LITR 4332 American Minority Literature 2013 Student Midterm Samples midterm assignment #2. Long essay

Katasha DeRouen 

Black as a Minority: Rising Above the Color Code

One definition of color is noted as a race with skin pigmentation different from the white race, especially blacks. To accept this definition means that in order to define white, one must acknowledge black, thus describing white as the absence of color. Hence, is it fair to assume that white cannot exist without black, further venturing to say that this relationship makes black the superior, more dominant color?

            To be classified as a minority several characteristics must be present. The individual must not be an immigrant, one who ventured to the Americas on a voluntary basis. Furthermore, minority cultures are not of an assimilative nature; they tend to separate themselves from the dominant, usually oppressive community. Often hindering assimilation is the minorities’ mark, skin color, body style, varied fashion, etc., any apparent difference from those of the dominant community. With the aforementioned definitions of both color and minority, can one readily classify the African American as a minority culture in America?

            Color codes are systems that symbolically parallel a defined color with various identities, or values within a specific group of people, or culture. The problem arises when these symbols are utilized as stereotypes to typify a person, or cultural group based solely on their ethnic backgrounds. The question surrounding color codes has been posed are such associations natural and automatic, or cultural and learned?

What the minority group characterized by theses color codes often fails to realize is that these constraints do not have to be their norm; they are able to negate these generalizations, thus rising above the color code.

            Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still I Rise”, is a great depiction of the minority, black woman, rising above the culturally learned color code created to darken her beauty. The confident woman of the piece throws the very different ideals the dominant society holds as narrowed prettiness aside, and professes her attractiveness, boldly and eloquently as she poses, “Does my sexiness upset you” (Angelou)? While much of the dominant culture marks the African American woman with big lips, kinky hair, and wide hips, this woman is confident in her own glow. Declaring her ability to rise above any off-putting actions, with her pride, honor, and beauty in tact is a monumental attribute to possess, especially when so many women were thought of as double minorities, deeming them the lowest of the low.

            In stark contrast to the outlines of the color codes in place for African Americans, a very different aspect of minority beauty is portrayed in the writings of Olaudah Equiano. Commonly, women of color, specifically dark-skinned females, were thought of as inferior to those of a lighter complexion. In The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, …the African, Equiano explains the look of deformity amongst his people. He clarifies, “…three negro children, who were tawny, and another quite white, who were universally regarded by myself, and the natives in general, as far as related to their complexions, as deformed” (Equiano 1.7). At this point, he is altering the superiority of a lighter skin complexion, and the image of beauty. To the people of Africa, their beauty was defined by darker skin, again displaying a minority rising above the color codes.

Today, women of color have far surpassed the narrowed societal view of beauty. Black women are embracing their inherent beauty. More women of color are revealing their natural hair textures, and displaying a sense of confidence in emphasizing their differences from that of the dominant culture, an outlook that has taken many onlookers by surprise. Why are these women so confident? In an interview with Toni Morrison, she conveys, “I find African American women much more confident, a sense of superiority they take for granted.” Here, Morrison speaks of a power women have restored upon themselves, no longer succumbing to the double minority concept. 

Further exploring the concept of double minority, are women of color actually double minorities? In Harriet Jacobs’, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, the double minority concept is highlighted concerning the birth of a slave daughter. Jacobs expressed, “…Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women” (Jacobs 14.6). Here, women do not only undergo the dehumanizing effects of slavery, they are also subjected to the sexual torture by the phallic hand of their slave masters, a reality the male slaves did not endure.

             While Western civilization utilized color codes to symbolize light and dark complexions, these color codes are often construed as stereotypical generalizations. Accepting what one has been innately given, and embracing one’s self is beautiful in any color. In this way, African Americans are able to defy the color codes created to characterize their beauty.