i

TABLE OF CONTENTS
(PART II)



HISTORY & CIVIL RIGHTS MONOGRAPH
Youth Fight for Change: The Uprising in Soweto
Megan Louise Beall .........................................................................................................799

The Unknown Black Leader: Dr. T.R.M. Howard
Linda Royster Beito.........................................................................................................817

Power in Cross-Gendered Relationships: Victorio Acosta Velasco and
Maria Louisa Dominguez
Michael Serizawa Brown.................................................................................................835

An Analysis of John Quincy Adams Defense of Joseph Cinque (Sen Gbeh Peh) and His
Colleagues in the Amistad Case
William B. Lewis .............................................................................................................852

One Hundred Years Later: Revisiting The Talented Tenth
Edwin Marcus Robinson..................................................................................................864

The Betrayal of the American People
Martha L. Thornton.........................................................................................................883

LANUGAGE MONOGRAPH
Evaluation of Foreign Language Teaching Materials at Both the High School and
University Levels for African-American Students
Ruben Gonzalez...............................................................................................................887

Pathways to Multilingualism among the Early African-American Slave Population:
Textual Evidence from Runaway Slave Advertisements Placed in Colonial American
Newspapers
I.M. Laversuch.................................................................................................................908

Native Heritage in Place Names
Jacob P. Rayapati.............................................................................................................931




ii
Emotion Recognition of Child and Adult Facial Expressions
Monica D. Weathers ........................................................................................................941

LITERATURE MONOGRAPH
Such Unusual Eyes: An Examination of the Colonised Others Ability to Return the
Others Gaze in Arthur Goldens Memoirs of a Geisha
Amy Boltrushek...............................................................................................................953

Latino Literature and the Dynamics of Cultural Pedagogy
Mark De Stephano, S.J. ...................................................................................................982

The Philosophical Picaresque: Lazarillo De Tormes
Joan Kennedy...................................................................................................................999

Lenguaje y Memoria en El Comn Olvido y Varia Imaginacin de Sylvia Molloy
Laura R. Loustau...........................................................................................................1022

Prison Literature: Where Should It Be Leading Blacks in the 21
st
Century?
Theresa Mohamed .........................................................................................................1035

Interculturality in Richard Wrights Haiku
Natacha Roglet...............................................................................................................1059

Jos Kozer y Eduardo Espina: Poesa Neobarroca Latinoamericana
Rafael E. Saumell ..........................................................................................................1073

Transnational Feminism and the Politics of Location in South Asian Womens Fiction
Jaspal Singh ...................................................................................................................1086

Political Criticism in the Fiction of Elena Garro, Leading 20
th
Century Mexican Feminist
Author
Rhina Toruo .................................................................................................................1102

MISCELLANEOUS STUDIES MONOGRAPH
Revolutionary Matters: Considering West and Asante as More Than Competitors
Julie Borkin....................................................................................................................1117

In the Service of Community: The Roles of the Brazilian American Church in
Re/Constructing Identity
Paula Botelho .................................................................................................................1135

Cyberspace, the Great Equalizer
Diane Howard................................................................................................................1158



iii

Non-Standard Dialect Features in School-Age Children
Gale J. Isaacs .................................................................................................................1170

A Rhetoric of Identity: An Inquiry into Symbolic Syntax and Composition of Black
Identity in Bamboozled
Gerald Alan Powell, Jr...................................................................................................1191

Technology Usage and African Americans
Ruby L. Wiggins and Locord D. Wilson.......................................................................1209

PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS & RELIGION MONOGRAPH
On Teaching African American Philosophy
Stanley M. Browne ........................................................................................................1222

The Rhetoric of Color-Blindness
Dawn Jakubowski..........................................................................................................1230

RACE RELATIONS MONOGRAPH
In Search of a Black Civility: African Independent Churches and the African American
Influence
Rune Flikke....................................................................................................................1243

Spanish Cinema Noir and Novela Negra: A Case Study in Racial Profiling
David-Ross Gerling .......................................................................................................1263

Double Jeopardy: Perceptions of Racist and Sexist Discrimination in the Lives of Black
Women
Safiya R. Omari .............................................................................................................1276

Guillermo Gmez-Pea in Perspective
Juan Orbe .......................................................................................................................1296

Thai-North American Intercultural Marriage in the U.S.: A Qualitative Study of Conflict
from Thai Wives Perspective
Narissara Taweekuakulkit .............................................................................................1306

SOCIAL SCIENCES MONOGRAPH
Knowledge and Misconceptions of Selected African American Populations on HIV/AIDS
Spread and Prevention, Fall 2002
Ghyasuddin Ahmed .......................................................................................................1334



iv

The Gullahs of Squire Pope Road: A Case Study in Social Impact Assessment
Charles W. Jarrett ..........................................................................................................1354

Atypical Pneumonia, A Typical Chinese Response: Why the Chinese Government
Concealed the Outbreak of the SARS Epidemic
Xiaoyong Lai and Corliss Lentz....................................................................................1370

Human Ambivalence and Civil Rights: A Paradox
Fred Medinger ...............................................................................................................1396

The Influence of Race, Gender, and Socioeconomics Factors on the Incidence and
Prevalence of Diabetes among Children and Adolescents: North Carolina Case
Sunday Ndoh.................................................................................................................1417

African American Grandfathers: A Neglected Resource in Child Welfare and Kinship
Care
Olga Osby......................................................................................................................1427

The Mexican Labor Market on the 2000-2020 Horizon: A Real ChallengeOnly for
Mexico?
Ernesto F. Peralta...........................................................................................................1442

Affordable Housing for Chicagos Puerto Rican and Other Latino Communities
Noemy Quiones ...........................................................................................................1468

HIV/AIDS in Central and South America: The Impact on the Orphans
Rogerio J. Zapata and Corliss Lentz..............................................................................1491

WOMEN'S ISSUES MONOGRAPH
Finding Common Ground: Establishing Collaborative Partnerships to Meet the Challenge
of Providing Realistic and Acceptable Solutions in Combating HIV/AIDS Infection
among African Americans
Rena G. Boss-Victoria ...................................................................................................1513

Implications of the Widening Gender Gap between African American Women and Men
Edrene Frazier................................................................................................................1534

The Wake Robin Golf Club: Over 65 Years of African American Womens Golf
Serena Reese..................................................................................................................1553





YOUTH FIGHT FOR CHANGE:
THE UPRISING IN SOWETO









MEGAN LOUISE BEALL
GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY
ATLANTA, GEORGIA




800
Youth Fight for Change: The Uprising in Soweto


INTRODUCTION/ RESEARCH QUESTIONS/ METHODOLOGY
Experts believe June 16
th
1976 remains a benchmark in South African history; it
is considered the beginning of the end of Apartheid (Biles, 2001). The students of Soweto
stood peacefully to protest the law requiring them to study in Afrikaans; the children
were massacred for their defiance (Burns, 1976). Can the Soweto uprising be considered
the beginning of the end of Apartheid? Did the Soweto uprising encourage or discourage
Black South Africans to use civil disobedience to fight against Apartheid? Did the
Soweto uprising shatter the complacency of the world toward Apartheid? In what ways
did the world respond to the Soweto uprising? The above questions will be answered
using rhetoriography: a mixture of historiography and rhetorical textual criticism of the
historical accounts, the recent historical / social studies, active websites, and archival
records from The New York Times will formulate the basis for this study of the Soweto
Student Uprising while paying special attention to the lasting effects of this rebellion.
New York Times, 18
th
June 1976 A5
Headline: Roots of Violence for South Africa: Language Issue that Led to
Riots Pits White Tradition against Black Rejection

Subtitle: Language of the Oppressor
Afrikaans is the language of the police station, the pass office, and the
oppressor, declared The Rand Daily Mail, the Johannesburg newspaper that is a
burr under the Government saddle. The papers interpretation was expressed on
placards that the students carried to the confrontation with the police (during the
Youth Uprising in Soweto).




801
BACKGROUND
South African Youth in 1976 were not complacent; for them education was one
key to unlocking apartheid and freedom. Dr. Andries Treunicht was the Deputy Minister
for the Department of Bantu Administration Development and Education in charge of
Bantu Education, under Minister M.C. Botha. Dr. Treunichts memorandum to School
Boards, inspectors, and principals instructing them to use Afrikaans as the primary
medium of classroom instruction became the cause of the Soweto riots (Azanian Peoples
Organization, 2000). Before the new edict classes were taught in a mixture of English and
other dialects (Eart History of South Africa, 2003). The Bantu Education Act, No. 47 of
1953, mandated that black high school students were to learn in Afrikaans and not in
English. The Education Act was another way in which Apartheid kept them in their
place restricted them from advanced studies, future employment, and kept them
subservient to the political system (Mzamane, 1992).
Apartheid had been in effect an unbearable thirty years and the laws were
increasingly stricter and enforced more stringently (History of Apartheid, 2003). It is
difficult for the Western mind to grasp Apartheid; reading autobiographical/ biographical/
and historical accounts of Apartheid and it s impact upon the daily life never mind the
future of the black South African is not the same as experiencing the racist colonial
discrimination first hand. Reading about something does not compare to living each day
with the knowledge that state officials are always watching ready to brutally and
vindictively enforce Apartheid law. The minutia idiosyncrasies of the Apartheid law were
incomprehensible. For example it was impossible for a black to enter the city without his
passbook being stamped, if he stayed beyond the specified seventy-two (72) hours he



802
must get an extension or be at risk of being put in jail. Permission for weddings, funerals,
and entertainment all necessitated a permit. Sometimes permits were not required, but the
Minister of Community Development would not tell them instead letting them stand in
line for hours. Facilities for entertainment had to have separate entrances, separate seats,
and separate toilet facilities for black Africans to participate. This included all sports
arenas including rugby. Black students were restricted to the Bantu schools where the
Bant u Education Act dictated the curriculum (Brooks, 1968).

A BRIEF HISTORY
Natives inhabited South Africa when the Dutch sent a group to open the Dutch
East India Company refreshment station in 1652. The pastoral country changed in 1870
with the discovery of diamonds. The industrial age moved into South Africa bringing
mechanization, railroads, international companies and industry. This was compounded by
an immense population explosion with the discovery of gold in 1886. British and
Afrikaners
1
feared the numbers of the blacks and greedily wanted to exploit the land,
industry and business world of South Africa. In 1910, The British Union, a strong
political group, was formed to push blacks off their homeland onto reserves (Brooks,
1968).
In 1913 and 1936, land laws were passed restricting eighty percent of the
population (blacks) to thirteen percent of the land where they were designated into twelve
homelands or reserves. The policy forced the blacks into homelessness and joblessness,
as they were miles from the city with poor land, lack of water, no machinery, no

1
Afrikaners are of Dutch-Reformed European heritage. Daniel Fogel, South Africa (Ch. 18) Africa
In Struggle. (San Francisco: ISM Press, 1982). 399-403.



803
education, no skills, and no hope.
2
The land laws officially denoted APARTHEID,
3
the
laws multiplied through the years and the restrictions became more and more severe. The
Nationalist Party took office in 1948 and established more rules of discrimination. They
forbade mixed marriages, restricted jobs, and classified races. The Black South Africans
were required to carry a pass book (Brooks, 1968).
4

Townships were either planned or illegal but grew up on the outskirts of towns
and cities to facilitate blacks to live near work in the cities. Families were not to
accompany the working person; just the worker might abide in the shacks of the
township. Sanitary conditions were unavailable; there was little water, no drainage
systems or sewer, and no electricity. Unfortunately there was little initiative to make it
better as the working folk were fatigued. The men not working were unskilled. The
families stayed on the homelands, miles away from the husbands and fathers. Imagine,
South Africa is the only country in the world to have brought charges against people for
illegally harboring wives and children (Tutu, 1995, p. 268).


2
Qualifications for voting were regulated by a reading test. Thus blacks being denied schooling for the
most part could not read or vote. Daniel Fogel, South Africa (Ch. 18) Africa In Struggle. (San Francisco:
ISM Press, 1982). 399-403.
3
Apartheid (definition) the segregation policy of South Africa adapted to ensure the favored
treatment of Europeans in political, economic, and social affairs [apartness]. Britannica World Language
Dictionary. (Chicago: Funk & Wagnalls, 1978). 67.
4
This passbook gave your full name, DOB, recent photo, finger prints, and identity number, ethnic or
tribal group, age, sex, address or district you were assigned to reside in, the district of your employment or
school, along with a history of your employment This passbook had to be presented on demand, thus
carried with the person at all times. A person could not stray from the restricted area designated in the
book, they would be immediately arrested if found out of the specific restrictions of the book. The Pass
Law was the strongest of all the Apartheid legislation to give authorities an open script to arresting,
torturing, kidnapping and killing the blacks. The pass law was used all too frequently. Edgar H. Brooks,
Apartheid. (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1968). 20.



804
APARTHEIDS (UN) EDUCATION
The formal western way to a cultural education of African children began with
international missionaries. The children were required to wear uniforms and pay tuition /
fees. But education was optional and at the parents discretion if the child attended school.
By 1910 the Education Administration began offering subsidized education. The
Provinces were taxed and supposedly part of the tax monies went to support schools
(Thompson, 1995). Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd authored the Bantu Education Act Article
Number Forty-seven of 1953. Dr. Verwoerd was the Minister of Native Affairs who later
became the Prime Minister. Education was moved from the governmental department of
education by the Apartheid Legislation, which created a new Black Education
Department in the Department of Native Affairs (Boddy-Evans, 2003).
Shockingly, Bantu Education had as its core a philosophy, which stated, a good
Native is the tribal Native who does not compete and is not a danger (to the white
community). And (the Native) should not be imitators of the white men (Brooks, 1968,
p. 57). Dr. Verwoerd (Minister of Education) believed that Bantu education of 1953
should echo this philosophy and keep the blacks out of the towns and on the reserves.
What is the use of teaching the Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in
practice? There is no place for the Native in the European community above the level of
certain forms of laborit is of no avail for it to receive a training which has as its aim
absorption in the European Community (Brooks, 1968, p. 57).
5
Natives must be taught
from an early age that equality with Europeans is not possible(Mandela, Hendrick
Verwoerd was famous for these words. 1995, p. 167).

5
The previous quotation is an accurate quotation, note the dehumanizing affect of the word it.



805
The education system was set up to maintain apartheid rules starting with the
amount of money spent on the white education versus the black education. They spent an
average of forty- four Rand per black child and five hundred and four Rand per white
child. The disparity between the ratios of fifty- nine students per teacher for teachers in
the townships/ reserves as opposed to an average of fifteen students to one teacher in
white schools is unequal. Often black teachers would work double shifts, which reduced
the school day to three hours. Many teachers were poorly prepared (having two years of
high school in other words no high school certificate) marginally paid, there were no
contracts, and there was no retirement or benefits (Boddy-Evans, 2003).
Missionary schools were eliminated by the Bantu Education act and gave people
just one choice for education. (Mission schools charged tuition, but for the most part had
better facilities, teacher student ratio, and prepared faculty). The Black school facilities
were poor, books were scarce, and lighting was inadequate. In 1976 over two hundred
fifty seven thousand five hundred (257,500) students enrolled in Form I, with spaces
available for thirty-eight thousand (38,000) students. The goal was obvious suppression
of the youth and their intellectual potential. The African Student Movement founded in
1968 to voice students grievances, soon they changed their name to South African
Student Movement (SASM) (Boddy-Evans, 2003).

SOWETO
In the early 1900s the authorities determined to separate blacks from whites by
moving the blacks away from Johannesburg under the auspices of a plague spreading
from the blacks to the whites. So they built a ten- mile sanitary corridor separating



806
Johannesburg and the new township Soweto. The name Soweto stands for South Western
Townships (Damer, 2003).
In the early years Soweto was a struggling township with homes built of wood or
brick, having water and lights on an intermittent basis. Soweto was meant to only house
the blacks employed in Johannesburg, this did not include their families. Families were
meant to live on the reserves. Reserve is the name given to the land allotted by the
government to the entire native people group to which they belonged. Slowly many of the
blacks began to leave (perhaps even escape) the reserves and move to Soweto thinking
there was a better way of life in the city and near employment. The New York Times
reported Soweto was the home of seven hundred thousand (700,000) black South
Africans in 1976 (Burns, 1967).
Today the township of Soweto covers numerous miles
6
and includes many
districts. There are even wealthy areas for a handful of millionaires, but most families in
Soweto live in modest four room brick homes (Carter & OMeara, 1977). Other areas are
littered by squatters huts, called shantytowns, with a water pipe in the street serving a
thousand people at a time with no electricity. Soweto is well known and now appears on
tourist maps, web sites, and in destination magazines where guided tours are made
available (Damer, 2003). There are Hostels /Bed and Breakfasts where you can
experience A Sleepover in Free Soweto. Rachel Swarms recalls the night she and her
family spent at Mrs. Mabitselas home, it was an unforgettable experience (Swarms, 20
May 2001).

6
23 Square Miles.



807
No new schools have been built in the area, and the riots had taken their toll on
the number of schools left standing. But the government s logic was why build schools,
this will force the students to return to the reserves to study. By the 1970s students were
outraged by the situation in school, they began to meet and discuss ideas. Groups and
gangs have long existed but their usefulness increased as they found ways to resist the
Apartheid government non- violently (Dissel, 2003).
By June 16, 1976, many teachers and students rebelled against teaching and
learning in Afrikaans. One student wrote to The World Newspaper saying, our parents
were prepared to suffer under the white mans rule they have been living for years
under these laws and they have become immune to them. But we strongly refuse to
swallow an education that is designed to make us slaves in the country of our birth
(Boddy-Evans, 2003) The New York Times reported that the white students in South
Africa are required to study Afrikaans as one of the primary languages but they are not
obliged to use it. For blacks it was to be the primary medium of instruction, Afr ikaans
was used as a way to maintain and perpetuate Apartheid (Burns, 1976).

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN SOWETO?
Taking a step back, to June 1976, we find that the students from Form I and II of
Orlando West Junior Primary School (known also as Phefeni) were staging a classroom
boycott. On Sunday, June 13, 1976 - a student meeting was held. Approximately four
hundred students attended the meeting. Tsietsi Mashinini, a 19-year-old leader of a
SASM
7
branch, called for a mass demonstration against the mandate of classes being

7
SASM South African Student Movement.



808
taught in Afrikaans. The projected date was Wednesday, June 16
th
1976. On the spot the
students made a secret pact not to let their parents know; the students feared their parents
would stop them in their peaceful efforts for equality (Boddy-Evans, 2003).
Having been carefully planned, seven other Soweto schools joined the non- violent
protest. This included the students from Naledi High School, who sent a message asking
to speak with the regional director of education. The district in turn called upon forces
from the special branch of the police department. The police ended up locking themselves
in the principals office while the students overturned their vehicles during the riots
(Hunter-Gault, 2001).
On the morning of June 16
th
1976, the students congregated at different locations
throughout Soweto and then set out to walk to Orlando West Secondary School where
their plan was to pledge their solidarity, sing Nkosi Sikeleli jAfrika and return home.
Reports were that between 15,000 and 20,000 students in their school uniforms marched
toward the school. It has been determined that South Africas internal security was
unaware of the unrest ahead of time. The local police formed a line in front of the
marchers and ordered the crowd to disperse. When the students refused, police dogs were
released and teargas was fired. The students retaliated by hurling stones and bottles at the
police. A journalist later reported he saw a policeman draw his service revolver and
without warning commence shooting into the crowd, other policemen followed suit using
real live rounds not rubber bullets. Students began running in every direction setting fire
to government buildings, municipal beer halls, liquor stores, Putco buses, and vehicles
belonging to white businesses. Anti-riot vehicles and members of the Anti- Urban
Terrorism Unit were called and as they began to arrive the anger and hostility rose. Army



809
helicopters began dropping teargas on the students. Roadblocks were set up at all
entrances and exits to Soweto, the battle continued to rage throughout the night (Hunter-
Gault, 2001).
The morning of June 17
th
1976 revealed burnt-out cars, trucks, and government
related buildings burned to the ground. Dead bodies were lying in the streets. The official
death toll reported by the government was twenty-three blacks. Others estimated it was as
high as two hundred (200) blacks. In reality many hundreds of people were injured,
especially children and young teenagers. Soweto families did not report the dead or
injured with fear of retaliation by the police. They did not take the wounded or injured to
the hospital again in fear of the police reaction (Mzamane, 1992).
The Bantu Minister of Education closed all schools, but it was only symbolic as
adults stayed home to watch over their families, the police continued to patrol the streets.
Nevertheless, students poured into the streets day after day. Rioting spread to other towns
from Witwatersrand and Pretoria, to Durban and Cape Town, this developed into the
largest outbreak of violence South Africa had ever experienced. Coloreds, Asian, and
Indian students joined their black comrades. The police were unable to stop the rioters
even with force. The New York Times headlines recorded Kissinger; Kissinger Says Hes
Voice Opposition to Apartheid in Talks with Vorster (Burns, 1976). They also reported
that more than one thousand (1000) riot policemen were sent into Soweto, but were
unable to quell the disturbance (Burns, 1976, p. 4). The students disregarded their own
safety to show their frustration. The rest of 1976 was filled with uprisings all over the
country. One area might be calmed only to have another area flare with rage (Hunter-
Gault, 2001).



810
A strong generation of black youth wanted more for themselves and South Africa.
Many photographs dotted the pages of The New York Times in June 1976, but the most
famous is the photo by Samuel Nzima of Hector Petersen. He had been shot and was
being carried by family friend, Mbuyisa Makhubu while Hectors sister ran next to him.
(Hector Petersen was the first child killed during the uprising). The photographer
reported the first shot was fired before any stones were thrown. Later, a postmortem
revealed that Hector had been killed by a shot fired directly into him, not a bullet
ricocheting off the ground as the police stated. A state of emergency was put in place for
the entire nation (Mogano, 1993).
South African Living is a mixture of Privilege and Passes, the New York Times
(18 June 1976) reported that the riots do indeed breed acute resentments but that white
Americans are often struck by the warmth of the reception they receive in black
townships. Meanwhile the white South Africans, despite this riot of massive proportions
and cost in life and structures supported, the status quo. The New York Times ran an
article Tuesday, June 22, 1976, saying that the white South Africans blamed the riots on
communist influence and denied that Apartheid had anything to do with them (South
African Press, In Editorials On Riots in Townships Calls for Dialogue, The New York
Times, 22 June 1976).

YOUTH GANGS AND THE WORLDS REACTION
8


8
Research indicates there is a great disparity regarding the actual fact based numbers of student
involvement, student injuries and fatalities, police / military involvement, and police/military injuries and
fatalities. (No official numbers were used.)



811
The World Wide reaction to the riots in Soweto was disbelief that the South
African government did not understand that Apartheid was wrong. In South Africa itself
we had Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko and others protesting Apartheid.
This list also included some white religious leaders such as Rev. Beyers Naude who was
the head of the Christian Institute of South Africa. But the vast majority of white South
Africans cruelly worried only about their own safety (Krog, 1999).
Immediately, on June 17
th
1976, the UN Security Council condemned the South
African government for its use of massive violence and its organized oppression of black
South Africans through Apartheid. The resolution calls for the Pretoria government to
take urgent steps to eliminate its policy of Apartheid. Further research shows that the UN
voted in favor the dismantling of South African Apartheid policies a vote strongly
opposed by the USA, UK, and France multiple times (Teltsch, 19 June 1967).
The Uprisings in Soweto (1976) changed life for most South African youths. The
word Gang brings to mind horrible thoughts of drug, sex, and violence. But in South
Africa, gangs of youth were affiliating themselves with political groupings coming out of
the first organized opposition against the education system which would not only
completely fail to provide them with an adequate education but it also kept them from
forming a sense of self / identification / personhood by imposing upon them the Afr ikaner
culture (Mokwena, 1991).
These youth saw themselves as the frontline foot soldiers in a struggle for social
and political change, as defenders of their communities, the ones who would finally
prevail against Apartheid. The struggle provided a sense of structure and purpose. These
young people were highly trained in military tactics to be used during armed conflicts,



812
another Soweto would not take place upon their watch (Dissel, 2001). But during the
negotiated transition, national leaders called upon the youth to curtail their resistance
activities and the eventual marginalization of these youth (Vetten, 24 March 1993).

