Dear Ms. Brown,

I thought that your article, “What Has Happened Here,” was a truly eye-opening read. I loved how you explained such a complicated argument through the use of analogies like gumbo ya ya and jazz.

I appreciated your argument on how dependent the lives of women in different racial groups in America are on each other and saw truth in it. I think it shows how much of American history is based on the interactions between different groups in generaI. The European settlers would not have settled in America had it not been for their interactions with Native Americans. The colonial Americans would not have had the economy that they did without the free labor of black slaves. Americans would not have wanted emancipation from England had it not been for their interactions with the King. Often times, these interactions and their results are identified and acknowledged, but the relationship between white women and women of color does not get as much recognition.

If there were not women to accept the jobs of the domestic sector like nannies, maids, and housekeepers, then how would the 20th century white woman had able to pursue her career with as much intensity? If the white women had continued to stay at home and manage her household, what would the early 20th century woman of color do? The truth is that in the time period, it would have been much more difficult for the white career women to maintain their households and work because house maintenance took a lot more time back then. The second truth is that women of color moving to the north would have had much few options for work because of them had no formal educations.

It seems as if history books want to acknowledge how much white people needed black people to make America what it is today when it comes to slavery, but the second after we learn about the Emancipation Proclamation, we start learning about the separate lives of white people and black people. The only time the two groups are associated is when learning about the discrimination, segregation, and Civil Rights Movement.

I think it would be much more beneficial for more people to take the time and understand how the relationships between different racial groups continue to affect and influence one another through history to modern rather stopping abruptly around the 1960s. Maybe it would remind people that while people across all walks of life may live different lives, we are all still interconnected.

Sincerely,

Ruthie Lewis