Black Women as Sisyphus
Black Womanhood The Eternal Boulder Eternal Labor
In “Women, Race and Class The Approaching Obsolescence of Housework: A Working-Class Perspective,” Angela Davis explains the stereotypes of a “housewife.” The “housewife” in America is a family ideal that began in the post-colonial era: “woman as man’s eternal servant is itself a revealing story. Within the relatively short history of the United States, the “housewife” as a finished historical product is just a little more than a century old.” While Davis focuses on the necessity to pay for housework as the basis of all other labor, and the difference between “housewife” for black and white women, I am interested in the intersection of blackness and femininity.
Davis’ piece states that “sexual inequality as we know it today did not exist before the advent of private property,” linking capitalism and sexism. As can be seen, American capitalism and South African capitalism (as described in the piece) are based on racism. Thus black womanhood is in itself a form of labor. The combination of blackness and femininity is perverted through the system of capitalism. Therefore black women can not merely survive but must continuously be in a state of labor.
Labor for this article will be defined as follows: expenditure of physical or mental effort, especially when difficult or compulsory performed for wages or profits. The profit of black womanhood is not always monetary value (compensation), but rather a social profit, as small as being perceived as human. Due to racism and sexism, black women labor in the work field, home, and all other aspects of everyday life.
In terms of femininity, black women and white women share many aspects. Davis writes: “Just as a woman’s maternal duties are always taken for granted, her never-ending toil as a housewife rarely occasions expressions of appreciation within her family. Housework, after all, is virtually invisible.” Both these groups have been overlooked for their motherly duties. This is fully described and explained in “Women, Race, and Class,” where Davis explains that “housewives” began with the devaluation of domestic responsibility. Thus the overall devaluation of “women’s work.”
Though the difference between these two races is evident, Davis states that black women have not acquired the “feminine weakness and wifely submissiveness” that white women have. Davis continues to explain:
“Black women, however, have paid a heavy price for the strengths they have acquired and the relative independence they have enjoyed. While they have seldom been “just housewives’” they have always done their housework. They have thus carried the double burden of wage labour and housework — a double burden which always demands that working women possess the persevering powers of Sisyphus.”
Now, this quote will be examined closely further to explore the connections between Black womanhood and labor.
“Black women, however, have paid a heavy price for the strengths they have acquired and the relative independence they have enjoyed.
This is exemplified in the many narratives of slave women and modern-day violence against black women, such as Breonna Taylor. Though black women fought for their freedom, white society has corrupted that work and turned their rebellious and free nature against them. This can be seen in the “sapphire” stereotype or the “jezebel” for sexual freedoms.
While they have seldom been “just housewives’” they have always done their housework. They have thus carried the double burden of wage labour and housework –
Black women have always had to perform their housework and the white populace's housework, exhibited in the stereotype of the “Mammy.” Once again, this is exemplified in the testimonies of female slaves and throughout the Jim Crow Era, where black women were limited to domestic careers.
a double burden which always demands that working women possess the persevering powers of Sisyphus.”
Sisyphus is a figure from Greek mythology who became infamous for his general trickery and cheating death twice. His fate is ultimately decided when Zeus dealt him the eternal punishment of forever rolling a boulder up a hill in Hades’ domain. This story is extremely relevant to the lives of Black women who are belabored continuously with the double weight of sexism and racism. They are treated with many injustices and mistreatments but expected to continue working and creating above average results. Like Sisyphus, who even in death must push the boulder, Black women are critiqued. Black women are critiqued in nuanced ways in all spheres of life. This was exemplified with Breonna Taylor’s execution, whose case was re-examined many times in the news and the court of law, yet her existence was never valued. The most astonishing aspect of this critique is that even when black women are extraordinary, they are average. Davis comments on this in her piece:
“Black women could hardly strive for weakness; they had to become strong, for their families and their communities needed their strength to survive. Evidence of the accumulated strengths Black women have forged through work, work and more work can be discovered in the contributions of the many outstanding female leaders who have emerged within the Black community. Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida Wells and Rosa Parks are not exceptional Black women as much as they are epitomes of Black womanhood.”
Now, this quote will be examined closely further to explore the connections between Black womanhood and labor.
“Black women could hardly strive for weakness; they had to become strong, for their families and their communities needed their strength to survive.
This can be linked back to breeding during slavery when black women had to be physically strong to “produce” strong offspring as well as emotionally strong to have those children stolen and sold away from them. This can be demonstrated when black women had to be physically strong to pick cotton or work in the house after masters had brutally raped them the night before. Also emotionally strong, to not show the children or other women how traumatized they were by these routine rapes. This can be seen when black women had to be physically strong to walk to work rather than ride the bus in the 1965 Montgomery Bus Boycott. Or when black women had to be emotionally strong, as they ran the Civil Rights movement but received no recognition. Or when black women had to be physically strong enough to fight off armed police officers out of their homes, even if there was no crime committed. (When black women cannot overpower systems with their strength, they are pushed into death.) When black women have to be emotionally strong enough to see their brothers and sisters slaughtered by government officials and government systems.
Evidence of the accumulated strengths Black women have forged through work, work and more work can be discovered in the contributions of the many outstanding female leaders who have emerged within the Black community.
This work is evident in the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Rights Movement, and the Natural Hair movement, where black women fought not only for their rights but the rights of those they share community with.
Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida Wells and Rosa Parks are not exceptional Black women as much as they are epitomes of Black womanhood.”
Once again, even when a black woman is extraordinary, she is average. The scale for black womanhood is exponentially high. Even Davis admits that these exceptional women are not remarkable; they are just black women.
Black womanhood is in itself a form of labor. Black women are extraordinary by design and because of societal expectations. The combination of blackness and femininity, which is perverted through capitalism, ensures black women can not merely survive but must continuously be in a state of labor. Black women must expend the effort of both their physical and mental selves in all situations. Black women perform the labor of life not only for themselves but for the profit of society. When black women labor, their yield betters the world, and thus, black women are Sisyphus. Black womanhood is an eternal boulder and endless labor. Rather than a curse from Zeus; As Sisphysus is cursed with an eternal boulder, Black womanhood has been cursed as endless labor, but Black womanhood is much more than the capitalist boundaries containing it.
