DCH to DGW

Dear Deborah Gray White,

I’ve recently read the your wonderfully written introduction, “Revisiting Ar’n’t I a Woman?” I thought it was a poignant way to begin the Revised edition. I especially appreciate your commitment to acknowledge more recent scholarship about African-American women, their enslavement and oppression, as well as the origins of “Ar’n’t I a Woman?” It is not easy to go back over previous writings and assertions and admit where ideas may have not been fully illuminated. I, and other readers and historians, greatly appreciate you doing just that in this introduction. 

Black women experience a different kind of racism than Black men, and a different kind of sexism from White women. I of course agree greatly, and I find much of the argument and evidence you put forth very compelling. Additionally, the focus on African-American women’s quite personal sacrifices, particularly regarding sexuality, is incredibly powerful. This focus allows humanization of Black women, rather than a more physical or economic analysis. 

I do have a few questions relating to specific ideas outlined “Revisiting Ar’n’t I a Woman?” You write that enslaved Black women celebrated resistance to White men and women. That fighting off a would-be rapist was celebrated, and that heroism was seen as a feminine trait. I wonder if you can’t expand on this idea a bit more? How successful and pervasive was this celebration? Didn’t such celebration worsen eventual punishment for the enslaved women? As described in my essay “Rape and the Inner Lives of Black Women in the Middle West,” I believe African-American women created a culture of dissemblance around which to center their survival. This culture of dissemblance allows them to break away from stereotypes, become invisible, and appear open while remaining unreadable. Was there a transition from the brazen heroism you described to this culture of dissemblance? Or maybe you’d like to make the case that they are not disparate concepts? 

Your analysis of how Black women relate to and with Black men and White women clearly identifies and acknowledges the difference in experience of each group. Your characterization of the relationship between White women and Black women drew attention to the racism that White women benefit from. I also wonder if you see the same or similar situation between Black men and Black women. Certainly Black men also benefit form the sexism that Black women face from all races. In what ways do you see Black men benefitting from sexism? And how does that complicate Black women’s relationship to Black men?

Thank you for your time and thank you for you work.

Best,

Darlene Clark Hine