First To See Daylight Summary

Our readings “I Was One of the First to See Daylight”: Black Women at Predominantly White Colleges and Universities in Florida since 1959 and Rape and the inner lives of Black women in the Middle West: Preliminary thoughts on the culture of dissemblance when are given major insight on African American women. These two articles represent to topics that continuously create barriers between African American women and success: education and society’s misconception of their sexuality. We will be discussing their experiences at Predominantly White Institution (PWI) as well as the role of rape and sexuality play in the way black women live their lives. The article “I Was One of the First to See Daylight”: Black Women at Predominantly White Colleges …show more content…
Black men have historically attended higher-ranked colleges, attained more graduate and professional degrees, and earned more positions with higher salaries than black women, however black women’s college attendance continues to surpass that of black men (pg. 56). This has had a major effect on African American women’s ability to find significant others. Many successful black women find it hard to find me who they believe are in their same class (this is with the assumption that they prefer to date men of their race). The black men who are going to are most likely to later be in the “suitable” class for these black women, however, the amount of black men are few. Also it is much harder for college educated black women because not only due they deal with the stigma many successful women deal with, but they also deal with the oppression of being black women. This includes the stereotype of black women as intellectually inferior and dealing race based sexual harassment and sexual violence against them. Sexual violence and the misconception of black women’s sexuality has been an issue in the United States for quite some time. During slavery African American women had to deal with sexual exploitation, rape, and stereotypes that had developed around them. In the reading, Rape and the inner lives of Black women in the Middle West: Preliminary …show more content…
This article states two key components of this understanding. African American women were sexual hostages and domestic violence victims in the south and did not contain the power to protect themselves (pg. 915). Even after slavery, white men still had the power to harm black women without consequence. Black women did not have their virtue protected like white women were. They were seen as sexual objects. This was their role in southern society, therefore, moving to the mid west would allow them to protect themselves. Secondly, women lack control over their productive and reproductive capacities and their sexuality (pg. 915). Black women wanted the right to make their own decisions regarding their life. The south was governed by the south racist southern ways of white men; therefore, laws and regulations did not represent the needs of African American women. In the United States African American women dealt (and continue to deal) with racial, economic, and gender discrimination. This caused black women to conceal themselves and their sexuality. Unfortunately, this left them open for even more criticizes and misrepresentation from mainstream society. Black women continued to be the back bone of their community, but bared hopelessness. “A secret, undisclosed persona allowed the individual Black woman to function…all while living within a clearly hostile white, patriarchal,