Dan Negrotto

Assimilation or Resistance: An African American History

            The choice to assimilate or resist is of great importance when looking at the African American experience and literature.  Unlike the dominant immigrant culture that chose to come to America, African Americans were brought here against their will to serve the dominant culture in bondage.  One cannot appreciate the African American experience or literature without, first, understanding the institution of slavery.  In the Chronology Of The History Of Slavery: 1619-1789 (1999), Eddie Baker notes the dynamics of the American slavery institution,

"One characteristic, which set American slavery apart, was its racial basis. In America, with only a few early and insignificant exceptions, all slaves were Africans and almost all Africans were slaves.  This placed the label of inferiority on black skin and on African culture.  In other societies, it had been possible for a slave who obtained his freedom to take his place in society with relative ease. In America, however, when a slave became free, he was still obviously an African.  The taint of inferiority clung to him.  Not only did white America become convinced of white superiority and black inferiority, but it strove to impose these racial beliefs on the Africans themselves" (Becker 7).

The "American Dream" created a subjugated minority that hoped to realize their own version of the "American Dream", which came to be known as "The Dream".  The African American was brought to this country en masse, "from the early 16^th to the mid-19^th centuries, between 10 million and 11 million Africans were forced to migrate to America" (Becker 9).  In, The Life of Gustavus Vassa, Olaudah Equiano gives the following account of his enslavement,

"One day, when all our people were gone out to their work as usual, and only I and my sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both; and without giving us time to cry out, or to make any resistance, they stopped our mouths and ran off with us into the nearest wood.  Here they tied our hands, and continued to carry us as far as they could" (Equiano 47-48).

This account and many like it have formed the African American experience.  From these accounts I have drawn my research.  These accounts provide a historical concept of resisting the dominant culture's institution of slavery and the harsh segregation laws passed after its demise.  Only very recently do we see the African Americans ability to assimilate into the dominant American culture.  This ability to assimilate has come at a great cost to the African American after much resistance and defiance.

            In conducting my research I have attempted to look at resistance and assimilation in the African American experience.  The institution of slavery has provided the framework from which we are able to see the resistance and assimilation of African Americans.  In order to do justice to the African American experience, I plan to look at the issues of resistance and assimilation in the narratives of Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Nat Turner.  I also plan to look at these issues in reference to Black Girl Lost (1973) by Donald Goines and Baby of the Family (1989) by Tina McElroy Ansa.  And finally, I plan to compare and contrast these issues in the eyes of Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, and the rap group, Public Enemy.  Culture and literature are so closely intertwined that it is impossible to talk about one without making reference to the other.  From the African American culture we get fascinating literature and from this literature we are able to vicariously share in the African American experience.

            Resistance occurs when the ethnic minority clashes with the dominant culture; whereas, assimilation occurs when the minority joins the dominant culture.  In order to resist one must first assimilate.  This is evident in the language barriers that Africans had to overcome.  Africans were brought to America with no understanding of the English language.  Many of the Africans did not even share a native African tongue, making it even more difficult to survive in a foreign land under dire conditions.  A knowledgeable and literate African posed the greatest danger to the institution of slavery.  From literacy, African Americans could read, write and speak out against their white oppressors.  Olaudah Equiano says that once he is able to speak and understand English he felt, "quite easy with his new countrymen, and relished their society and manners.  He no longer looked upon them as spirits, but as men superior to Africans" (Equiano 80).  In Equiano we see a great desire to assimilate.  Frederick Douglass came to appreciate the importance of literacy.  In literacy, Douglass would find the best way to resist the white man.  "I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty-to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man.  It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly.  From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom" (Douglass 364).  Douglass knew that in order to resist he must assimilate.  Douglass used every opportunity to learn how to read.  With the aid of little white boys, Douglass gained the power of literacy and from this literacy he sought freedom.  The white man also knew the power of literacy.  Mr. Auld, Douglass' master, commented, "If you teach the nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him.  It would forever unfit him to be a slave.  He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master" (Douglass 364).  From reading, "The Colombian Orator", Douglass noted, "the more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers.  I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery" (Douglass 369).  In Equiano and Douglass we see varying reasons for assimilation.  Equiano assimilates because he sees the white man as superior to the African.  Douglass assimilates with the goal of resisting and beating the white man at his own game.

