Black Women in Literature

1. Black Women
Discussions and Literature

2. Alice Walker: “The Civil Rights
Movement: What Good Was it?”
“Because of the movement, because of an
awakened faith in the newness and
imagination of the human spirit, because of
“black and White together”- for the first time in
our history in some human relationship on and
off TV—because of the beatings, the arrests,
the hell of the battle during the past years, I
have fought harder for my life and for a
chance to be myself, to be something more
than a shadow or a number, than I had ever
done before in my life.” (124)

3. Alice Walker Continued
“Part of what existence means to me now is
knowing the difference between what I am now
and what I was then. It is being able to look
after myself intellectually as well as financially.
It is being able to tell when I am wronged and by
whom. It means being awake to protect myself
and the ones I love. It means being alert to
which part it is that I have joined and knowing
how to change to another part if that part doesn’t
suit me…This, at least, the Movement has given
me.”

4. Walker continued
“If the Civil Rights Movement is “dead” and if
it gave us nothing else, it gave us each other
forever. It gave some of us bread, some of
us shelter, some of us knowledge and pride,
all of us comfort. It gave us our children, our
husbands, our brothers, our fathers, as men
reborn and with a purpose for living. It broke
the pattern of black servitude in this country.”

5. Walker Continued
“ What good was the Civil Rights
Movement?...If it had taken black eyes off of
white television series, it would have been
enough. If it had fed one starving child, it would
have been enough.” “ It shattered the phony
“promise” of white soap operas that sucked
away so many pitiful lives. It gave us history
and men far greater than Presidents. It gave
us heroes, selfless men of courage and
strength, for our little boys and girls to follow. It
gave us hope for tomorrow. It called us to life.
Because we live, it can never die”

6. Kiswana Browne
• Fran Scoble’s “Mothers and Daughters: Giving
the Lie” might tell us quite a bit about the
relationship between Kiswana and her mother.
What do you think Scoble might say about the
relationship between them?
• Pride of heritage is an important theme in this
story. How does it, ironically, interfere between
the relationship between mother and daughter?
• How does the relationship change and what
changes it?
• What role does intersectionality play in this
story?

7. BLACK PRIDE? SOME
CONTRADICTIONS. ANN COOK
“How far, if at all have we we moved psychologically
and intellectually since the new “Black Awareness
began?”
• “What really pained me was the elaborate fashion
show of clothing in African prints and styles. Now,
I would be the first to admit that there is nothing
sacred about most African cloth itself. But our turn
to Africa should, hopefully be for the richness of its
culture, and awareness of which can enable us to
smooth out the rough spots of what we have
stubbornly held on to. We should look to the heart
of Africa for a purge of decadent Western values,
for a new philosophical and spiritual base, in short,
for regeneration.”

8. Cook continued
“But what did these “proud” African designers
show us? Directly inspired by Africa—there
was even a West African model making it all
very African—models slithered past the
cameras in African-print bikinis; they wiggled
by in hip-hugging African-bell-bottoms
miraculously held up by the model’s pelvic
bones; and, if enough Western-style sex was
not marketed with those, there were the the
Moslem long coats that were transparent!
(Such irony.)

9. Ann Cook continued
“Another more subtle, anti-Africanistic
tendency is becoming apparent in the bush
afro. We do not mind wearing an afro if we
have the kind of hair that can make a bush or
if our straightening comb can help us out. So,
again, it is “good hair” afros. That is what
Afro-sheen, Raveen and all the other
complex kits of sprays are all about—getting
the kinks out.”

10. Ann Cook continued
“ one hears of a brilliant young economist
whose skin was very black…. For four
months she lay in the hospital after she
seriously burned her face trying to bleach
herself with a soda solution.”
“We sing, I’m black and I’m proud, but we are
far from convincing.”
“we are having to convince ourselves that
thick lips, broad noses, and kinky hair
accompanying the now acceptable black skin
can be beautiful.”

11. Everyday Use: Historical context
“Everyday Use” is set in the late 1960s or early 1970s, a
tumultuous time when many African Americans were struggling to
redefine and seize control of their social, cultural, and political
identity in American society. There was also a greater attempt to
recognize the contributions that African Americans had already
made in America’s long history. At the time, both scholars and
laypeople became interested in unearthing and reexamining the
African American past. They were particularly interested in the
aspects of African heritage that had survived centuries of slavery
and were still present in African American culture. During this time,
many blacks sought to establish themselves as a visible and
unified group and take control of how their group was
named. Black (and later Afro-American) replaced the term Negro,
which took on offensive associations. Many black Americans,
uninspired by a bleak history of slavery in North America, looked to
their African roots in an effort to reconnect with their past.

12. http://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/everyday-use/section1.rhtml
The time period in which “Everyday Use” takes place was also
an era when groups of all ideologies—some peaceful, some
militant—emerged. The Black Panthers and Black Muslims
were groups created to resist what they saw as a white-
dominated society. Dee is possibly emulating the Cultural
Nationalists, artists and writers who wore flowing robes and
sandals and emphasized the development of black culture as a
means of promoting freedom and equality. Walker may have
created Hakim-a-barber with this new, younger, more militant
generation in mind. When Mama describes the Muslims who
live down the road, who lead a labor-intensive life, Hakim
dismisses their hard lifestyle. He is unwilling to commit to the
hard work of the cause and faith he claims to embrace.
Ultimately, Walker’s story is a critique of individuals who
misapplied or misunderstood some of the ideals that black
consciousness groups promoted during that time.

13. Questions about “Everyday Use”
• What denotes patriarchy in this story? What
represents the real patriarchy and how does it show
up? What would Scoble say about the mother-
daughter relationships?
• What are the women’s sense of identity in the story?
What do they feel defines them and how do you
know?
• Who has the power and what shows it?
• What do the quilts represent? The yard? The butter
churn? What is the use to which Wangero intends to
put the things she demands? Why is that ironic and
how does that relate to a sense of heritage and the
title of the story?
• Can you see intersectionality in this story? How and
where?