1. "Minority," especially in terms of American ethnic groups but also in other categories or relationships. Define both in terms of history and in terms of status. Which ethnic groups does this course treat as "minority groups," and why? How is minority status witnessed or manifested in history and in literature?

"Minority" is defined in terms of power and not population. [DT 99]

These peoples were either defeated (Mexicans and Native Americans) or brought to the U. S. against their will (African Americans). A minority is a group that is "voiceless and choiceless" in respect to the dominant group, who has the voice and makes all of the choices. Therefore a minority group is not necessarily identified by race, but also by gender (homosexuals, females) and status (poor, uneducated). [CS 99]

The term minority refers to non-whites and others who were not part of a voluntary immigration to this country. [DW 99]

African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican Americans did not come to America to get away from their own country, or to make a better life. The African Americans were ripped from their homeland, brought to America and treated as property and forbidden to learn to read or write. The Native Americans and Mexican Americans were overtaken by the dominant white Europeans. [DM 99]

Minorities of America are African Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Native Americans. These groups are a minority because historically they were brought to America or are in America unwillingly. That is, their placement in America was forced or involuntary rather than voluntary. [MOA 99]

[Concerning a Mexican American as a minority:] He or she may have come to this country on his own but once again the white man took it from him. [SG 99]

In other words, minorities are not and have not in the past been given a choice to subscribe to the social contract. [JF 99]

This course treats African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican Americans as "minority groups" because the African Americans came here on a non-voluntary basis and therefore have a dream to one day be free to speak and free to make choices. The Native Americans wanted to survive, having lost their land and many of their people in the struggle. The Mexican Americans wanted to belong in a land that was once theirs but was taken away by war. [TL 99]

[Regarding minorities’ connections to past] If you want something bad enough, you have to move on and let the negative thing (that pulls you down) go (example: Sandra leaving her mother’s house). Why should she have stayed? Because of the respect she had for her mother? I don’t think so. Her mother had no respect for her. [STH 99]

The concept of assimilation and resistance stems from the idea, "Do you join or fight the culture that has oppressed you?" [TW 99]

Assimilation is becoming part of the dominant culture, not bucking the system. Cosby was used as an example in class. Lena’s family (in Baby) had assimilated to the point where they were middle class and working with the system and yet stayed in a world of their own, separated from the majority white culture. Resistance is avoiding the majority culture, bucking the system. It is seen in Lost in Sandra’s refusal to call the police (when she was raped); it wasn’t even considered. [TS 99]

Immigrant Americans assimilated or adapted to the previous culture because they chose to come here. They had a say in what they wanted, the American Dream of a better life. Assimilation is harder for those groups that did not choose to be American. [KS 99]

In Baby they have assimilated into white culture as far as the times would let them; however, they held on to some African traditions, such as the beliefs of Nurse Bloom and their reverence for the deceased grandfather.

Resistance to majority culture in Gaines’s novel is more apparent, especially in the use of African American slang. Chink and Sandra are not, at times, trying to be part of white society. When the police came to arrest them, Sandra reverts to the ghetto language . . . . [MP 99]

In Baby Rachel resisted life as a slave because she was not allowed to sit by the beach. However, Lena’s grandmother resisted going to the beach because she couldn’t conform to the idea that black people on the beach was acceptable. [SS 99]

The problems with assimilation for minorities are 1) You feel as if you are a traitor to your own ethnic group, 2) Exactly how much should you assimilate? And 3) Your skin keeps you from fully assimilating. . . .

The problem with resistance is that it is very limiting. It tends to keep one isolated, voiceless and choiceless. You’re not able to use the dominant culture’s own words back at them. Because America is run and owned by whites, you have to know their game before you can beat them at it.

The good thing about resistance is that you are able to keep your traditions, culture, beliefs, etc. You know where you came from. You feel that you belong. [AO 99]

A good example of assimilation, [Nellie in Baby] likes the modern things in her house . . . . She also does not believe in all the superstition about Lena’s birth. She pours the tea out because she has assimilated enough to believe that silly. Nurse Bloom is an example of resistance. She even speaks of how proud she is that she has retained some of the old culture. [99]

Figures of speech are designed to create an image. Straightforward descriptions tend to be boring and less thought-provoking. Creating an images makes the reading more interesting by adding color and, of course, imagery. . . . Amiri Baraka used figures of speech well when describing the African American experience outside the window and on the densely populated ground of his apartment, jail, whatever. Shackles, curses, and hopes are described by powerful imagery offered by figures of speech. [DT 99]