            In American born slaves we see the connection between literacy, and assimilation and resistance.  I have chosen the narratives of three American born slaves, Sojourner Truth, Nat Turner, and Harriet Tubman to show this connection.  Sojourner Truth was an African American that fought and resisted the white man's institution of slavery.  Freed from bondage at the age of forty, Truth fought hard for the African American cause.  She fought for women's suffrage and helped to recruit black men into the Union army during the Civil War.  Truth's zeal is plainly evident, "when a white man told her that her speeches were no more important than a fleabite, she replied, 'Maybe not, but the Lord willing, I'll keep you scratching'" (Gilbert 1).  Nat Turner, like Sojourner Truth, was an American born slave.  Nat like many slaves assimilated through literacy and resisted the dominant white culture with this new found power.  In, The Confessions of Nat Turner (1831), Mr. Turner states, "the ability to read and write had a great influence on my mind" (Gray 2).  In August of 1831, Turner and seven fellow slaves killed their master and his entire family.  Turner hoped that this offer of resistance would lead to a massive slave uprising.  The massive uprising that Turner envisioned never occurred, and he was subsequently captured and killed on November 11, 1831.  Thomas R. Gray, after meeting Nat Turner and getting his account of the slave rebellion, noted, "It is the first instance in our history of an open rebellion of the slaves, and attended with such atrocious circumstances of cruelty and destruction, as could not fail to leave a deep impression" (Gray 1).  Nat Turner is a great example of an African American resisting the dominant culture and its institutions.  Henry H. Garnet summed up Nat Turner's legacy, when he gave a speech on slavery in Buffalo, New York (8/16/1843),

"The patriotic Nathaniel Turner was goaded to desperation by wrong and injustice.  By Despotism, his name has been recorded on the list of infamy, but future generations will number him upon the noble and brave" (Gray 3).

Finally, Harriet Tubman, an American born slave, used her ability to assimilate to resist.  Tubman is most famous for her role as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.  Sarah Bradford noted in, Harriet Tubman, The Moses of Her People (1886), that, " Tubman guided some 300 slaves to their freedom.  Slave owners even offered a $40,000 reward for her capture " (Bradford 3).  Tubman also served in the Union army and argued for women's suffrage.  Truth, Turner, and Tubman were all forced to assimilate into the dominant culture, but each of them fought and resisted the institutions of the dominant culture.  These honorable people paved the way for modern battles over resistance and assimilation.

            We see the issues of resistance and assimilation in Black Girl Lost (1973) by Donald Goines and Baby of the Family (1989) by Tina McElroy Ansa.  In Black Girl Lost, Goines' main character is Sandra, an African American girl.  Sandra is "voiceless and choiceless" until she comes to know Chink.  Together they provide each other with companionship that they both lack.  From Goines, we see clearly the concept of the ethnic minority.  For Sandra, she is not only African American, but a female as well, making her a "double minority".  The concept of the ethnic minority in poverty, in relation to the dominant culture is brought out vividly.  "Experts say that 33 percent of African Americans live in poverty and that African Americans are the most likely to be poor" (Benokraitis 1996).  From Sandra's poverty and relationship to the dominant class we see very little assimilation and much resistance.  Goines allows his readers to feel what it is like to be a minority and more importantly an African American minority.  Sandra grew up in a single parent home with an alcoholic for a mother.  Her mother did very little to help Sandra.  Goines portrays Sandra as the typical African American living in poverty.  This is especially noticeable when Sandra and her mother get into an argument and Goines puts forth the following passage, "She watched as her mother opened the door and led the man in.  He was carrying a bottle of whiskey.  Sandie didn't even stop in the living room.  They continued straight on to the bedroom.  Then her mother came back out and got two glasses, ignoring her daughter completely, as if she was just another piece of the kitchen furniture" (Goines 24).  This, to me, was a telling passage.  I believe, Goines was using Sandra as an example of the minority culture and her mother represented the dominant culture, white America.  White America ignores the presence of the minority culture as if they do not exist.  Goines also differentiates the immigrant narrative from the African American narrative.  Goines uses Sammy as a representation of the immigrant narrative.  Sammy voluntarily came to America where he found prosperity in owning a store; whereas, Sandra represented the African American narrative.  Sandra's situation is typical of the voice and choice of the African American minority.  Goines also examines the African American status in relation to the laws of the dominant culture.  The African American in relation to the law is seen when Chink and Sandra are arrested at school.  Sandra struck a white police officer after she was slapped by the white man and the following dialogue transpired,

"To the white officers who rushed at her, she was not a young black girl anymore.  They couldn't tolerate it, and they rushed her with billy clubs, striking each other in their hurry to strike her.  She went under them, holding her head for protection, until one well placed blow put her to sleep" (Goines 62).

