All W(T)hat Power?
The people in power want to stay in power. Though simple, this logic has held true since the beginning of the first major empires. Pharaohs and Kings, scribes and seers, aristocrats, and noble man, and so on… These leaders all created power structures to again, keep themselves, their friends, and other people they deemed “worthy” in power. Though it might look a little different now, we still see it in our day to day. We see it in those suburban schools that are more than 80% white. We see it in the ordinances of homes written during residential segregation. We see it in prep schools we’ve probably never even heard of. And we see it in our families?
Slavery was not only and evil system where black bodies were forcibly taken and then sold into bondage. It was a system that lead to the creation of racial classes in across the world. The creation of race was used as a tool to excuse the enslavement of “lesser people”. And to make matters even worse, they then connected race to religion. White people believed that their place in the racial hierarchy they created was preordained due to their connection to God… as well as white Jesus. They used these as excuses to exercise their power over black bodies.
After America gained its freedom, the idea to free the enslaved people was thrown around. But, white people were afraid. They were afraid that the blacks would want revenge. Or better yet, they were afraid that the blacks would want the same powers as white men. This just couldn’t be ! So the then begins the first steps at proving that whites were superior, thus they needed to maintain power over the “cockroaches” as Francis Galton would later call us. Thomas Jefferson went as far as to say that black men and women were machine like. We didn’t need for food or sleep. We had not aptitude for creation, and a bunch of other dumb shit. But That’s a whole different story. Let’s stay on this idea of power.
We’ve seen the hoops White people have gone through to maintain the hegemony of white supremacy. We’ve seen how they’ve used religion & and created forms of science to “prove” the need for their dominance right? Well when black men finally gained freedom, they wanted the same thing.
The second black men gained freedom, they created avenues through which they could oppress black women. Whether it be through domestic abuse, or sexual domination, black men used the same tools white men has used to oppress them to oppress black women. Women were to be seen, and not heard. Women were supposed to be docile. They were supposed to serve their men. We see these depictions of black relationships in books like “Their Eyes are watching God” and later within “The Color Purple”.
At the times both “Their Eyes” and “The Color Purple” were written, they were viciously attacked by black male critics. People like Ralph Ellison argues that Zora had no positive representations of black men in her novel and that her writing was flat one dimensional. He was so upset by the book and it’s depiction of black men as oppressors that he used his influence to make sure Zora was never published again. He oppressed her. The same thing the men did in her novel, he did to her. He silenced her for being too proud.
On twitter, a video of a mom all but abusing her daughter as she does her hair came across dash.At first I was confused.But honestly, I can’t say I was surprised. On twitter, there’s been a lot of discourse around the dynamics of black motherhood. Most times, it’s great things. But often, the argument that black moms treat their sons better than their daughters comes up. Some people have compared this problem to mothers feeling like they are “in competition” with their daughters. I remember one user writing about an experience where her mom was upset that she would wear “short shorts” to the pool around her husband, the woman’s dad… And this conversation reminded me of a convo I had with my professor.
Prof.Phillips pretty much said that once black men got their freedom, they used that power to oppress black women. It wasn’t because they were inherently evil.. And it wasn’t out of hate. They oppressed black women to hold onto/create any type of power they could. They wanted to emulate their oppressors.
In the comments for the video, a lot of African people had agreed with the sentiment that because African mothers cants reprimand their husbands for hurting them, they take the anger out on the children. To me, this makes a lot of sense. If you’re a woman, you have little to no agency. So as a black woman, it is even worse. It seems like some black moms are actively taking out their anger on their children instead of either the societal pressures causing them to be upset, or their children’s father. Women are asserting their power on the only people lower than them on the pyramid of stratification, their children.
The problem is that this isn’t just the fault of men, or really even the women perpetrating these acts (in a way). People with power will always use said power to assert their dominance over the people who don’t.If the power is being rich, we oppress the poor. If the power is being white, we don’t accept the blacks. This is why a lot of cishet people actively attack LGBTQ+people. They want to have power over someone’s life. They want to make sure that people know about their power.
And in regards to some black women, I believe that said oppression is tied to the way they treat their children. Their child is the only thing they may have power over. So they use said power abuse them into submission.
Again, this is a sweeping generalization of a very complex subject. I would need more than a few stories on twitter as well as more than a page of space to talk about something as complex as this. But, the main idea is that people look for those weaker to them to exert their dominance over. And in a lot of black families (it seems), the mom’s are exerting their dominance over their children.
