Quest to the top, Blog post #4

When we think about the history of black people, it usually resumes to black men fighting white men to win their freedom. Few people actually know the role that the women played in that fight, and what the true meaning of it was. But fortunately Manning Marable's "The black Male: Searching Beyond Stereotypes" enlightens us. What seemed to be a mere fight for freedom had in fact a much more symbolic meaning than that, (for black people and white women alike). It was a fight against the white male supremacy. And the inner goal of that fight was to climb to the top of that social stratification (that Judith Lorber's "Night to His Day" was alluding to) where white men are first, followed by white women, then black men, and finally black women. (That quest for the top position has been with us since. The last famous one I can think of: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton for the post of US President. The Black guy and the white chick competing for the top position being held, until then, by exclusively white males).  Manning Marable lets us understand that most of the white women at that time were satisfied with their submissive situation, never questioning the judgement of the man in the family: "... the majority of white females viewed Black men through the eyes of their fathers and husbands" (18), which of course implies that they treated Black men like cattle. But the other part of white women wasn't so resigned and were ready to question the white male authority, which led to an alliance between white women and black men "in the battle against sexual and racial discrimination" (18-19) (which was in fact a battle against the white male supremacy. Removing "the king" from his throne was the main goal). That idea is supported, in Marable's reading, by the fact that as soon as the Fifteenth Amendment passed white women turned against Black men. They saw in that ascension of the Black men the potential danger of being outrun in that quest for the top position. As Marable says "it symbolized the political advancement of the Black male over white middle-class women" (19).  The Black men would have been better off doing an alliance with Black women, but as Manning Marable shows us, black women didn't win the favors of their husbands and sons. By sleeping (willingly or not) with white males or by being the "Matriachs" (20) of their families, Black women "psychologically castrated" (20) Black men. And yet, if it wasn't for the bravoure of some of them, such as Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks (or others that History has unfortunately forgotten) who inspired some influential balck men, the Black community wouldn't have accomplished what they've accomplished. As Manning Marable says: "Together..... they can achieve far more than they can ever accomplish alone" (23)

WORK CITED

Marable, Manning. "The Black Male: Searching Beyond Stereotypes". Men's lives, 5th ed. S Kimmel and Michael A. Messner, Ed. New York: Allyn & Bacon,  2001, 17-23, Print.