Customer Reviews

Black Women in White America: A Documentary History

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Black Women in White America" is outstanding. Naturally the book provides some remarkable documents about slavery, but there is so much more covered in this fabulous book. The experiences of African - American women seeking to get (and give) an education, the experiences of African-American women as mere sex objects (and their stories of being objectified by men of all races), the crusade against lynching ... I was floored by the variety and amount of sources contained in this book. It is quite comprehensive in its breadth and scope.

As a historian and teacher, this is a marvelous resource. As a student and American, it is a moving true-life story that is regretfully often untold. Highly recommended reading.

Compelling enough to keep me from ever thinking that I have it rough. As black women, we've endured sorrow and acheived greatness...all of which is found in this text. Black Women... gives an excellent account of the early history of African women in America.

This book does an excellent job of documenting the lives of African American women from slavery to the 20th century. It gives a portrayal of their strong abilities to move forward, their religious faith, and their degree of hope and self-pride in the meantime. I sincerely recommend this book to everyone in hopes that it will serve as a guide in their present lives.

While this is a heroic effort on the part of the member of one American subgroup (most probably a Jewish woman) to write the history of a member of another subgroup (most definitely Black Women), it nevertheless succumbs to the fallacy that the eminent Historian E. H. Carr warned us about in his seminal book called "What is History."

The reader may recall that there Carr reminded us that historical facts are like the illusive fish we catch in the lake. Once we struggle to get them in the boat, we then take them home, cook them and serve them up in our own favorite style (interpretation). Consciously or unconsciously the interpretations we serve up invariably always reflect our own positions in social space and time; and thus form part of the broader question of what positions we hold in society ourselves. And although this author takes great pain and care to build an almost impregnable defense against failing to be objective, etc., Carr's admonition holds nevertheless.

However, one of the beauties of her attempt to build an impregnable rationale for having a Jewish Historian write the history of Black women, is that it causes the mind to focus on how so much of American history is written by non-members of the groups written about; that is by the ruling classes? It is certainly true as the author says that the emotional distance (of being an outsider) can sharpen ones focus and avoids the pitfalls of insider pandering, culling the facts only for the positive tidbits, etc. We certainly have seen enough of that in the way Black women report their own history. Yet, there is a deeper aspect of historical presentation that remains unaddressed here. It is the question of voice and perspective.

As an avid reader of Jewish History generally, and the history of the Jewish struggle during the Holocaust of WW-II in particular, the question of perspective tweaked my "crap detection antenna" raising it to a "Defcon 5" status: It did so because it is obvious that there is no Black Woman's voice in this history, no Black Woman (or Black) perspective here at all. It is simply "traded away" for "feigned objectivity" and the elusive commodity called "historical accuracy."

How can a man (even a Black Man) say that this is the case? I can say this because, I know the voice of blackness and even though I may not know the exact voice of a Black woman, I will know it when I hear it. And I did not hear it here?

This is not nearly as obscure a point as I am making it out to be because when I read holocaust material, I notice that the voice and perspective are immediately and invariably Jewish: The focus is rarely restricted just to the horrors of Jewish victimhood, but invariably moves rather quickly on to the psychology of the perpetrators, the Germans, their ideology and then on to the chief devil of the holocaust, Adolph Hitler himself. This is what history is about, problem-solving: Getting from the lamentations of victimhood to how to prevent the next holocaust. QED.

However, if Adolph Hitler or his sympathizers were writing the Jewish History of the holocaust, how may times do you think he would mention himself as being the culprit? The point is that interpretations are one thing, but voice and perspective are something else altogether: they are everything. What is missing here (not to pick on the fine work of a heroic author) is a return address of the perpetrators.

Black people, no less than other peoples want their history to help solve the problems that brought them so much misery. No less than Jews wanted to understand Hitler, we need to understand those who perpetrated the crimes against us; we need to know who and why they have wreaked havoc on Black women and the Black race for four plus centuries? In this narrative, as in most narratives of U.S. history, the perpetrators remain faceless, tucked away deeply in the always neutral and sanitized subtext.

In discussion of race in America, we invariably and unconsciously shift the perspective, turning it on its axis by 180 degrees so that the spotlight is always only on the suffering of the (usually colored) victim; never on identifying the perpetrators or explaining his existential psychology? Yet, this is not at all so when we discuss the European Holocaust. Hitler is always subject number one.

