Difference between revisions of "328 2010--Week 8 Questions/Comments"
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(→Excerpt from "Passing" by Nella Larsen) |
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The negative stereotypes associated with African Americans really stands out in this passage and I think they are important to emphasizing why an African American would consider "passing." They include African Americans being poor, domestic servants, charity cases, promiscuous, and inferior to whites. Even if they were hard-working or good people, African Americans had to overcome some rather harsh stereotypes. I can definitely see trying to "pass" as a white and living with less trials as tempting. On another note, Clare having to hide her race, and being able to, made me think of the light skinned black models on the magazine covers we looked at in class. While they were clearly appealing to African American audiences, I feel like the magazines were putting out a message that said "being white is where it is at!" So, perhaps light skinned black women did try "passing" as whites by downplaying their color and race? I am sure make-up made that feat much easier. -- CBrau | The negative stereotypes associated with African Americans really stands out in this passage and I think they are important to emphasizing why an African American would consider "passing." They include African Americans being poor, domestic servants, charity cases, promiscuous, and inferior to whites. Even if they were hard-working or good people, African Americans had to overcome some rather harsh stereotypes. I can definitely see trying to "pass" as a white and living with less trials as tempting. On another note, Clare having to hide her race, and being able to, made me think of the light skinned black models on the magazine covers we looked at in class. While they were clearly appealing to African American audiences, I feel like the magazines were putting out a message that said "being white is where it is at!" So, perhaps light skinned black women did try "passing" as whites by downplaying their color and race? I am sure make-up made that feat much easier. -- CBrau | ||
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| + | ==Women of the Ku Klux Klan== | ||
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| + | I do not think that these women necessarily hated the races that the KKK targeted or necessarily wished them harm, but they probably felt threatened by the large waves of immigrants coming in to America in the early twentieth century. These immigrants were coming in to America in large numbers and practically taking over the job market. And like we learned in class, these women were most likely afraid of both their shrinking family size and the white race. Of course, the race was not dying out, but it certainly seemed like it with all of the other races that either continued to have many children and or just seemed to be everywhere. In reality, I believe that the KKK offered white women a place to come together and feel like a unified race in an American that was suddenly becoming filled with so many different races. -- CBrau | ||
