WK 10 Post

I took a really dope class this quarter, mom. The class is Racial Identity in American Imagination. This course explored the ways that racial identity has been experienced, represented and contested throughout American history. We discussed the lives of Sally  Hemings, black women and men who participated in the great migration, and latinx Americans, and Asian individuals and their experiences in this country. While I was very intrigued by every conversation that took place in class, I’ve been really interested in our discussions about blackness and what it means to be black in America.
We read a short article by Toni Morrison “ On the Backs of Blacks” and in this article Morrison discusses the idea that blacks are in fact the “real immigrants”  in the United States and that being black in America means that you are of the lowest rung of the racial hierarchy and the names of immigrants. Reading this article, along with other books from the class, raised several questions for me. What is blackness?  What is wrong with being black? Why has blackness been demonized in this society? I am not sure of what the answers to these questions are, but they could lie somewhere in the answers to issues of colorism that exist. Why is it that the first black people to have some clout in American society were either mixed race or lighter skin black? I think once we explore these questions, we can get into bigger questions regarding the dynamics of race and blackness in America. May be then we will be able to make tangible efforts toward equality for blacks.


Talk soon,
MF

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