Survival of the Fittest
Given that Blacks are now and throughout American
history, judged by the standards of European puritanism, I cannot help but
wonder how the detribalization
experiences of slavery impacted Dr. Maya Angelou’s life, particularly as it
related to her decision-making in the raising of her son? Given her childhood
environment, a southern state where lynching of Blacks was prominent, she was effectively
taught that white is right and if you’re
Black, get back. Early in our readings of Dr. Angelou’s work in, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” we
discover seemingly insignificant hints of inferiority already ingrained in her very
young and developing mind. She speaks to a fairytale of one day awakening from
an ugly black dream. She writes, “Wouldn’t they be surprised when one day I
woke out of my black ugly dream, and my real hair, which was long and blonde,
would take the place of the kinky mass that Momma wouldn’t let me straighten”.
She goes on to elaborate on her standards of beauty as well as other aspects of
her culture such the food, in contrast to European standards.
Just as with the “A Girl Like Me
Doll Experiment,” Dr. Angelou viewed herself as inferior and ugly not only because
of what she looked like, but also due to the everyday life experiences in which
she saw her grandmother and uncle degraded and their unconsciously voluntary submission to
the mistreatment.
If given the opportunity to choose between a Black doll and a white doll
it seems clear that Maya would have opted to leave the Black doll lying lonely
and friendless on the table. She later, in chapter 15, referred to herself as
being, “like an old biscuit, dirty and inedible”. So how then could she see her
brother Bailey or her Uncle Willie any differently? Though she loved them, they
too were Black. Adding insult to injury, she witnessed her uncle reduced to climbing
his disabled body into a vegetable bin while attempting to hide from the man. Although
Mrs. Flowers was there to give her different perspectives, I believe Dr.
Angelou had to experience self-hate in order to appreciate herself once she
successfully pressed through the fire of self-discovery later in her life. But
even more than that, I believe she had to go through it in order to understand
the need to protect the Black child she would later have.
Ms. Chimamanda Adichie spoke in the video “The Danger of a Single Story” about the
potential results of being aware of only one perspective of a people or a place
in the world. When this happens it does a tremendous disservice to all parties
involved. She described for us the story of a man named John Lock who in his
writings during a 1561 voyage, referred to Africans as “beasts having no houses,
they are people without heads having their mouth and eyes in their breasts.” According
to Ms. Adichie, this is said to be the initial representations and tradition of
African stories which would go on to depict them as less human, less
intelligent and certainly very deserving of the discrimination they came to
bear at the hands of their oppressors.
Had
Maya’s ancestors never been torn from the shores of Africa, these things that
impacted her in such a negative way, she might not have experienced. Her beauty
and self-worth might have never come into question since the people around her
would have looked and sounded just like her, African and naturally beautiful.
Just as she wouldn’t have had to leave her son with someone she barely knew
while going off in search of work. (I am reminded that this might be true before colonial rule, but unfortunately,
as a result of said rule, hegemony and self-hate are alive and thriving on the
African continent as well. Remember,
most of Africa was not liberated from white colonial rule until the 1960s;
therefore the impact of whiteness is quite strong. (Per Professor Hines-Gaither)
In Maya’s recitation of her poem “The Mask”, she spoke of the “survival apparatus” and “the submission that makes our world go round”.
Referring to a woman on the city bus who seemingly laughs at every
opportunity whether laughter is appropriate or not, Maya shines light on the
deep internal pain that the woman must be truly feeling. The burdens that
reside on the square of her back from the many years of having to smile rather
than cry in order to maintain employment. It is a sad but beautiful poem,
contrasting her “Phenomenal Woman” piece where in it she boldly asks the reader's why they envy her and is in their face with the diamonds and oil wells that she
embodies.
During our MLK march, (which was an event that I,
sadly, had never participated in before), I thought of what it must have felt
like for the individuals to march in the 1960’s not knowing from which
direction a rock would be thrown or a bullet might fly, tearing at the flesh of
the men and women who asked only to be treated equally and as fairly as any
other citizen in America. I found it somewhat shocking to discover that Dr.
Angelou not only encouraged but also permitted her son to participate in
movements that he believed in.
I thought of the incident where Maya was leaving the
United Nations demonstration and despite the horses that she feared so much,
she rescued a brother from potential injury. The stress and the tension in the
air had to have been both deafening and numbing.
Prior to Blacks being stripped of their culture, Guy
would have marched with his father and Maya would have stayed in the village
with the other women and children. So
it's worth contemplating whether or not the Black males position was so
compromised by the 1960’s that the Black woman felt the need to march during
the Civil Rights movement rather than stay at home or at church with the other
women. Perhaps because so many of the men were afraid to risk being further
degraded or reduced to death. As a result of Willie Lynch and his technique
that required the slave to have a rope tied to each body part and then have
horses tear them limb from limb as other slaves looked on.
I couldn’t help noticing the word choices of some of
my fellow classmates during this Women’s Studies course both Black and white alike.
One presentation involved the notorious literary figure, Bull Conner. At the
conclusion of the presentation which in general, depicted how oppressive his
views were and how violently brutal his commands were, he was described as
“honorable” because the presenter said, “he was a “great speaker”. Totally
disregarding the fact that he was a man who genuinely hated the Black race and
who did everything in his political power to derail the work of the Civil
Rights Movement. I am of the opinion that she in all of her arrogance justified
his position and the absurdity of oppression that he stood for.
In conclusion, it would appear that because the
backbone of the Black male had been systematically severed, leaving Black homes
fragmented that Dr. Angelou had to instinctively apply the survival apparatus throughout her life in each difficult situation.
As a single mother of a Black male it was fight or flight and she had to
fulfill both the mother role as well as the father role for her son Guy.
Some of us are hopeless romantics. I hopelessly await
the time when Black men will, despite the many overwhelming obstacles which
result in the castration of their masculinity, commit to loving themselves and
supporting their families as God so intended. I believe that we as Black women
are lonely and lost until that time, remaining in survival mode, for what has been for far too long.
Work Cited
Angelou, Maya. Poem The
Mask. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT9y9HFHpU0
Angelou, Maya. I Know Why
the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Barnes and Noble
2001
Goodwin, Carter. Mis-Education
of the Negro. Tribeca Books
1933
Chimamanda Adichie: The
danger of a single story http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=D9Ihs241zeg