CONCLUSIONS
On June 17
th
1976, The New York Times headlined with a byline by John F.
Burnes from Johannesburg, Six Die in South Africa Riot after Black Student Protest
(Burns, 1976, p.4) during the next six days The New York Times headlined the Soweto
riots. Articles on the back pages resonated with more pictures showing the conditions of
the blacks, and the complacency of the white population in South Africa. Ironically
Henry Kissinger had pre-scheduled meetings with South African president Vorster in
Germany; Apartheid was on the agenda. He spoke out that the system of Apartheid could
not be tolerated by the western world. On June 18
th
1976 the Editorial page of The New
York Times echoed these meetings - Secretary of State Kissingers new African policy is
undergoing a severe testis whether or not this countrys diplomatic interest has been
expressed too late to be felt where it could count (Burns, 1967. p. 4).
June 16, 2001 marked the twenty- fifth anniversary of the Soweto Uprising;
ceremonies marked the date, which is celebrated yearly as Youth Day in memorial to
those lost in the Soweto Riots. A memorial now stands in the name of Hector Petersen,
the thirteen-year-old boy, who became known as the first victim. This memorial is visited
annually by thousands of tourists in South Africa (Hunter- Gault, 2001). Mr. Mbeki
credits Soweto, as one of the historic turning points in South Africa that led to the



813
eventual collapse of Apartheid (Mbeki invokes spirit of Soweto, BBC News, 16 June
2001).
Peter Biles (15 June 2001) of the BBC in his article, South Africas Challenges
25 Years After Soweto notes: Soweto was a turning point in this countrys troubled
past, and is now consigned to the history books. Articles in The Chicago, The Christian
Science Monitor, The New York Times, African Business-London, The Wall Street
Journal, and Contemporary Sociology all echo the same sentiments. Reporters and
researchers making note of the changes in the last twenty-five years have noted that sadly
that Soweto and townships like it have had a rise in gang memberships, are plagued by
AIDS, by poverty, and by unemployment. The youth report to having lost all hope and
resort to thievery, prostitution, and corruption (Marks, 24 July 1995). Education is still
lacking and officially there is still controversy regarding official languages. The Christian
Science Monitor notes that twenty- five years after the Soweto protest which specifically
used language, as the central objection Afrikaans is a dying tradition (Itano, 18 June,
2001).
Sadly, the colonization and apartheid system put South Africa behind times while
hundreds died as a result of these injustices. The Soweto Uprising had set the youth apart
as freedom fighters. But the eventual dismantling of the Apartheid Government was too
slow; it took twenty years before there was even a crack in the system. It was twenty
years before black South Africans could throw away their passbooks and vote
democratically. What is the lasting effect of Soweto? Freedom. What is the lasting effect
of Apartheid? Bankruptcy Unemployment Racism No Cohesive Educational
System Lack of Healthcare Destroyed Families and Devastated Communities.



814
The new democratic government has inherited a national disaster that needs international
and national cooperation. The population of South Africa needs to pull together they need
to address these issues as they build a prosperous content society.




815
BIBLIOGRAPHY


Azanian Peoples Organization. (16 June 2000). June 16, 1976, Background and
Aftermath. < www.azapo.org.za/june16.htm> (20 July 2003).
Biles, Peter. (15 June 2001). S.A.s Challenges 25 Years After Soweto. BBC News
World Africa. <News.BBC.CO.UK> (13 June 2003).
Boddy-Evans, Alistair. (15 June, 2003). African History: Part 1.
<http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa060801a.htm>
Boddy-Evans, Alistair. (15 June, 2003). African History: Part 2.
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THE UNKNOWN BLACK LEADER:
DR. T.R.M. HOWARD









LINDA ROYSTER BEITO
STILLMAN COLLEGE
TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA
AND
DAVID T. BEITO
THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA
TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA




818
The Unknown Black Leader: Dr. T.R.M. Howard


In the early days of the civil rights movement, there were those unknown soldiers
who fought, died, and paved the way for a more heroic figure, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
One such individual was Dr. Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard (Dr. T.R.M. Howard).
Dr. Howard was a medical surgeon, wealthy property owner, and creator of initiatives
and organizations to benefit African-Americans. Howard was a leader in every sense of
the word as early as his college years. It is safe to say that few Americans today have
ever heard of him. Nevertheless, in 1955, he achieved national prominence after the
Supreme Courts ruling of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Howard campaigned
for the enforcement of the ruling and later played a prominent role in finding evidence
against the murderers of Emmett Till. By white segregationists, Dr. Howard became the
man to hate in Mississippi. In January 1956, he was number one on the Chicago
Defenders eleven-person honor role for 1955. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was then just
beginning the famous boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, was not even ranked on the list.
1

For Howard, leadership, independence, and rebellion were synonymous. At
Oakwood College, he was a leader among his peers and a confidant of powerful whites.
Howard had become a Seventh Day Adventists and although his leadership continued to
develop, his boundless self-confidence remained intact. By the end of the 1940s, he not
only had the motivation to step up his fight for civil rights but also the means. Howards

1
David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, T.R.M. Howard, M.D.: A Mississippi Doctor in Chicago
for Civil Rights, AME Church Review (July-September 2001), 55-57; and Chicago Defender, January 7,
1956.



819
business and fraternal enterprises were finally on a firm foundation, thus giving him an
unusual degree of economic independence.
He had other reasons as well to make the move to civil rights. Because of
economic changes in the state, the prospects for such a strategy were brighter. More
blacks abandoned sharecropping and farm tenancy and left for northern and southern
cities. Although he was a gentleman planter himself, Howard applauded this trend. He
predicted that urban life would make the Negro more resourceful and warned that as
long as he had Mr. John (the white farmer) to depend upon, he is going to depend on
him. The decline of sharecropping spurred many blacks to contemplate the injustices
under which they suffered and to seek a better life.
2

As the economic condition of blacks improved, so too did their legal status. The
threat of white terrorism seemed to be receding. Throughout the 1940s, the NAACP
recorded seven lynchings in the state, a new low since emancipation. Several factors were
responsible including, a perception that continued identification with the rope was
damaging to Mississippis reputation and bad for business. The constant threat of federal
anti- lynching legislation reinforced this trend. According to Charles Payne, by the
thirties, newspapers in larger Southern cities typically criticized lynchings, at least in
principle. By the forties, their criticisms were clearly linked to fear of outside scrutiny.
In 1952, something entirely new happened. The annual survey of the Tuskegee Institute
did not record a single lynching in the South. Some slight softening was also apparent in
the criminal justice system. For the first time since the nineteenth century, blacks served

2
Charles M. Payne, Ive Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi
Freedom Struggle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 17; James C. Cobb, The Most Southern
Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1992), 204-5; and David L. Cohn, Where I Was Born and Raised (Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company Books), 1948, 324-25.



820
on juries in Natchez and Greenville and as policemen (albeit only in black
neighborhoods) in Indianola and Biloxi.
3

Meanwhile, blacks flexed their political muscles but carefully and cautiously.
Between 1940 and 1953, NAACP membership rose from 377 to 1,600. More impressive
was the increase in black voting registration (never more than six percent of the total)
from 2,000 to 20,000, a 100 percent rise. Overseas service in World War II and new
experiences in the North had encouraged political assertiveness. As Howard observed,
blacks who thought they were happy on the plantations of Mississippi have gone North
to visit a friend or a relative. They find them eating better, living in a better house,
wearing better clothing, having more spending money, children going to schools and
above all having a freedom of mind.
4

It was the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) that came to embody
Howards views on civil rights. He had proposed the groups formation in November
1951 at the annual conference of the United Order of Friendship of America (UOFA).
Ironically, the original stated goal was to create a black version of the powerful all-white
defender of the established order, the Delta Council, an oversized chamber of
commerce that represented the upper crust of white business interests and planters.
5


3
Payne, 13-17, 20, 27; Jackson Advocate, July 4, 1953; and Dittmer, Local People, 34.
4
Adam Nossiter, Of Long Memory: Mississippi and the Murder of Medgar Evers (Reading, Mass.:
Addison-Wesley, 1994), 40; Earl M. Lewis, Negro Voter in Mississippi, Journal of Negro Education 26
(Summer 1957), 334-35; Dittmer, 28; Payne, 24-25; and Mississippi Regional Council of Negro
Leadership, Prospectus of the First Annual Meeting of the Mississippi Regional Council of Negro
Leadership (Mound Bayou, Miss.: n.p, 1952), 11, copy in authors possession.
Lewis found that there was a fifty per cent increase in Negro voter registration in 1947 above that of
the previous year the crucial factor in this remarkable increase was the stimulation and courage which
the investigation of Senator Bilbo in 1946 provided. Lewis, 334.
5
Aaron Henry with Constance Curry, Aaron Henry: The Fire Ever Burning (Jackson: University Press
of Mississippi, 2000), 80; Memphis World, November 23, 1951; and Tri-State Defender (Memphis),
December 1, 1951.



821
With some success, Howard sought to mollify any negative response from whites
by adopting a conciliatory and non-threatening tone. To assuage segregationists, he
pledged to shun demands for social equality and to work hand in hand with our
Southern white brother. He carefully noted that despite his complaints things are
getting better all the time for Negroes in Mississippi.
6

Howard did not explicitly endorse separate but equal and yet his proposals were
consistent with that framework. It was a framework, however, that he always pushed to
nearly the breaking point. Even so, in announcing the formation of the Council, he took
care to reassure whites: All I ask is that we be consulted on matters that affect members
of our race. We are not organizing to work against our white citizens but to work with
them. He called for more black representation in the leading economic and political
agencies such as the Mississippi Farm Bureau.
7

His rhetoric about imitating the Delta Council notwithstanding, Howards
organizational design more closely reflected the philosophy of Booker T. Washington,
perhaps combined with a dose of DuBoiss doctrine of the talented tenth, than it did any
white model. Instead of starting from the grass roots, he put the priority on harnessing
the talents of blacks with a proven record of leadership in business, the professions,
education, and the church. Our major effort in the past, Howard stated, has been
focused on the masses of our people. By contrast, his goal was to reach the masses

6
Tri-State Defender, December 1, 1951, December 8, 1951; and Memphis World, November 23, 1951.
7
Tri-State Defender, December 1, 1951.



822
through the chosen leaders of the masses. In many ways, he hoped to create a refined
model of the old California Economic, Commercial, and Political League.
8

The media fallout from Howards plan for the Delta Council of Negro Leadership
was overwhelmingly positive. This was especially true in the Memphis newspapers,
many of which also served the Delta area. In a rare point of agreement, at least on race
relations, the black Tri-State Defender and the white Commercial Appeal carried
enthusiastic editorials of praise. The Appeal stated that Howard had won international
acclaim for his efforts to improve health conditions among Negroes and predicted that
the the councils sponsors will meet the challenge and come out triumphant.
9

From the onset, the RCNL had endorsed civil rights causes such as voter
registration and equal school terms. Moreover, even after the December meeting, Howard
did not burn all his bridges (such as they were) with the Delta Council continuing to
praise it as one of the truly great organizations in the state. If the two groups
cooperated, however, he vowed that it would be as full partners. The RCNL was not
going to Uncle Tom and come in the back to the Council table.
10

Howard often identified inadequate schools as the primary factor responsible for
the Northern black exodus. Instead of demanding integration, however, the RCNL called
for equal school terms for both races. In Mississippi, the law guaranteed whites eight
months of school while blacks had to settle for much less. In a speech for the RCNL,

8
Mississippi Enterprise (Jackson), November 24, 1951; and Mississippi Regional Council of Negro
Leadership, Prospectus, 7.
9
Tri-State Defender, December 15, 1951; and Memphis Commercial Appeal, December 19, 1951.
10
Henry, 80; and Mississippi Regional Council of Negro Leadership, Prospectus, 8. Henry had first
heard of Howard in 1946 after reading Hodding Carters article about him in the Saturday Evening Post:
When we did meet, I told Dr. Howard how much I admired him, that we were fortunate to have a man like
him in our community, and that I would like to help promote his ideas. A close friendship developed from
our meeting. Henry, 79.



823
Howard proposed striking white from the state educational law and replacing it with
Each child, regardless of race, creed, or color shall be guaranteed eight months of school
in each year. He belittled the existing black schools as a mockery to the word
education, pointing out that there were eight well-equipped high schools for 5000 white
children in Bolivar County while 10,000 blacks had only two substandard ones. At the
time Howard spoke, the state spent an average of three dollars for each white child
compared to one dollar for a black child.
11

Howard regarded unequal punishment for crime as one of the most glaring
examples of separate but in no case equal. He underlined the hypocrisy of white men
who so readily resorted to mob violence to defend Southern white womanhood from
sexual assaults, either real or imagined, by blacks but did nothing to stop white men who
pester, bother or rape Negro girls. He urged his audience to remember the shame,
reproach and disgrace which has been forced upon Negro womanhood in our State
citing three recent examples, including the rape of twelve year old black babysitter by a
white man, in which absolutely nothing was done.
12

In stating the case for the RCNL, Howards outrage over a system which
institutionalized racial supremacy co-existed, and often complimented, deeply
conservative views on the fundamentals. He was not a deep philosophical thinker but he
showed no affinity, and often hostility, toward utopian panaceas for society. While he
flirted with Black Nationalism of a certain type, he never embraced the full-blown group
consciousness. He invariably expressed admiration in American founding principles, as

11
Mississippi Regional Council of Negro Leadership, Prospectus, 16, 17; Henry, 80; and Clarksdale
Press Register, October 14, 1953.
12
Mississippi Regional Council of Negro Leadership, Prospectus, 13-14.



824
well as the founders. There is not a thing wrong with Mississippi today, he declared
matter-of-factly, that real Jeffersonian democracy and the religion of Jesus Christ cannot
solve. Deep down he was confident about the potential of blacks, when given the
opportunity, to overcome prejudice and thrive by practicing the Franklinesque virtues. He
pointed to Jackie Robinson, a man he deeply admired, as an example of a man who does
the job so well that the world forgets that his skin is black. Young people let efficiency
and service be your watch word and making money will take care of itself.
13

Given his conservative belief in self- help, it is not surprising that his zeal for
black entrepreneurship was unflagging. He warned that the economic security of the
race is tied up in the Negros support of Negro business. It is no encouragement to me
that the religious songs that the Negroes like best are, Take all this world, but give me
Jesus and A tent or a cottage-why should I care, they are building a mansion for me
more over there. He urged ministers to start emphasizing practical lessons such as
proper diet and the fabrics of cotton, wood, nylon, rayon, velvet, furs and leather while
we are preparing for our golden slippers. Most of all, they needed to realize that if
blacks were to move forward in this industrial age, thrift, industry and business
efficiency must become an integral part of the Negros religion. He lamented that blacks
in Jackson, Mississippi had not formed banks or insurance companies to the same degree
as their counterparts in Memphis and elsewhere who had organized successful banks and
insurance companies.
14


13
Mississippi Regional Council of Negro Leadership, Prospectus, 15; and Jackson Advocate, February
7, 1953.
14
Jackson Advocate, February 7, 1953.



825
Although at first he did not greatly emphasize the final goal of the Council an
all-out fight for unrestricted voting rights he did not mince words either. He
promised that blacks had no interest in social equality but added we are terribly
concerned about equality at the ballot box, equality in education, equality in the courts of
the states, equality in the protection of our homes and equality in chances to make our
daily bread.
15

He thundered about the hypocrisy and other consequences of this racial double
standard: Black soldiers from Mississippi are fighting and dying for a democracy they
dont know one single thing about back home on the plantations of the Mississippi
Delta. Howard had little patience with claims of whites to have special knowledge
because they had a mammy or were raised around blacks. In the first of many
quotations reprinted in Jet in December 1951, he offered this suggestion: You have to be
a black man in Mississippi at least 24 hours to understand what it means to be a Negro in
Mississippi.
16

From the beginning, the RCNL attracted many individuals of ability and prestige.
For many, it was their first exposure to civil rights and a training ground. The RCNL had
an interlocking directorate with the Magnolia Mutual Life Insurance Company. In 1951,
Howard had purchased a controlling interest. Like many insurance companies serving
poor blacks, it sold small health and life policies. Under Howards leadership, the value
of the companys insurance increased from about six thousand to over eight hundred

15
Tri-State Defender, December 1, 1951; and Mississippi Regional Council of Negro Leadership,
Prospectus, 14.
16
Mississippi Enterprise, November 24, 1951; and Jet 1 (December 6, 1951), 9.



826
thousand dollars in 1953. Eight of its eighty-three officials served on the Magnolia
Mutual Life Insurance Companys board of directors.
17

Most famously, the Magnolia Mutual Insurance Company was the conduit that
brought Medgar Evers to the RCNL. Evers first came to Mound Bayou in July 1952
when he graduated from Alcorn College in Jackson. Howard had hired him as one of the
companys salesmen. Almost immediately, Evers threw himself into the work of the
RCNL by becoming its program director. Everss brother Charles, then a manager of a
funeral home in Philadelphia, Mississippi, soon also became involved in the
organization.
18

Seven relatively autonomous committees, each headed by a respected black leader
in business, education, the church, or the professions, formed the backbone of the RCNL.
Howards close allies chaired the key committees such as the Committee on Race
Relations, the Committee on Voting and Registration, and most importantly the
Committee on Separate but Equal. The goal of this last committee was to get an equal
share of every dollar spent on the state and federal level. We said we would settle for
nothing less than a dollar- for-dollar, brick- for-brick distribution of revenues among
Negro and white. The committees, in turn, reported to an executive board and board of

17
Jackson Advocate, May 17, 1952; Mississippi, Insurance Department, Biennial Report, March 1,
1951 to February 29, 1952, 154, 245; Mississippi, Insurance Department, Annual Report , March 1, 1953 to
February 28, 1954, 168; Mississippi Regional Council of Negro Leadership, Prospectus, 4-6; Howard to
Claude Barnett, April 26, 1954, Meier and Elliott, eds., Series I, Race Relations, Black Towns, Reel 4;
Maurice L. Sisson to Board Member, February 12, 1952, Correspondence, 1955-56, Box 1, Folder 2,
Moore Papers; Thornbery, 4; Henry, 79; and Nossiter, 38.
18
Myrlie Evers with William Peters, For Us, the Living (Garden City: Doubleday, 1967, reprinted in
1996), 72-77; Nossiter, 38; Henry, 80; and Charles Evers and Andrew Szanton, Have No Fear: The
Charles Evers Story (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1997), 71. Howard 1963 speech
Henry states that Evers was living in Mound Bayou and working for Howard in 1950, two years before
the actual date. More accurately, Myrlie Evers writes that Evers joined after he came to Mound Bayou in
July 1952 to sell insurance though she mistakenly implies that the RCNL was founded in the subsequent
months. Henry, 79; and Evers, For Us, the Living, 72, 87-88.



827
directors, headed by Howard who was the president of the RCNL. The RCNLs
constitution stipulated that each town or city with at least one thousand blacks in the
Delta was entitled to representation. To build mass support and give each leader a greater
stake, business meetings took place in different locations each year.
19

Because of Howards organizational design, the RCNL was well represented
throughout the Delta. Only eight of its eighty-three officials were from Mound Bayou.
The rest came from every section of the Delta, including Clarksdale, Greenwood,
Greenville, and Vicksburg. They included at least two college presidents, Arenia Mallory
of Saints Junior College in Lexington and J.H. White of Mississippi Vocational
University in Itta Bena. By contrast, the heads of two key fraternal societies in the state,
the Elks and the Afro-American Sons and Daughters, were also on the list. The latter
group operated Mississippis largest black hospital in Yazoo City.
20

A striking pattern of the RCNLs leadership was the low number of clergy. This
characteristic set it apart from those civil rights groups that relied heavily on ministers
such as the Montgomery Improvement Association. Only seven of the eighty-three had
clerical titles and not one among the top six officers. Undertakers, entrepreneurs,
professionals, including eight doctors and druggists, and owners of small farms were far
more important. This was probably not an accident. Although Howards speeches
resembled that of a Baptist preacher both in style and content, he had always emphasized
business and the professions, not the church, as the vanguards of future success.
21


19
Mississippi Regional Council of Negro Leadership, Prospectus, 16; Henry, 80-82; and Payne, 59.
20
Mississippi Regional Council of Negro Leadership, Prospectus, 4-6; Jackson Advocate, June 5,
1948; George A. Sewell and Margaret L. Dwight, Mississippi Black History Makers (Jackson: University
Press of Mississippi, 1984), 245; and Beito, From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State, 181-82.
21
Mississippi Regional Council of Negro Leadership, Prospectus, 4-6; and Dudley, interview.



828
Special conditions in the Delta also played a role. The life of a typical minister did
not foster involvements outside of the church. The large church with a full-time minister,
fairly common in urban areas, was rare. An undertaker, fraternal official, or medical
doctor had contact with a broader segment of the masses than the typical Delta minister
with a few dozen parishioners. Even many successful ministers lacked the independence,
or the time, to take on outside leadership roles. Most either earned their main income
from other occupations, such as farming or undertaking, or had a hectored, hand-to-
mouth existence as the pastor of several churches. Especially in rural areas, they were
often dependent on the good will of whites for contributions and access to plantations.
Much like the clergy, black educators, including college presidents and school principals,
were highly vulnerable to the dictates of white patrons.
22

In forming and joining the RCNL, these men and women were pursuing a
practical, though much belated, application of Booker T. Washingtons dictum that the
growth of voluntary associations, self- help, business investment, and property ownership
were the best preconditions for civil rights. On this score, Charles Evers speculates that
the self-employed individuals who formed the backbone of the RCNL were so effective
because they could draw on independent resources to withstand white pressure. He
bluntly states that we couldnt afford to work for no white folks. Theyd fire us.
23

During the 1952 campaign and later, Howard identified with the Mississippi State
Democratic Association. His greatest coup was to persuade Rep. William Dawson of
Chicago to be the featured speaker at the first annual conference of the Regional Council

22
Payne, 191-92.
23
Charles Evers, telephone interview, September 9, 1999. John Dittmer finds that the occupations of
NAACP leaders in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1940s and early 1950s facilitated a similar level of
independence from white control. Dittmer, 30.



829
of Negro Leadership. No other black congressman had spoken in the state since the
nineteenth century. While it was not a campaign appearance as such, Dawson, a member
of the National Democratic Committee, probably accepted because it would contribute to
his long-time goal to expand national black support for the party. As if this was not
enough, Howard arranged for singer Mahalia Jackson to be the main entertainment.
24

Even Howards adversaries had no choice but to acknowledge his achievement.
Black schools and colleges contributed three marching bands. An estimated seven
thousand blacks crowded into a giant circus tent to hear the speakers. In his speech he
warned we have no right to expect leaders in politics to commit political suicide by
defending us when we will not support them with our votes.
25

It was another feather in Howards cap. An editorial in the Memphis Tri-State
Defender lauded him as a modern Moses in the leadership and inspiration who had
mastered the art of translating the truth in terms acceptable to the dominant group.
Despite the great crowds, many white newspapers in the state the dominant group did
not even mention his visit.
26

To achieve maximum impact, the UOFA usually held its annual conclave just
before the RCNL event in Mound Bayou. Attendance was a life transforming experience
for many younger and future civil black leaders such as Fannie Lou Hammer. Everyone
would gather there, Charles Evers recalls, and had something like a festival. And we

24
Clarksdale Press Register, April 8, 1952; Jackson Advocate, May 3, 1952; and Tri-State Defender,
May 10, 1952.
Dawson had campaigned extensively in the South for the Truman campaign in 1948. William J.
Grimshaw, Bitter Fruit: Black Politics and the Chicago Machine, 1931-1991 (Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, 1992), 81.
25
Memphis World, May 6, 1952; and Tri-State Defender, May 10, 1952.
26
Tri-State Defender, May 17, 1952; and Memphis World, May 6, 1952.



830
had music, gospel and blues. We had all kinds of food. People from all over the state of
Mississippi would come.
27

Howard grew closer to his employee and fellow activist in the RCNL, Medgar
Evers. Evers wife Myrlie worked as a typist for the company. Later, Howard delivered
her first child. Her vivid description comes as close as any to capturing the essence of the
man. She wrote that he had a friendly smile, and a hearty handshake, and there was
about him an aura of security so lacking among the vast majority of Negroes in the Delta
that he stood out as different wherever he went. One look told you that he was a leader:
kind, affluent, and intelligent, that rare Negro in Mississippi who had somehow beaten
the system. But she also acknowledged that not everyone shared her enthusiasm. At
least some blacks resented Dr. Howards wealth, but on the whole he was viewed as a
brave man, a spokesman for the Delta Negroes, and it was widely believed that he had at
least some influence with the white plantation owners.
28

Although she and her husband lived in Mound Bayou, Medgars insurance
territory for the Magnolia Mutual Insurance Company was in Clarksdale located 25 miles
to the north. He sold both hospitalization and life policies for the company and collected
premiums on a weekly basis. It did not take long before he also began (probably with
Howards encouragement) to urge his clients to join the NAACP and come to RCNL
rallies. Most of them lived in extreme poverty. Myrlie Evers recalls that as you left the
small frame houses of the Negro section of Clarksdale to absolute squalor as you visited
the sharecroppers shacks on the near-by cotton plantations. Here, on the edges of the

27
Evers, For Us, the Living, 88; Kay Mills, This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
(New York: A Dutton Book, 1993), 40-41; Payne, 154; and Evers, telephone interview.
28
Evers, For Us, the Living, 76, 88-90, 94; and Henry, 80.



