racialformationproject

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Ain’t I A Woman?

By Sojourner Truth

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about? That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman? Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full? Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him. If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them. Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say. [1]

In “Ain’t I A Woman”, Sojourner Truth emphasizes the struggle of being a woman, while also being Black. Born into slavery in 1797, but escaping with her daughter to freedom in 1828, Truth became an invaluable part in Black-American History as an abolitionist and women’s rights activist. “Ain’t I A Woman” was recited at the  Women’s Rights Convention held in Akron, Ohio, in 1851. Using her story and her experience, Truth exemplifies the ways that the Women’s Rights movement and the Black Rights movement fail Black women. In the poem, Truth discusses how men said that women could not have as many rights as men; they were not equals. Although this is true, women could still have some rights. This did not apply to black women as Truth questions “And Ain’t I A Woman”? She emphasizes that women were still held with some respect, but that respect and dignity was never given to her or any women with the color of her skin at that time. No one ever offered her a hand or heard her cries, but wasn’t she a woman as well? These two oppressions, of being a woman and being black in America, are seen as separate entities, but in “Ain’t I A Woman”, Sojourner Truth shows that they are intertwined in a way that is unmistakable in the life of a Black woman. 

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This piece is an exploration of the intersection of Black womanhood, motherhood, and enslavement. Faceless and without identity was the enslaved mother, treated as no more important than cattle. She was a product with the ability to produce more product, dehumanized with one of her most precious gifts commodified. Born from blood and pain, a broken vase - representing the destruction of the Black family - with tiny cracked pieces never intended to be put back together again.

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Harriet

by Lucille Clifton

harriet if i be you let me not forget to be the pistol pointed to be the madwoman at the rivers edge warning be free or die and isabell if i be you let me in my sojourning not forget to ask my brothers ain't i a woman too and grandmother if i be you let me not forget to work hard trust the Gods love my children and wait.

In the poem Harriet by Clifton she includes historical references from both Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth as she positions herself as the descendent of the strengths from the two. Clifton starts the poem, “harriet/ if i be you,” which demonstrates in the first words that she’s looking for connections between herself/the speaker and the figure of Harriet, whom she addresses directly through her use of AAVE. When incorporating Sojourner Truth, Clifton makes the reference more contemporary by asking the question of her “brothers,” or African American men, not of white women–as Truth did when she originally delivered her talk at a women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio in 1851. She then closes the poem by referring to her own direct ancestral line.  She connects her own grandmother to Tubman and Truth as key women whom she hopes to embody in her own present life.

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I, Too

by Langston Hughes 

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong.

Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table When company comes. Nobody’ll dare Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen,” Then.

Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

I, Too written by Langston Hughes is a cry against American racism. Its speaker is considered the other, a black man in a white society, and he laments the way he is excluded from said society, even though he is a key part. Through this, the speaker remains hopeful as he believes that Black people have and will persevere through these injustices by creating this vibrant, unique, and beautiful cultural tradition so compelling that the white society will eventually be pulled to recognize the contributions that African Americans have brought to the history and life of America.

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poem where I be & you just might

by Danez Smith

I am sitting next to you & you are not there you're a frameless heat, mass of ruptured air.

              to be clear, you are the spit & liver it takes to be human & I want it & I think you want me

              to have it all, but I know what it's like to be one of the few blacks

              for miles. I know what our people think about me, or maybe us. I know

              God's flaming eye, I stare into it always dying to blink, irises cracking like commandment stones.

              I get it.               I get it.

              &it might be how you say my name like a testimony

              or how I graze your hand &yours doesn't move, but my body

              made up a rumor about your body &wants to prove it true. forgive him.

Danez Smith is a Black, queer, non-binary, HIV- positive writer and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota. In this poem he is describing what it feels like to be Black and queer in a small midwestern town, and how the roads where the tensions between race, sexuality, and place have felt most palpable to him. He explains how those spaces, where one particular enclave of “your people” is so small, that any feared difference is subject to isolation and enough to shrink your network down from small to almost non-existent. 

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Who Said It Was Simple

by Audre Lorde

There are so many roots to the tree of anger   that sometimes the branches shatter   before they bear. Sitting in Nedicks the women rally before they march   discussing the problematic girls   they hire to make them free. An almost white counterman passes   a waiting brother to serve them first   and the ladies neither notice nor reject   the slighter pleasures of their slavery.   But I who am bound by my mirror   as well as my bed see causes in colour as well as sex and sit here wondering   which me will survive   all these liberations.

Audre Lorde’s, “Who Said It Was Simple”, describes the fight individuals continuously make to fulfill their own goals (ex. the rights of African Americans, women, sexual orientation... etc) but fail to take into account the voices and struggles of others. Lorde implies that the fight for equal rights is what “isn’t simple” in the “Who Said It Was Simple”, it becomes difficult because everyone has their own idea of what is right and these ideas will take paramount in their mind. For example, the white women in Nedicks (the restaurant in the poem) are completely unaware of the racism and world around them and are preoccupied with the issue of “the problematic girls they hire to make them free.” Lorde weaves a great tapestry made of separate oppressive systems and as the outspoken black lesbian mother of bi-racial children, she is able to pull from her own experiences when referring to racism, classism, and the illusion of heteronormativity in the poem.

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Racialization Playlist

This playlist is a culmination of black experiences, as well as recollections of previous struggles under the umbrella of race. Our song selection represents the concepts of racialization, racial alienation, and diasporan struggles. We have created a playlist comprised of different music genres that are rooted in black culture, like Hip Hop& R&B, Folk, and Soul. Songs like “FIND YOUR WAY BACK” and “Someday We’ll All Be Free” connect the concept of returning to the homeland, while songs like “Ebony And Ivory” and “The Story of O.J.” bring attention to the concept of racialization. The main themes throughout the playlist are how race has affected the way a person is perceived and how captivity and resettling in a new area has created a persistent mindset based on the idea of freedom and relief from oppression.

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Intersectionality.