Good day.
In this essay, we will analyze instances of the unjust treatment of blacks in the book Kindred, chapter "The Fall". The first case of discrimination against blacks in "The Fall" was implied when Edana talked about how Kevin was likely better protection for her than freedom papers would have been when she said, "[...] He was probably better protection for me than free papers would have been [...]". This is quite sinister because it implies that Edana might have been seized, or worse, regardless of whether or not she was holding freedom papers. Such an act of reckless discrimination, marginalization, and oppression against blacks was far from inconceivable, given the cultural context.
The next case of unjust discrimination was when Rufus first saw Kevin and asked him, “Does Dana belong to you now?”, to which Kevin explained Edana was his wife. When Rufus learned of that, Rufus exclaimed, “Niggers can’t marry white people!” This clearly demonstrates another way black people were marginalized and discriminated against in society. It creates the impression that white people are the norm, and black people belong to a sub-class under society in which they are restricted from assimilating with whites because white people are necessarily better.
In the same scene, another act of unjust treatment of black folk is observed when Rufus says, “What’s the use of saying all that?", after Edana politely told Rufus not to call her "nigger", but instead call her, "black or Negro or even colored.” If I recall, Edana actually already had this same conversation with Rufus before. However, to be fair, that must have been years ago from the perspective of Rufus, and he may have forgotten about it and fallen back into the loop of referring to black people as "niggers". He seemed to have had a frustration about black people, evidenced when he muttered, “You damn black …”, at Edana, despite the fact that they used to be on fine terms.
For the next while, Edana was living in a position of unfair treatment, as she was forced by societal pressure to act like she and Kevin weren't married, lest they incur skeptical looks and confused reactions. The whole time Edana was around other people, specifically around Tom Weylin, there was an oppressive feeling against her and other black folk, as though Edana was not allowed to talk or do anything, let alone associate with Kevin on account of her race & status. We did not explore the entirety of the chapter, as this is all we have time for for now, but we did get a very good picture of the way black people were marginalized and mistreated in the slave south.
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Blog 1 Assignment -- Analysis of Unjust Treatment Of Slaves
Hello.
The topic that we chose for this blog assignment is the physical, mental, and systematic abuse of slaves. In particular, we will be exploring the many different ways that slaves experienced abuse, and also analyze and consider how much the punishment of slaves was actually associated with bad behavior on the part of the slaves. We hypothesize that slaves really were punished according to the consequences of bad behavior, at least as slave owners saw it, at least a majority of the time -- otherwise, it would hardly have made any sense for so many people to give slaves such harsh and unjust treatment and apparently get away with it.
The unfair treatment begins in the first part of "The River". The woman who sees Edana, the protagonist, after Edana saves her son immediately starts accusing Edana of having killed her son, and hits her, albeit apparently weakly. Then, a man comes outside and aims a gun at Edana. It could be argued not to be unfair because, as was pointed out in the book, to the woman, it almost just looked like some strange foreign woman was standing around with a drowned boy. The man came out with the gun because times might not have been as clear and safe as they are today.
Rufus, a white boy, was initially seen calling Edana a "nigger", as though it's just a common term. If I'm not mistaken, the term "nigger" is supposed to be considered offensive or demeaning. Rufus said his mom always casually refers to black folk as "niggers", which might be considered unfair. However, it might also be viewed as, yes, casual, because some people have referred to each other as "niggers" not unlike how some people refer to each other as "fool", "fucker", or "bloke". It seems to me that the boy just calls black people "niggers" just because that's what so many other people are doing.
As we read in "The Fire", Rufus did show Edana the beating bruises and the whip scars on his back, so one cannot say the situation is just white slave owners constantly picking on black slaves, as it is seen that the white folk will also whip their own. It seems to me that slave owners were afraid that slave persons would not be very well behaved if there were no whippings, not unlike regular, everyday children, or police and criminals. White people got whipped and beaten for bad behavior, so slave persons should not be any different with regards to, it can be argued.
The worst episode of unfair treatment so far was in "The Fire", section 4, when a white man attempted to engage in sexual assault on Edana. This was clearly unfair. Edana hadn't done anything wrong at all when the man came in, insulted her, and proceeded to assault her and subsequently try to forcefully assault her with rape. Edana did fight back, but completely fairly and strictly in the retaliation of proper self-defense. It was extremely fortunate that Edana was able to land by a stick and knock out the assailant. Otherwise, who knows what sad relationship or even unplanned pregnancy she would have been so unfairly stuck with. God dang.
So as we can see, just as we hypothesized, most of the perceived unjust treatment of slaves was not completely unfair, since black people very well could have been strange, unpredictable foreigners or delinquents in need of consequences. However, it is evident that the abuse of power, or worse, perpetrated against the marginalized blacks was all too real a possibility in the dark, as seen in the attempted sexual assault of Edana.
The topic that we chose for this blog assignment is the physical, mental, and systematic abuse of slaves. In particular, we will be exploring the many different ways that slaves experienced abuse, and also analyze and consider how much the punishment of slaves was actually associated with bad behavior on the part of the slaves. We hypothesize that slaves really were punished according to the consequences of bad behavior, at least as slave owners saw it, at least a majority of the time -- otherwise, it would hardly have made any sense for so many people to give slaves such harsh and unjust treatment and apparently get away with it.
The unfair treatment begins in the first part of "The River". The woman who sees Edana, the protagonist, after Edana saves her son immediately starts accusing Edana of having killed her son, and hits her, albeit apparently weakly. Then, a man comes outside and aims a gun at Edana. It could be argued not to be unfair because, as was pointed out in the book, to the woman, it almost just looked like some strange foreign woman was standing around with a drowned boy. The man came out with the gun because times might not have been as clear and safe as they are today.
Rufus, a white boy, was initially seen calling Edana a "nigger", as though it's just a common term. If I'm not mistaken, the term "nigger" is supposed to be considered offensive or demeaning. Rufus said his mom always casually refers to black folk as "niggers", which might be considered unfair. However, it might also be viewed as, yes, casual, because some people have referred to each other as "niggers" not unlike how some people refer to each other as "fool", "fucker", or "bloke". It seems to me that the boy just calls black people "niggers" just because that's what so many other people are doing.
As we read in "The Fire", Rufus did show Edana the beating bruises and the whip scars on his back, so one cannot say the situation is just white slave owners constantly picking on black slaves, as it is seen that the white folk will also whip their own. It seems to me that slave owners were afraid that slave persons would not be very well behaved if there were no whippings, not unlike regular, everyday children, or police and criminals. White people got whipped and beaten for bad behavior, so slave persons should not be any different with regards to, it can be argued.
The worst episode of unfair treatment so far was in "The Fire", section 4, when a white man attempted to engage in sexual assault on Edana. This was clearly unfair. Edana hadn't done anything wrong at all when the man came in, insulted her, and proceeded to assault her and subsequently try to forcefully assault her with rape. Edana did fight back, but completely fairly and strictly in the retaliation of proper self-defense. It was extremely fortunate that Edana was able to land by a stick and knock out the assailant. Otherwise, who knows what sad relationship or even unplanned pregnancy she would have been so unfairly stuck with. God dang.
So as we can see, just as we hypothesized, most of the perceived unjust treatment of slaves was not completely unfair, since black people very well could have been strange, unpredictable foreigners or delinquents in need of consequences. However, it is evident that the abuse of power, or worse, perpetrated against the marginalized blacks was all too real a possibility in the dark, as seen in the attempted sexual assault of Edana.
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