831
cotton fields, life was being lived on a level that Medgar, for all his acquaintance with the
poor of both Mississippi and of Chicagos teeming black ghetto, found hard to believe.
29

Evers played a key role in one of the RCNLs earliest initiatives, a boycott of
service stations that failed to provide restrooms for blacks. During this campaign, it
distributed an estimated twenty thousand bumper stickers with the slogan We Dont Buy
Gas Where You Cant Use the Restroom.
30
This demand, though consistent with the
doctrine of separate-but-equal, was risky in the context of Mississippi. The campaign
galvanized ordinary blacks in the Delta as nothing had before. The RCNL had picked its
target well. Blacks could effectively exert leverage because, as Howard pointed out, they
were nearly as likely as whites to own cars. Throughout Mississippi, people pulled in to
service stations and asking in the same breath for gas and to use the washroom. They
would drive off when told there were no washrooms available for Negroes.
31

All available accounts that comment on the effectiveness of the boycott testify to
its success. Most white stations began to install restrooms for blacks. They made this
change both because of the decline in customers and pressure from national suppliers and
chains. Some whites ripped the bumper stickers off the cars of protestors, but generally
they showed no overt hostility to the boycott in great part because it did not entail a direct
challenge to segregation. For this reason, it might be tempting to regard the Dont Buy

29
Evers, For Us, the Living, 76-79, 85-86.
30
Evers, For Us, the Living, 87-88; and Henry, 80-81.
Charles Evers states that his brother Medgar first proposed the boycott of service stations while Henry
credits Howard. Whatever the truth, long before Howard had met Evers he highlighted the failure of service
stations to provide sufficient restrooms as illustrative of separate but never but equal. Charles Evers,
telephone interview, September 2, 1999; Henry, 81; and Mississippi Regional Council of Negro
Leadership, Prospectus, 13.
31
Mississippi Regional Council of Negro Leadership, Prospectus, 13; Henry, 81; Homer Wheaton,
telephone interview, June 14, 2000; Evers, telephone interview; and Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters:
America in the King Years, 1954-63 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988), 144-47.



832
Gas Where You Cant Use the Restroom campaign as unimportant compared to the civil
rights struggles of the late 1950s and 1960s. This would be a mistake. Those who hold
this view should remember that the Montgomery bus boycotters also did not initially
demand integration but only called for the enforcement of genuine separate but equal.
32

Even as the RCNLs service station boycott was under way, it ran an equally high
profile campaign against harassment by law enforcement. For decades, blacks had
suffered repeated indignities ranging from petty insults to physical beatings. Howards
timing was excellent. Because the racial climate in the state had improved in the last
decade, he could afford to take some risks.
33

Until the 1954 Supreme Court decision, the results were promising. Black voter
registration continued to slowly increase, reaching a then twentieth-century record of
22,000 that year. The RCNLs most important threat to the old order was its effort to
encourage blacks to vote in the previously all- white, and all- important, Democratic
primary.
34

The RCNL had attracted many talented and prestigious leaders but few doubted
Howards central role. The essential success of the organization always depended on his
charisma, leadership skills, and financial acumen. His oratory could always attract a
crowd. One of the few surviving recordings of a speech from the 1950s indicates why.
His style may have been learned, but down-to-earth, with more than a touch of the

32
Tri-State Defender, August 2, 1952; Jackson Advocate, October 4, 1952; Maurice L. Sisson,
telephone interview, October 22, 1999; Charles Tisdale, telephone interview, January 2, 2001; Henry, 80-
82; Evers, telephone interview; and Edward M. Boyd, telephone interview, July 19, 1999.
33
Jackson Advocate, October 4, 1952; Chicago Defender, October 11, 1952; and Release, Brutality by
Highway Patrolmen of Negroes in Mississippi to Cease, c.a. October 1952, file on Mississippi Pressures,
Howard, T.R.M., Box 422, Group 2, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
34
Payne, 59; Tri-State Defender, August 2, 1952; Dittmer, 28, 70; and Henry, 81.



833
theatrical. His stem-winding speeches featured a hard-hitting combination of passion,
outrage, grim determination, and biting wit. In delivery and inflection, he was
reminiscent (perhaps intentionally) of his namesake, Theodore Roosevelt, but he also
anticipated the populist style of Malcolm X. People call Martin Luther King, Jr. the
Negro orator of the century, Charles Evers writes. T.R.M. Howard was as good, or
better, and I heard them both in their prime. He could take a crowd up into a frenzy and
bring them right down when he wanted.
35

If anything, Howard was even more effective on a personal level. His varied
background left him equipped to verbally connect with all classes and social
backgrounds. He made you want to help him, says Wheaton, he was just a very
convincing guy. I mean he could really charm you. He dreamed not just little dreams
but big dreams much beyond the average person. Howard not only took risks but he
could inspire others to do the same. He was always, as Charles Evers recalls, pushing
young Negroes to buck the old racist system. He built us up, encouraged us, organized
us.
36

Events between 1951 and 1954 seemed to justify Howards approach of weaving
together pragmatism and radicalism. He had consistently pushed an agenda of self- help,
black business, and political equality whenever opportunities arose. Howard could be
fearless in waging war against inequality and disfranchisement but he was not a man to
tilt at windmills. In the Mississippi Delta before 1953, separate but equal was the only
game in town. Howard was prepared to play the game but only under his own rules.

35
Civil Rights Rally Featuring Eleanor Roosevelt and Autherine Lucy [sound recording], Schomburg
Center, New York Public Library; and Evers and Szanton, Have No Fear, 65-66.
36
Wheaton, telephone interview; and Evers and Szanton, Have No Fear, 65.



834
When separate but equal finally seemed vulnerable in Mississippi in 1954, he was equally
ready to push the hardest to topple the system. Neither he nor his allies could have
anticipated, however, the lengths to which their opponents would go in fighting back to
defend, and expand, their states system of racial supremacy.



POWER IN CROSS-GENDERED RELATIONSHIPS:
VICTORIO ACOSTA VELASCO AND
MARIA LOUISA DOMINGUEZ






MICHAEL SERIZAWA BROWN
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
PULLMAN, WASHINGTON




836
Power in Cross-Gendered Relationships: Victorio Acosta Velasco and
Maria Louisa Dominguez


INTRODUCTION
In April of 1924, Victorio Acosta Velasco, a Filipino man in his early twenties,
arrived on a Seattle dock and remained in the United States until his death in 1968. His
life was remarkable for a wide range of reasons, including his extensive activities as a
writer, a journalist, a scholar, and a labor union leader. Yet, one of the most significant
commentaries about the lives of Asian American men that his experiences offered
concerned male-female relationships. Among the women with whom he became
involved, he seldom held the superior position in spite of his status as a male in a
relationship with a female.
The fact remained regardless of the race of the woman. In his relationships with
white women, he always occupied a subordinate position because of race. The pattern
was consistent enough during the 1920s and 1930s to encourage the inference that, in the
absence of race, cultural norms from both the Philippines and the United States would
ensure his superiority in a relationship with a woman. Yet, this was not the case. In his
relationship with a Filipina, Maria Louisa Dominguez, he was the subordinate partner.
Moreover, she controlled the entire series of events into which she drew him and, even
after it was all over, she came out better than he. Between 1952 and 1959, he was her
lover, the man with whom she committed adultery after she married her first husband in
the United States, her loyal supporter and errand boy during the subsequent divorce



837
proceedings and a libel suit, and, finally, the man responsible for paying her unpaid bills
after she left him and married a second husband in the States. At no point did he ever
control the relationship. To the contrary, it was she, as well as the events into which she
drew him, that strung him along as if he were a puppet without a will of its own.
Velasco was born in Pangasinan in the Philippines in 1902. Upon finishing high
school in 1919, he became a teacher and a newspaper reporter in Manila. Soon thereafter,
he met Sixta Aquino, who became one of the greatest loves of his life. They never
married, but they lived together, and she gave birth to a baby girl who died in infancy. In
1922, Velasco began studies at the College of the Philippines in Sampaluc, where he
spent much of his time until the spring of 1924. He then decided to leave for the United
States in order to further pursue his education. Full of patriotic feelings toward
Americans, he felt that the United States was the best place for an aspiring poet like
himself to finish his education before returning to his native land. In April, 1924, he took
leave of friends, his beloved grandmother, sister, other relatives, and his Filipina
sweetheart and boarded a ship for Seattle, Washington via a circuitous route through
Hong Kong and Tokyo. Upon arriving, he found work as a houseboy. Almost
immediately, he began studies at the University of Washington towards a bachelors
degree. Between 1924 and the late 1930s, he finished his undergraduate education and
started the universitys graduate program in education. Along the way, he lost Aquinos
love when, in 1925, she forbade him from ever contacting her again. By the early 1930s,
he managed to publish some of his poetry. It was also between 1930 and 1937 that he had
an affair with Delphine Brooks, a young white woman from the central Washington farm
town of Wapato and the only white woman who accepted him as her lover. By the late



838
1930s, he had also become heavily involved in Filipino issues, the Filipino press, and
unionization efforts among Alaskan salmon cannery workers. By the Second World War,
he was one of the most important Filipino leaders in the cannery workers union, and, for
the remainder of his life, he remained one of the pillars of the Filipino community in
Seattle and Alaska as a journalist, writer, and labor leader.
1


MARIA LOUISA DOMINGUEZ
In spite of all his accomplishments, it was in the most intimate of relationships
where Velasco was at his most vulnerable. It was in his relationship with Maria Louisa
Dominguez that, even in the absence of racial differences, he lost control over his
personal life in a sad dnouement to his decades of effort to find a woman who would
love him.
Romance
Velasco met Maria Louisa Dominguez on 1 January 1952 at a party in her honor
at the Kiang Wa in Seattles Chinatown when he was about a month past his forty-ninth
birthday. She was on her way to Los Angeles from New York and had stopped in Seattle
to visit a cousin, who introduced her to Velasco. He then interviewed Dominguez about
her visit and proposed book, about her grandfather, for a story that he published in his
own newspaper, the Filipino Forum, in February of 1952.
2


1
Michael Brown, Victorio Acosta Velasco: Asian American Activist. (Ph.D. diss., Washington State
University, 2003), 2-9.
2
Engagements, 1952, 1 January 1952, Box 2, Folder 14, Victorio Acosta Velasco Collection,
Accession No. 1435-003, Manuscripts and Archives, Suzzallo and Allen Libraries, University of
Washington, Seattle, Washington [hereafter VVC]; Maria Luisa Dominguez Fleetwood, Errors of the
Court During My Divorce Hearing, June 10, 1954, TM, Box 2, Folder 11, VVC, 2 [hereafter Errors of
the Court].



839
Almost immediately, he became enamored of her, seemingly losing all sense of
discretion as he went pell mell into a passionate, albeit short- lived, romantic relationship
with her. She became his constant companion on social visits with friends and, shortly
after their meeting, his lover. In February, just a month past their first meeting, they
began going to parks in and around Seattle and having their first sexual encounters.
Throughout the following month, they kept up the frenetic pace of their relationship with
visits to friends and more intimate experiences. In April and May, they continued seeing
each other, although less regularly in hindsight, possibly the result of her March 2
nd

meeting with her future husband, Mariano Barrinuevo. The relationship continued until
20 May, when she left for San Francisco en route to Europe to promote her book. When
she returned to the Puget Sound area in the winter of 1952/1953, she reprised her
relationship with Velasco. On 4 January 1953, during her husbands absence, he visited
her at the Barrinuevo residence, where they took turns taking baths in each others
presence, a ritual they repeated the following night. It was just a few days later, however,
on the 9
th
, that her husband returned unexpectedly and discovered Velasco in a bedroom.
3

Legal Troubles
During the four month span between January and May and in January of 1953,
Velasco had carried on a relationship at breakneck pace with Dominguez. However, the
short- lived affair was not the only thing that swept Velasco up in its wake. It was only the

3
Engagements, 1952, 1, 3, 13, 15, 21, 22 January; 9, 14-15, 28-29 February; 3, 6, 8, 10, 24, 27, 31
March; 1, 3, 4, 6, 12, 15, 25, 30 April; 10, 12, 18, 19, 20, 21 May; 19 July 1952, Box 2, Folder 14, VVC.
There are no records between 19 July 1952 and 6 January 1954. Engagements, 1954, 6 January 1954, Box
2, Folder 14, VVC; James Munro, Appeal from the Superior Court of the State of Washington for Kitsap
County, Mariano L. Barrinuevo vs. Maria Luisa Dominguez Barrinuevo, No. 32536, TM, Box 2, Folder
11, (considerable wealth; Shelton), VVC, 2-3 [hereafter Appeal from the Superior Court]; Maria Luisa
Dominguez Fleetwood, Errors of the Court, 1-3; Victorio Acosta Velasco, Diary, 6, 7, 9 January 1954,
Box 2, Folder 18, VVC [hereafter Diary].



840
beginning because, for at least part of the time that she carried on a relationship with
Velasco, she was married, and her husbands discovery of Velasco in his home led to a
series of events over which he had no control.
In November of 1953, Barrinuevo filed a lawsuit for divorce based on adultery in
Kitsap County Superior Court in Bremerton, Washington. In late June, 1954, the court
granted the divorce, holding that Velasco had aided Dominguez commit adultery. Nor
was the verdict against her the only bad news. The following month, Filipino
newspapermen in the central Washington community of Wapato published an article
asserting that Dominguez had been a spy for the Japanese occupation government in the
Philippines during the Second World War. Dominguez then found herself fighting on two
fronts: a legal battle against the newspaper and an effort to overturn the divorce verdict.
The twin blows caused damage not only to Dominguez, but also to her paramour,
Velasco, who, still enamored of her, stuck by her and, in place of enjoying more trysts
with her, now became her ally in the legal battles which swept up the two of them.
Yet, it seemed that everything conspired against the pair. For one, her past
intervened. The book that she had been writing and promoting before she met Velasco
led to difficulties. The book was about the famed General Ricarte, her grandfather and a
Filipino patriot who had fled the Philippines to Japan following the brutal American
suppression of Filipino rebels just after the establishment of an American colony in the
Philippines following the end of the Spanish-American War. Ricarte may have been a
hero for Filipinos who had lived during or remembered the exploits of resistance fighters
against the Americans, but fifty years and two world wars later, the hostility that many
Filipinos had felt towards the Americans had largely disappeared, and in its place came



841
strong feelings against the Japanese, among whom Ricarte had lived in voluntary exile.
Consequently, her efforts were not popular in some circles, and Velascos involvement
with her project drew him into the line of fire that she was drawing towards herself.
4

Personal jealousies and animosities, too, played a role, and this appeared in the
betrayal of Dominguezs trust and friendship by those whom she had trusted. Early in her
relationship with Velasco, the two often went to visit a Filipino family, the De Castros,
and carried on a frequent social calendar with them. The daughter, Josephine, became one
of Dominguezs frequent companions, and the father, a mentor who introduced her to
Barrinuevo, her future husband. Yet, both the father and the daughter betrayed
Dominguezs friendship by pressuring two other Filipinos, Ellis Custodio and Rhoda
Topas, to testify falsely against Dominguez in her divorce trial by telling them lies about
her activities during the Second World War.
5

The consequences of Dominguezs infidelity, events from her past, and the
betrayal of friends led directly to Barrinuevo naming Velasco as his wifes illicit lover in
the divorce suit. For Velasco, though, this was only the beginning. From the moment the
trial started, things went badly not only for Dominguez, but also for him, since he was no
longer able to control the chain of events that his relationship with Dominguez had
unleashed. Once the legal process started, he was powerless for a variety of reasons.
One was that Velasco could not even control the effect of his own words. During
direct examination in the divorce trial, when Dominguezs attorney, Merrill Wallace,

4
James Munro, Appeal from the Superior Court, 2; Maria Luisa Dominguez Fleetwood, Errors of
the Court, 1-2; Deposition Upon Oral Examination of Senator Emmanuel Palaez, In the Superior Court of
the State of Washington in and for the County of Yakima, Maria Louisa Dominguez vs. Roy Baldoz, Harry
Bucsit and Aurelio Benedicto, No. 40101, TM, Box 2, Folder 12, VVC, 21-22.
5
Engagements, 1952, 11-14, 18, 19, 26 March; 8 April 1952, Box 2, Folder 14, VVC.



842
questioned him on the stand, Velasco testified that, on the morning that Dominguezs
husband found him in the bedroom in his home, he had been unaware that Dominguez
was married. However, during redirect, when Dominguezs attorney queried him about
his knowledge, he explicitly admitted that he had known of her marriage.
His own, clumsy error in the court did nothing to help either Dominguez or
himself when they needed all the help they could get. The matter was particularly urgent
because additional factors also conspired against the pair. It was not a legal system
sympathetic to independent Filipino women of means who traveled around the world on
their own without male escorts and took on lovers at the expense of elderly dark-skinned
men, presumably incapable of resisting the charms of beautiful women half their age.
Judge Sutton, the Superior Court judge who presided over the trial, wholeheartedly
accepted the notion that Dominguez was a lascivious, self-seeking woman victimizing an
old man for his savings in spite of the fact that, at the time that Barrinuevo married
Dominguez, he had only $45 in his bank account, a stark contrast to the several thousand
that she had in hers and the fact that her resources were sufficient to take her around the
globe, promoting her book.
Moreover, Judge Sutton stepped out of his role as a neutral arbiter and joined
Barrinuevos attorney in accusing Dominguez of being a conniving, adulterous woman
who took on Velasco as a lover while fleecing a vulnerable old man of his savings. When
Barrinuevos attorney, a Mr. Greenwood, accused Dominguez on the stand of marrying
Barrinuevo for his money and she denied it, the judge intervened. We cant try a case
this way, he exclaimed. Turn around, Mrs. Barrinuevo. Did you marry him for love?
When she turned to face her new interrogator, he again resumed the role of adverse



843
counsel, continuing the cross examination where Barrinuevos attorney had left off. Did
you love him? he demanded. The fact that Dominguez steadfastly denied that she had
married Barrinuevo for his money had no effect on the judges biases.
6

The judges prejudices affected the proceedings in another way. He permitted
Greenwood to violate evidentiary rules by asking leading questions questions that more
closely resemble statements rather than queries - of one of his own witnesses. When
Greenwood asked witness Elsie Topas of Barrinuevos whereabouts on the morning of 9
January and she stated that she did not know, he gave her the answer: You knew he was
going away When he set out to establish that she had firsthand knowledge of Velasco
and Dominguez carrying on an illicit relationship in Barrinuevos home, he again led her
by stating, Did you and your husband return to the house? Not having yet received all
of the answers that he wanted to hear, he stated, you became aware that there were
some other people in the house? By leading the witness giving answers rather than
asking for them - Greenwood violated the standard rule against asking leading questions
of friendly witnesses. There was no indication that the judge made any effort to stem the
use of leading questions, although court records in Dominguezs later appeals implied
that they may have provided the bases for an effort to vacate the divorce decree because
of his abuse of discretion.
7

Nor was the judge the only exponent of the legal system reflecting the stereotypes
of the day. Barrinuevos attorneys seemed to not only be aware of them, but also
determined to capitalize upon them. Greenwoods firm of Greenwood & Shiers seemed

6
Maria Luisa Dominguez Fleetwood, Errors of the Court, 7; James Munro, Appeal from the
Superior Court, 10 (quoting Dominguez from trial transcripts), 11.
7
James Munro, Appeal from the Superior Court, 16-17; Maria Luisa Dominguez Fleetwood, Errors
of the Court, 2.



844
well aware of racial and gender stereotypes and used them to portray Dominguezs
relationship with Velasco in a negative light. In a brief that they filed with the court, they
described Dominguez as a young Filipino girl [who] was quite an adventuress. It
questioned her motives for marrying Barrinuevo and depicted her as a conniving woman
who wanted his financial assets. Barrinuevo gave her money, they asserted, and left
him her marriage was designed to assist her to stay in the United States she had
many other interests and men companions. Their prejudice against her became apparent
during the trial when she denied that she had improper motives for marrying Barrinuevo.
Greenwoods reply to her was, Just quit making speeches. You understand English.
When she replied, I didnt marry him for money, he simply repeated, And so you
married him for financial reasons? Again she denied his accusation, and he again asked,
Well, wasnt that the main reason? Not only the presiding judge, but also the attorneys,
seemed aware of and determined to invalidate any notions about a Filipina having
independent economic means and a legitimate reason for coming to and remaining in the
United States.
8

On 14 June, Judge Sutton reached his decision, holding that Dominguez had
committed adultery with Velasco and granting Barrinuevo a divorce. Although
Dominguez immediately sought further remedies, she was unsuccessful. On 22 June
1954, Merrill Wallace, acting on behalf of Dominguez, filed a motion for a new trial.
Dominguez then tried to use the interim until the hearing date for the motion to find a
new attorney. However, as of 19 July, Dominguezs legal team was not yet ready, and the

8
Greenwood and Shiers, Brief of Respondent, in the Supreme Court of the State of Washington,
Barrinuevo v. Barrinuevo, TM, No. 32536, c. 1954, 4 [hereafter Brief of Respondent]; James Munro,
Appeal from the Superior Court, 11.



845
court refused to grant an additional continuance. It was not until December of 1954 that
Dominguez, through her new attorney, James Munro, was able to appeal Judge Suttons
decision. She eventually appealed all the way to the Washington State Supreme Court,
but on 1 September 1955, it affirmed the Superior Court decision, and, on 17 October,
denied Dominguezs petition for a rehearing, thus ending any hopes of an outcome in her
favor for the time being. It was now official and public knowledge: Dominguez was an
adulterer and Velasco, her secret lover.
9

Between the fall of 1954 and the summer of 1957, however, Dominguez was
ultimately able to clear her name in the divorce trial when witnesses admitted that they
had testified falsely against her. For her, the visit to the United States took a further
happy turn when she married an American and thereby possibly gained the right to
become an American citizen. If this was the case, it would have been a satisfactory
conclusion to all the efforts she had made and anxiety she had endured while constantly
having to renew her visitors permit during the time that she was battling the attacks upon
her character.
For Velasco, however, the final outcome was less encouraging. Whereas
Dominguez had eventually fended off and overcome all detractors, he had little to show
for it. The woman with whom he had carried on a fast-paced, torrid affair and by whose
side he had steadfastly remained for some five years had married another man. And, even
after the divorce and prior to her marriage to the American, she never reprised the
romance with Velasco. Instead, their relationship ironically confirmed Dominguezs

9
On 15 July 1954, James Munro took Merrill Wallaces place as Dominguezs attorney. James Munro,
Appeal from the Superior Court, 7, 28-29; Barrinuevo v. Barrinuevo, 287 P.2d 347, 47 Wn.2d 296, 297;
1955 Wash. LEXIS 347 (1955). However, even as of the fall of 1954, events that ultimately exonerate her
had occurred. Between the fall of 1954 and the summer of 1957, key witnesses who had testified against
her in the divorce trial admitted that they had perjured themselves.



846
somewhat questionable testimony during the trial that he had been nothing more than her
errand boy and chauffeur. The only tangible things that he received from the affair was a
2 June 1959 demand from the law firm of Pomeroy & Harris that demanded that Velasco
pay a promissory note for $307.97 that he had signed for Dominguez two years earlier.
10

The difference between Velasco and Dominguez in terms of how each fared after
the episode came to an end may have largely been the result of her own strength of
character, which appeared not only in her persistence, but also in her skills at fighting
back. In 1957, she signed an affidavit asserting that the Superior Court of improperly
reached its verdict in her divorce trial. In it, she claimed that the fact that Velasco had
fallen in love with her was no indication that she had reciprocated his feelings. Yet,
Velascos diary notes from the period during which he knew her in early 1953, as well as
during the period after her divorce but before the final resolution of it in 1957, indicated
that she did, in fact, carry on a passionate romantic, and sexual relationship with
Velasco.
11

For Velasco, Dominguezs vindication in her efforts to vacate the divorce decree
came at the cost of her stepping out of his life as his companion, friend, and lover and
never again enjoying the intimacy that he had enjoyed with her when he first knew her.
Moreover, the extent to which she manipulated the course of events even on her way
to victory following the recanting of the witnesses testimony appeared in her
perpetuation, in 1957, of the deception that Velasco had tried in 1954 when he took the

10
Diary, 23 February; 5, 15 April 1955, Box 2, Folder 18, VVC. De Castro appears in various other
entries in 1952: Engagements, 1952, 9 March 1952 (Luncheon at Mrs. De Castros); 11 March (Took
MLD to Mrs. De Castro in the afternoon); 13 March (Took MLD to Mrs. De Castro in the afternoon);
14 March (To Puyallup with MLD Josephine & Mrs. De Castro); 26 March (took MLD to De Castros
and then to Fort Lawton); 8 April (Took MLD to De Castros, then to Mrs. Carltons); Allan Pomeroy
to Velasco, TLS, 2 June 1959, Box 1, Folder 43, VVC.
11
Maria Luisa Dominguez Fleetwood, Errors of the Court, 9.



