Pity 'Tis, 'Tis True

I did not fall from the sky
I
nor descend like a plague of locusts
to drink color and strength from the earth
and I do not come like rain
as a tribute or symbol for earth's becoming
I come as a woman
dark and open
some times I fall like night
softly
and terrible
only when I must die
in order to rise again.
                               -from "The Women of Dan Dance With Swords in their Hands to Mark the Time When They Were Warriors" by Audre Lorde

After her mastectomy, when Audre Lorde was offered a prosthetic breast, she rejected it because it was peach-colored. Peach or tan stockings are still described as "nude", and politicians trying to answer issues of poverty still do so by attempting to conform families in poverty to a lifestyle which belongs overwhelmingly to a white middle class. There is a lot a want to say about these two articles, so if I jump around between ideas, please forgive me.

Pauline Johnson writes that "The American book heroine of to-day is vari-colored as to personality and action. The author does not consider it necessary to the development of her character, and the plot of the story to insist upon her having American-colored eyes, an American carriage, an American voice, American motives, and an American mode of dying" (385). While she is saying that authors are expanding to allow their heroines various nationalities and cultural backgrounds, her statement also reveals the truth that American womanhood is assumed to be white womanhood. It is the same thing Sojourner Truth addressed when she asked, "Aren't I a woman?". However, her voice was distorted by the prejudices and assumptions of the white women around  her, as Kohrs Campbell demonstrates. When a woman of a race other than white is depicted, as Johnson's article demonstrates, she is stereotyped and can even appear as the same character every time: a "Winona" without regard for the varying personalities, lifestyles, and motives human beings tend to have.

The problem is in women of color's lack of a voice of their own. Their marginalization cannot be properly represented by people outside of the situation unless they take the time to do some research and really listen, and Johnson points out that "most, if not all the writers on this line have been but partially acquainted with the life they wished to delineate" (381). But even Johnson,after making her statement that the black woman's voice needs to be heard, consistently refers to the representation of black men.

This is the reason there was issue when women and black men were fighting for the right to vote, each group  trying to claim they should be given the privilege before the other: women referred to white women. White womanhood becomes the default, and black women are doubly marginalized based on their status as black and woman. In the United  States today, white men make more than white women, who make a little  more or roughly the same amount as black men, who make significantly more than black women. When Hispanics are included in the equation, Hispanic women make less than anyone. Just in case anyone  thought that the identity of black womanhood was only forgotten and underprivileged in the 19th century.

As I've mentioned, I have a lot to say, but I think I've basically wrapped it up for now. I don't know if everyone heard, but Adrienne Rich died last Tuesday. I'm pretty devastated. :(

"Poetry is above all a concentration of the power of language, which is the power of our ultimate relationship to everything in the universe."