One of the things we know about reading is that we always read from our own perspective. This became clear to me last night when our local library book club discussed the book Glorious by Bernice McFadden. One of the main events in this book happens during the Harlem Renaissance. Easter, the main character, has written an outstanding novel, but her white benefactor steals the novel and enters it as her own in a writing contest. Easter also enters the same novel in the contest. The judges know that one of these women has stolen this novel and they ultimately choose to publish it under the white woman's name. Easter does not fight for her right to "own" this writing. The white women in my book club were outraged that she is not standing up for herself. The black women and I felt that Easter could not stand up for herself at that time in history and she knew no one would believe her. It was astounding to me that the whites could not understand how oppressive it was (and maybe still is) to be black in the 1930s, how beat down Easter was by her encounters with white people (some of which are described in detail in this book) and how she knew she could not fight the system.
We spent at least 30 minutes going round and round with the discussion and the final word from one of the white women was: She just needed to get a lawyer! As I stated at the beginning: we read from our own perspective. It was clear that we all saw this novel from very different perspectives!
I had the same reaction when I read Glorious with some other white friends. I'm black so it was difficult to hear from women I liked how little they understood about America's history.
ReplyDeleteThey just don't get it. What happened to walking a mile in my moccasins??????
ReplyDeleteA person who has never been oppressed, abused nor taken advantage of may not be able to comprehend the utter helplessness of Easter’s position. People have a survival instinct which tells them when a situation is hopeless or even dangerous (i.e. battered women). I’m sure Easter had been conditioned all her life to understand how unproductive it would be to fight a white woman in America in much of the 20th century and before.
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