847
stand during the divorce trial and told the court that he had been merely her chauffeur; in
her affidavit, she stated that he was merely a friend who had helped her write her
manuscript because of her deficiency in the English language. While it was likely that her
statement about him helping her because of her language deficiency, that was only part of
the story. Curiously, the statement never explicitly denied that she ever had a romantic
relationship with Velasco. Rather, it merely presented a hypothetical, logical argument
that the mere fact that a man and a woman stayed under the same roof did not necessarily
mean that there was anything illicit. Moreover, rather than explicitly denying that there
was no adultery, she instead stated that there was no evidence of adultery. That her
statements did not literally contradict the facts that Velascos diary revealed about their
sexual liaisons and trysts in parks between the two was clear. However, it closely skirted
the fine line between explicitly denying a fact and telling just enough of the truth so as to
avoid making an outright lie.
12

There were also other reasons to question Dominguezs sincerity and the extent to
which she, in contrast to Velascos helplessness throughout the affair, manipulated the
course of events throughout the time she knew Velasco. However unsavory Barrinuevo
may have been, her own conduct deserved some scrutiny. One reason was the great
disparity in their ages. At the time of their marriage, she was thirty-five and he, sixty-
three a difference in age that only amplified the contrast between her physical beauty
and his appearance and cast doubts upon their sexual compatibility as man and wife.

12
That Dominguezs statements so skillfully negotiated the fine line between truth and deception was
not necessarily surprising even given her limited language skills. Almost certainly the author of the
document was either her attorney or Velasco. Her attorney, presumably, would likely have the skills to be
able to cross the fine line between incomplete narrative and outright lies, and Velasco, from years of
experience as a journalist, writer, and veteran of political infighting in union activities, would also almost
certainly know how to negotiate this fine divide. Ibid., 9-10.



848
Another was the fact that they seemed to have spent almost no time together after their
hasty and secret marriage ceremony. For all the intimate details of individuals lives that
came out in diaries, letters, and legal documents, none provided any indication that they
had spent any time together as a married couple. Another reason to question her motives
was the fact that, if indeed her purpose in coming to the United States was solely to
promote her book before returning to the Philippines, it would not have made sense for
her to marry a man in the United States. Yet she did so, and it happened at least twice; in
1952, when she married Barrinuevo; and sometime between 1957 and 1959, when she
married an American by the name of Fleetwood. The maritally-sanctioned relationships,
of course, were in addition to a third relationship she had: that with Velasco.
13

Even the reality that Barrinuevos bank account was empty at a time that she had
thousands in her own did not necessarily exonerate her. The fact that he was broke did
not necessarily mean either that she was aware of his penury or that money was what she
wished to get from him. If her motives for marrying him were not based on the desire for
economic gain, real or imagined, but on some other reason, e.g., gaining permanent
residence or possibly even American citizenship by marrying an American, then the
money issue was a moot point that was neither incriminating nor exculpatory. The fact
that she had ample resources for a world tour lent further support to the probability that
money was not a motivating factor. Gaining the ability to reside in the United States,
though, may have held some attraction for her. Since the immigration quota on Filipinos
was limited to fifty persons per year because of the 1934 enactment of the Tydings-
McDuffie Act any Filipino, including possibly Dominguez, who wished to settle in the

13
James Munro, Appeal from the Superior Court, 3.



849
United States let alone cross American borders - permanently faced almost impossible
numerical odds in being able to do so. The fact that her connection to General Ricarte
may have made her a pariah in some circles in the Philippines lent further support to the
possibility that she may have had non-economic reasons for desiring to leave the islands
and to make a permanent home in the United States.
Although Velasco enjoyed a superior position, at least in theory, because of his
status as the male in a gendered relationship, the reality was that he had little control from
the beginning. From the time that he met Dominguez, she held the reins. She took him on
as her lover and had him at her will for the first four months that they knew each other.
After she married Barrinuevo, she still kept Velasco on as a lover and sexual partner.
During the course of the divorce and libel lawsuits, he was always at her side, even at the
expense of sullying his own reputation and character. Then, when it was all over, all that
he had left was several hundreds of dollars in unpaid legal bills, whereas she had left him
and begun a new life with yet another man.

CONCLUSION
The affair between Dominguez and Velasco contributes to an understanding of
Asian Americans by showing how cross-gender relationships vary not only between, but
within, racial lines. In Velascos case, the reversal of the norm was due to a wide range of
factors. One was his individual vulnerability, stemming from his desire, since the mid-
1920s, to find a woman who would love him no mean ambition when Filipinos
outnumbered Filipinas by as much as 20 to 1 and when the law, as well as social
prejudice, strongly discouraged interracial relationships with white women. Another was



850
the strong character that Dominguez possessed. She had a broad arsenal of weapons in
any contest for dominance in a cross- gender relationship: economic assets; native
intelligence; strength of character; economic means; and sexual desirability. The factors
combined to make the male partner, Velasco, an easy target from the outset. He had been
pining for female companionship, without much success, for more than two decades
before he met Dominguez; he had little economic means, since, during his entire life in
the United States, he never worked outside of the Filipino community as anything other
than a manual laborer; and, at forty-nine years of age when he met her in 1952, he was
well into his middle-age years.
The reversal of power between Dominguez and Velasco was significant for
several reasons. One was that it indicated how varied cross-gendered relationships can be
even in a world that assumes and usually confirms male dominance in a wide range of
contexts from the personal to the professional. For Asian American scholarship, it was
significant because it illustrated how a gendered relationship, even in the absence of race
as a factor between the partners, was not predictable either in terms of the norm for either
the majoritarian culture or for Filipinos. It also showed the extent to which Velascos
powerlessness vis--vis a sweetheart of his own race symbolized the longing and
vulnerability of other Filipinos of his generation in particular and of Asian American
males in the United States. The fact remains even today, which seems to be reliving the
era of the aging Asian batchelor so ubiquitous not only in Filipino American literature,
but also in the continuing presence of Asian male oldtimers, who never married and
instead, populate rundown rooms in tenement buildings in ghettoized Chinatowns across
the United States into the turn of the twenty-first century. Moreover, Velascos



851
subordination and vulnerability were significant because they showed the multi- faceted
nature of Asian American mens experience in the United States, a far cry from the
standardized, stereotypical, and iconographic representations that todays Americans, in
the year 2004, watch every day flash across the TV, the big screen, magazine covers, and
song lyrics: the screaming kung fu expert; the chop suey cook; and the bespectacled,
black-suited and asexual Japanese man.



AN ANALYSIS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS DEFENSE OF
JOSEPH CINQUE (SEN GBEH PEH) AND HIS COLLEAGUES
IN THE AMI STAD CASE






DR. WILLIAM B. LEWIS
BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY
BOWIE, MARYLAND




853
An Analysis of John Quincy Adams Defense of Joseph Cinque (Sen
Gbeh Peh) and His Colleagues in the AmistadCase


INTRODUCTION
In June of 1839, a ship entered Havana harbor packed with a lot of slaves
including 53 from Sierra Leone. Upon their arrival in Cuba, two Spaniards, Jose Ruiz and
his companion Pedro Montes, convinced the Cuban authorities that the captives were
lawful slaves. The slaves were boarded on a schooner, Amistad, and departed for Puerto
Principe in Cuba.
During the trip, the slaves, led by Joseph Cinque (Sen Gbe Peh), had armed
themselves with knives and staged a revolt, seizing control of the vessel. The Spanish
captain and other crewmembers managed to steer the ship to Long Island on the
American coast. The United States coastal authorities disarmed the Africans and took
them to New Haven, Connecticut, where they stayed in jail. In 1840, federal judges at
both the district and circuit court levels decided that the Amistad unlawfully transported
slaves to Cuba. The Van Buren Administration filed an appeal at the Supreme Court to
have the lower courts decisions reversed.
John Quincy Adams was hired as one of the defense attorneys for the Africans.
This paper analyzes the strategies Adams used in defense of the slaves: legal arguments,
personal and political influence, and an appeal to the religious conscience of the justices.
It was the combination of these strategies that led the Supreme Court to uphold the lower



854
courts decision to free the Africans. Before delving into the case itself, some background
information about the mutiny will be helpful.
THE MUTINY
In early April of 1839, Joseph Cinque and others were captured as slaves in West
Africa and placed in the Tecora for the long journey to Cuba. It was no secret that Cuban
businessmen were active in the slave trade in the West African region. In fact, the most
notorious slave trader in the area was Pedro Blanco of Havana, who had organized the
business in the region during the mid-1820s (Jones, 1987: 14).
It was a common practice for European businessmen to make deals with their
black counterparts in Africa. Following their capture in the continental interior, the black
captives were taken to the warehouses owned by Pedro Blanco and others. There were
shackles on their ankles, iron collars around their necks. A chain padlocked to each iron
collar threaded them together (Owens, 1968:5). They were surrounded by African
guards armed with muskets and guns. Eventually, the captives were placed in large
canoes and transported to the slave ship, the Tecora. It is estimated that the ship carried
over five hundred black Africans, mostly women and children, with no one older than
the mid-twenties and all of them chained two by two, hands to feet, and packed into
layered decks less than four feet high that prevented standing except in a crouch (Jones,
1987: 15).
Among the slaves captured was Joseph Cinque who was twenty- five years old. He
came from the Mende ethnic group in Sierra Leone. He was now in the custody of
strangers, and his fate was uncertain. He had left behind his wife and three children who
may have presumed that he had been killed in the African bush. Cinque and others were



855
in the slave ship the Tecora for almost two months. For them, it was a hazardous and
strenuous journey to the unknown land. Most of them would die from disease caused by
poor sanitary conditions. Food was in short supply, and as the voyage dragged on food
was cut to stomach shrinking portions cut so much that the captives began finding
it difficult to force food down at all (Owens, 1968:27).
Joseph Cinques endurance had been tested in the Poro bush, the training
ground of a secret society for young boys and men. As part of his training, he was
required to memorize the tribal laws and systems of rewards and punishments in all the
feasts of games and acrobatics (Owens, 1968: 28). When Cinque was assembled
together with other boys, he flawlessly recited the laws of his people. The fine part of the
initiation into the Poro society required the candidates to gather food and make a feast
for themselves. Upon the completion of this aspect of the initiation process, they could
leave the Poro bush and return to the Poro house for the actual initiation. They could
do so by bringing animals and fruits from the jungle; they could also steal from the
village if they could avoid being seen by the women (Owens, 1968: 28). Cinque and
others would go on a rampage stealing chickens until they had enough for the feast.
Finally they were welcomed into the Poro house with chanting of Poro songs. This
initiation had prepared Cinque for manhood and the rigors of life. Little did he know that
his initiation and training in the Poro bush would prepare him to face the onslaught of
slavery.
When the Tecora arrived off the coast of Cuba, it stayed there until dark for fear
that it would be seen by anti-slave trade patrol vessels. When darkness fell, the boat was
quietly anchored along on the Cuban shoreline. The Black captives were immediately



856
taken off the boat into some crowded warehouses, and they were later taken into Havana.
Among the black captives were 53 members from Sierra Leone. Four were children,
three girls and a boy, nine years and under (Falkner, 1967: 202).
It should be noted that the importation of slaves into Cuba was in violation of the
1817 Cuban treaty between Spain and England, which prohibited the purchase of blacks
in Africa and declared that as of May 1820, when the pact went into effect, those brought
into Spanish dominions became free (Jones, 1987: 18). Despite the restriction imposed
by the treaty, slave owners continued to engage in the slave trade by circumventing the
law. For example, they would replace Spanish flags with Portuguese and American colors
and withhold the announcement of the arrival and departure times of slave ships. The
Spanish authorities, if caught, were in a dilemma. If it enforced the treaty, it would please
the British government and alienate the Cuban plantation owners who relied on slave
labor to produce their crops. Hence, the law was largely ignored and remained
unenforceable.
Two planters, Don Jose Ruiz, a young Spaniard, and Don Pedro Montes, obtained
false documents from Cuban authorities permitting them to transport the black captives,
including the fifty-three slaves to be hauled in the schooner Amistad to take them to their
sugar plantations in the Cuban province of Puerto Principe. The Amistad sailed at
midnight on June 28, 1839. Most of the captives were left unchained but remained in the
custody of the crewmembers. That night, Cinque and others attacked the cabin crew with
chains and machetes. The other captives were freed from the shackles and there was
pandemonium on board the ship. Cinque used signs to communicate to the captains that
the ship should return to Africa. Montes pretended that he was following Cinques



857
instruction and successfully steered the ship to the Long Coast. The captives had no idea
where they were.
The U.S. coastal authorities dispatched the USS Washington under the command
of Lieutenant Thomas Gedney who boarded the Amistad and subdued the mutinous
captives. They were transported to New London, Connecticut, where slavery was legal.
Lieutenant Gedney submitted his findings to the United States Marshall in New Haven,
Norris Willcox, who in return notified the federal judge of Connecticut, Andrew T.
Judson. Judge Judson conducted his own inquiry and heard testimonies from Ruiz and
Montes, who claimed ownership of the slaves. The judge detained 39 black adults until
the property claim was settled.
The capture of the slaves was given widespread publicity in the newspapers such
as the New London Gazette and the New York Emancipator. Meanwhile, the American
abolitionists, led by Lewis Tappan, decided to use the mutiny to escalate their antislavery
stance. With meticulous planning, they were able to gain the publics support on behalf of
the captives. The Van Buren Administration was also caught in a quagmire. On the one
hand, the administration did not wish to rupture its relations with Spain by declaring that
the Spaniards had violated the law of 1819 banning the transportation of slaves from
Africa. On the other hand, Van Buren did not want to antagonize the citizens of the U.S.,
which could have had a negative impact on the presidential election of 1840.
After much delay, the case was initially taken to the U.S. Circuit Court, presided
by Judge Smith Thompson, who ruled that the court could not determine whether the
Spaniards were to hold the captives as property, or whether the issue is covered by the
law of 1819. The case was submitted for further review to the United States District



858
Court, where Andrew T. Judson, who was a Jacksonian Democrat, presided over the case.
The black captives were defended by Roger S. Baldwin who asked the court to dismiss
the case because the slaves were recaptured in New York and were taken to Connecticut.
Since New York was a free state, the slaves had gained their freedom upon reaching its
shores. The United States District Attorney, William S. Holabird, argued the case for the
prosecution, conceding that the captives might be free and that the administration was
willing to give them an opportunity to prove their case in a Cuban court. The
administrations main concern was to get rid of the captives prior to the presidential
election of 1840.
Much to the surprise of the Van Buren Administration, Judge Judson ruled in
favor of the Africans and ordered the United States government to transport them back to
Africa (Richards, 1986: 137). The judges decision did not please President Van Buren
who was up for reelection and was concerned about the reaction of the South to the
verdict. At the Supreme Court the opening argument was done by Roger Baldwin,
whereas Adams presented the closing statement.

ADAMS DEFENSE OF THE SLAVES
John Quincy Adams life can be divided into three careers. First, he was a
diplomat who served as Secretary of State from 1817 to 1825. Second, he was president
from 1825 to 1829. Third, he was a congressman from Massachusetts from 1831 to his
death in 1848 (Parsons, 1998: xvii).
Adams had followed the Amistad case from its inception. He offered his services
to the New York abolitionist movement led by Lewis Tappan. Tappan requested both



859
Adams and Roger Baldwin to defend the captives at the Supreme Court. Adams was a
little reluctant at first because he had not argued a case before the Supreme Court since
1809, but Tappan persuaded him to stay with the defense team.
Adams started his argument with the notion of justice. He stated that in a Court
of Justice where there are two parties present, justice demands that the rights of each
party should be allowed to himself, as well as that each party has a right, to be secured
and protected by the court (Adams, 1969: 4). In short, Adams was conveying to the
justices that the court is the place of last resort and its deliberations should be conducted
fairly.
Adams accused the Van Buren Administration of substituting justice for
sympathy. There was clear evidence that the administration had sympathized with the
whites, the Spanish slave traders. Thus the Secretary of State himself declares that the
motive for all the proceedings of the government of the United States, until that time, had
been governed by sympathetic feelings towards one of the parties, and by the assumption
that all the right was on one side and all the wrong on the other (Adams, 1969: 8).
The main thrust of Adams legal argument was on the seizure of the vessel. He
relied on Article 8 of the treaty of 1795, which stated that if subjects in ships were forced
by weather, pirates or enemies to seek shelter in ports belonging to another party, they
shall receive protection and help; and they shall no ways be hindered from returning out
of the said ports (Adams, 1969: 18). For Adams, the blacks were not slaves at the
time of capture; they had freed themselves by mutiny.
Adams further argued that Article 9 of the treaty of 1795 states that all ships and
merchandise rescued shall be brought to port and delivered to the custody of the officers



860
of that port. Thus, he reasoned that the captives who took possession of the vessel should
not be regarded as pirates and robbers (Adams, 1969: 20).
Adams accused the Van Buren Administration of putting pressure on the
judiciary. He read letters of assurance to the Spanish minister Chevalier de Arguez from
the Secretary of State John Forsyth. For example, on September 23, 1840, Secretary
Forsyth wrote to the Spanish Minister requesting documents that would assist in the case.
In his letter Forsyth stated that, if you have any other authentic documents relating to the
question or evidence of facts which can be used to a proper understanding of it, I have the
honor to request by the direction of the President, that you will communicate them to me
with as little delay as practicable (Adams, 1969: 31). He cited the administrations
willingness to provide counsel to the Spaniards while denying it to the Africans. As a
final proof he showed the Grampus waiting in New Haven Harbor under Executive order
to return the Africans to Havana for Spanish justice (Owens, 1968: 275).
Adams concluded his argument by reminding the justices that it was a court of
justice, and the court should take into consideration the rights of all individuals. He had
proved that the captives were entitled to their freedom, and that Ruiz and Montes had
violated the laws of Great Britain, of Spain and of the United States (Adams, 1969: 134).
The second half of Adams argument before the Supreme Court was a
combination of his personal and political achievement and his appeal to the religious
conscience of the justices. This part was an addendum to his legal concluding argument.
He reminded the justices that he had been practicing law for 37 years before the court,
and that his last appearance was in 1809. Later he was called to discharge other duties
first in distant lands and in later years within my own country. (Falkner, 1967:237). He



861
was making reference to his distinguished service as a diplomat, president and
congressman. Little did he imagine that he would appear again before the court pleading
for the cause of justice, and now of liberty and life (Falkner, 1967: 237). In short,
Adams was throwing his weight on the justices by bringing to their attention his
distinguished public service.
Adams also tried to sway the opinions of the justices by appealing to their
religious conscience. He said,
I stand before the same court, but not before the same judges. As I cast my eyes
along those seats of honor and of public trust, now occupied by you, they seek in
vain for one of those honored and honorable persons whose indulgence listened to
my voice. Marshall, Cushing, Chase Washington, Johnson, Livingston, Todd,
Where are they? Alas. Where is the one of the very judges of the court, arbiter of
life and death, before whom I commenced this anxious argument? Where are they
all? Gone! Gone! All gone! Gone from the services which in their day and
generation they faithfully rendered to their country (Adams, 135)
In short, Adams statement was a warning to the justices that death was
inevitable. Therefore, it would be wise to administer justice fairly because in the end,
each of them would have to give an account of his stewardship to God. The judges on
the bench may well have wondered whether the former president was issuing a gentle
warning in expressing the hope that they might someday enter the heavenly gates to hear,
Well done, thou good and faithful servant (Nagel, 1997: 381).
The Supreme Courts decision was read by Justice Story. With one dissent, the
court declared that the Africans had never been slaves therefore, the treaties and
precedents regarding the restoration of slave property did not apply. (Parsons, 1998,
240). The court upheld the decisions of the Circuit and District Courts and ordered the
immediate release of Cinque and his colleagues.




862
CONCLUSION
John Quincy Adams demonstrated a mastery of the law by pointing out the flaws
and inconsistencies in the treaties that had been signed ending slavery. He proved that
through correspondence and other contacts the Van Buren administration was reluctant to
enforce the laws, thereby encouraging slavery. Adams fully utilized his personal prestige
in a non-threatening manner. Finally, he appealed to the religious consciousness of the
justices by reminding them that when all is said and done they would have to give an
account of their work on this earth.



863
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adams, John Quincy. 1969. Argument of John Quincy Adams Before the Supreme Court
of the United States in the case of the United States, Appellants, vs. Cinque, and
others, Africans. New York: Negro Universities Press.
Falkner, Leonard. 1967. The President Who Wouldnt Retire. New York: Coward -
McCann, Inc.
Jones, Howard. 1987. Mutiny on the Amistad. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nagel, Paul. 1997. John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life. New York: Alfred
A. Knopf.
Owens, William A. 1968. Black Mutiny: The Revolt on the Schooner Amistad.
Philadelphia: Pilgrim Press.
Parsons, Lynn H. 1998. John Quincy Adams. Madison, Wisconsin: Madison House
Publishers, Inc.
Richards, Leonard L. 1986. The Life and Times of Congressman John Quincy Adams.
New York: Oxford University Press.



ONE HUNDRED YEARS LATER:
REVISITING THE TALENTED TENTH









EDWIN MARCUS ROBINSON
THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI
OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI




865
One Hundred Years Later: Revisiting The Talented Tenth


ABSTRACT
This report explores the history, time sensitivity and current applicability of W.E.B.
Dubois (1903) The Talented Tenth. One hundred years ago, Dubois provided a view
of African Americans that embodied the time and opened eyes to inequality in an
intriguing and politically stirring fashion. Dubois emphasized the thought, The Negro
race, like all races, will be saved by its exceptional men. ( 1) With the training of
African American teachers as the focus, Dubois placed the scope on an American
educational system that oppressed blacks and neglected to provide an essential tool for
uplifting people. As the accomplishments of African Americans were documented and
impacting the nation, not to ment ion the aspirations of African Americans as a whole,
select educated and gifted African Americans were elevated while the masses remained
underprivileged and unlearned. Leaders, Dubois coined The Talented Tenth, proved
their ability and provided unquantifiable achievements over adversity that has not faded
into the wood work of time. Concentrating on providing teachers of teachers for African
Americans, Dubois proclaimed education as the panacea for black ills at a crux in African
American history. The Chronicle of Higher Education (2003) shows the educational
attainment for African Americans is improved, in line with needs starkly identified by
Dubois. Applying Dubois logic in modern times is instrumental in inculcating the ideas
of education, equality and accomplishment in the minds of African Americans and made
manifest in the leaders of the day. Though Dubois addresses the accomplishments of
African Americans prior to 1903, a cloud was over the significant contributions of
African American men and women to society. To date, numbers show a dramatic gain in
higher education. The Chronicle of Higher Educations latest delineation of educational
attainment of the United States population by racial and ethnic group indicates: 11.6
percent and 12.1 percent of African American men and women respectively, age 25 and
older have obtained a baccalaureate degree (p. 16). In summary, the ideas of Dubois have
become reality under the guise of being compulsory. Indeed, because of the truth and
value of the notions out lined in Dubois delineation of the plight of African Americans at
the beginning of the 20
th
century, The Talent Tenth warrants revisiting one hundred
years later.






866
HISTORY
William Edward Burghardt Dubois (1903) begins his delineation of the gamut of
the black experience in the United States during the late 1800s and early 1900s by stating,
The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. ( 1) This
proclamation is bolstered by Dubois insightful and stark declarations concerning the
ostensible and necessary requirements for leading the masses of blacks to unprecedented
levels of achievement, economic prowess and broad cultural understanding. Dubois
repeatedly maintains that the training of men is an arduous endeavor, nevertheless,
imperative for blacks in their ascension to first class citizenship in the United States.
Dubois makes lucid, inherently validates, the rationale for solving the problems
associated with cultivating the best of the black racethis is founded on the incumbency
to develop black men for their impending role in society.
Dubois (1903) also addresses the grounds for training blacks through careful
descriptions of the races leaders prior to the 20
th
century, by outlining methods of
educating and developing choice blacks and through an incontrovertible aver on the
relation of the Talented Tenth to the Negro problem. In his dilation, Dubois posits
irrefutable evidence of the tools that must be employed to rescue this deprived people
from their bondages of ignorance, economics and oppression.