In that case, the whole of the discussion is why and how it happened and how to prevent it from occurring again. Here it is only about how heroic the black women victims were in their suffering? As a result, this book dramatically begs the questions: Who did it to them and why? Why do we not expose the evil that caused this suffering in the same way that Hitler is exposed when the holocaust is discussed? What is the address of the American perpetrators here? What is their psychology? What do they look like? How can we prevent them from doing the same thing in the future? Why do we continue to serve up interpretations about the Black condition that shows only their victimhood, but omit this most important of aspects: the psychology of the perpetrators?

I believe that E. H. Carr got it just about right. Despite these comments, this is a great collection. Five stars

Black Women in White America by Gerder Lerner ****

I almost decided not to read this book. I thought it was one of those feminist non-sense books that no respecting Black woman would waste her time reading such propaganda. However, once I began to read, I am glad I did. I give this book a 4 star.
Here is an excerpt that really touched me:

"White women have greater opportunities to display their ability because of the standing of both races, and due to the fact that black men are less appreciative of their own men than white men. The former will more readily sing the praises of white women than their own, yet who is more deserving of admiration than the black woman, she who has borne the rigors of slavery, the deprivations of consequence on a pauperized race, and the indignities heaped upon a weak and defenseless people. Yet she has suffered all with fortitude, and stands every ready to help in the onward March to freedom and power.

Be not discourage black women of the world, but push forward, regardless of the lack of appreciation shown you. A race must be saved, a country must be redeemed, and unless you strengthening the leader ship of vacillating Negro men, we will remain marking time until the yellow race gains leadership of the world, and we be forced to subserviency under them, or extermination.

We are tired of hearing Negro men say `There is a better day coming,' while they do nothing to usher in the day. We are becoming so impatient that we are getting in the front ranks, and serve notice on the world that we will brush aside the halting, cowardly Negro man, and with prayer on our lips and arms prepared for any fray, will press on and on until victory is ours.

Africa must be for African, and Negroes everywhere must be independent, God being our guide. Mr. Black man, watch your step! Ethiopia queens will reign again, her Amazons protect her shores and people. Strengthen your shaken knees, and move forward, or we will displace you and lead on to victory and to glory."
Editorial, The Negro World, October 24, 1925
Here is another excerpt:

"It appears to me that America has become like the great city of Babylon...She is indeed a seller of slaves and the souls of men, she has man the Africans drunk with the wine of her fornication; she has put them completely beneath her feet, and she means to keep them there; her right hands support the reins of government, and her left hands the wheels of power, and she is determined not to let go of her grasp. But many power sons and daughters of Africa will shortly arise, who will put down vice and immortality among us, declare......that they will have their rights; and if refused, I am afraid they will spread horror and devastation around. I believe that the oppression of injured Africa has come up before the majesty of Heaven."

Lecture delivered in the African Masonic Hall in Boston, Mass., February 27, 1883, as cited in Meditations from the Pen of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart, 2nd edition.

Gerda Lerner (born 1920) is a historian, author and teacher. She is a professor emerita of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a visiting scholar at Duke University. She has written many books, such as The Creation of Patriarchy (Women & History), Living with History / Making Social Change, The Creation of Feminist Consciousness: From the Middle Ages to Eighteen-seventy (Women & History), and Fireweed: A Political Autobiography.

This 1972 book is a magnificent collection of original documents, under categories such as "Slavery," "The Struggle for Education," "A Woman's Lot," "Making a Living," "Survival is a Form of Resistance," "In Government Service and Political Life," "The Monster Prejudice," "Race Pride," "Black Women Speak of Womanhood," etc.

She writes in the Preface, "Of necessity a collection such as this cannot be definitive... In the present work I have endeavored to define the major themes in the history of black women as suggested by source material now available; to bring to light important unknown or little-known documents; and to focus on those women leaders whose influence was recognized and significant in their own time."

The list of contributors is impressive, including names such as Sojourner Truth; Mary McLeod Bethune; Ida B. Wells; Harriet Tubman; Mahalia Jackson, and dozens of others.

"Black Women in White America" has truly opened my eyes to a lot of the hardships of the African American woman.

Prior to ordering Ms. Davis' book, I had always held her in great esteem, due to the courage, intelligence, and sensitivity, which she portrayed during the civil rights movement. As a late blooming "flower child," I was too timid to be a part of the movement, yet it did not prevent me from watching from the sidelines, agonizing and suffering along with my brothers and sisters. No matter their race, color, or origins; no matter which side of the battle they were on; there was a great deal of suffering and inhumanity existing during those turbulent times. After reading a poem she wrote (from an anthology) regarding the demands placed on Aretha Franklin (as a star), I really connected with her message. Therefore, I ordered her book. Due to a great deal of "drama" currently occurring around me, I have not had an opportunity to read her writings. But in my heart, I know that she has put forth a lesson from which I can learn.