LITR 5731: Seminar in American Minority Literature
University of Houston-Clear Lake, Fall 2001
Sample Student Midterm

Philonis Stevenson
Dr. Craig White
LITR 5731
2 October 2001

Not Immigrants But A Fraudulent Colonized Minority:

Assimilation or Resistance?

Our African American texts call for close examination of the status of slaves and subsequent generations of free Blacks, how they fit into American society, and their quest for and denial of the benefits of Americanism. So does one assimilate or resist? But The Melting Pot Theory is not inclusive of Blacks since the process of assimilation could not work its magic on black skin. In the slave narrative, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African, the capture of Africans, their ultimate enslavement in the Americas, the West Indies, and Europe exemplify the assigned inferior status to Blacks in societies of the alien worlds. Blacks have less than their proportionate share of wealth, power, and social status, and are discriminated against by those in the majority. The yoke of slavery did not sanction inclusion, instead it convoluted their status as immigrants or a colonized minority and that sentiment remained a constant. Equiano's race and his life as a seafaring slave narrowed his opportunity of citizenship in a landed community; consequently, he was neither immigrant or colonized. In fact, he was more displaced that ever, sailing under whatever flag happened to be that of his owner/captain. In Song of Solomon and Push the characters are several generations removed from slavery so the question is not whether the position of Blacks is that of immigrant or colonized minority, even though it could appear to be either. More importantly, theirs is the problem of dealing with the ambiguities of being "up from slavery," as the characters come into their own. The subject of assimilation and/or resistance while being forced into a quasi colonization permeates throughout each work.

According to S. Dale McLemore, author of Racial and Ethnic Relations in America blacks were

[an]immigrant" minority in the sense that they had been removed from heir native lands and had entered the host society as a subordinate group, [however] their subordinate position was not regarded as something temporary. They resembled a colonized minority in the sense that they had been physically "conquered and, subsequently, had not been accepted as suitable candidates for full membership in the society of the conquerors. But they were not a conquered people in their own land (311).

Nonetheless, a forced or quasi colonization fostered a partial assimilation. McLemore goes on to point out that even though the slave community could not assimilate under "normal" circumstances there was a forced assimilation in that slaves who survived the Middle Passage were in no condition mentally or physically to object to whatever plans of participation were laid out for them by the dominant culture (40).

In as much as Olaudah Equiano did not understand the condition of slaves in the West Indies because in Africa they assimilated quite well, he did understand the concept of it. However, slavery existed in Africa because warring communities took slaves as trophies of their victories, but Equiano points out they were treated well. Equiano writes, "some of these slaves have even slaves under them, as their own property, and for their own use" (19). Consequently, it was easy for these communities of slaves and slaveholders to peacefully co exist. In essence, the slaves within Africa were colonized and granted a pseudo membership in the conqueror's society. Therefore, once a slave, the idea of assimilation was perhaps easier for Equiano to grasp than a slave in a landed situation, because he did not face all of the hardships that were prevalent in the lives of plantation slaves. He ungrudgingly learned the language of his captors, became literate, and befriended the young American, Richard Baker because, "...he was of great use to me, and was my constant companion and instructor" (Equiano 41). He lost his family and culture and that did upset him, and he does not intend to make the reader think other wise but he was able to travel and make money, which was something plantation slaves could not do. Notwithstanding the fact that he wanted to be free, resisting assimilation was not an option. He embraced it and joined the culture that oppressed him in order to make it work to his advantage until he could gain his freedom. Wanting to gain his freedom implies that resistance is still alive in him. He never wanted full assimilation, but more so than that he realized that it would not happen.

Assimilation is a process of inclusion through which a person gradually ceases to conform to any standards of life that differ from the dominant-group standards, and at the same time, adopts all of those standards. In this way, the process of inclusion involves the replacement or substitution of one heritage and behavior pattern for another. Assimilation is complete, in this view, when the foreigner merges fully into the dominant group. From this perspective also, groups that are racially distinct, such as the Indians and Blacks, cannot satisfy all of the requirements even if they are disposed to try (McLemore 41)

In Song of Solomon and Push these characters too can be seen as a quasi-colonized minority. Milkman's great-grand father, Solomon refused to continue to be held in captivity. Morrison use of the myth of the tribe of flying Africans allowed Solomon to throw off assimilation and embraced resistance by flying away. In other words, he did what came natural.

"He just took off; got fed up. All the way up! No more cotton! No more bales! No more orders! No more shit! He flew, baby. Lifted his beautiful black ass up in the sky and flew home" (328).

