Dr.
Barkley Brown,
I
write this letter to you as a student of a history course entitled Racial Identity
in the American Imagination. A required reading from the past week included
your didactic article, “‘What Has Happened Here’: The Politics of Difference in
Women’s History and Feminist Politics.” Through this letter, I would like to
comment and expand on some of the many ideas and themes that you bring up in
your work.
I
first applaud you in your analysis of the inequality shown throughout history between
females of differing races and classes. A particular statement that stands out
to me is, “We have still to recognize that all women do not have the same gender”
(300). I find that this statement emphasizes a core principle of understanding
women’s history: women’s history is not simply made up of “white middle-class
heterosexual women’s experiences,” but of a mixture of race, class, sexuality,
and other differences. This section of your article reminds me of a theme
brought up in my first class discussion, where though everyone was an
undergraduate or graduate student, the identities of each student varied.
Identity, similar to history, cannot be summed up through a single person, but through
a mixture of races, religions, and other differences in the student composition
of the class.
In
a similar fashion, a concept that you bring up in your introduction shares
another theme of our class discussion. I find that using the “gumbo ya ya” metaphor
(meaning everyone talks at once) along with the synergy of jazz music is a neat
tool to lead your audience through the article. Toward the end of your
introduction, you exhibit that “history is everybody talking at once. The
events and people we write about did not occur in isolation but in dialogue
with a myriad of other people and events” (297). This statement reminds me of
the many students in the course with mixed identities because of different
ethnicities, color, etc. No single identity in a student characterizes that
person, and many students identify with numerous aspects of themselves. I find
that your metaphor adds some simplification to the fact that both women’s
history and personal identity can be made up of a multitude of characteristics.
I
leave you now with a final comment that may add to the dynamic of your article.
Much of class this past week was spent on the idea of “racial passing,”
specifically light-skinned African Americans in the early 1900s that were able
to pass for white in everyday life. You spend a significant portion of time
identifying the many examples of black versus white women throughout history
and the effects of race on each. However, I would find it very interesting if
you were able to include any research on the historical differences between African
American women passing as white and other women. Did race have any significant
effect on these women’s lives and occupations, or were these women simply
considered a part of the white population?
Thank
you,
Andrew
Jacobs
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteIn your third paragraph, you talk about Brown's use of African-American culture and its ability to understand many voices both as distinct and unified. Specifically, you suggest that this can be applied not only to a collective identity through history but also to one's own individual identity. This encourages me to think of identity as more fluid in the way that jazz is. Certain voices may come to the forefront at different moments in time just as different aspects of our identity come to the forefront based on our context. This is particularly useful because often we seek to define identity as a static sum of all our component pieces, which may, in a sense, be missing the actual manifestation of our identity.
Identity as being fluid.
Very well done! This is a good discussion of Elsa Barkley Brown's article and her emphasis on expanding women's history to consider diversity (not all women are white and middle class). The metaphors of jazz and gumbo are particularly useful in capturing the fluidity of identity.
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