It is hard being black in America and even harder to be a black woman in America. Black women encounter more scrutiny and backlash than any other minority group. We are constantly portrayed as the “angry black women” any time we speak on the oppressions that we face. Being a black woman in America, I have noticed that I am faced with completely different challenges than any other race and gender. I have been conditioned to follow societal norms such as how to wear my hair, not to use black vernacular when I am not at home, and even how to dress. This is a common occurrence throughout the entire black community. Generations after generations of black people have had to learn similar things as a way of survival. After doing the reading, I have
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Be that as it may, there were women slaves and Harriet Jacobs does a great job depicting the brutality and struggles that black women endured during slavery in her narrative “Incidents in the Life of a slave Girl.” In the narrative she writes about several instances in her childhood where double consciousness is used . The first example I came across was the fact that she did not know she was a slave until she was six years old. Once her father died, she was made to weave together flowers with his dead body within a mile of her and their master could not care any less because he was property. Before he died, he taught his children to “feel that they were human beings”(438). Her parents used the concept of double consciousness to shield their children from the harsh reality of being a …show more content…
In chapter 7, The Lover, Dr. Flint has just forbade Harriet from marrying a free black man simply because he can and he does not believe black people have any feelings to even possibly know what love means which upsets Harriet. While they are arguing, Dr.Flint say “Do you know that I have a right to do as I like with you, that I can kill you if I please?”( 445). In this line he believes that he is asserting his dominance as slave master. However, in chapter 10, A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life, Harriet challenges his belief by allowing the attention and getting pregnant by a white man who was eloquent, educated and unmarried. Jacobs knew that this would upset Dr.Flint more than anything. She
Be that as it may, there were women slaves and Harriet Jacobs does a great job depicting the brutality and struggles that black women endured during slavery in her narrative “Incidents in the Life of a slave Girl.” In the narrative she writes about several instances in her childhood where double consciousness is used . The first example I came across was the fact that she did not know she was a slave until she was six years old. Once her father died, she was made to weave together flowers with his dead body within a mile of her and their master could not care any less because he was property. Before he died, he taught his children to “feel that they were human beings”(438). Her parents used the concept of double consciousness to shield their children from the harsh reality of being a …show more content…
In chapter 7, The Lover, Dr. Flint has just forbade Harriet from marrying a free black man simply because he can and he does not believe black people have any feelings to even possibly know what love means which upsets Harriet. While they are arguing, Dr.Flint say “Do you know that I have a right to do as I like with you, that I can kill you if I please?”( 445). In this line he believes that he is asserting his dominance as slave master. However, in chapter 10, A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life, Harriet challenges his belief by allowing the attention and getting pregnant by a white man who was eloquent, educated and unmarried. Jacobs knew that this would upset Dr.Flint more than anything. She