PAST LEADERS
Undoubtedly, racial prejudice and slavery in the United States prevented the
expeditious advancement African Americans. Yet, From the very first it has been the
educated and intelligent of the Negro people that have led and elevated the mass



867
(Dubois, 1903, 3). Dubois highlights the contributions of Phyllis Wheatley, Paul Cuffe
and Benjamin Banneker as these individuals pitted themselves against the weighty bars of
prejudice. Dubois also cites a candid, seemingly heart-piercing quote from Banneker in
his address to Thomas JeffersonBanneker incisively explains the hypocrisy of Negro
slavery by drawing parallels to white Americans in their freedom from slave-like rule by
the British. Correspondingly, Dubois acknowledges the astuteness of James Derham and
Lemuel Haynesthese individuals sought to eradicate color barriers in medicine and
higher education. Similarly, Dubois posits the grandiose impact of Garrisons Liberator,
William Purvis Redmond, Pennington, Highland Garnett, Sojourner Truth, Alexander
Crummel and Fredrick Douglas. The triumphs of the black race, it is evident, would not
have been possible without their persistence and dogged pursuit of equal rights for their
poverty-stricken brothers.
Additionally, Dubois (1903) alludes to a statement by Maria Weston Chapman,
from the school of antislavery agitation, A throng of authors, editors, lawyers, orators
and accomplished gentlemen of color have taken their degree! ( 10) These undaunted
individuals paved the way for the acceptance of black freedom by white Americans.
Further, Dubois explains:
After emancipation came a new group of educated and gifted leaders: Langston,
Bruce and Elliot, Greener, Williams and Payne. Through political organization,
historical and polemic writing and moral regeneration, these men strove to uplift
their people. ( 8)
Because of these individuals, slavery was made impossibleessentially, the moral
integrity and scruples of the bigoted watchdog had been challenged to a point of growing
governmental and societal compliance. Moreover, the scintillating examples of black



868
mental adroitness laid the foundation for emancipation and inculcated in the minds of all
Americans the potential of the cultivated ex-slave.

EDUCATING AND DEVELOPING THE TALENTED TENTH
In a lurid account of the social imperative to train blacks, Dubois (1903) mentions
the curriculum of Higher Education. As Dubois rightly verbalized it:
Men we shall have only as we make manhood the object of the work of schools
intelligence, broad sympathy, knowledge of the world that was and is, and the
relation of men to itthis is the curriculum of that Higher Education which must
underlie true life. ( 1)
Congruently, Dubois posits, On this foundation we may build bread winning, skill of
hand and quickness of brain ( 1) Further than this, Dubois explains, The best and
most capable of their youth must be schooled in the universities of the land. ( 15)
In focusing on what must be taught to a struggling race, Dubois (1903)
recommends a curriculum tailored to blacksone that trains keenness of insight and
innately aims greater than to merely earn a living. As Dubois insists, college- goers,
termed yeast ( 11), must be the impetus that uplifts the race. The outgrowth of initial
training of favored blacks in foreign and Northern universities was the foundation for the
ensuing social metamorphosis in the South. The founding of colleges and normal schools
were the catalyst of progress, leading to the training of numerous teachers for a race
subjected to an increasingly deliberate onslaught of lynchings and intimidating
impediments to social elevation.
Dubois (1903) describes a method for establishing a system of education by the
assertion, A proper way to found a system of education is first to gather the children
and buy them spelling books and hoes; afterward men may look about for teachers



869
( 16) Additionally, Dubois aims at the successes of college founders and their respective
graduates. With increasing numbers of institutions providing above high school training
for blacks, the ground work was in place to foster the elevating influence prerequisite for
the rise in the training of the next refined generation of the races leaders.
As well, Dubois (1903) articulates the role of Negro colleges in the development
of the Talented Tenth, as these colleges maintained a peculiar curriculum tailored to the
medley of needs of blacks. Six strikingly important institutions: Atlanta, Fisk, Howard,
Shaw, Wilberforce and Leland ( 18) are acknowledged by Dubois for their marked
impact on education in the United States. This grandeur distinction is supported by
Dubois report, seven hundred fifty Negro college students are enrolled. ( 18)
Additionally, Dubois displays The total number of Negro college graduates up to
1899 ( 20) This showed that the total number of graduates from Negro colleges was
1,914 and 390 from white colleges ( 20). More luridly expressed, Of these graduates
2,079 were men and 252 were women ( 21) According to Dubois, a significant
number of college-bred blacks employed their proclivities and acquired talents that
depicted the blossoming role of Negroes, clearly demonstrating the incumbency of Negro
colleges to provide the next generation of leaders.
As indicated by Dubois (1903) regarding the occupations of college-bred
Negroes, of 1,312 persons reported:
Teachers, 53.4%
Clergy men, 16.8%
Physicians, etc. 6.3%
Students, 5.6%
Lawyers, 4.7%
In Govt. Service, 4.0%
In business, 3.6%
Farmers and Artisans, 2.7%



870
Editors, Secretaries and Clerks, 2.4%
Miscellaneous, .5 ( 23)
These figures made plain the influence and capabilities of college-bred blacks as their
repute conveyed the value of educating and developing an underprivileged and relatively
unlearned race of people.
By earmarking teacher education, the Negro colleges furnished future teachers for
subsequent generations. As Dubois (1903) accurately affirmed it, It placed before the
eyes of almost every Negro child an attainable ideal. ( 26) Directly, these colleges
made black men pillars of the community and preceptors laden with prestige, capable of
instilling awe in their followers, as it was necessary for inculcating the notion of
obtainable goals. The value of these colleges cannot be overestimated as their existence
supplied a nation of oppressed, ignorant people with teachers and leaders for the
perpetuation of enlightenment and the permeation of the wider meaning of life
throughout the race.
Continuing his focus on education, Dubois (1903) disclosed with respect to the
Negro educational system, It must strengthen the Negros character, increase his
knowledge and teach him to earn a living. ( 28) The system of education for blacks had
to encapsulate the entire range of human trainingblacks, being ex-slaves, required the
development of men in a starkly comprehensive fashion.
Likewise, Dubois (1903) confabulates on the necessity of transmitting knowledge,
building character and developing technical skill as it is prerequisite to earning a living.
With teachers of future teachers as the focus, the Negro education system for blacks
began to supply the future generation of teachers and leaders, making the climb of blacks
to first class citizenship a priority; and in all cases possible. The work of Negro colleges



871
in sending out the coveted black teacher to black schools in the South provided a hope
with a paradisiacal end. This was a beacon in blacks continuing the advancement.
Essentially, Dubois exclaims that the educational system for blacks equates and exceeds
its worth through persistent and effective training. Pithily stated, dexterity amalgamated
with inculcating the broader knowledge of culture is essential in the development of men.
The training of these leaders, though neglected, had to continuea precursor, if
any to the production of educated black thinkers. Gradually, yet steadily and in many
cases grandiose amelioration of the mindset of a race of people was made manifest. With
all veracity, the work of Negro colleges of the South and White colleges of the North
held importance over most other impetuses inextricably tied to the pursuit of preparing
black men and women for the contemporary world.
Atlanta, Fisk, Howard, Tuskegee, among others, acknowledged the critical need
for teachers of Negroes and in a most expeditious and scrupulous manner made racial
refinement possible. As imparted by Dubois (1903), I believe that next to the founding
of Negro colleges the most valuable addition to Negro education since the war, has been
industrial training for black boys. ( 31) In this, teachers and leaders teach the meaning
of life and ensconce in Negro minds the intellect and technical skill required to earn a
living. These things, at the very least, primed the Talented Tenth for their dynamic role in
society.
Dubois (1903) mentions the Sixth Atlanta Conference, which cited that the
masses of school age Negroes were not attending school or receiving minimal instruction
in addition to the inadequacies of teachers. This unjust practice of prohibiting the learning



872
of blacks while limiting the rights of citizenship by educational qualifications
( 34) constituted part of the Negro problem.
A substantial number of Negro youths without the chance for literacy, inadequate
public schools and threats to existing educational facilities made up only some of the
polemic issues ascertained as pressing for Negroes in the United States. Further than this,
supplying teachers for an already destitute population superceded the myriad quagmires
addressed by conference. Dubois (1903) maintains that this dearth of teachers is remedied
thorough institutions of higher education and money for school houses and salaries.
( 38) Lack of funds and ill-equipped teachers for blacks continued the stagnation. As
alluded to by Dubois, progress was somehow spurred along by Haygoods (as cited in
Dubois, 1903) statement:
The defects of colored teachers are so great as to create an urgent necessity for
training better ones. Their excellencies and their successes are sufficient to justify
the best hopes of success in effort, and to vindicate the judgment of those who
make large investments of money and service, to give to colored students the
opportunity of thoroughly preparing themselves for the work of teaching the
children of their people. ( 38)
These assertions validated the request for more training and excellent preceptors
at all levels of Negro trainingemphasizing the Negro college as the producer and the
Negro youth, the consumer.
These gains are admirable, if these gains encompass each necessity of Negro
education, still Dubois (1903) implies that these increases were not sufficient. As Dubois
aptly phrased it, It is safe to say that the Negro has not one-tenth his quota in college
studies. How baseless, therefore, is the charge of too much training! ( 41)
Similarly, Dubois (1903) is emphatic about the need for technical skill after
establishing leaders and a pithy, yet substantial knowledge base in public schools that



873
leads to the development of trade schools. Unfortunately, these trade schools, because of
insufficient funding, even with the use of student labor, could not keep up with
commercial needs. Congruently, Dubois writes, with regard to manual training, It came
to be considered as an educative process for the complete moral, physical and intellectual
development of the child. ( 43) In essence, the construction of the educational system
steeped in paradigms of the contemporary schools required dismantling and
reconstruction to properly train the up and coming Negro. Vastly different approaches to
teaching, hinging on social and technological change, fittingly and undeniably, opened
the doors to take steps toward eventual strides in Negro education and above all
citizenship.

DUBOIS AND WASHINGTON: EQUALITY AND MISCONCEPTION
In closing the discussion of the Talented Tenth, Dubois (1903) concisely, yet,
intentionally addresses the work of Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee ( 44). Albeit,
Booker T. Washington made Tuskegee into a reputable industrial and agricultural
training center for blacks, Washingtons quiescent approaches to obtaining civil liberties
and securing the mass training of Negroes, threw these two pillars of the race into
dissension (Dubois, 1903).
Washingtons famous compromise speech, Urged blacks to accept their
inferior social position for the present to strive to raise themselves through vocational
training and economic self-reliance. (as cited in Microsoft Encyclopedia Encarta 2002)
This method was not in symmetry with Dubois (1903) philosophical, head-on,
yet pre-calculated methods of elevating blacks in civilization. Undoubtedly, Washington



874
had made manifest, many of the key notions of Dubois; yet a quiet, undisturbing-to-
social-order method could not and would not work in the psyche of Dubois.

TIME SENSITIVITY AND APPLICABILITY
At first glance, Dubois initial research on the black experience (Dorrell, 2002)
would seem irrelevant today. However, the careful documentation, not to mention the
significant number of years past since the publishing of the Talented Tenth, light an
insight filled path for correcting blacks ills in the 21
st
century. Many of the principle ideas
and statistics on blacks expressed by Dubois are applicable to understanding how to
quickly uplift the race, especially with the hard fought liberties and tranquility enjoyed by
African Americans.
Dubois (1903) incessantly voices his conscience regarding the Negro educational
system as the catalyst and civil liberties for blacks the result. In this, the educational
system is the core component in the ascension of African Americans to deliberate, new
social and economic attainment; especially at this compelling time of seemingly
inexhaustible opportunities. Lawful integration provided increased access to higher
education and extended the chances to acquire a profusion of knowledge, technical and
manual skills whether or not it imposed fears of change in the minds of the nation, or
triggered unprovoked inundations of bigotry. This is the hallmark and evident mission of
black and white colleges alike in the training of African Americans. Now that access to
formal education operates under the guise of being compulsory and higher education
opportunities are leveling, African American men and women are gaining ground in
higher education. The Chronicle of Higher Educations (2003) latest delineation of the



875
educational attainment of the U.S. population by racial and ethnic group indicates: 11.6
percent and 12.1 percent of African American men and women respectively, age 25 and
older have obtained a baccalaureate degree (p. 16). Additionally, the U.S. Census Bureau
(as cited in www.infoplease.com, 2002), as of July 1, 2002, 79% of blacks age 25 and over
had a high school diploma and for blacks 25 to 29, 87% had a high school diploma.

INCOME AND POVERTY
Although, family structure and advanced education issues are dwelling enigmas,
some increases, strides are being made in economics. As asserted by White (n.d.), Single
Parent homes and a relative lack of advanced education leaves African Americans in a
perpetual catch-up mode. ( 14) However, the annual median income in 2002 of
households with householders who reported black was $29,177the negative statistic
attached to this slowly flourishing class refers to the poverty rate in 2002 for those
reporting black; it was 23.9% (as cited in www.infoplease.com). In addition, the U.S.
Census Bureau (as cited in www.infoplease.com) estimated the number of black residents
in the U.S. (as of July 1, 2002) at 38.3 million; 13.3% of the total population. The
proportion of blacks listed living in the South was 55%.
Additionally the U.S. Census Bureau (as cited in www.infoplease.com) reports 8.8
million black families, of those, 48% of black householders owned their homes.
Furthermore, it is evident that for 100 years large steps toward ameliorating the black
experience have already been takenthe quality of life is, in general, improved because
civil liberties of African Americans, not necessarily economic flexibility, are for the most
part guaranteed.



876
AFRICAN AMERICAN LEADERS OF THE 20
th
CENTURY
For the cause that the capabilities of a talented race of people have been
highlighted by Dubois (1903), an insightful analysis of African American Leaders of the
20
th
century is obligatory. Congruent with Dubois dilation of the leaders of the African
American struggle for equality, a throng of gifted African American educators,
politicians, scientists, inventors, literary prodigies, etc. have done the pro bono work for
the quality of life that is abound today. Through the crushing of color barriers, the
Talented Tenth proved their worthiness of lawful equal treatmentovercoming many of
the adversities of the ever-existing incubus of bigotry that still lingers in the United
States.
A fitting beginning to throwing a strong light on the notable achievements of
African Americans of the 20
th
century lies in the august recipient s of the Spingarn Medal;
an award given annually by the NAACP for outstanding achievement by a black
American (as cited in www.infoplease.com). Ernest Just, the pioneering zoologist, was first
to be bestowed this prestigious award. With its inception in 1915, this award has
invariably symbolized African American ability (as cited in
www.blackinventor.com/pages/ernestjust.html). Subsequent medal winners recapitulate and
confirm the aggregate potential of the African American race. James Weldon Johnson,
the teacher, songwriter/poet and ardent champion of black civil rights (as cited in
www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/amlit/johnson/johnson5.html) along with Langston Hughes,
prolific writer and Alex Haley, literary virtuoso who woke up African American interest
in genealogy (as cited in www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ahaley.htm) all aided the drive toward total
social awareness of African American capabilities. Mary McLeod Bethune, distinguished



877
educator, college founder and president of the National Association of Colored Women,
ignited educational ideals and provided opportunities for black womenproving pivotal
in the climb up the scale of civilization (as cited in www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/beth-mar.htm).
This is evident in Bethunes phrase, From the first, I made my learning, what little it
was, useful every way I could. (as cited in www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/beth-mar.htm).
Even the accomplished physician and surgeon, Charles Drew illustrated the
potential aptitude of the cultivated African American through his novel techniques in the
preservation of blood (as cited in www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/charles_drew.html).
Coupled with Percy Julian, the proverbial medicine developer (Lienhard, 1997), these
African American standouts were of chief importance to the advancement of the field of
medicine. The domains of chemistry and agriculture have been forever modified by the
exhaustive research of George Washington Carver; the sapient peanut brain (as cited in
http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/carver.html). Social enlightenment on race and
exemplary brilliance also emanated from Ralph Bunche, U.S. diplomat (as cited in
www.nobel.se/peace/laureaes/1950/bunche-bio.html). Likewise, and more recently,
Constance Baker Motley, the sublime attorney, broke segregation barriers in Southern
universities (as cited in www.aetna.com/foundation/aahcalendar/985motley.html). These
efforts by famed African Americans have been publicized and undoubtedly mask the
obscured achievements of many other African Americans scientists and inventors.
However, a plethora of literature is now available on the contributions of African
Americans that are not well known.
Though somewhat concealed, the work of multitudinous African Americans
revolutionized the transportation industry and directly impacted the quality of life of all



878
Americans and individuals around the world. Fredrick Jones, the prolific inventor, was
instrumental in technological boosts in cinema and refrigeration (Bellis, 2004). Elijah
McCoys automatic lubricant system for railroad cars (as cited in
http://www.duboislc.org/NSBE/inventors.html) and Granville Woods variety of
contributions to the railroad industry though key, incontestably vanished into obscurity
via the advent of Henry Fords affordable Model- T (as cited in Microsoft Encarta 2002).
Not so faint in history is Garret A. Morgans gas mask and automatic traffic light
proving today, to be an asset to the transportation industry in seemingly every urbanized
area on the planet (as cited in http://education.dot.gov/aboutmorgan.html).
Likewise, Lewis Howard Latimers ingenious electric lamp and light bulb
filament provided a key thread in the very quality of life in America today (as cited in
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/latimer.html). Richard Spikes array of creations for
automobiles (as cited in www.blackinventor.com/pages/richardspikes.html) and Joseph
Gammels supercharged system for internal combustion engines (as cited in
www.swagga.com) markedly, yet with minimal credit, expanded the automobile industry.

CIVIL RIGHTS
The most conspicuous and renowned African American leaders of the 20
th
century
led the masses of blacks through the horrors and egregious responses to social change
stemming from the constant beseeching of African Americans to acquire the civil
liberties long enjoyed by whites. This is exemplified by Ellisons (1970) elucidation,
There is something inescapably tragic about the cost of achieving our democratic
ideals ( 1). Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights activist and minister, inspired the



879
movement of African Americans race and the poor in their social climb to equality
(Brown, 2003). With countless remarkable African Americans and assistance from
influential non-blacks, these triumphs were made possible. Kings passion and nonviolent
tactics pricked the conscious of the nation en route to the passing of the Civil Rights Act
of 1964, Which prohibited discrimination in public accommodations and made
discrimination in education and employment illegal. (Farber, 2002).
Further, Farber (2002) addresses Congress passing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act
as it eradicated dubious voter qualifications. Indeed, these laws were necessary and the
pushes for change were warrantedeventually, the continued struggle found its battle in
Congress where lawmakers obligatorily complied with Constitutional ideals in providing
the equality so long pursued.

CONCLUSION
This exegesis explores the history, time sensitivity and current applicability of
W.E.B. Dubois (1903) The Talented Tenth. One hundred years ago, Dubois provided
a view of African Americans that embodied the time and opened eyes to inequality in an
intriguing and politically stirring fashion. With the training of African American teachers
as the focus, Dubois placed the scope on an American educational system that oppressed
blacks and neglected to provide an essential tool for uplifting people. As the
accomplishments of African Americans were documented and impacting the nation, not
to mention the aspirations of African Americans as a whole, select educated and gifted
African Americans were elevated while the masses remained underprivileged and
unlearned. Leaders, Dubois coined The Talented Tenth, proved their ability and



880
provided unquantifiable achievements over adversity that has not faded into the wood
work of time. Concentrating on providing teachers of teachers for African Americans,
Dubois proclaimed education as the panacea for black ills at a crux in African American
history. Albeit, Dubois addresses the accomplishments of African Americans prior to
1903, a cloud was over the significant contributions of African American men and
women to societythis epistle intends to address pivotal, yet obscured achievements by
this centurys Talented Tenth through anatomization of African American progression
through history. With large scale gains in higher education, it is apparent that, at the very
least, some of the ideologies expressed by Dubois have been made manifest in America.
In summary, the ideas of Dubois have become reality under the guise of being
compulsory. Indeed, because of the truth and value of the notions outlined in Dubois
delineation of the plight of African Americans at the beginning of the 20
th
century, The
Talent Tenth warrants revisiting one hundred years later.




881
REFERENCES

African Americans by the numbers: From the U.S. Census Bureau (n.d.). Retrieved
February 14, 2002, from www.infoplease.com.
African American Engineers and Inventors (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2004, from
http://www.duboislc.org/NSBE/invetors.html.
Alex Palmer Haley (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2004, from
www.kirjasto.sci.filahaley.htm.
Bellis, M. (2004). Inventors. Retrieved February 14, 2004, from
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blf_jones.htm.
Brown, M. (2003). Martin Luther King: A biographical sketch. Retrieved February 10,
2004, from http://www.lib.lsu.edu/hum/mlk/srs218.html.
Brown, M.C. (2000). The faces of science: African Americans in the sciences. Retrieved
February 14, 2004, from http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/carver.html.
Charles Richard Drew (2000). Retrieved February 14, 2004, from
www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/churches_drew.html.
Constance Baker Motley (2004). Aetna. Retrieved February 14, 2004, from
http://www.aetna.com/foundation/aahcalendar/1985motley.html.
Dubois, W.E.B. (1903). The talented tenth. The Negro Problem. New York: James Pott
and Company. Retrieved August 27, 2003, from
http://douglassarchives.org/dubo_bo5.htm.
Educational attainment of the U. S. population by racial and ethnic group, 2002 (2003,
August). The Chronicle of Higher Education, L, 1, 16.
Ellison, R. (1970). What would the world be like without blacks? Retrieved February 14,
2004, from http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=574.
Ernest Just (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2004, from
www.blackinventor.com/pages/ernestjust.html.
Henry Ford (2002). Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2002. Microsoft Corporation, Inc.
Jackson, P.A. (n.d.). James Langston Hughes. Retrieved February 14, 2004, from
www.redhotjazz.com/hughes.html.
Joseph Gammel (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2004, from www.swagga.com.



882
Lewis Howard Latimer (1996). Retrieved January 24, 2004, from
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/latimer.html.
Lienhard, J.H. (1997). Engines of our ingenuity: No 659: Percy Julian. Retrieved
February 10, 2004, from www.uh.edu/engines/epi659.htm.
Ralphe Bunche-Biography (2003). The nobel foundation. Retrieved February 14, 2004,
from www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1950/bunche-bio.html.
Richard Spikes (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2004, from
www.blackinventor.com/pages/richardspikes.html.
The Afrocentric Experience (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2004, from
http://www.swagga.com/inventors.htm.
United States Department of Transportation (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2004, from
http://education.dot.gov/aboutmorgan.html.
White, H.L. (n.d.). Black income climbing: Rise continues in Charlotte smaller gap to
white earnings. Retrieved February 14, 2004, from
http://www.thecharlottepost.com/12_25_news2.html.



THE BETRAYAL OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE











MARTHA L. THORNTON
JUVENILE ADVOCATES, INC.
CLEVELAND, OHIO



884
The Betrayal of the American People


President George W. Bush has consistently duped and lied to the American
People. He has used Public Relations Tactics in the most dishonest and underhanded
way. Apparently, he thinks the majority of people are stupid. It is a nauseating spectacle
the way the Labor Day Rally in Canton when his popularity was slipping, he wore
coveralls and a work cap to give his speech. When the American People wake-up to this
dishonest mans tactics to hold onto power in the United States of America. President
Bush has no respect for the U.S. Constitution he has sworn to uphold, his word means
nothing, he will say and do whatever accomplishes his diabolical purpose.
We should have held our head s in disgrace at the spectacle he made of himself,
when again he was being criticized for his pursuit of the Iraqi War. In the pursuit of that
wars goals, after President George W. Bush, said the war was won, has caused the death
of over five hundred service men and women. It not only has caused the disruption of
millions of American families, but has caused chaos all over the world. To boost-up his
popularity President Bush went to Iraq and served the service men and women at one
camp Thanksgiving Dinner. The American People are supposed to be the most
sophisticated people in the world, ad we do not see through this ruse. President Bush does
not care about anybody but his own agenda. This is indicated by this ban of the Press
from covering American soldier men and womens funerals when they have lost their
lives in combat. How cruel and cold-hearted can you be? All President Bush cares about
is keeping his power!!! This is another instance where Bush has violated the



885
Constitutional Rights of the American Peoplethe Right to a Free Pressno matter
what his interest might be.
It was reported on the CBS News Report on January 6, 2004, that Secretary of
State Colin Powell, stated there had been no evidence of Weapons for Mass Destruction
Capabilities found in Iraq under Saddam Husseins leadership. And there was no
evidence found of a connection between Saddam Hussein and al Kaeda. What are our
children dying for, People, to make the rich richer, in confiscating the Oil in Iraq? And,
inflicting revenge Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi People for something they did not do!!!
The Iraqis were not responsible for September 11
th
!!! Neither was the Afghanistan
People, the real culprits have not been captured or punished, only innocent people have
paid for that disaster!!!
Something I was surprised about, myself, I knew that Iraq did not have the
Capabilities for Weapons for Mass Destruction but due to the Propaganda of the CIA
I did believe they were trying to amass chemical and biological weapons. But, this
information reported by the American Government turned out to be false, also. It seems
that Saddam Hussein was trying to comply with the United Nations demands that he
destroy his research into this field. This is a great testimony that the United Nations can
work, and bring reason to a chaotic and destructive world.
However, the United States has been experimenting with chemical and biological
weapons, even against its own citizens, for years. Where do you think HIV/AIDS came
from the West Nile Virus and SARS. The United States is not only jeopardizing its own
citizens by this conduct, but e entre worlds health is in jeopardy, and yet we continue
this experimenting. And, hypocritically, we admonish other countries from following our



886
lead. The United States is guilty of creating Crack Cocaine and causing depravation
and immorality to flourish throughout society, and a whole generation of young people to
be in jeopardy of extinction. That is the Axis of Evil is I ever heard of it!!!
Lets form a new political party that promotes the tenets of the U.S. Constitution,
which is one of the best documents Man Kind has ever created. Lets call it The
Constitutional Party. Lets bring the government back to responsible and moral tenets and
The Commandments of God. Lets elect men and women of strong moral character,
intelligence, and integrity, something we are lacking in this barren and depraved society.
President George W. Bush does not have a clue what principles and sound judgment are
all about. This is shown in his declaration that no country that opposed him in his attempt
to get the United Nations to back him in invading Iraq would receive United States
financial support. That is Black Mail!!! Any sane person knows that everyone does not
have to agree with everything you do to be your ally. George W. Bush does not have a
clue what integrity is all about.



