The New Negro Man

What I found most disturbing about the Patterson reading was the description of the perceptions of black men after slavery and reconstruction. The writings on the "savage black man" raping "geteel white women" are a creation. They do not seem to be based in any sort of truth, nor is there evidence to back up these claims. The claim that "without the paternalism of slavery, the 'new negro' or 'real negro' showed his ineluctable evolutionary legacy" (Patterson 54) is a justification for slavery and control. What I find interesting about this assertion is the focus on sex and being sexual in relation to black men and women. Furthermore, it is painted as something bad, dirty, depraved, animalistic. And it is seemingly used as a justification for why people believed whiteness was superior-- white was pure and white didn't have sex. White women were "genteel" and innocent. But by default of their race, black men and women weren't.

The New Negro Woman's Expectations

Not only did the New Negro Woman have to concentrate on female liberation, her goals went way further. "Unlike the privileged white version of the New Woman, a New Woman who was built upon and then evolved beyond her mother's position, what Caroll Smith Rosenberg calls the "new bourgeois matron" (245) this "real new woman" has had to divorce herself from the "stain and meanness" of her past" (61). The real new woman has succeeded "as if by magic" in "lifting" herself from the legacy of the painful struggle endured by previous generations. The New Negro woman is expected to inspire and participate in racial protest against Jim Crow and also show racial progress for the nation. However, the new Negro woman isn't always shown as accomplishing these tasks. The New Negro woman is expected to share her history on her own. An essay by Adams shares her in the domestic sphere, rather than depicting her struggles. At the end of this essay the new Negro Woman is shown as beautiful, which is a fine representation. However, her voice is not shining. The "Gussie" figure is created which is "an admirer of fine art, a performer on the violin and piano, a sweet singer, a writer-a lover of good books, etc. Images of the respectable and ideal new Negro Woman is depicted in this essay. I find it troubling how they are creating this what is "civilized" image through the text. I am just wondering how can we best understand the Negro Woman if her history isn't illuminated?

The American Dreamer

When I first started reading The Street I immediately thought of environmental impacts on characters. Is Lutie able to escape the "product of your environment" argument with her ambitions for the American Dream? This novel reminds me so much of Richard Wright's Native Son, one of my favorite novels. Lutie tries to bring Bub up out of the life she feels white people want for him, like all other young black males. This novel already brings up questions of Nature vs. Nurture, the realities of the American Dream, and the options open to women, especially black women, during this time and even today.

Part 1 of The Street

What struck me the most during the first part of The Street was the notion of the sexual black or foreign woman.  Lutie is extremely conscious of her "blackness", and this blackness is a large factor in how others (especially white people) perceive her female sexuality. Lutie realizes that white people see her as a type of sexual predator, and jealously among the white women raise Lutie's awareness of this. This stereotype, combined with Lutie's living situation, is very dehumanizing. Lutie's realization of this dehumanizing environment propels the novel in a positive and evolving manner; at the end of chapter three, Lutie ignores Mrs. Hedges' offer to Lutie about prostituting herself for a white man's money, and instead goes to buy herself a drink.

This first part of the novel illustrates how inseparable race, class, and gender really are. I cannot recall previously reading a novel where a minority protagonist was so conscious about the factors that impact the environment that she lives in. Lutie's awareness and realizations, however, make the novel a rather bleak one, and represent the realities of how different the challenges were of a white New Woman and a black New Women. It seems that Lutie fully symbolizes the black New Woman, and finds that she has to prove herself in different and more difficult ways than the white woman does.

The Street

Part one of the street was very interesting because I felt Luties characters was strong she was going against all the odds education and other things. Also in the first part there was a quote which was brought up more than once  "It's best that the man do the work when the babies are young. And when the man is young. Not good for the woman to work when she's young. Not good for the man" pg 33 first time it was said. I actually liked this quote because I feel like it is very true and show that a change was coming for women

The New Negro Women

This theme of women and uplift has occurred within all of my classes this semester and, although rarely discussed, race played a very significant role. Even though in the beginning suffrage was not gained white women held more privileges than their black counterparts. While the "New Negro Women" was concerned with her rights and gaining more respect as a women she also had to deal with the set backs of her entire race. The white women had the privilege to fight for her own rights while the black women was still trying to gain basic rights for her family. Also, white men who supported white women had political agency, while the black man was still receiving political oppression even after gaining the  "right to vote."

Creative section in Voyage in the Dark

I still love the way the author connected things while describing the dream. With the 'fluids' being the water flowing through the sinking boat and engulfing everything, and the 'man overboard' representing the lost baby she will soon have, due to an abortion. All the visions shown, when thought about clearly, all connect either making the dream of a sinking boat, and just a sinking boat, or could be seen as a lady foreseeing an abortion she is about to have.