Also in Lost, when the white officers called the couple "animals" for the way they acted, that is metaphorically speaking. [?99]

The dominant cultural ideal is the nuclear family. This is mom, dad, 2.5 kids, and a dog. Obviously this clashes somewhat with reality. In Baby Lena’s grandmama has lived with her family since her parents were married. The family’s handyman leaves all his possessions to Lena when he dies, implying a kinship relationship in terms of feelings though not blood. He and al the regulars at The Place form a kind of extended family for Lena. Lost represents both the broken family and the alternative family. . . . . [HL 99]

Dr. King points out the material wealth that surrounds the poverty of the black community. This material wealth represents the "American Dream," which is the immigrant story. The immigrant comes here with nothing, works hard, and makes a success of himself, success being defined as material good. (Incidentally, I am fond of the immigrant dream because it describes my father’s life to a tee.) This could never apply to African-Americans. The main reason is centered around their coming to America. It was not a journey towards a new land with hearts soaring and full of hope. It was a horrid passage of bondage with hearts wailing silent tears. [HL 99]

The core of the African languages was annihilated by the passage on the slave ships and by the diversity of the African people’s language itself. Therefore, to be able to communicate in America, the Africans adopted American English, yet in doing so, have modified it and contributed many new words to it. Americans have incorporated many African words into the language: banana, okra, gumbo, jambalaya, boogie, etc. The list is long and varied. African American language also incorporates many figures of speech. In general it is more expressive through the use of metaphors . . . and double negatives (example: "Don’t never do that."). These contribute more emphasis to what the speaker is trying to get across. [CS 99]

1. The first object that saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, that was soon converted into terror, which I am yet at a loss to describe, and much more the then feelings of my mind when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled and tossed up to see if I was sound, by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had got into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me. Their complexions, too, differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke, which was very different from any I had ever heard, united to confirm me in this belief. Indeed such were the horrors of my views and fears at the moment, that if ten thousand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with the meanest slave in my own country. When I looked round the ship too, and saw . . . a multitude of black people, of every description, changed together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted my fate . . . .

Soon after we landed, there came to us Africans of all languages. . . . I now totally lost the small remains of comfort I had enjoyed in conversing with my countrymen . . . . We were landed up a river a good way from the sea, about Virginia country, where we saw few of our native Africans, and not one soul who could talk to me. . . . I was now exceedingly miserable, and thought myself worse off than any of the rest of my companions, for they could talk to each other, but I had no person to speak to that I could understand. . . . When I came into the room where [my master] was, I was very much affrighted at some things I saw, and the more so, as I had seen a black woman slave as I came through the house, who was cooking the dinner, and the poor creature was cruelly loaded with various kinds of iron machines; she had one particularly on her head, which locked her mouth so fast that she could scarcely speak . . . which I afterwards learned was called the iron muzzle.

He has no idea where or why he is being taken; he is also very afraid, and has good reason to be. . . . This experience reminds me so much of how we treat criminals nowadays. In my criminology class we were discussing how in a regular trial everyone knows what is going to happen except for the offender. Everyone else in the room is part of the courthouse culture so they know what has happened in similar cases and follow those steps, just like everyone else on the ship knew where the slavers were going to end up except the slaves. . . . But at least most criminals know what they have done to deserve their punishments, where slaves had no idea why this punishment had been brought upon them. This passage shows just how choiceless and voiceless these slaves were. [KA 99]

Equiano is unable to converse with anyone. He is isolated from others by language. He is now unable to express himself. He is voiceless. Also, this will force him to take on the language of the dominant culture. [AO 99]

Even the people who looked like him spoke different languages! But while this language barrier made him initially voiceless, it is interesting that he conquers the language barrier to write so beautifully and eloquently, and to actually change the English language to vividly express his own story. [JF 99]

He was stolen from his homeland, separated from his loved ones, and taken from all he owned and knew. He had no choice but to assimilate with his new world. There was no one who spoke his language so he had to learn English in order to survive. [TS 99]

3. Sarah, seeing the attack on her friend, tried to jump in with an explanation.

"It was me, Mama, it wasn’t Lena. It was my game."

But the woman didn’t want to hear any of that. "Shut up, Sarah. . . ."

