African American and Feminist Theory

 

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in 1797 and seperated from her parents as a child, then sold to a succcession of owners who expolited her unusual strength. She seized her freedom in 1826, and in 1843 she became convinced that God had called on her to “testify of the hope that was in her,” and hoped that others, regardless of color or condition, could experience the enlightenment she now felt. Truth worked tirelessly on several civil rights fronts and in the summer of 1851 during a women’s rights convention, Truth took the stage to defend the dignity of women. Her speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” refutes the stereotypes and theological attacks against women by ministers, white men and women, and even black men with the use of the rhetorical question- “and ain’t I a woman?” in order to redefine gender assumptions and categorize women as one colorblind front in the united fight for equality.

When analyzing this speech through African Amerian criticism theory, double consciousness has an important impact. The white leaders of the women’s equality movement trembled on seeing a tall, stern black woman march deliberately into the church. White women were hesitant to associate the fight for equality for women with the abolition movement; they believed it would dilute the fight for women. However, when Truth spoke, she addressed all women as an undivided, united front because if women do not have equal rights, they are still in a state of slavery regardless of race. Truth demanded, “I want it root and branch destroyed.” She incorporates this metaphor to display the relationship between racism and sexism. The roots represent enslavement, a mindset that some people are fundamentally better and more entitled than others. The branches represent gender inequality and enslavement of African Americans. The rooted issue that people believe one way of being human is better than another is what produces these toxic conditions and inequalities.

Double consciousness refers to the idea that to be black in a white society means white people fail to see you as equal. This then distorts black people’s vision of themselves but on a much smaller scale. White racism installs itself in the mind but this internalized racism enables black people such as Truth to see the possibility of change in the future much more clearly. Double consciousness is somewhat a gift as black leaders such as Truth have a clearer understanding of society in ways that white people can never fathom. Truth ascertains that society will fail to achieve true, sustained freedom unless we destroy the problem at the root. Truth forces her audience to recognize that these issues are connected and must be conquered simultaneously when she says, “So I am for keeping the thing going while things are stirring; because if we wait till it is still, it will take a great while to get it going again.” She uses metaphors and broadens her audience to all women in order to make the claim that the fight for women’s rights and abolition go hand in hand as masters and victims will still exist in different forms in we don’t go after the root.

Along the lines of feminist critisim, women are still fighting to discredit traditional gender role assumptions. Men are seen as rational, strong, protective, and decisive; women are seen as emotional, weak, nurturing, and submissive. The use of Truth’s question, “and ain’t I a woman?” is used to give women a sense of independence and autonomy, redefining what it means to be a woman at the time and drawing attention to gender oppression. Truth begins her speech with a physical comparison between her six foot self and a man. She claims, “I can carry as much as any man, and can eat as much too, if I can get it.” First of all, Truth declares that not only is she strong but her labor capacity is equal to a man’s. Her ending comment regarding food is inherently important to the fight for women’s equality. She is implying that slavery was significantly harder for women due to their limited access to basic human necessities such as food– so how do women not deserve equal rights? Another way in which Truth presents her case to eradicate gender stereotypes is through her references to religion. Truth questions, “And how came Jesus into the world? Through God who created him and a woman who bore him. Man, where is your part?” Truth is implying that women are a necessity to procreate and survive. Women were essential to the birth of Jesus Christ. She uses this question to refute religious attacks on women. Although Truth understands that Eve caused man to sin, she questions why women are not given a second chance to make things right in the world. Truth incorporates religion to debunk the degrading assumptions made by ministers and white Christians in order to redefine women’s status before God and call on a woman’s importance in the creation of life, for women are just as valuable in this world as men are.

Unable to read or write, Truth asserted, “I cannot read a book, but I can read the people.” She is refuting the stereotype that she is less intelligent because she is a black woman by changing what it means to be intelligent. In Truth’s attempt to disprove stereotypes concerning women, she also makes a revolutionary argument regarding the pathological delusion of men feeling superior to women. Truth asks, “If woman have a pint, and man a quart- why can’t she have her little pint full? You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much,- for we can’t take more than our pint’ll hold.” Truth incorporates this metaphor to expose and question the insecurities of men. She pushes her audience to recognize that delegating equal rights to women does not in any way hinder a man’s capacity to be free. She suggests that women are at a disadvantage when it comes to men and the opportunity to be free. She puts into question why women can’t have access to rights when they are currently living in a male dominated society. This patriarchal ideology that men are more entitled to power influences one’s identity and experiences so strongly and it is through this metaphor that Truth is able to dispute such harsh beliefs.

Sojourner Truth’s speech, scarcely more than three hundred words, punctuated by ordinary metaphors and a shrewdly simple argument for women’s rights, revolutionized the involvement of black women in the pursuit of gender equality. Black feminists such as Truth have analyzed the ways in which gender oppression cannot be understood apart from racial oppression. Lois Tyson stated in Critical Theory Today, “African American feminists have been especially helpful in revealing the political and theoretical limitations inherent in white mainstream feminists’ neglect of cultural experience different from their own” (106). The only way in which society can be free is if we understand these issues at their root and combat them on a united front, because slavery will continue to prosper in different forms if equality is not obtained on every level.