Solomon flew home, to Africa, to freedom but in doing so he had to give up his family. Now this is an enormous personal sacrifice, but when the question is raised, at what price freedom? Morrison is clear, there is no price too high to pay. And, in Solomon's defense, he tried to take one of his sons with him so that at least one of them could know what it meant to own one's self. Solomon is an African. He knew freedom so he escaped to it as so many slaves did.

From the beginning, individual slaves revolted against the system by running away, and considered the difficulties of all other forms of resistance, this may have been the most effective way to strike back (McLemore 40).

In reality colonization (although not intended to exist in North America) was a consideration by the dominant culture for freed slaves. Instead though, segregated communities were established and in view of that, Morrison and Sapphire's characters resemble that mock colonization, but keep in mind, there was resistance. For example, in Song of Solomon the Southside residents resisted the dominant culture's intrusion in their neighborhood. "They called a street in the community Doctor Street and later Not Doctor Street although "town maps registered the street as Mains Avenue" (Morrison 4). Also, they called the hospital No Mercy since no Black person or doctor was allowed inside before 1931. In Push, Precious Jones, as a child, had no control over where she lived or what happened to her, she was virtually at the mercy of others, but like the hospital in Song of Solomon she received no mercy. She had no sense of self because she was forced into incest and illiteracy. However, an underlying element of resistance did exist in her spirit. For example, she

Get Daddy's razor out cabinet. Cut cut cut arm wrist, not trying to die, trying to plug myself back in. I am a TV set wif (sic) no picture. I am broke wif (sic) no mind. No past or present time" (Sapphire 112).

If she could manage to "plug herself in" she could escape.

Precious did not live in a systemized segregated community like the Macon Deads but a Sapphire wanted to instill the view of a segregated community with the flavor of colonization just the same. Precious lived in Harlem, New York and was a second-generation welfare recipient. The welfare and its subsequent social workers act as the dominant culture. However, Precious resisted it for example, when she refused to allow the teacher/social worker Mrs. Lichenstein into her home and sent her away. "I says into the intercom, "Hasta la vista, baby" (Sapphire 15). She wanted to be privy to whatever the dominant culture had to benefit her but she did not trust it. In other words, she was willing to take advantage of what she could as long as she retained a semblance of control, since she did not control the incest, poverty, and illiteracy that plagued her life up to the point before she entered the alternative school. Sapphire was careful not to paint Precious as stupid, (although the character thought that she was) but as uneducated. As she grew as a person, she was able to realizes that the system (the dominant culture) did not have her best interest at heart, so she stole her file. Her friend Jermain pointed out that "they have a different agenda from us" (122). And, Ms. Rain told her to "trust yourself" (123). Precious began to own herself when she stole her file.

To take things a step further, Macon Dead II tells his son Milkman,

Let me tell you right now the one important thing you'll ever need to know: Own things. And let the things you own own other things. Then you'll own yourself and other people too (Morrison 55).

This is the same type of sentiment that establishes itself in Equiano where slaves owned slaves in Africa. Although Macon Dead II did not literally own anybody, he was in control in that he was the landlord. So, in his community of rent properties, Macon Dead II could act as his own the dominant culture. Letting Milkman, his son, (whom he owned through blood connection) collect rents allowed Milkman to "own something" thus alleviating the need to assimilate. After all, the dominant culture had cost the Deads their true identity, it was also a costly bed partner for Precious and Equiano as well. However, Milkman reconnects with his past, Equaino eventually gains his freedom, and Precious, well she will gain her independence as well, even if through death as does Milkman.

In actuality, what is done, what has always been done is that Blacks take part in varying degrees of the assimilation process and that was skillfully pointed out in the works of Morrison, Equaino, and Sapphire. Throughout Black communities, the push and pull of "keeping it real" through participation in quasi colonization and resistance by opting to live in culturally fixed neighborhoods, or "sell out" by embracing the dominant culture and sometimes attempting full assimilation (although it is realized impossible) in order to advance one's career, and acquire better housing and/or education for one's children is ubiquitous. Total assimilation is not real for Black people, it never has been and it probably never will be and that is a sad commentary on the state of the country.

Works Cited

Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudauh Equiano,

or Gustavus Vassa, The African. "The Classic Slave Narratives". Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987.

McLemore, Dale S. Racial and Ethnic Relations in America. Boston: Allyn and

Bacon, 1991.

Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York: The Penguin Group, 1977.

Sapphire. Push. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1996.