4th Response Paper

For the past week we have read some very interesting articles. My favorite was by my most inspirational person of all time Fannie Lou Hamer. I loved her speech “The Special Plight and the Role of Black Women”. It was very motivating and it lit a fire within my soul. Hamer said that the plight of black women has been going on for 350+ years, and the numbers have increased since this speech was written. What I love most about the speech is, it has a great sense of togetherness about it. She didn’t just talk about black women’s plight, but she denounced classism, racism, sexism, chauvinism. Hamer did a wonderful job with making the speech very personal. She talked about Sunflower, County and how the air was polluted and the children there suffer from malnutrition. She talked about how they moved a poor white family in with them. Fannie Lou did not care if you were black, white, green, or purple, she wanted to fight for equality for all individuals. I particularly like how she called white women and black men both out on their fallacies. No matter if women were from the north or the southing rich or poor she felt like she was better Then, she goes to say that she would never be free until she (the black woman) is free.  Although, I think my favorite of the speech is, “But you see now, baby, whether you have a Ph.D., D.D., or no D, we’re in this bag together. And whether you’re from Morehouse or Nohouse we’re still in this bag together.” She then goes on to say it is not the goal for black women to free themselves from black men, but to equally work together on the betterment of the race.

            Sweat is also one of my favorites. I think this would be a wonderful piece of literature to teach irony, because the story is so ironic. Here you have this sexist and chauvinistic man who beats his wife and cheats on her. I think this is similar to the present day oppression of women.  Black women go out and work to keep the house moving and going, and on top of all of that they still have to play the role of being a wife. And with all of that some of their husbands are emotionally abusive and often times physically abusive and even cheats. They would then have this optimistic perspective to them that keeps telling them that men will get what they deserve one day.  So many women are like this, but the question I ask is how many men do not get what they deserve one day or why do the women have to even put up with this. And I think this is parallel to the case of Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas. Here we have Anita Hill who is this very educated and successful African American women whose voice is almost stifled because she chose to come out and say that Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her. Here, you have black people saying that should not come and say anything because he had just been appointed. I do think that black people were wrong for saying this because every person should be held accountable for their actions, regardless of their position of power.