After this savage beating one of the white officers muttered, "They ain't no better than a couple of damn animals, the way they act.  No better…that's all the fuck they are is animals" (Goines 63).  Goines shows white America's attitude towards African Americans.  As stated previously, "The Dream" of African Americans differs from the "American Dream".  Goines points this out in the final line of his book when Sandra states, "he was free at last" (Goines 184).  This is the exact wording used by Dr. King, who I will speak of later.  Sandra is forced to resist the oppression of white America.  She, unfortunately, is seen as the typical African American fighting for her "Dream" in white America.

            In Baby of the Family (1989), Ansa sees the African American experience as both resistance and assimilation.  In Baby of the Family, Lena, who is the main character, comes from a middle class African American family.  This contrasts sharply with Sandra's predicament in Black Girl Lost.  From Ansa, the reader is able to live out the folklore of the African American culture, but is also able to see the racism committed by the dominant culture.  The difference in the dominant culture and the African American culture is seen when, "a pale white woman approached Lena's grandmother suspiciously" (Ansa 129).  Although Lena's situation is profoundly better than Sandra's there is still a sense of inferiority that the dominant culture holds for the African American culture.  In Baby of the Family, we see a greater sense of assimilation, but we also see some resistance.  Lena's grandmother says, "Colored folks going to the beach, pshhht" (Ansa 128).  From this comment the reader is able to understand the difference in the African American culture and the dominant culture.

            Assimilation and, mostly, resistance is seen in the African American literature put forth by Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Public Enemy.  Each believes in "The Dream", but not the "American Dream".

            Marcus Garvey represents a figure of resistance to the dominant white culture.  Garvey was born in Jamaica and lived all over the world until he came to America in 1916 at the invitation of Booker T. Washington.  In 1917, Garvey established the first American branch of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).  The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project at UCLA noted that,

"Marcus Garvey and UNIA formed a critical link in black America's centuries-long struggle for freedom, justice, and equality.  As the leader of the largest organized movement in black history and progenitor of the modern 'black is beautiful' ideal, Garvey is now best remembered as a champion of the back-to-Africa movement.  In his own time he was hailed as a redeemer, a 'Black Moses'" (UCLA 1).

Marcus Garvey was a leader of the black race and a spiritual awakener of the African American.  He was a leader, speaker, and poet who spoke out about white-on-black injustice.  In his poem, White and Black (1927), Garvey stated, "The white man held the blacks as slaves, And bled their souls in living death; Bishops, priests, and kings themselves, Preached that the law was right and just; And so the people worked and died, And crumbled into material dust" (Garvey 1927).  With the inability to gain equality, Garvey wanted separatism as his "Dream".

            Malcolm X was originally born Malcolm Little.  He changed his last name to 'X' after joining the Nation of Islam, because the name 'Little' had originated from white slaveholders.  Malcolm "derided the civil rights movement and rejected both integration and racial equality, calling instead for black separatism, black pride, and black self-dependence" (Encyclopedia 2002).  Because of these extreme views Malcolm, "was rejected by most civil rights leaders, who emphasized nonviolent resistance to racial injustice" (Encyclopedia 2002).  Malcolm was a strong resister of the dominant white culture.  Malcolm thought that the civil rights movement led by Dr. King was a farce.  Malcolm claimed that the nonviolent movement was the Negro revolution and was a contradiction in terms.  Malcolm noted this when he said,

"The only revolution in which the goal is loving your enemy is the Negro revolution.  It's the only revolution in which the goal is a desegregated lunch counter, a desegregated theater, and a desegregated public toilet; you can sit down next to white folks--on the toilet.  That's no revolution" (Wolfenstein 11).

Malcolm despised the dominant culture and he advocated change, "By Any Means Necessary".  In the end, Malcolm embraced assimilation, "As a result of a pilgrimage to Mecca, he modified his views of black separatism, declaring that he no longer believed whites to be innately evil and acknowledging his vision of the possibility of world brotherhood" (Encyclopedia 2002).