EVALUATION OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING
MATERIALS AT BOTH THE HIGH SCHOOL AND
UNIVERSITY LEVELS FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN
STUDENTS

RUBEN GONZALEZ, PH. D.
DILLARD UNIVERSITY
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

This study was possible by a grant form Dillard University through the Office of Undergraduate
Research and the Office of the Vice-President for Academic Affairs.



888
Evaluation of Foreign Language Teaching Materials at Both the High
School and University Levels for African-American Students


ABSTRACT
This study examined differences in foreign language teaching materials and devices used
at the high school and university level in a sample of 130 African-American college
students. More respondents felt their university foreign language resources were better
than average while their high school resources were rated as only average or poor. While
textbooks were the most heavily relied upon teaching resource at both levels of education
there was a greater reliance on audio tapes, computers, and the internet at the university
level. Those in high school make greater use of study partners to learn a foreign language
while university students prefer independent learning in the listening lab. Most
respondents said they had elected to learn Spanish just for the desire to be able to
communicate better in a global economy. Encouraging a closer alliance between
secondary and higher education is discussed.



A helping hand can go a long way in the process of a second language
acquisition; therefore, a well-rounded foreign language program ought to provide ample
opportunities not just inside the classroom, but outside as well. Examining the materials,
devices, and extracurricular activities used in foreign language instruction at both the
high school and university level for African-American students can serve to reveal
differences in teaching resources utilized and more importantly can serve as an impetus
to enhance both levels of education. Stephen Stryker (1997) advocates the notion of
utilizing foreign language across the curriculum to stimulate students to enhance their
foreign language knowledge in the academic classroom and perhaps ease the transition
from the high school environment to the college setting. High schools and universities



889
must work hand- in-hand to create a smooth transition for the student. Sara Hebel (2003)
indicated that the universities are making an effort to work with the school districts in
order to synchronize the standardized tests that students take in high school. Twenty-
eight universities which are part of the Association of American Universities prepared a
report which was sent to each high school in the nation. This report lists the skills and
knowledge that the university system expects from incoming students upon entering the
university. This type of effort to provide a well-rounded education is demonstrated by the
close relationship that ought to exist between the high school and the university levels;
therefore it is imperative to provide a wide array of teaching opportunities, at both levels;
regardless of the ethnic background of the student.
The importance of a well-planned foreign language curriculum must be given a
high priority. Robert Reiser and Walter Dick (1996) maintain that when effective
teachers plan their instruction they spend the largest part of their planning time searching
for extracurricular materials to incorporate in their teaching lessons. Judy Kerr and
Yvonne Libby Larson (2000) strongly suggest that in the classroom there should be many
teaching devices that the student should be able to hear, see, touch and taste. It is the
primary duty of the classroom teacher to provide easy to use materials in the classroom
because incorporating technological aspects of instruction in many instances takes years
to fully be introduced (Smith, 2000). It is necessary to select the teaching materials that
are going to be most helpful to the students in their language acquisition and are not just
instruments to waste time, such as renting a movie and playing it on a Friday, so that the
students have a free day as does the instructor. Teaching devices and extracurricular
activates require that the student be an active participant in the learning which is taking



890
place in the classroom. Louise Colligan and Linda Aber (1994) developed over a
thousand simple activities with the idea to keep young minds engaged in meaningful
activity. Dermont Murphy (1994) questions the idea of effectiveness of teaching and
learning which is a clever combination that must take place inside the classroom,
regardless of the teaching technique that is being applied. Care should be taken when
designing materials for the foreign language classroom; for instance, at the university
level, Graham Cookes (1994) mentions that in the foreign language classes, the syllabi is
usually of the open gun shot type , where one syllabus is designed for all beginner
classes. This type of syllabus can be used by the inexperienced teacher who relies
primarily on the textbook and the accompanying manual, which leaves little or no room
to incorporate new teaching activities. Dieter Buttjes and Michael Byram (1991) see the
textbook as a powerful teaching tool which is a determiner in language teaching. These
two researchers are concerned that too much teaching comes directly from the textbook.
They propose to link the teaching of foreign language with other areas of study and they
advise incorporating other teaching devices in the classroom. Howard Garners theory
(1997) indicates that there are eight learning styles and that each style is enhanced by the
teaching devices that are presented in the instruction. The need to prepare a well-rounded
student goes beyond the typical use of the textbook and workbook in the classroom.
Judith Rosenthal (1996) mentions the well-known fact that there are many learning styles
and that different students need different learning devices to help them acquire a new
language. It is imperative that educators introduce a wide array of teaching devices from
the very beginning of the program since that is the time to learn a second language.




891
PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH
The principal objective of this study was to determine if there are any differences
in the utilization of teaching materials in the instruction of a foreign language at the high
school and university levels for African-Americans. There are several areas that a student
in a foreign language must master in the process of the language acquisition; they are:
reading, writing, speaking, listening comprehension, and the cultural aspects of the
language. These aspects present many diverse challenges to the learner. For instance, for
the listening part, the student is expected to hear the new sounds, be capable of
differentiating them from other sounds in the language that he/she is learning and in the
majority of cases the student is expected to comprehend their meaning. It is here where
the application of teaching resources comes into place. The instructor must make
available as many teaching resources as possible to facilitate the process of language
acquisition. Helena Anderson and Carol Pesola (1988) note that when children are around
six years old they just seem to acquire the language without much effort; the child is
simply placed in the target language and the acquisition takes place. Yet, older students
find the learning of a foreign language more difficult as they need to be immersed in an
environment that is meaningful, one that encourages the absorption of the language
which is an element that is difficult to provide at the university level.
This research project concentrated on four main aspects: (1) to examine the
teaching materials utilized in the African-American classroom by instructors at both the
high school and university levels. It has been charged that the United States educational
system places too heavy a dependence on the textbook to the exclusion of other teaching
materials (Honig, 1985 and Hernandez, 2001); (2) the type of foreign language materials



892
and resources that African-Americans students use to help them learn at the high school
level is compared to those they most use at the university level; (3) the types of foreign
language activities that African-American students participate in at the high school level
are compared to those they most participate in at the university level; and (4) the reasons
African-American students have selected a particular foreign language to study and how
they believe such language acquisition will help them in their future careers are explored.
The hypothesis for this study predicts that there is a significant difference in the
utilization of teaching materials at the high school and the university level. In all foreign
language instruction, basically, all students are required to master the four primary areas
of the language which include the learning of reading, writing, speaking and listening
comprehension along with exposure to some aspects of the culture of the language. Since
the high school teacher usually has a classroom of his/her own, one can assume that the
students at this level are exposed to a wider array of teaching devices than the student at
the university level. The instructor at the university level has to move from classroom to
classroom or from building to building, making it difficult to incorporate supplemental
teaching devices in the process of instruction, therefore, one can predict that at the
university level, there may likely be a heavier reliance on the use of the textbook and the
workbook. Since a large part of the acquisition of a new language at the university level
takes place outside the classroom in the listening lab, in the computer lab, as well as in
social foreign language activities one might predict that university students engage in
more extracurricular activities than at the high school level.




893
METHOD
Participants
One hundred and thirty surveys were administered which contained seventy-three
questions on foreign language teaching materials and devices, foreign language
extracurricular activities, quality of foreign language instruction, learning styles, benefits
of learning a foreign language, and which focused on the differences between high school
and university levels. The study was conducted in New Orleans, Louisiana, at a
historically black college and university. The African-American students in this study
come from all over the country. The respondents were from 17 states and the District of
Columbia with the majority (45%) being from Louisiana, 12% were from California, and
9% were from Texas. Of the 130 respondents, 27% were male while 73% were female
which is in line with the make-up of the student population at the university which the
study was conducted as 70% of the student body is female. Most of the respondents
(67%) were between the ages of 18-21, while 25% were between 22-25 years of age, 6%
were between 26 and 29, and 2% were 30 years of age or older. There were 22 majors
represented in the study with only one respondent saying she was undecided as to her
major. The top five majors were Business Management (14%), Mass Communication
(11%), Biology (10%) Psychology (8%) and Education (6%). Most of the respondents
(73%) attended a high school that was predominantly African-American while 22%
attended a high school that was predominantly White, and 5% attended a high school that
was mainly Hispanic. Most respondents (49%) came from a two parent home, 34% were
raised by a single parent, 9% were raised by a parent and a stepparent, and 11% were
raised by grandparents. Twenty-nine percent of the respondents came from households



894
with an annual family income of over $50,000, 13% had family incomes between
$41,000-$50,000, 17% had a family income of $31,000-$40,000, 21% were from homes
with an income of $21,00-30,000, and 19% came from households of $20,000 or less.
Procedure
Surveys for the study were administered to students at a southern historically
Black college and university. Four undergraduate student researchers distributed the 150
survey instruments in total. An undergraduate research grant allocated to the principal
investigator enabled these student researchers to be paid to learn how to conduct research.
This was a campus-wide survey, given to any student that had taken foreign language
both at the high school and the university level. Several of the surveys were discarded
either because they were incomplete or because the participants had not taken a foreign
language either at the high school or at the university level. All respondents are currently
students at the university level.
The respondents were made aware that they were participating in an
undergraduate research in which the main objective was to examine the types of teaching
materials they had been exposed to and the extracurricular activities that they participated
in high school and at the university levels. Participation was voluntary and there was no
personally identifiable information that was requested on the surveys.
Of the seventythree questions that were asked in this questionnaire, the majority
of them dealt with the teaching materials employed by teachers and professors in the
classroom.
Respondents were asked what materials or devices they find most useful in
learning a foreign language. And, questions were also asked regarding the quality of



895
foreign language instruction they had been exposed to at both the high school and
university levels. The study is comprised of one hundred and thirty surveys containing 73
variables which thoroughly explored the differences between the methodologies used in
teaching foreign language at both the high school and university levels. The total
enrollment at this southern university is 2,300 students and so the data set gathered is a
good representation of the general student population.

RESULTS
Resources
The respondents were asked to rate the quality of the foreign language resources
used at their high school and at their current university (See Table 1: University
Resources and Table 2: High School Resources). While 25% of the respondents said that
their high school resources were very good, only 22% said that their university resources
were very good, however; 6% felt their high school resources were poor, 3% felt that the
resources offered by their university were poor. While 49% said that their university
offered somewhat good resources for the teaching of foreign language this was true of
29% of the respondents who said their high school teaching resources were somewhat
good. More respondents (40%) rated their high school resources as average while 26%
rated their university resources as average. In comparing the foreign language teaching
resources and devices at the high school and at the university levels, more of the
respondents felt that their university offered a somewhat better quality of resources at the
university level than their high school. More of the respondents believed the quality of
the high school resources were only average or poor than at those at the university level.



896
Teaching Devices
In comparing the teaching devices used at the high school and university level, it
is clear that the textbook and workbook are relied upon most heavily at both levels of
education (See Table 3: Comparing High School and University Teaching Devices).
However, there is less agreement about the importance or use of other teaching devices as
at the high school level respondents said the use of foreign language movies is heavily
relied upon while at the university the listening lab is the third most used device. One big
difference is that the computer is more heavily relied upon in foreign language classes at
the university than at the high school. This most certainly is due to the greater
implementation of technology in higher education along with its accompanying expense
than is possible at the level of secondary education. For example, 79 of the respondents
said that computers were commonly used at their university while only 22 of the
respondents said that their high schools used computers to learn a foreign language.
Another example is the use of the listening lab as only 33 respondents said they had a
foreign language lab in their high school as compared to 84 of the respondents who said
they used such a lab in their university.
Visual aides are utilized to a greater degree at the high school level than the
university as is the use of the projector. The use of this lower level technology is due to
not only the lower cost but also because the high school classroom is more likely to be
permanently set up with such devices while university classrooms in one day serve the
purposes of many disciplines. Video use is greater at the high school level yet care must
be taken that this device is used as a teaching tool rather than being used solely as
entertainment.



897
Quality of Instruction, Grades, and Learning of a Foreign Language
Most of the respondents (74%) believed their high school instructors were good
while 95% of the respondents felt their university professors were good. Most students, at
both levels, felt that the grades they received were fair as this was the response of 89% of
those at the university level and 84% of those at the high school level. While 15%
claimed not to be learning a foreign language at the university level despite their foreign
language classes this was true of 40% of those who took foreign language in high school
who said they had not learned much in their foreign language classes (See Table 4:
Whether Students Learned A Foreign Language).
Foreign Language Activities
The foreign language activities that were the most popular at both the high school
and the university levels were the Foreign Language Club and the Foreign Language
Table (See Table 5 High School and University Foreign Language Activities). The
Foreign Language Club meets for academic as well as social activities while the Foreign
Language Table meets for the purpose of practicing the language. Movies are equally
popular at both levels of education. Dances were said to be more common activities at the
high school level while a foreign language newsletter was the least common of the
activities engaged in at both levels of education.
Participation in Extracurricular Activities
Respondents were asked if they think that participating in a foreign language
extracurricular activity helps them learn the language and 74% said yes. While 25% of
the respondents participated in university foreign language extracurricular activities the
majority (75%) did not and similar responses were given for high school extracurricular



898
participation. Only 24% participated in extracurricular activities at the high school level
while the majority (76%) said they had not. About one-fourth of the high school and
university students make the time to enhance their foreign language skills by participating
in Foreign Language Clubs, Foreign Language Tables, movies, dances or newsletters.
Aides for Learning
Most of the respondents (48%) said they were visual learners, while 28% said
they preferred printed material, and 25% said they learn best by using audio means. In
responding to the question regarding what material they most used to help them learn a
foreign language at both the high school and university levels, the respondents said they
rely most heavily on their textbooks and workbooks (See Table 6: Materials and
Resources to Aide Learning). Interestingly, friends were relied upon more at the high
school level while at the university level the use of audio tapes was the third most listed
resource used. More respondents said they relied more heavily on the use of technology
such as computers and the internet at the university than when they were in high school.
Students were more likely to turn to the use of a private tutor at the university level than
in high school.
Reason Particular Foreign Language Studied
Overwhelmingly, the respondents (95%) said it was their opinion that it is
important to learn a foreign language. Most of the respondents (85%) are taking Spanish,
11% are taking French, 2% are taking German or Japanese, while 1% are taking
Portuguese. When asked why they selected a particular language to study, 37% said they
are taking the same foreign language they took in high school, 54% said they simply had
a desire to learn that language, 9% said their advisor suggested that choice, while only



899
one person said the language class fit best into their evening schedule (See Table 7: Why
Students Selected a Particular Foreign Language).
Career Benefits of Studying a Foreign Language
When asked what foreign language they believed would help them most in their
future career most (83%) said Spanish would be the most beneficial to them as it would
enable them to communicate with Hispanics both in the U.S. and abroad. Only 8% of the
respondents said French would be useful to them in their future careers, while 2% said
that either Japanese or Portuguese would be helpful, and one person said that Latin would
be of benefit. Most students (39%) said learning a foreign language would be beneficial
to communicate with others while 26% said specifically that the learning of a foreign
language would be useful to them in their future employment.

DISCUSSION
It was predicted that there would be significant differences in the utilization of the
teaching materials at the high school and at the university levels. The literature
documents a heavier reliance on the use of textbooks often to the exclusion of other
teaching materials and devices (Buttjes & Byram, 1991; Honig, 1985; and Hernandez,
2001) and this was confirmed in this study. There was a greater use of lower level
teaching materials such as overhead projectors, visual aides, and games at the secondary
level while at the university level there was a greater use of technology such as audio
tapes and the listening lab, the computer lab, and the internet. The high school teacher
may not have the use of higher level expensive technologies yet she or he has the ability
to implement a wider array of teaching materials in what is likely a permanent classroom



900
setting. High schools should be strongly encouraged to invest in a foreign language
listening lab and to use the computers they do possess also for foreign language purposes.
This use of technology will make the transition from high school to the university
smoother and students will bring higher levels of foreign language acquisition to their
university freshperson year. Such recommendations support the closer relationship
between secondary and higher level education that the Association of American
Universities recommends.
It was predicted that there would be differences between the level of
extracurricular participation by high school and university students but this study found
that most students at both levels do not participate in Foreign Language Clubs, Foreign
Language Tables, movies, dances, or newsletters. Only one-forth of high school and
university students engage in such language enhancing activities. It may be because such
activities are still viewed as primarily academic. In order to encourage greater
participation teachers and professors could award points for such extracurricular activities
and strongly emphasize the social aspects of such involvement. Music, food, and games
can also serve to increase participation and enthusiasm for such extracurricular activities.
It was predicted that there would be differences between the aids used at the high
school and university levels by the students to help them learn. The respondents said they
relied more on friends to help them learn a foreign language when they were in high
school while they relied more on audio tapes as university students in the learning
process. Friends were still an important source of study help for university students as
were audio tapes for those in high school. Closer relationships naturally develop in high
school settings which tend to be smaller than universities and if a high school does not



901
have a listening lab then one must depend on a friend to serve as a partner for speaking
and listening exercises. Young adults in the university setting are more likely to prefer
using audio tapes which enables them to learn independently and at their own pace.
It was found that the highest percentage of the respondents took a foreign
language because of a desire to learn that particular language while the second most
common reason was because they had taken that language in high school. Most
respondents believed that learning a foreign language would help them communicate
with others while the second most commonly cited benefit was employment reasons.
Clearly respondents not only have a desire to learn a foreign language but they believe it
will be meaningful to their future careers. Most university respondents (85%) said they
were becoming language proficient yet lamentably 40% of the respondents said they had
not learned the basics of reading, writing, listening comprehension, and speaking in their
high school foreign language classes. It is vital that high schools incorporate the skills
and knowledge that will be expected of incoming freshpersons at the university (Hebel,
2003). There must be greater synchronization between teaching methodologies used in
the high school and the university so students can make a smoother transition between the
two levels of learning.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING COMMENTS
It is important to create better partnerships between the high school and university
levels in order to provide a greater continuum of education. The basic foreign language
skills learned in the high school setting must lay a solid foundation on which to build a
university level foreign language curriculum. It is important to understand why there are



902
differences in the use of teaching materials and devices at the high school and the
university levels, what sorts of learning aids foreign language students depend on the
most to get through their classes, and how they intend to utilize their foreign language
skills in the real world.



903
REFERENCES


Anderson, H.C., & Pesola, C.A. (1988). Languages and Children-Making the Match.
New York: Addison-Wesley.
Broussard, J.C. (2004). Giving Voice to the Voiceless: Four Pioneering Black Women
Journalists. New York: Routledge.
Brown, K.L. (2003). From teacher-centered to learner-centered curriculum: Improving
learning in diverse classrooms. Education. 124 (1), 49-54.
Buttjes, D., & Byram, M. (1991). Meditating Languages and Cultures: Toward an
Intercultural Theory of Foreign Language Education. Clevedon, England:
Philadelphia Multilingual Matters.
Byram, M., & Esarte-Sarries, V. (1991). Investigating Cultural Studies in Foreign
Language Teaching: A Book for Teachers. Clevedon, England: Philadelphia
Multilingual Matters.
Chang, E., Watkins, A., & Banks, K.H. (2004). How adaptive and maladaptive
perfectionism relate to positive and negative psychological functioning: testing a
stress-meditation model in black and white college female students. Journal of
Counseling Psychology. 51, 93-114.
Colligan, L., & Aber, L. (1994). 1,001 Things to Do When Theres Nothing to Do. New
York: Scholastic.
Cookes, G. (1993). Task in Pedagogical Context: Integrating Theory and Practice.
Clevedon, England: Philadelphia Multilingual Matters.
Garner, H. (1997). Multiple intelligences as a partner in school improvement. Education
Leadership. 55 (September) 20-21.
Grauber, W. (1997). The Elements of Foreign Language Teaching Volume 7. Clevedon,
England: Philadelphia Multilingual Matters.
Hardy, L. (2003). No child left behind? Show me the money! The Education Digest. 69,
4-10.
Hebel, S. (2003, November 7). States tests for high-school students are out of sync with
college standards, report says. Chronicle of Higher Education, A26.
Herbert, J. (1986). Academic Preparation in Foreign Language: Teaching form
Transition from High School to College. New York: College Entrance
Examination Board.



904
Herr, J., & Libby- Larson, Y. (2000). Creative Resources for the Early Childhood
Classroom. Albany, NY: Albany Delmar Career and Education Publishing.
Hernandez, H. (2001). Multicultural Education. Columbus: Prentice Hall.
Hewitt, S. (2003). Learner-centered teacher preparation: A mastery of skills. Education.
124, 24-30.
Honig, W. (1985, November 18). Last chance to teach culture. Interview. U S News
and World Report, 99 (21), 82.
Hughey, J.B., &Slack, C. (2001). Teaching Children to Write. Upper Saddle River:
Prentice-Hall.
Jones, L. (2003, November 29). Dads want book with racial slur pulled from class. Palm
Beach Post, A1.
Kattan-Ibarra, J. (1994). Conversando. Chicago: National Textbook.
Kreamelmeyer, F.D. (1991). Successful Student Teaching. Salem, Wisconsin: Sheffield
Publishing.
Mills-Faraudo, T.S. (2004, December 18). Bell Air a model school. San Mateo County
Times, A1.
Reisner, R.R., & Dick, W. (1996). Instructional planning: A Guide for Teachers.
Needham Heights, Massachusetts: Simon & Schuster.
Smith, K.M. (2000). Higher Education Culture and the Diffusion of Technology in
Classroom Instruction. Hershey, Pennsylvania: Idea Group Publishing.
Stryker, S.B. (1997). Content-Based Instruction in Foreign Language Education: Models
and Methods. Washington, DC: George Town University Press.
Stewart, J.Y. (2003, October 15). In the classroom; Black children saying hola to
Spanish classes. Los Angeles Times, B2.
Thomas, D. (2003, October 9). More than $1 million in grants awarded to empower
families under No Child Left Behind Act. State News Service, 1.




905
APPENDIX: TABLES 1-7

Table 1
University Resources

Quality of Resources Frequency Percent Cumulative
Percent
Very Good 28 21.5 21.5
Somewhat Good 64 49.2 70.8
Average 34 26.2 96.9
Poor 4 3.1 100.0
Total 130 100.0


Table 2
High School Resources

Quality of Resources Frequency Percent Cumulative
Percent
Very Good 32 24.6 24.6
Somewhat Good 38 29.2 53.8
Average 52 40.0 93.8
Poor 8 6.2 100.0
Total 130 100.0


Table 3
Comparing High School and University Teaching Devices

High School Level University Level
Ranking Frequency Device Ranking Frequency Device
1 126 Textbook 1 125 Textbook
2 88 Workbook 2 116 Workbook
3 81 Movies 3 84 Listening Lab
4 75 Audio Tapes 4 79 Computer
5 53 Projector 5 77 Movies
6 47 Visual Aids 6 77 Audio Tapes
7 33 Listening Lab 7 65 Projector
8 23 Video 8 38 Visual Aids
9 22 Computer 9 25 Internet
10 8 Internet 10 18 Video
11 2 Games 11 2 Music
* Note: Some respondents listed more than one teaching device.





906
Table 4
Whether Students Learned a Foreign Language

Learned High School Level University Level
Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
Yes 77 59.2 110 84.6
No 53 40.8 20 15.4
Total 130 100.0 130 100.0


Table 5
High School and University Foreign Language Activities

High School Activities University Activities
Ranking Frequency Activity Ranking Frequency Activity
1 84 Club 1 46 Club
2 35 Table 2 44 Table
3 25 Movie 3 20 Movie
4 22 Dance 4 8 Dance
5 5 Newsletter 5 7 Newsletter
*Note: Some respondents listed more than one activity.


