Instruction
What do we learn from writers and the works they produced? How do these writers address social, cultural, economic, and political issues that impact Africana communities? Moreover, what were these writers response to racism, sexism, classism, discrimination, homophobia, racial discrimination, segregation, mass incarceration, voting rights, unemployment, income inequity, poverty, access to equal education, unethical medical practices, lack of equal access to health care, gentrification, voting rights, Civil Rights, Human Rights, White mob violence of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Black on Black violence, and the police shootings of countless African Americans? What solutions do they offer to combat these issues? And how do these writers “challenge us to self-examine our own perceptions of race, class, and sexuality prejudices” that we may hold?
After observing Mary Prince’s Enslavement Narrative, and Frances Watkins Harper’s poem, “The Slave Mother”, students are to discuss what life was like for enslaved Black women. What do we learn from their works about enslavement and the treatment of Black women that they faced within this peculiar institution? What occurred during the auction block? How were families broken up? How was Black motherhood and womanhood attacked? Did enslaved Black women have ownership of their children? How was the Black female body used, controlled, and assaulted, by the male White plantation owner or enslaver? What was the relationship and power dynamics between the enslaved Black woman and the enslaver White man during enslavement? Students need to point out how the Black woman has attempted to resist this form of control and sexual oppression. Towards the end of this essay, students need to talk about how the legacy of slavery has transferred into today’s society? For instance, students can address the exploitation, denigration, fetishism, and objectification of Black women’s bodies extending into the entertainment industry (modeling for fashion and beauty magazines), and the film industry (movies and television shows), in the present day. Furthermore, students need to discuss how Black women have rebelled and fought back against these forms of sexual oppression in the entertainment and film industry, as well as how Black women are empowering themselves and others through creative and artistic forms of resistance. Or, if students do not want to end their' Final essay this way, they can be creative in deciding how to finish or make their own conclusions. For example, students can discuss how Black feminists and Womanists have written work on liberating Black women, Black femininity, and fighting against patriarchy, sexism, exploitation, denigration, fetishism, and objectification of Black women’s bodies. Try to capture “the continuum of Black women’s experience” (Temple 193, 2018). Please rely on the text and outside sources as evidence to support any claims made. Once again, students can incorporate similar works that mirror and compliment the readings we covered in class, in order, to help students elaborate further on their ideas in their’ Final Essays. For example, some additional readings are as follows for topic 3: Charlotte Forten Grimke’s Journals, Harriet Jacob’s Autobiography, and any of Harper’s poems, such as, “The Slave Auction”, or “Bury Me in a Freeland”, etc., which any of them will prove useful in completing the Essay.