            Dr. Martin Luther King is the most important figure of the civil rights movement.  Dr. King resisted inequality and fought for assimilation through equality.  Dr. King, showed us the difference in "The Dream" and the "American Dream".  On August 28, 1963, Dr. King gave his world-renowned "I Have a Dream" speech, which sought to address the racial inequality of African Americans.  The following is an excerpt from that speech,

Fivescore years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today.  Signed the Emancipation Proclamation…but one hundred years later, the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination; one hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity…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 (white and black)" (King 1963).

Dr. King was an admirable man and he fought for assimilation through equality until his death.

            The final piece of resistance to the dominant culture that I would like to note comes from the rap group, Public Enemy.  Rap music has become a modern day poetic representation.  In 1989, Public Enemy released the song, Fight The Power, which aimed to differentiate between the heroic representations of the dominant white culture and the heroic representations of the African American minority.  The following is an excerpt from, Fight The Power, "Elvis was a hero to most, But he never meant shit to me you see, Straight up racist that sucker was simple and plain, Mother fuck him and John Wayne, Cause I'm Black and I'm proud…Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps" (Public Enemy 1989).  Although this appears to be very hateful, we are able to see the plight of the African American minority in relation to the dominant white culture.

            In conclusion, African Americans both resist and assimilate into the dominant culture.  Slavery and segregation created an atmosphere of racial superiority and inferiority.  African American literature, poetry, and music is full of instances of resistance and assimilation.  We see the African American minority wanting to assimilate, if and only if, they will be held as equal in the eyes of the dominant white culture.  We also see the African American minority resisting the dominant white culture when faced with economic, political, and social inequality.  I have attempted to look at the issues of resistance and assimilation in the classic slave narratives, in Black Girl Lost (1973) and Baby of the Family (1989), and in the ideals of some modern African American poets, orators, and musicians.  The issue of modern ethnic race relations is one that cannot be examined without understanding the institutions that led to the dominant culture's feelings of superiority.  Assimilation leads to resistance and resistance leads to assimilation.  Assimilation of the African American culture can only happen when they have equality with the dominant white culture.  Resistance of the African American culture is a by-product of inequality.  The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, "promised that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" (King 1963).

Works Cited

Becker, Eddie.  “Chronology Of The History Of Slavery: 1619-1789”.  1999.  Accessed: November 12, 2002.  http://www.innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html.

Equiano, Olaudah.  “The Interesting Narrative of the Life Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, The African”.  The Classic Slave Narratives.  Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.  Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 2002.  15-247.

Douglass, Frederick.  “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”.  The Classic Slave Narratives.  Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.  Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 2002.  323-436.

Gilbert, Olive.  “Narrative of Sojourner Truth”.  1843.  Accessed: November 12, 2002.  http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAStruth.htm.

Gray, Thomas R.  “The Confessions of Nat Turner”.  1831.  Accessed: November 12, 2002.  http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASturner.htm.

Bradford, Sarah.  “Harriet Tubman, The Moses of Her People”.  1886.  Accessed: November 12, 2002.  http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAStubman.htm.

Benokraitis, Nijole V. “Marriages and Families: Changes, Choices, And Constraints”.  Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996.

Goines, Donald.  “Black Girl Lost”.  Los Angeles, California: Holloway House Publishing Company, 1973.

Ansa, Tina McElroy.  “Baby of the Family”.  New York, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989.

UCLA.  “Marcus Garvey: An Overview”.  The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project.  1995.  Accessed: November 12, 2002.  http://www.isop.ucla.edu/mgpp/intro.htm.

Garvey, Marcus.  “White and Black”.  October 31, 1927.  Accessed: November 12, 2002.  http://boomshaka.com/garvey/black.html.

Encyclopedia Britannica.  2002.  Accessed: November 12, 2002.  http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/reference/articles/malcolm_x.html.

Wolfenstein, Victor E.  “The Victims of Democracy”.  Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1981.

King, Martin Luther.  “I Have a Dream”.  August 28, 1963.  A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr.  Ed. J.M. Washington.  San Francisco, California: Harper & Row, 1986.  217-220.

Public Enemy.  Fight The Power”.  1989.