Then, turning back to Lena, . . . "I got a good mind to go across the street and tell your fine-ass ma just what I caught her precious baby doing. . . . Yeah, but she probably wouldn’t believe me. Yeah, probably put it off on Sarah. That’s right, little girl, you better run on home, get out of my yard. You don’t own everything, you know." [99]

ID: Baby of the Family

This is a voiceless concept where Sarah has no voice to say what happens, or rather her mother won’t believe what she says. It’s also a class concept. Lena’s family has money and her father owns property, so he is seen above people and Sara’s mother uses that in her last sentence. [TR 99]

While we have established that minorities usually inhabit a lower class or social status, it becomes clear in this passage that there are social stratifications even within minority groups. [JF 99]

The themes are voice, choice, and the class struggle. Mama takes away her daughter’s voice and refuses to hear her admission of guilt because it would implicate her. She would have to admit to flaws in the way she raised her child. Mama prefers to blame Lena for the sexplay. She jumps to the assumption that because Lena is different, she is bad. . . . She will always be able to say that the "rich" people in Lena’s family raised her wrong. . . . Mama was in the dominant position over the girls. She had the power position. Mama feels that Lena’s family is in a different class from her. They are upper middle class, educated, and property owners. Mama is lower class, rents a house, and her husband is a day worker. They have no security. [CW 99]

This also has a biblical overshadowing. They are playing "man and woman" and, as with the loss of innocence in the garden of Eden, Lena is introduced to sex (loss of innocence) under the fruit tree. [SC 99]

3. "They ain't no better than a couple of damn animals, the way they act." . . .

The black officer who had been responsible for the arrest glanced at the two white officers who were speaking. . . . For the first time he was ashamed that he was responsible for the arrest of the young couple. . . . He wondered idly if the white cops who called them animals could have come from such hardships as children and survived as well as this young couple had. [99]

The black officer toes the line between black and white due to his job. He also goes back and forth between the dominant culture’s law and the code of the black streets. He feels like he is selling his kind out because he is on the side of the law. Goines has a good point at the end, because he asks the reader to look at the situation from a different perspective. ("There but for the grace of God, go I.") Sandra and Chink have both been silenced. They have had their choice taken away by being placed under arrest. They have no freedom left. Also here we see Goines making an extended metaphor—the word "animals" leads to the "It’s a jungle out there" mentality of the streets. [CW 99]

The reference towards Sandra and Chink as "damn animals" refers to a Darwinian jungle. [SC 99]

4. "Hey, Sandra," he said on the spur of the moment, "how’d you like a job in the store in the evenings after school?" . . .

"Sure, Sammy," she replied quickly, "I’d like that fine." Frequently things happen in life that will change the future of a person. This was to be a big step in Sandra’s life—one she would always remember.

[In the following weeks Sandra and Sammy’s wife] would study Sandra’s English book. Sammy’s wife was from the old country and wanted to learn to speak English, so Sandra helped her. But in helping, she helped herself.

In a matter of a month there was an astonishing change that took place in Sandra. Even her teachers couldn’t believe it. In fact, they didn’t want to believe . . . . [S]he spoke perfect English.

One Friday . . . [Sammy] took her to the nearest bank and showed her how to open an account. Since it was payday for her, he put five dollars in her account. When Sandra left the bank, her eyes were bright. She had found a new experience in life . . . . [99]

Sandra gains independence and is living the American Dream. In this situation, she gains "choice" as to what to do with her money and pride in school. This was a way she could have gotten out of the ghetto. Sammy is also being a father figure, a member of an "extended family." [99]

[also note that Sammy, as an immigrant and store-owner, operates in the American Dream narrative.]

5. So I say to you, my friends, that even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream, that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed--we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. . . .

He uses the dominant culture’s words against them, taking a quote from The Declaration of Independence and shedding new meaning on it to include black people as well. [RB 99]

King is using the white culture’s words against them, giving them new meaning. [?99]

Having grown up in a rural area of Texas, I had a very narrow view of African American literature. Having never concentrated on the race of an author, I was somewhat shocked by the style and grace of Ansa and the sheer brutality of Goines. The two styles, as different as they were, provided excellent vehicles for the telling of two very contrasting stories. The reading of these works has opened a new door in the world of literature for me. [DW 99]

