In Addison Gayle Jr.’s “Cultural Strangulation” he analyzes literature through history and how it affects the representation and understanding of the black aesthetic. Gayle acknowledges the existence of the white Aesthetic was a major prominent in early literature. This is shown when Gayle states that in literature that was created in early Greece specifically In The Symposium, Plato divides the universe into spheres. In one sphere, the lower, one finds the forms of beauty; in the other, higher beauty (102, Gayle Jr.) This set the stage for one the understanding that the that there had to be a race in which was superior to the other. This also reflects on the Fanon’s idea that because the black man was inferior he can only see his beauty the
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Though the white Perspective on whiteness is important to understand the Black perspective on blackness is also important to understand. Gayle also analyses literature written by black writers such as Paul Laurence Dunbar. When Gayle analyses Dunbar he realizes that Dunbar didn’t write about the Black experience. Gayle determines that black writers only write about the black experience when advised by white liberals, Dunbar’s approach to the experience only portrayed the experience in terms of buffoonery, idiocy, and comedy. This approach that was also used by a lot of black writers (105, Gayle Jr.). The fact that when the black experience was written by black writer’s black people were only represented as comedy because the highlighted characteristic of idiocy and buffoonery. Black writers can only write literature that reflects on literature in which they have seen throughout their history. Black people only represented themselves as being something of comedy in literature because the white aesthetic enforced the image that black people are ugly and stupid. Gayle explains that accepting the phrase “Black is Beautiful “is the first step in the deconstruction of the white aesthetic. He also encourages that Black critics must dig beneath and find the underlying beauty in the black experience to discover the true beauty in which is hard to see because of historical conditioning and cultural deprivation. (106, Gayle Jr.). Gayle shows that Dunbar ideology of expressing the beauty of the black aesthetic is something in which is rarely found. He expresses that the discovering of historical conditioning and cultural deprivation will help for black writers to see beyond the white Aesthetic. Gayle analysis of literature portrays that the ideology of white is used to make black people incapable of seeing their true superiority,
Though the white Perspective on whiteness is important to understand the Black perspective on blackness is also important to understand. Gayle also analyses literature written by black writers such as Paul Laurence Dunbar. When Gayle analyses Dunbar he realizes that Dunbar didn’t write about the Black experience. Gayle determines that black writers only write about the black experience when advised by white liberals, Dunbar’s approach to the experience only portrayed the experience in terms of buffoonery, idiocy, and comedy. This approach that was also used by a lot of black writers (105, Gayle Jr.). The fact that when the black experience was written by black writer’s black people were only represented as comedy because the highlighted characteristic of idiocy and buffoonery. Black writers can only write literature that reflects on literature in which they have seen throughout their history. Black people only represented themselves as being something of comedy in literature because the white aesthetic enforced the image that black people are ugly and stupid. Gayle explains that accepting the phrase “Black is Beautiful “is the first step in the deconstruction of the white aesthetic. He also encourages that Black critics must dig beneath and find the underlying beauty in the black experience to discover the true beauty in which is hard to see because of historical conditioning and cultural deprivation. (106, Gayle Jr.). Gayle shows that Dunbar ideology of expressing the beauty of the black aesthetic is something in which is rarely found. He expresses that the discovering of historical conditioning and cultural deprivation will help for black writers to see beyond the white Aesthetic. Gayle analysis of literature portrays that the ideology of white is used to make black people incapable of seeing their true superiority,