasure of taking a class from the prestigious Dr. Reginald Martin and with our final research papers we could expound on any issue in Black America after the Harlem Renaissance. My topic was on the emergence of black feminism writing during BAM and its impact on the modern black woman writer. To go back and read and research writers like Paule Marshall, Alice Walker, Nikki Giovanni, and Toni Cade Bambara and how they were struggling not to only find equality in the collective society, but to find equality and respect with their male counterparts. I focused more on the anthology The Black Woman and how it was groundbreaking in offering black women a vessel that displayed their angst with not just the world, but also with the black man. Black women would more that often receive the "blacklash" of the anger and resentment the black man would have towards society’s constant debasement of their manhood. I feel like this subjected has been placed on the backburner because of the state of the black community today. Some don’t feel that this is a serious enough of a topic that needs the attention of the community but it does and should not be dismissed.

The issue of racism is unfortunately equally shared within the black community. As a youth, I found it confusing to grasp that I was different from my white peers. We went to the same schools, had the same interests, ate the same foods, but some how and in some strange way, they were different. As I grew older, I came across those few and far between episodes where people would place stereotypes on me because I dressed a certain way, had certain interests, talked a certain way and I would be subjected to ignorance just because they were uncomfortable with my color. Unfortunately in some cases it was from other blacks who felt that because of my skin tone I thought I was better than them. From white people, I got the dirty looks that I had tainted their gene pool because I was so light and I was nothing more than wannabe trash. What I would love to have happen for future generations is to reconvene this dialogue because in the current state I can see them confused, misguided, and misinformed about the issues of the world. They are looking to us as examples and frankly at this moment, this country; this world is in complete disarray.