The contrasting cultural differences are portrayed by the authors’ use of language, action, and tempo. Lost is a very fast-moving novel. On the first page the reader is bombarded by obscenities, whereas Baby begins in a sterile hospital with the birth of Lena. The tempo of the action tells a lot about the lives of the people. While Lena is concerned when she can’t find her friend Sarah, she wonders if "Maybe they are doing spring cleaning like at my house." This would never be thought of by Sandra in her battle for survival because Sandra when confronted replies, "I’ll cut you." Donald Goines uses the pace of his novel to create the complex web of Sandra and Chink’s jungle. They are constantly on the move and there is continuous violence. This is unlike Baby, in which Lena knows that her family will watch out for her. She cannot stray without her brothers finding her, and she has a strong support system. When she cries about the loss of her friend, her grandmother comforts her, unlike when Sandra is confronted by her mother and the mother tries to steal her food. . . .

These contrasting styles help to portray the lifestyles of the characters. Lena’s life is slow and easy and so is the novel Baby of the Family. Sandra’s life is fast and hard and so is the novel Black Girl Lost. [MP 99]

Thus both authors keep the reader engaged but they use very different methods. Just as the two books differ in their style, they also differ in content, and the style directly reflects the content of each book. The quickly moving, suspenseful style of Lost relates to the suspenseful dangerous life that Sandra and Chink led. On the other hand, in Baby the relaxed, savoring style reflects the easygoing style of the Southern way of living. [NB 99]

The two authors differ in their overall approaches to literature. While Ansa tends to enjoy language and the development of character, Goines leans more toward rapid movement and the development of action. They even achieve these differences in approach by their choice of voice. Ansa chooses a more formal, educated voice to slow the story and savor the sounds. In the sex-charade scene, instead of writing, "Lena was excited," she writes, "She was lost in the exquisite wet feeling that was spreading through her hips and rolling down her thighs." Goines chooses a more abrupt sentence structure, which makes the novel move more quickly and violently. Instead of discussing characters’ motivations, Goines tends to opt for in-your-face, to-the-point dialogue, such as, "`When you leave, man, why don’t you take me with you?’ he asked quietly." [JF 99]

Jonah in Baby goes and shakes down people who owe him money. Jonah might be a little bit better off than Chink but like Chink he still deals with illegal stuff in order to give his family even more money. [TO 99]

In Lost, everyone is in a struggle. The reader is almost overwhelmed by the characters’ daily struggle for survival. The action is virtually non-stop. In Baby, there is an atmosphere of love and caring with only vague undertones of struggle: maybe Lena’s father drinks too much, references to class distinction, quick vignettes of racism. [CS 99]

Lena and Sandra were both unable to voice their stories or thoughts. Lena was locked into her secret gift. Her family did not want to hear about her special talents. It scared them and so they told her to keep it quiet. Her mother would "gently lay her finger on the cleft above the child’s mouth" to silence her talking. . . . Sandra didn’t have a family to quieten her voice; she had a mother and school. Her mother was never around for Sandra to talk to, and she found it much easier to pretend she was stupid than to talk at school. Each girl wanted to tell somebody her story. Lena was given freedom to tell her story a little bit at a time. In fact, she would make herself heard at times. . . . . Chink, her only friend, was the only one to hear Sandra. When she did speak to him about the rape, though, her story ended any chance of life she really had. Her story set in motion a series of events that took away her only chance of happiness. Where Lena was on her way to freedom to be whoever she wanted to be and say whatever she wanted to say, Sandra’s story was self-destruction. Sandra’s voice will never be heard again. [DM 99]

Obviously the possibilities for Lena are far greater than those for Sandra. From their family life to the areas where they grow up, it becomes apparent that Sandra’s outside struggles are going to outweigh the struggles of Lena with the evil spirits. I feel like we have been told a lot more of Sandra’s story that that of Lena. Sandra’s story pretty much comes to an end when Chink dies at the end of the book. The way Sandra has set it up, Chink is just about the only person in her life and, without him, life is very little. For Lena, her story ends with her conversation with Grandmama and it appears she is finally realizing why all this is happening. I think there is a lot more of her story that is not told to us and just little references made which tend to persuade our thoughts. [MM 99]

Neither of them probably realizes that there is worse, as in Sandra, or that there is better, as in Lena. Each girl does, however, dream about things. There are short moments where they are exposed to different lifestyles. Lena, with the slave ghost Rachel, was told how bad being a slave was. Sandra was living a better life with Chink for a while. [SC 99]