Week 3 Responses-O'Hare

"African American Women's History and the Metalanguage of Race"

In “African American Women’s History and the Metalanguage of Race,” Evelyn Higginbotham evaluates the factors of race and sex that have affected both the way that black women are treated in American society and the way in which Americans conceptualize and discuss their oppression. She successfully looks at a wide variety of sources and historical precedent to create a cohesive theory of “metalanguage” that encompasses multiple modes of oppression.

One of the strongest qualities of Higginbotham’s article is her acknowledgement and examination of the confusing aspects of the concept of race and the difficulties inherent in discussing it. In coining the “metalanguage,” she encourages and demands the reader to look critically at the subtle ways in which race affects daily language and life without necessarily being an overt topic of discussion or even being subconscious. Fundamental to this narrative of subtlety is her assertion that white feminism fails to consider race and gender as interrelated, arguing that for much of feminism’s history it has ignored differences in race that society as a whole determines as a separate issue.

Much of the success of Higginbotham’s article stems from her willingness to explore multiple different angles of her topic. Including analysis of the roots of metalanguage, racism, and sexism in slavery, the Civil War, segregation, and other, more specific topics like the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Higginbotham is able to construct a persuasive and effective narrative of the ways in which race is fundamental to the history of the United States and of black women, and therefore advocating for more research and more understanding of the interplay of race and sex in black women’s experience and in American culture in general.

"Critical of Compromise"

            In “Critical of Compromise,” Bianca Dang presents a character analysis of Henry McNeal Turner as a broad depiction of how the Emigration Movement emerged from the Reconstruction period as a potential course of action for Black Americans who rejected the United States or did not feel welcome. In her essay, Dang depicts Turner as a man who grows increasingly disillusioned with the American ideals of freedom and equality as he watches the progress of the Reconstruction amendments fizzle into effective unenforceability as segregation and Jim Crow take root. Using Turner as a representative of much of the sentiment of Black Americans in the postbellum period, she argues that emigration was not the first choice for the recently freed; rather they gave the United States a chance, and it failed them.

            Dang’s effective use of primary and secondary sources allows her to present a full portrait of Turner, including not just what he did but also what he said and believed. Without both, her paper would suffer from a lack of depth and analysis. As it stands, it is a very strong work in focused, critical, and thoughtful research. I found myself hoping to find as rich a historical topic to analyze from multiple directions as the slow growth of a political movement through the beliefs of one man. On one level, her essay could be improved by the addition of more analysis of historical factors that affected the emigration movement or Tuner’s life, such as Turner’s early life or the Reconstruction era, but in a focused piece such as this, breadth may necessarily be sacrificed for depth.

 "Don't Fuss, Mother, This Isn't So Fast"

Jennifer Ockelmann analyzes the emergent characteristics of the experience of young women in the 1920s in “Don’t Fuss, Mother, This Isn’t So Fast,” through the placement of three distinct types of primary sources into a broader historical context. Using advertisements, film, and fiction, Ockelmann presents an image not just of who the flappers were but also one of what the culture of the 1920s believed the flappers represented. By choosing to examine the contrast of modernity and modesty, Ockelmann is able to interpret and expand upon the sources for the reader to understand that being a flapper was a delicate balance of societal pressure, with paradoxical values forcing women to walk a fine line between standards of what they should or shouldn’t have been.

This essay benefits from a wide variety of sources, including an analysis of the actress Clara Bow to set the tone of the rest of the essay. Each type of source represents a different aspect of life in the 1920s, but also none of the sources truly express the thoughts and feelings of the average flapper. Instead Ockelmann focuses on how corporations, Hollywood, and male authors saw and affected flappers, which gives the reader a picture of the world these women navigated but does not completely describe who they were.

I found that Ockelmann analyzed and combined her primary sources with her background research extremely well. The paper clearly and effectively shows a specific culture and time period that is different yet related to those that came before it and those that came after. In particular, her use of advertisements as a means of gauging what was valued during the 1920s was intriguing and very well done. I hope to expand my source choice to include such unconventional sources that may not be the most commonly analyzed but can provide a distinctive and useful perspective.