In reflection of some of my peer’s blogs on the topic of their racial identity I gained the chance to learn a little bit about where my peers have come from and how they see themselves. Being a psychology major, the opportunity to gain some insight on my classmate’s upbringing is valued.
The first blog I chose to read was http://thomalbright.wordpress.com/. The author of this wordpress is Thomas Albright, a “white 22-year-old male who comes from a rural community.” Reading Thomas’ racial identity card, I am surprised to learn that he is grew up in a community lacking racial diversity. I say I am surprised because all of my previous encounters with him have been in African American Studies courses. He states that he is a Psychology and AAS double major, which I find similarities in being a Psych major and AAS minor. I like how he can admit that he sees “things through a white male from a lower middle class perspective,” and despite that he has devoted himself to learning about other cultures and trying to better understand other perspectives.
The second blog I chose to read was http://dynamicwoman86.wordpress.com/. The author of this blog is a 22 year old female from Columbus Ohio, a more urbanized city. The dynamic woman, known as Sherrell, chose to attach a picture of herself to her blog. I feel this was her way of showcases her blackness. While most chose to simply describe their racial identity and the baggage that comes with it, Sherrell chose to proudly show her race and mention that she is a graduating senior with plans to attend graduate school; something that many from African American heritage do not get to attain, already setting herself apart from many others in the group. She admits she comes from a life of struggle and has found strength through, but warns readers to judge her by reading her entries and get a feel for what the everyday modern black woman is going through.
The Power of Self Definition is relevant in understanding the ways in which middle class African American women define themselves in the 21st century. This is especially true because today’s black woman does indeed have truly defining herself, because the times are not yet fully accepting of her. ““Black women’s lives are a series of negotiations that aim to reconcile the contradictions separating our own internally defined images of self as African American women with our objectifications as the others” (pg. 99). The black woman must learn to socialize within the fraternity and still keep sorority strong.
According to the media the black woman is sexually promiscuous, angry, uneducated, snappy, and cynical. The black woman Collins is speaking to should try to negate these stereotypes and form her own self, not one that is placed on her. In order to gain strength within the nation and for themselves, this placement is mandatory. Once defined by themselves Collins believes the limits are absent.
I would also agree that Sexual Politics of Black Womanhood is relevant for understanding the African American woman in the 21st century. As I stated that black women has been deemed sexually promiscuous. Since slavery the black woman has sexually abused and oppressed because of it. Collins argues that this oppression and abuse still happens today, maybe not with the same commonness of rape as in the days of slavery, but today with exploitation. “Black women receive no such redeeming dose of culture and remain open to the type of exploitation visited on nature overall.” The role of jezebel is continued to be used and coined to black women, associating them with pornographic materials and deeming them all to be prostitutes. In order to this overcome this oppression black women must learn to as Hill states “define themselves”
Before seeing Julie Dash’s Daughter of the Dust the only knowledge of the Gullah I had was from a late 90’s tv show that came on Nick Jr. by the name of Gullah Gullah Island. Dash’s depiction of the Gullah people was drastically different from Nick Jr.’s . They both had a strong emphasis on the heritage and providing a strong bond amongst the family.
