Behind Every Black Woman…
“The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.” — Malcolm X.
In Beyonce’s “Lemonade” visual album, this quote played while images of various black women from what can be presumed to be the South appear on the screen. Soon after this scene, the tune is “Daddy Lessons,” a song about Beyonce’s relationship with her father. Black men have been utilized often in the media we have studied this semester. The question I would like to explore is, why? It is a constant discussion in the Black community about the relationship between black men and women, black men and their children, and black men and their families. We see these relationships explored in much of the media from this semester. Where do we view these relationships presented in what we’ve read or watched? Have they been portrayed in a negative or positive light? How were these relationships used to highlight Black women’s issues and ways in which these issues could be diminished or, better yet, solved? From Sethe and Paul D learning to love each other, Beyonce’s father teaching her how to hold a rifle, and Barack Obama having a white cat hold his tongue, the black women whose media we have viewed have wonderfully used different types of black men and the way they interacted with the people around them to emphasize issues in the black community today.
There have been many different types of black men that we have seen this year. The most prominent one that comes to mind is Jay-Z, Beyonce’s husband. As is known, Beyonce created Lemonade to address the cheating scandal that occurred concerning Jay-Z and a mysterious “Becky with the good hair.”. But Jay-z is not the only man in Lemonade. One of the songs on the album is “Daddy Lessons’’. This southern-style song speaks about Beyonce’s relationship with her father, singing about the good and bad. It speaks of a man from an unforgiving place for black people who was a protector and a complicated man who taught his daughter to be strong; hence the lyric “… Daddy’s little girl, And daddy made a soldier out of me.”. Before this song plays, though, we begin with self-reflection and fatherhood in a scene with a young black man speaking about the new opportunities in his life.
In Morgan Parker’s “The President Has Never Said The Word Black,” Obama is discussed using a bit of a declaration on the inability to say a dark word that might land on white ears. Another black man we have seen this semester is Paul D from the book Beloved by Toni Morrison. Paul D a runaway slave like Sethe and an escapee prisoner who is both a source of stress and love for Sethe and her family. We seem to find a trend amongst all of these black men. One thing they all have in common is an internal battle — one that requires self, and maybe historical, reflection. But some won that battle. We see Jay-Z take responsibility for his actions and ask Beyonce for forgiveness. We listen to the young black man tell the camera that he is doing better and improving his life. Paul D learns to love Sethe and accept her. But with others, we can only wonder. We can only question why President Obama seemed unable to use such an important word. We wonder if Beyonce ever spoke with her father about how his parenting affected her. We wonder about how these issues reflect in the black community.
The artists and writers whose work we studied were very intelligent in the details they included in their works. In Lemonade, “Daddy Lessons” and the video with the young man speak to a couple of problems. Beyonce uses her father’s parenting to make light of the image of needing to be strong in the black community. Black children are raised being taught that they need to be able to protect themselves against a world bent on hurting them; hence Beyonce’s lyric “daddy made a soldier out of me”. Historically, we can see how this parenting could have been passed down from years of slavery, black folks fighting every day to stay alive. But, what we see with the young black man in the video before is a change in that narrative. We see him with his family smiling and laughing and him telling us about working to move forward to reach the goals he wants. As Rachel Kaadzi mentions in Pg. 20 of “The Weight”, the young man is trying to escape a “Black Death”. Beyonce and her team open a window to all black people and give them a chance to view their dreams instead of pushing a narrative of always needing to be strong and survive.
Morgan Parker’s poem about President Obama brings up issues of black erasure. One would hope that the President, being one of the most important figures in the world, would use that opportunity to highlight some problems. But that didn’t happen. Whether with good or bad intentions, Obama didn’t really speak on African-American challenges, and the storm of black erasure became much more prominent. Parker expertly uses blank spaces to call out black people in power who have the opportunity and power to speak up and yet don’t.
Toni Morrison, using Paul D, strongly addresses Black men and their relationships with family. Paul D was a man trying to find a safe place to survive and live happily. In Sethe, he saw what so many black women are going through, a woman with traumas from the past who was still taking care of herself and her family in a world working against her. As so many others tend to believe, he believed that Sethe needed a man in the house to take care of her, as can be heard in so many modern alpha male podcasts. Yet, that wasn’t the case. Sethe didn’t need anyone to take care of her. She needed someone willing to support her and be a shoulder to lean on when the present and past caused her pain that couldn’t be seen, and the scars that were hidden began to hurt again. Black women in America are born into a world that fights to scar them. Beyonce and so many others have been betrayed by men, especially black men, who should have been doing right by them. They’ve been left with the residue of the evils and separation that carries from black America’s past. Black people, especially black women, have to fight not to be erased from society’s eyes and history, even when that erasure is coming from within the community.
“The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.” — Malcolm X.
Since Africans were brought over from the motherland- suffering after suffering has affected the Black community. Within the media we’ve viewed, we see the dynamics between black men and the people important to them and how these dynamics can hurt or help Black relationships. The women whose works we have analyzed utilized these interactions to highlight so many issues we face in the black community in a captivating way that demands the analyzer take to heart and consider the message being conveyed. Behind every black woman should be a black man, whether father or brother, friend or lover, who is ready and willing to support her and help her through the endeavors of life.