Table 6
Materials and Resources to Aid Learning

High School Materials & Resources University Materials & Resources
Ranking Frequency Resources Ranking Frequency Resources
1 124 Textbook 1 123 Textbook
2 75 Workbook 2 95 Workbook
3 48 Friend 3 49 Audio Tapes
4 38 Audio Tapes 4 40 Friend
5 17 Internet 5 36 Computer
6 11 Computer 6 33 Internet
7 9 Tutor 7 16 Tutor
8 2 Music

*Note: Some respondents listed more than one resource.





907
Table 7
Why Students Selected a Particular Foreign Language

Reason for selection Frequency Percent Cumulative
Percent
Took in High School 48 36.9 36.9
Desire to learn 70 53.8 90.8
Advisor 11 8.5 99.2
Schedule 1 .8 100.0
Total 130 100.0




PATHWAYS TO MULTILINGUALISM AMONG THE EARLY
AFRICAN-AMERICAN SLAVE POPULATION:
TEXTUAL EVIDENCE FROM RUNAWAY SLAVE
ADVERTISEMENTS PLACED IN COLONIAL AMERICAN
NEWSPAPERS


DR. DES. I.M. LAVERSUCH
UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND




909
Pathways to Multilingualism among the Early African-American Slave
Population: Textual Evidence from Runaway Slave Advertisements
Placed in Colonial American Newspapers


The purpose of this paper is to enumerate some of the most common pathways to
multilingualism followed by early African American slaves. To do this, textual evidence
culled from several published compilations of runaway slave advertisements featured in
colonial American newspapers along the Eastern seaboard will be presented. The most
striking routes to multilingualism will be presented in order of increasing frequency.
While some of these pathways are unique to the peculiar institution of slavery, many
others are still being taken today by that diverse group of peoples collectively known as
African Americans
As with many a good story, the history of multilingualism among early US
American slaves actually begins tens of thousands of miles away, in Africa. For centuries
now, the African continent has been home to a significant number of multilingual
speakers. In the past, the principle cause of this multilingualism evolved from the
intergenerational intrafamilial transmission of two parental languages. With the
introduction of European slavery, however, this traditional pathway was significantly
interrupted, as individual family units were decimated and entire ethnic groups were
annihilated. Nevertheless, careful examination of colonial newspapers still reveals
fragmentary evidence that this traditional multilingual pathway still existed in isolated
cases in North America. An example is illustrated below:



910
Example 1
October 25, 1816 (North Carolina)
FIVE DOLLARS REWARD
RANAWAY from the subscriber, in Mecklenburg county, a Negro Boy named TOM,
about 16 or 17 years old, [] was born of African parents and can speak their language.
(Parker, 1993: 254).
The runaway slave featured in example 1 is country-born (i.e., born in the
United States). Despite this fact, like many first-generation Americans today, this child
successfully acquired his heritage or ancestral language from his foreign-born parents.
This case is exceptional, however; for as a general rule, this natural route to
multilingualism was typically thwarted by the fact that few slave families were allowed
to stay intact long enough for such intergenerational linguistic transmission to take place.
Instead, it was far more common for the children of enslaved parent s to be sold off
shortly after their birth, the contracts for sale sometimes having been finalized before the
pregnancy was even brought full-term. This practice was not only followed for reasons of
personal profit, but for fear that familial bonds galvanized by a common language could
eventually turn into dangerous military alliances in the form of slave rebellion.
Nevertheless, it would be wrong to say that slave masters were categorically against
multilingualism among their slaves. Like most slave skills, multilingualism was generally
looked upon with skepticism and derision unless there was an immediate or obvious
advantage for the slave owner. In which case, it was not only tolerated but regularly
exploited. This means that at the same time that slavery blocked many of the natural
pathways to multilingualism, it also created several new ones.



911
From the very beginning, European slavers regularly enlisted multilingual
Africans to aide them in their precarious negotiations for the purchase and transport of
human chattel. These linguistic go-betweens were commonly referred to at that time as
linguists. In the following passage, a 19
th
century European slaver describes the role
these native interpreters played in the mediation: these linguists are natives and freemen
of the Country, whom we hire on account of their speaking good English, during the time
we remain trading on the coast; and they are likewise brokers between us and the black
merchants(Thomas, 1998: 402).
1

2
Though often overlooked, these polyglott Africans
were critical in helping countless slavers to fill their fetid cargo hulls with human chattel
bound for the New World.
Once at sea, it was not unusual for these native interpreters to continue their
ignominious services as valued crewmembers. One of their chief duties in this capacity
was to communicate with and manage the human cargo aboard. Given their ability to
either hinder or ignite potentially fatal slave revolts onboard, the position of these
multilingual go-betweens on the high seas was, according to Thomas (1998), often higher
than that of the average White sailor (p. 403). Through their international travel,
polyglott Africans were regularly exposed to different peoples and cultures, thereby
reinforcing and/or expanding their already considerable polyglott proficiency. Thus, one
of the primary pathways to multilingualism among African Americans which developed
during slavery involved on the job training as a seafaring interpreter. Not incidentally

1
According to Thomas (1998), from early on, Portuguese slavers [] would often have the benefit of
being able to use the services of the lanados (or tangos-mos), bilingual expatriates who would often
gather slaves together before the ships arrived (p. 386).
2
For example, because of their famed multilingual skills, the Wolofs were often used as interpreters
on slave ships, lending a distinct Wolof character to the emerging pidgin (Thomas 1998: 397).



912
then many of the multilingual slaves identified in Colonial newspapers were described as
having worked on sea-going vessels. One such example is shown below.
Example 2
Baltimore Maryland J ournal and Baltimore Advertiser, November 6, 1781
TEN POUND, SPECIE, REWARD
RAN away, from the subscriber, on Sunday the 28
th
of October, a Mulatto Slave, named
Emanuel, about 48 years of age [] As he was born in the Spanish West-Indies, bred a
sailor, and converses fluently in the French and Spanish languages, he may probably
pretend to be a free man.[] (Windley, 1983).
Like the slave featured in example 2, during the colonial period, rather than lose
their multilingual skills, an untold number of enslaved Africans expanded their linguistic
repertoire of native and foreign languages once they discovered the value of their cross-
linguistic intercultural negotiation to the slavers (Berlin, 1996) By the same token,
[s]laveholders learned that slaves abilities to negotiate with the diverse populace of
seventeenth-century North America was as valuable as their labor, perhaps more so
(Berlin, 1996:267). Consequently, slave trading nations began to lay plans for the
systematic exploitation of these multicultural multilingual skills very early on.
3

For example, at the dawn of the 16
th
century, none other than Sir Walter Raleigh
took steps to formalize this practice on behalf of the British government. According to
Raleighs plan, a select set of indigenous speakers were to be transported from their home
countries and relocated to Great Britain where they would be rigorously trained in the

3
This is to say nothing of the untold numbers of Africans whose multilingualism came from long years
of self-study. As an example, Meader (1974) recounts the story of a Ayuba Sulieman Diallo of Senegal,
also known as Job ben Salomon, who had been educated in Africa. A Koran scholar, Diallo was captured
and forced to slave on a Maryland tobacco plantation until he successfully escaped (p. 314). In a February
7, 1805 advertisement from in the South Carolina courier, a thirty year-old slave described as being a
sambo of grave countenance [who] writes the Arabic language (Johnson, 1981: 437).



913
English culture and language in situ over a period of years. Afterwards, they would be
allowed to return to their homelands where they would be utilized as mediators and
interpreters (Vaughn, 2002).
4
Though fascinating, the experience of these and other
similarly educated slaves was the exception not the rule. The vast majority of African
slaves became proficient in the language of their self-appointed masters under vastly
different circumstances. For most, their first real language lessons did not take place in
the gilded courts of European royalty but in the infested holding pens of the Caribbean.
In the string of islands dotting the Atlantic seaboard, European slavers routinely
set down anchor long enough to rest up and stock up on the necessary food, clothing, and
liquor supplies. This period was also used to clean, sort, and rest the surviving members
of their cargo. This respite was not given for any humane or altruistic reason, but was
designed to maximize potential financial gains. As hundreds of years of experience had
already shown, a weak, despondent, ill, or disobedient slave would typically fetch far less
on the North American market than one who appeared to be bright, healthy, virile, and
compliant if not obedient). As Kammen (1975) explains: the white colonists discovered
early that blacks imported directly from Africa were especially rebellious and difficult to
control in a system of forced labor (p. 58). For this reason, North American colonists
quickly developed a preference for slaves who had already been introduced to the brutal
demands of their forced labor system. This training introduced [slaves] to European
values, taught them what their white masters expected, and reduced their will to resist
(Kammen, 1975: 58). An important part of this seasoning process involved drilling the

4
Between 1594 and 1618 some twelve or more of Raleighs recruits were taken from Guiana and
Trinidad and trained in England. The last of the Guianans he took to England witnessed his beheading
(Vaughn, 2002: 547).



914
slaves in giving the desired responses to rudimentary verbal commands. As a result, even
before they set foot on the North American continent, a good number of slaves had
already acquired at least a rudimentary understanding of at least one of the European
colonial languages.
Once on the mainland those slaves who were able to successfully demonstrate
their ability to understand commands were much sought after and generally commanded
a higher price. By contrast, slaves who failed to quickly comprehend and/or appropriately
respond to slavers commands were typically considered to be surly or even hostile
and were swiftly and savagely punished. Under such circumstances, most Africans
brought to North America in chains learned the language of their English-speaking
masters with remarkable speed and alacrity. This did not mean, however, that they
completely forgot the languages of their homeland. In the early 18
th
century a goodly
number of the African-born slaves were at least functionally multilingual, speaking not
only the language of their English masters, but also at least one of their African ancestors.
Evidence of this African English continuum of proficiency is demonstrated in examples
3a through 3d:

Example 3a
Virginia Gazette, August 10, 1769
RUN away from the subscriber, in April 1765, a Negro man slave, named TOMBOY, as
African born, remarkably black [] he retains much of his country dialect, though
imported young [] (Windley, 1983: 300).




915
Example 3b
Charleston South-Carolina and American General Gazette, May 27 to June 3, 1774
RUN away the 21
st
of April last, TWO NEGRO MEN that have been in the country two
years, and speak English so as to be understood[] They are both of a country which
they call Sofo, and both speak the Bombra language and Cupid the Fulla language []
(Windley, 1983: 455).

Example 3c
Baltimore Maryland J ournal and Baltimore Advertiser, August 19, 1783
FORTY DOLLARS REWARD
Ran away, from the subscriber[] a NEGRO WOMAN named SUE[] She can tell a
plausible story when examined; talks something after the Guinea dialect, and can read a
little English. (Windley, 1983: 292).

Example 3d
Savannah Gazette of the State of Georgia
October 20, 1785
A Negro woman, named BETTY, of a yellow complexion, about 30 years old has her
country marks very conspicuous in the face, speaks tolerable English, and understands
two or three different African languages[] (Windley, 1983: 135).
In the above examples, the slaves described spoke one or more African languages
along with English. This was not always the case, however; for then as now, the United
States was not a monolingual English-speaking environment, far from it. For much of the
colonial period, significant portions of the continent were also occupied by several non-
speaking European nations (e.g., France, Spain, Portugal, and Holland) as well as
numerous indigenous tribes (e.g., the Cree, Delaware, and Seminole). Africans who were
enslaved in areas where they had regular contact with people from two or more



916
ethnolinguistic communities followed yet another common pathway to multilingualism.
The runaway featured in example 4 demonstrates this pathway.

Example 4
Charleston South-Carolina and American General Gazette
January 14 to January 21, 1771
RAN away on the 12 of January instant, from my Plantation on Ladys Island, a Negro
Man named JACK [] speaks the Creek Language tolerably well; he formerly belonged
to Mr. Edward Barnhard, by whom he used to be employed in the Creek Nation []
(Windley, 1983: 437).
As was most likely the case in this example, many of the multilingual slaves
identified were involved buying and selling goods between two or more colonial
ethnolinguistic communities. Sometimes, of course, the objects of sale were the slaves
themselves. Slaves who were bought, sold, traded, or rented from one master to another
were expected to immediately accommodate by learning the language of their new
owners. The forced relocation of slaves from one ethnolinguistic community to another
was the most common pathway of multilingualism identified the African Americans
profiled in the runaway newspaper advertisements examined. A classic example of this
route is illustrated by the following true story.
In 1797, a slave named Elizabeth Baumfree gave birth to her twelfth child born
into bondage, Isabella. Isabella was born in Hurley,
5
a small town in Ulster County
located about seven miles west of the Hudson River and ninety miles to the north of New

5




917
York City.
6
Like most slaves in this isolated community, Isabella was a monolingual
speaker of Dutch.
7
All that changed for Isabella, however, when Hardenbergh Senior, the
patriarch of the family who owned her, died. Not long afterward, Isabella was sold off
to help cover the Hardenbergh family debts.
Isabellas new masters were not Dutch but English-speakers. Undoubtedly
believing that she could but simply refused to respond in English, Isabellas new owners,
the Nelleys, were quick to apply the whip. As Mabee (1993) describes, []When the
Nelleys gave her orders she did not understand, and therefore could not carry out, John
Nelley [] cut her so severely that she was scarred for the rest of her life. (p. 4).
Despite her violent beginnings, Isabella successfully escaped her tormentors. To mark
this act of self- liberation, Isabella changed her name to Sojourner Truth.
Over her lifetime, Sojourner Truth did of course learn to speak English fluently,
but she lost neither the accent nor the earthy imagery of the Dutch language that made her
English so remarkable (Painter, 1996: 7). According to modern biographers, Truth
always seemed to struggle with English, which comes are no surprise given the traumatic
circumstances under which she would have been expected to learn the language.
Although, today, Truth is remembered as one of the United States greatest orators,
8

during her lifetime she was made to endure frequent, often vicious public attacks, for
what some described as a nearly incomprehensible accent. In retrospect, Sojourners so-
called Negro accent , which many 19
th
Century observers described as being thick,

6
For more on the Afro-Dutch community in New York see: (DeJong, 1971; Rosenwaite, 1972; Smith,
1973; White, 1989; Goodfriend, 1992).
7
According to the first hand accounts of Timothy Dwight, a 17
th
century traveller to the Hudson
Valley: []the number of Negroes is large. The latter and the Whites speak Dutch generally, so that the
traveler imagines himself in the middle of a Dutch colony (qtd. in Washington, 1993: xviii).
8




918
harsh, and guttural, may well have been a consequence of subtractive bilingualism
where the late-term acquisition of a foreign second language, in this case English, was
marked by phonological interference from her native first language, Dutch.
9

Given the adverse circumstances surrounding her language learning, the level of
foreign language proficiency Truth and countless others like her achieved is no less than
remarkable; especially when one stops to consider the fact that during the period of a
slaves lifetime, he or she might be bought and sold, loaned and inherited, traded and
spirited between a long series of owners, all potentially speaking different languages (and
dialects), all expecting to be immediately understood and obeyed.
As the story of Sojourner Truth illustrates, in the lifetime of a single slave, several
different factors could and often did come together along the pathway to
multilingualism., and regularly resulted in rather astonishing language combinations. Just
a taste of this linguistic bounty is revealed in examples 5a through 5h. Collectively, these
runaway advertisements span nearly a century of US American slavery.

Example 5a
South-Carolina Gazette
September 22, 1746
RUN-AWAY from Point-Comfort on Savannah River [] The Woman is his Wife, a tall
lusty young Wench, can speak good English, Chickesaw, and perhaps French, the
Chickesaws having taken her from the French settlements on Mississippi. [] (Windley,
1983: 71).


9
Even between African-Americans, regional differences could impede communication. Indeed, []
the presence of Dutch-derived language in the New York area sometimes made communication between
blacks difficult (White, 1989: 26).



919
Example 5b
Parkers New-York Gazette; or. The Weekly Post-boy, #940, J anuary 8, 1761
New-York, December 24, 1760, Ran away the 24
th
of September last, from
John Mersereau, Carpenter, of Staten-Island, a Negro Man named Hank, aged about 25
Years, [] he speaks better Dutch than English.[] (Hodges & Brown, 1997: 87).

Example 5c
The Pennsylvania Gazette, Sept. 20, 1764.
RAN Away on the Ninth of this instant September, from the subscriber, a Negro Man,
named Frank, alias Francisco, about 5 Feet 7 Inches high, well-set, about 25 Years of
Age, walks remarkably upright, can talk but a little English, having lived among the
Spaniards, and talks in that dialect. Thomas Pryor. (The Journal of Negro History, 1916:
192).

Example 5d
Savannah Georgia Gazette J uly 2, 1766
RUN AWAY from my plantation at Sunbury, about seven weeks ago, FOUR
NEGROES[]BRIDGEE[] was first purchased by the Portuguese, and sold to the
Spaniards (by which he speaks both languages) taken last war, bought by Capt. James
Dunbar, who sold him to me.[] (Windley, 1983: 17).

Example 5e
Charleston South Carolina and American General Gazette
October 10 to October 24, 1766
RAN AWAY from Saluda Fork, in September last, a negro man named SUBA, []
speaks high Dutch or German and no English[] (Windley, 1983: 416).




920
Example 5f
The Pennsylvania Gazette, J uly 31, 1740
RAN AWAY on Saturday Night Last, From Moorhall in Chester Country, a Mulatto Man
Slave, aged about 22, has a likely whitish countenance, of a middle Stature [] He
speaks Swede and English well. Whoever secures the said Slave, so that his Master may
have him again, shall be very handsomely Rewarded, and all reasonable Charges paid by
William Moore (The Journal of Negro History, 1916: 185).

Example 5g
Virginia Gazette April 19, 1770
RUN away from the subscriber, on Monday night the 9
th
instant, [] FRANK, a foreign
Negro, a very good cook, says he was born in the Spanish West Indies, speaks bad
English []also French, Spanish, and some Dutch[] (Windley, 1983: 80).

Example 5h
TEN DOLLARS REWARD
RAN-AWAY from the subscriber, in Frederick Town, Maryland, in February, 1794, a
Negro Wench named KITTY, about 40 or 42 years of age []it is likely she had a false
pass, and passes for a free wench, as she is now in some part of Pennsylvania; she walks
bold and straight, speaks the English and German language, and some French; it is
supposed she has been pregnant since she ran off[] J.G.D. Kerlegand (Hawbaker,
1987: 5).

Although many scholars in African American Studies have already taken note of the
linguistic diversity among early African Americans slaves (e.g., Dillard, 1972, Schafer,
1981; Hodges & Brown, 1997; Franklin & Schweninger, 1999; Waldstreicher, 1999;



921
Wolfram, 2000; Poplack, 2000), on the whole, interest in this subject seems to have been
rather unfocussed . This lack of attention is unfortunate as there is much to be gained
from the study of this phenomenon.
From a socio-historical point of view, for example, the history of multilingualism
among early African American slaves can indirectly tell us a great deal about the
conditions under which many of our forefathers and mothers survived. As stressed
earlier, multilingual slaves were often highly valued for their presumed higher level of
intelligence, degree of cultural acculturation, potential for re-)salability on the
international market. For these reasons, slave owners typically viewed a slaves ability to
master more than one language positively; that is until that slave ran away. Once that
happened the very same multilingualism which had initially been considered an asset
quickly soared into a liability. According to Waldstreicher (1999), [slaves] who spoke
multiple languages or dialects or could write had the most success running away.
(p. 258). Consider, for example, Henry. Featured in the December 9, 1850 edition of
the New Orleans Bee, Henry was described as a bright mulatto, who was reportedly
fluent in English, French, and Choctaw, three languages which were no doubt invaluable
in engineering his successful escape from his Louisiana master (Schafer, 1981:51).
Again, Henry is no exception. There is much textual evidence which would seem to
indicate that polyglottism was a common attribute among early African American
runaways. This being the case, it has been inferred that multilingual slaves may have
been particularly successful in stealing themselves (and others) away to freedom,
sometimes even penning their own emancipation papers.



922
The supposition that multilingualism may have increased a slaves chances of
escape is not without some preliminary empirical support. In Schafers 1981 investigation
of runaway slave advertisements placed in New Orleans newspapers in 1850, for
example, it was determined that a full thirteen percent of the runaways were either
bilingual or spoke three or four languages (the percentage was probably much higher as
detained notices were not detailed. (Schafer, 1981: 51).
10
Similar findings were made
in 1997 by Hodges and Brown. In their examination of 662 slave advertisements from
New York and New Jersey papers published between 1716 and 1783, they found that the
runaways spoke no less than seven different languages. In alphabetical order, these
languages were African, Dutch, English, French, German, Indian, and Spanish.
Aside from such empirical support, it seems only reasonable to postulate that multilingual
slaves would have enjoyed a distinct advantage when it came to first masterminding their
escape and then alluding capture. Unlike their monolingual counterparts, for example,
multilingual fugitives would have had a far better chance of escaping to an area well
outside of their former captors linguistic and juridical competence.
11
As illustrated in
examples 6a-c, many multilingual slaves used their polyglott skills to talk their way onto
ships where their linguistic skills would have made them a welcomed asset to any crew.
12


10
Moreover, there is reason to believe that this number might be even higher given the fact that many
African Americans might have hidden their true linguistic abilities given the fact that it was illegal for
slaves to become literate. Even in cases of manumission, it could be dangerous for former slaves to display
their true abilities (be they linguistic or otherwise), lest they ignite the potentially fatal jealousies of those
around them.
11
An advantage which would have been severely compromised, of course, with the introduction of the
Fugitive Slave Law.
12
Not unaware of this unique pathway of escape, slave owners advertising for runaway polyglotts not
only offered reward money, but also routinely issued a warning against carrying off their so-called errant
property. For example, in the April 1
st
, 1799 edition of South Carolinas City Gazetter ad Daily Advertiser,
an advertisement is featured for LEWIS [] a stout well-made fellow who reportedly spoke both
French and English fluently and was considered to be very artful. A the end of this advertisement, the
subscriber is careful to make the following warning: All Masters of Vessels and others are forbid



923

Example 6a
August 26, 1762, Pennsylvania Gazette:
RUN away from the Subscriber Yesterday, a Mulattoe Man Slave, named Joe, alias
Joseph Boudron, a middle-sized Man, a brisk lively Fellow, about 23 Years of Age, was
born at Guadaloupe, has lived some Time in New-York, and Charles-Town, in South
Carolina, speaks good English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese[]he is a good Cook,
and much used to the Sea, where it is thought he intends, of for New-York. (Smith &
Wojotowicz, 1999: 57).

Example 6b
South-Carolina Gazette
J uly 2, 1763
RUN AWAY from the subscriber about ten days ago, a NEGRO man named LUKE,
[]has been usd to the seas, speaks English, French, Spanish, and Dutch, and probably
may attempt to get off in some vessel. [] (Windley, 1983: 231).

Example 6c
ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD
Ran away from Elk Forge Cecil County, Maryland, on the 2
nd
inst,, Aug. 1784, Negro
George about 35 or 40 years of age 5 feet 7 or 8 inches high, slender bodied, thin visage,
not very black, plausible, and complacent; can speak pretty good English, a little French,
and a few words of High Dutch; has been in the West Indies and in Canada; and he was
formerly a waiting man to a gentlemen [sic]. Has thereby had an opportunity of getting

employing, harbouring or carrying him off, as on conviction they will be prosecuted to the extent of the
law. (Journal of Negro History, 1916:187).



924
acquainted with the different parts of America [] The Maryland Gazette, August 19,
1784. (The Journal of Negro History, 1916: 186-87).

While many multilingual runaways tried their luck on sea, others preferred to
keep their feet on dry land, often unwilling to leave friends and family so far behind. To
avoid capture, several of these polyglott fugitives used their language skills to gain
sanctuary in linguistically isolated neighboring communities. As a general rule, these
communities were chosen either for their long-standing animosity towards slave owners
(e.g., any number of disposed Native American tribes) or for their long-standing
benevolence towards runaway slaves (e.g., German-speaking Quaker communities).
13
. In
the Fall of 1782, for example, the Maryland papers carried a runaway slave advertisement
for a Charles Jackson. A blacksmith by trade, Jackson escaped in a group of four and may
have attempted to have sought sanctuary amongst the Quakers, whose dialect he
reportedly spoke well (Windley, 1983: 268). Once safely hidden away, self- emancipated
multilinguals like Jackson would be free to finally put their linguistic skills to good use
for themselves, assuming new identities and establishing themselves both economically
and emotionally within their new communities.
At this point, of course, the skeptical may question accuracy of the such slave
records. However, as Windley (1983) explains: As to the validity of the data contained
in the advertisements, it is here pointed out that owners, if they wished the return of their
runaways, were compelled to give as honest and accurate a description as possible

13
For a critical discussion of the relationship between US Quakers and African American slaves, see:
(Soderlund, 1985).



925
(xiv).
14
In particular, Franklin and Schweninger (1999) assert that [t]he speech habits of
runaways came under close scrutiny in the newspapers (p. 225).
It may of course be countered that, despite the most veracious of intentions, it is
still impossible to determine the slaveowners degree of accuracy in assessing their
slaves proficiency in a set of languages which they themselves may have had little or no
personal knowledge of. This being the case, it must be conceded that it is in fact difficult
to conclusively establish the true linguistic breadth and depth of the African American
slave community. Having said this, there is still however a great deal of circumstantial
evidence which supports the assertion that a significant portion of the enslaved African
American community did in fact develop at least functional ability in more than one
language.
Aside from the multitude of slave records which describe the ability of slaves use
multiple languages, there is also the undeniable fact that many African-Americans lived
under the very circumstances which are commonly accepted as factors leading to multiple
language use: 1.) the intergenerational transmission of two or more different familial
languages; 2.) formal study of multiple languages; 3.) working in an occupation which
requires frequent and/or prolonged contact with speakers of different languages;
4.) residing in an area located between two or more monolingual communities; 5.) living
in an ethnolinguistically diverse environment in which multiple languages are regularly
used; and 6.) forced or voluntary relocation from one monolingual speech community to
another. While some of these factors are peculiar to the institution of slavery, others are
widely recognized, generic catalysts of individual and group multilingualism.

14
This is point echoed by fellow archivists Hodges & Brown, 1997.



926
Moreover, it must be remembered that, contrary to the popular image of sprawling
plantations with hundreds of servants and slaves, the majority of enslaved persons were
kept by subsistence farmers who could rarely afford separate living quarters for
themselves let alone for their slaves. This being the case, most slaves ate, slept, and
labored in close proximity to their owners. This meant that most slaves were in regular
contact with native speakers, who were, as a group, not ill-disposed to applying
punishment for any errors in comprehension or articulation. Accordingly, it would be fair
to assume that the level of proficiency obtained by multilingual slaves would have been
comparatively high. Indeed, in the face of such factors, to assume that such linguistic
acquisition did not take place or only took place sporadically would go against all that is
known about foreign language learning unless we are to believe that African American
slaves were uniquely incapable of doing what they had done for centuries, namely speak
multiple languages.
Assuming that the answer to that question is no, we are left to accept that a
significant portion of the US slaves did achieve a high level of proficiency in a number of
different languages in much the same way as they gained the advanced skills needed to
work as masons and barbers and onstage performers, sailors and tailors and cigar makers,
farmers and miners, coopers and smiths, butchers and brewers and stewards on ships. As
Goodfriend (1992) asserts: The ability of African-Americans to absorb elements of
European culture is beyond question [ including] the languages of their masters
(p. 124). Thus, the real question here is not whether US African American slaves spoke
multiple languages other than English, but how the fact that they did affected the genesis
and development of Early African American English.



927
With this question in mind, Dillard (1972) suggested that many [a]dditional
insights may be provided by looking away from English and looking towards the other
European languages spoken by Blacks (p. 15). Although this suggestion was made some
thirty years ago, modern linguists have tended to either overlook the potential importance
of multilingualism on the development of Early African American English, presumably
in the absence of definitive evidence of a single North American Creole. However, one
need not subscribe to the Creolist theory to see the significance of multilingualism among
early African Americans. After all, there is no disagreement among linguists today that
multilingualism has had a significant affect upon the development of Standard American
English and its regional varieties. Why then should it be any different with African
American English? As yet, however, [r]egional variations in African American
Vernacular English (AAVE) have not received much attention. Instead researchers have
focused on the remarkable similarities in AAVE spoken in different regions (Hinton &
Pollock, 2000: 59).
Although it is agreed that the identification of those core features which unite
speakers of African American English is important, it is equally important to isolate those
features which differentiate them as well. In the past, resistance to this academic pursuit
may have been fueled by white insistence upon the ubiquity of Black English []
(Waldstreicher, 1999: 257). Added to this hindrance has been the historical tendency to
marginalize the speech of African Americans, at best trivializing it as a vernacular of
Standard American English and at worst dismissing it as a bastardization or corruption of
the speech of White Americans. To right this historical wrong, it is necessary to shift the
discussion of African American language and culture from the periphery to the center of



928
academic discussion. Only then will it become possible to resist the homogenization of
the multiple voices of African America. Once this step is taken, it will become clear that
the many of the sociocultural processes which precipitated multilingualism among
African Americans in the past are still doing much the same for their descendents today.



929
REFERENCES

Berlin, Ira. (1996). From Creole to African: Atlantic Creoles and the Origins of African-
American Society in Mainland North America. The William and Mary Quarterly,
53, 251-288.
DeJong, Gerald. (1975). The Dutch in America: 1609-1974. Boston: Twayne Publishers.
Dillard, J.L. (1972). Black English: Its History and Usage in the United States. New
York: Random House.
(1992). A History of American English. New York: Longman, 1992.
Franklin, John H. and Loren Schweninger. (1999). Runaway Slaves Rebel on the
Plantation. New York: New York University Press.
Goodfriend, Joyce. (1991). Burghers and Blacks. New York History, 78, 124-160.
(1992). Before the Melting Pot. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Hawbaker, Gary T. (1987). Runaways, Rascals, and Rogues Volume 1: 1794-1810.
Hershey, Pennsylvania. Lancaster Journal.
Hinton, Linette and Karen Pollock. (2000). Regional Variations in the Phonological
Characteristics of African American Vernacular English. World Englishes, 19, 59-71.
Hodges, Graham and Alan Brown. (1994). (Compilers) Pretends to be Free. New York:
Garland Publishing, Inc.
Hopkins, Leroy T. (1985). Black Eldorado on the Susquehana: The Emergence of Black
Columbia, 1726-1861. The Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society,
89, 110-132.
Johnson, Michael P. (1981). Runaway Slaves and the Slave Communities in South
Carolina, 1799-1830. The William and Mary Quarterly, 38, 418-441.
Journal of Negro History. (1916). Documents, 1, 163-216.
(1944). The New England Negro As Seen in Advertisements for Runaway
Slaves, 29, 125-146.
Kammen, Michael. (1975). Colonial New York: A History. New York: Charles Scribner.
Mabee, Carelton. (1993). Sojourner Truth: Slave, Prophet, Legend. New York: NY U.P.



930
Meaders, Daniel. (1975). South Carolina Fugitives as Viewed Through Local Colonial
Newspapers with Emphasis on Runaway Notices 1732-1801. Journal of Negro
History, LX, 288-319.
Painter, N.I., (1996). Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol. New York: WW Norton and Co.
Parker, Freddie. (1994). Stealing a Little Freedom. North Carolina: 1791-1840. New
York: Garland Publishing.
Poplack, Shana. Ed. (2000). The English History of African American English. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Rosenwaite, Ira. (1972). Population History of New York. New York: Syracuse Press.
Schafer, Judith K. (1981). New Orleans in 1850 as Seen in Advertisements. The Journal
of Southern History. XLVII, 33-56.
Smith, Billy and Richard Wojtowicz. (1999). Blacks Who Stole Themselves: PA Gazette
1728-1790.
Soderlund, Jean R. (1985). Quakers and Slaver. Princeton, NJ: Princeton U.P.
Thomas, Hugh. (1998). The Slave Trade. London: Papermac.
Waldstreicher, David. (1999). Reading Runaways. William and Mary Quarterly, 56, 243-
272.
Washington, Margaret. (Ed.). (1993). Narrative of Sojourner Truth. NY: Vintage Books.
White, Shane. (1989). A Question of Style. Journal of American Folklore, 102, 23-43.
Windley, Lathan.(Compiler). (1983). Runaway Slave Advertisements Volumes 1-4.
London: Greenwood Press, 1983.
Wolfram, Walt. (2000). Issues in Reconstructing Earlier African-American English.
World Englishes, 19, 39-58.



NATIVE HERITAGE IN PLACE NAMES











JACOB P. RAYAPATI
CHEYNEY UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
CHEYNEY, PENNSYLVANIA




932
Native Heritage in Place Names


A study of place names in any language is interesting because it gives us insights
into cultures and language families. Phonological changes sometimes occur with the
result that an English place name like Brycg Stowe in Old English of the 12
th
century
becomes Bristol in Modern English. The purpose of this paper is to invite the attention
of American language and literature scholars to acknowledge our debt to the Pre-
Columbian natives who spoke an Algonkian language called Lnap in regions that are
now known as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and parts of New York. Such a study
would make us aware of our linguistic and cultural inheritance and enable us to redefine
American Heritage in more inclusive terms.
The name Lnap literally means people. It is also applied to the language
these people spoke (Hitakonanulaxk, p. 4). They are also called Lenni-Lenape which
would mean common people. The root Lno means Man (Dean, Lenape
Language Tapes). They were mistakenly called Delawares because they lived along
the Delaware river which was named for the then Governor Lord de la Warr, Sir Thomas
West, of the Virginia Colony in 1610 (Hitakonanulaxk, p. 5). The region where they
lived was called Lnaphoking meaning the region of the Lnap.
The -ing suffix in Lenape language is a locative noun marker which is also
found in place names like Wyoming. Wyoming originally is the name of a county, a
valley and a former Indian village. The name is a corruption of Mcheuwami, or
Mcheuwam, having the significance of great flats [or great meadows] The locative



933
of Mcheuwami would be Mcheuoming or Mcheuwaming, meaning at the great flats
(Donehoo, p. 259). It is contracted and changed to Wyoming. This locative place
marker - ing can also be found in Wissinoming which may be a corruption of this
name [Quessinawomink]. The name, however, is now applied to the small creek which
enters the Delaware just above the mouth of Frankford Creek, at Wissinoming (p. 257).
This locative suffix is found in a contracted place name such as Aramingo
which according to Donehoo is A corruption of Tumanaraming [] (pp. 7,8) which
means Wolf Walk. The Lnap word for wolf is tm (Hitakonanulaxk, p. 132).
The place name Hock Junction in Somerset County is a good example of the several
removes a Lenape place name might travel. According to Donehoo, the name is derived
from Hock Hocking which means place of gourds (p. 69). Hock in Lenape
should stand for gourd/s though no dictionary mentions this word.
There are some Lenape place names that contain descriptive images. The name
Kittanning in Armstrong County according to Donehoo is derived from kit, great,
hanna, stream, with the locative -ing, meaning at the great stream (p. 82).
Kittatinny is another example of a place name that describes a geographical feature.
According to Donehoo again, Kittatinny is perhaps a corruption of the Delaware Kit,
great, and Atin, hill or mountain. This name is applied to a mountain range. In the
early deeds Kittatinny was translated as Endless Mountains (pp. 84-5). The ending
-ny in Kittatinny could be a variation of the locative noun suffix - ing because the
emphasis on the nasal n-sound tends to nasalize the preceding vowel - i- and the back
vocalized stop consonant -g- tends to be dropped resulting in Kittatinny.



934
A good example of how many changes and contractions a Lenape place name
might undergo is Lehigh. According to Donehoo again, The name [Lehigh] is an
English corruption of the German shortening of the Indian [Lenape] name, which was,
Lechauweeki, Lechauwiechink, Lechauweing, which the German settlers contracted to
Lecha, and which the English corrupted to Lehi or Lehigh. Le-chau-woak is forks. The
name Lechauwekink, and the other forms, signifie at the forks, or where there are
forks (89-90). Lehighton is The name of a town in Carbon County; also the name of
a creek, now Bushkill, which enters the Delaware at Easton. The name is a corruption of
Lechauweting, or Lechauwetank, having the significance of at the forkssame as
Lehigh (Donehoo 91). Today, this place is popularly known as Forks of the Delaware.
Mahoning is another example of a place name containing the locative suffix ing.
Mahoni was the Delaware word for lick, according to Donehoo (p. 92). The name
Mahoning then would mean at the lick. There is a place now called Lick Run
which must have derived from Mahoning. This is my guess.
The county name Lycoming, according to Donehoo, is A corruption of
Legaui- hanne, sandy stream. The same stream is also known as Pine Creek according
to Heckwelder as acknowledged by Donehoo (p. 99).
A variation of the locative marker - ing or -ink is -unk as in Manayunk.
According to Heckwelder, the word means, where we go to drink (Donehoo, p. 104).
But according to Herbert Kraft, it means, where we drink (p.45). Mana or Maneew
in Lenape must mean drink/water and the locative suffix - unk would make
Manayunk mean place where we drink. This is my guess. The root mana meaning
water is also found in a modern name like Manhattan which is a combination of



935
mana meaning water and ahten meaning hill plus the locative suffix ing
meaning place. Idiomatically, (Mana-ahten- ing) Manahtening would mean an island (p.
104). The name Tinicum also has a very interesting process of Anglicization from
original Menatay plus unk, or ung, or ing. Menatey means an island. According
to Donehoo, Matinicum or Tinicum would mean at the island (p. 223).
Modern Minisik which is the chief village of the Minsi, a branch of the
Munsee clan of the Delawares [ in] Pike County, also has an interesting history.
According to Donehoo, The name signifies the place of the Minsi (p. 108). He goes
on to speculate that the name could have been a combination of Min-ach-sin- ink
which means where the stones are gathered together-the name of Munsee. He further
speculates thus: It is possible that the name Minisink is a corruption of Menichink,
which signifies gathering or assembly, and may have reference to the village having
been the meeting place of the Minsi, or of the entire clan of the Munsee. The Minsi are
frequently confounded with the Munsee. The Munsee was the Wolf Clan of the
Delawares, and the Minsi was the Wolf Clan of the Munsee (p. 108). I suspect that
Donehoo is confused. My understanding is that the Munsee or Monsi are a clan of the
Lenape.
Okehocking is the name of the Indian town or reservation which was
established by William Penn in 1701. [] The site, four miles west of Newtown Square
and 17 miles west of Philadelphia, was marked by the Pennsylvania Historical
Commission and the Chester County Historical Society, June 221, 1924 (Donehoo,
p. 135). The name would translate as the region of Oke which is the name of a band of
the Lenape people.



936
Passyunk is The name of one of the Townships in Philadelphia County in
1741. Now [it is] a part of the city. The name is derived from the Indian name for the
tract of land between the Delaware and Schuylkill, at the mouth of the latter [] The
name is a corruption of Pachsegink, or Pachsegonk, in the valley (Donehoo, p. 145). In
this example we see how the locative suffix ing has been changed to unk which, I
think, is a dialectal variation in Lenape.
The place name Paxton was formerly PAXTANA, PESHTANG. It is the
name of a former Lenape village. According to Donehoo, it is a corruption of Peekstank,
where the waters stand, or possibly, Peeksting, the place of springsfrom tup-peek, a
spring, or pond, with the locative ing (p.146). You can see the influence of the English
-ton from Old English tu:n which gives us Modern English town, and -ton when
attached to other names.
Perkiomen is a corruption of Pakhimomink meaning where there are
cranberries (Donehoo, p. 153). Pakhim in Lenape means cranberry and the locative
suffix - ing or - ink would mean place.
The name of the town Pocopson in Chester County, PA, according to Donehoo,
means roaring creek (p. 159). The last syllable -on in Pocopson, in my opinion,
could be an Anglicization of Lenape - ing, in which case, Pocopson would mean the
area or place of the roaring creek.
Though it is hard to believe, a name like Tippecanoe in Fayette County on the
west bank of Wabash River in Indiana, according to Donehoo again is a corruption of
Kitapkwanunk, buffalo-fish place (p. 228).



937
In Chester County, PA, there is a place called Toughkenamon which may be a
corruption of Pethakwon, thunder, with the suffix ottin [ahten], hill. But, the original
form of the name has disappeared (Donehoo, p. 231). My guess is that the last syllable
of the name -on is a variation of the locative -ing. Toughkenamon, then would mean
Place of Thunder Mountain. This is another good example of a descriptive place name
whose meaning is buried under its present form. It has nothing to do with being a tough
place!
Just look at a place name like Towanda in Tioga County, PA that sounds like it
is related to the personal name Wanda. Heckwelder, according to Donehoo, derives it
from Tawundeunk, meaning where we bury the dead (p. 232). Some people have
suggested, according to Donehoo, that the name is a contraction of Ta-na-wun-da, swift
water, or rapids (p. 232). In 1763 David Zeisberger, according to Donehoo again,
refers to a place as Tawandaemenk which is a Munsee village (p. 232). The final
syllable -enk must be a variation of the locative suffix -ing or - ink.
This locative suffix is also found in a place name like Tulpehocken in Bucks
County. The name is a corruption of Tulpewi- hacki, turtles land (Donehoo, p. 235).
Though hacki means land in Iroquois languages, my guess is that hocken in
Tulpehocken is of Lenape derivation from hocking meaning region of. The
original name must have been Tulpewihoking. The name then would mean the region
of turtles.
The origin of a place name like Wheeling in West Virginia would never suggest
to a modern American that it was derived from a combination of Lenape Wihl meaning
a head with locative - ing. Wheeling would, then, mean, place of a head.



938
According to Heckwelder, an Indian prisoner was decapitated and his head was displayed
on a pole which was the reason for the place name (Donehoo, p. 251). But Donehoo goes
on to speculate that the name was probably applied to the site of the present city of
Wheeling, which was a meeting place for the Indians [].
A descriptive place name like Wingohocking, according Donehoo is a
combination of wingan meaning sweet and hacki meaning earth which would then
signify place of sweet earth which was, of course, good for planting (p. 256).
Hanne or Hanna in Lenape means stream or river. This descriptive ending
is clearly found in the river- name Susquehanna that flows by Harrisburg, PA. Lenape
word Sisku means mud. Thus Susquehanna would mean muddy stream or
muddy river (Donehoo, pp. 215-219). The people who live along this river were called
Suquehannocks. The ending ock or wuk is a noun plural suffix. One can find a
similar plural ending for the plural of Lenape which is Lenapeyok or Lenapewuk.
What is presented in this paper is a brief sampling of the larger scope of research
in place names derived from Native American languages and a challenge to all of us to
explore and expand our definition of American Heritage to be all- inclusive. I submit that
we regard Lenape and other Native American languages as Classical American
Languages. I believe that our Native American precursors are really Classical
Americans. Perhaps, we should regard Early Native American Literature as Classical
American Literature.




939
REFERENCES:


Adams, R.C. (1997), The Legends of the Delaware Indians and Picture Writing. Ed with
Introduction by Deborah Nichols with translations by Nora Thompson Dean and
Lucy Parker Blalock, Transcriptions by James Rementer. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse
UP.
Adams, R.H. (1991), Songs of Our Grandfathers: Music of the Unami Delaware Indians.
Dewey, OK: Touching Leaves Indian Crafts.
Blalock, L. et al. (1994), The Delaware Language. Bartlesville, OK: Delaware Tribe of
Indians.
Brinton, Daniel G. (1999), The Lenape and their Legends: with the Complete Text and
Symbols of the Walum Olum. Lewisburg, PA: Originally Published in
Philadelphia, 1885; Wennawoods Publishing.
Brown, J. and Jim R.. (1999), Conversational Lenape. Bartlesville, OK: The Delaware
Tribe of Indians.
Cashman, P.T.(1998), The Circle of Lenapehoking. Unpublished Typescript. .
David Zeisbergers History of the Northern American Indians in 18
th
Century Ohio, New
York & Pennsylvania. Ed. Hubert, A.B. Hubert and Schwarze, W.N. (1999),
Lewisburg, PA: Wennawoods Publishing, (Originally Published in 1910).
Dean, N.T. (1979), Lenape Language Lessons: Lessons One and Two. with audio Tapes.
Dewy, OK: Touching Leaves Indian Crafts.
(1980), Lenape Language Lessons: Lessons Three and Four. with audio tapes.
Dewy, OK: Touching Leaves Indian Crafts.
Donehoo, G.P. (1928 Repr. 1999), A History of Indian Place Names and Indian Villages
in Pennsylvania. Lewisburg, Pa., Wennawood Publishing.
Fiero, C.E. and Balton, D. Comparative Algonquian. March 6, 2000 Revd. March 7,
2001. Typescript.
Frye, N. et al. ed. (1963), Myth and Symbol: Critical Approaches and Applications.
Lincoln, NE: U of Nebraska.
Grumet, R.S. (1989), The Lenapes. New York: Chelsea House P.
Hale, D.K. (1987), Peacemakers on the Frontier: A History of the Delaware Tribe of
Western Oklahoma. Anadarko, OK: Delaware Tribe of Western Oklahoma Press,
1
st
ed.



940
Harrington, M.R. (1966), The Indians of New Jersey: Dickon Among the Lenapes. New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP.
Hawkins, H.B. (1999), The Heart of the Circle: A Guide to Drumming. Freedom, CA:
The Crossing Press.
Heckwelder, J. (1998), Thirty Thousand Miles with John Heckwelder, or Travels Among
the Indians of Pennsylvania, New York, & Ohio in the 18
th
Century. Ed.
A.W. Wallace. Lewisburg, PA: Wennawoods Publishing, Originally Published in
1958.
Hitakanonulaxk. (1994), The Grandfathers Speak: Native American Folk Tales of the
Lenape People. New York, NY: Interlink Books.
Indian Lore. (1996), Irving, TX: Boy Scouts of America.
Kraft, H.C. and John T.K. (1997), The Indians of Lenapehoking. South Orange. NJ: Seton
Hall U.
Pearson, B.L. (1988), A Grammar of Delaware: Semantics, Morpho-Syntax, Lexicon,
Phonology. Dewey, OK: Touching Leaves Indian Crafts.
Ross, A. (2001), Mitakuye Oyasin: We are all Related. Denver, CO: Wiconi Wast.
Rydjord, J. (1969), Indian Place-Names: Their Origin, Evolution, and Meanings,
Collected in Kansas from the Siouan, Algonquian, Shoshonean, Caddoan,
Iroquoian, and Other Tongues. Norman, OK.
Teme, M. (2001), The Lenape. Not Copyrighted.
Weatherford, J.M. (1990), Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed
the World. New York: Fawcett Columbine.
Wenning, S.H. (2000), Handbook of the Delaware Indian Language. Lewisburg, PA:
Wennawoods Publishing.
Zeissberger, D. (1995), A Delaware-English Lexicon of Words and Phrases. Ed.
Whrittenour, R. Butler, NJ: Lenape Texts and Studies.



EMOTION RECOGNITION OF CHILD AND ADULT FACIAL
EXPRESSIONS









MONICA D. WEATHERS
EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY
GREENVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA




942
Emotion Recognition of Child and Adult Facial Expressions


SUMMARY
This study examined judgments and response latencies of African American and
Caucasian young adult females. Visual child and young adult stimuli were utilized to
evaluate recognition of nonverbal communication of affect. There was a significant
within group difference in judgment errors and response latency between the child and
young adult stimuli. Both groups had shorter latency with the child visual stimuli as
compared to the adult visual stimuli. Furthermore, both groups had higher percent correct
performances on the child facial expressions as compared to the adult facial expressions.
The statistical analysis revealed no significant differences between the African American
and Caucasian participant on accuracy and reaction time responses.



FACIAL EXPRESSION
There has been a longstanding debate in social psychology about whether
recognition of facial expressions of basic emotions is innate or acquired through social
learning. The majority of studies conducted over the past four decades have provided
evidence supporting both of these theories, which many researchers refer to as
universality (i.e., facial expressions of emotions can be recognized across cultural
boundaries) and in- group advantage (i.e., recognition accuracy is greater when
participants and picture stimuli represent the same cultural group (Biehl, 1997; Boucher,
1980; Ekman, 1972; and Izard, 1971). Six basic emotions have been identified as being
universally recognizable: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust (Ekman,
1972; Ekman & OSullivan, 1991). However, conflicting evidence exists regarding
within culture recognition of these six emotions. A meta-analysis conducted by Elfenbein



943
and Ambady (2002) identified the presence of an in-group advantage for the recognition
of facial expressions of emotions, thereby elucidating the previous conflicting findings.
Thus, the literature provides evidence that both theories of recognition of facial
expressions of basic emotions (i.e., universality and in- group advantage) coexist.
Previous studies have utilized similar methodology to investigate the two theories
of recognition of facial expression of emotions. For example, the stimuli have primarily
consisted of still photographs (Boucher & Carlson, 1980; Kirouac & Dore, 1983; Kirouac
& Dore, 1985; Mehta, 1992; Nowicki, 1998; Yik & Russell, 1999). Few studies have
used videotaped expressions of facial emotion (Gallois & Callan, 1986; Kimoko, 1976).
The photographs and video recordings have primarily depicted four or more of the six
basic emotions (Bailey, 1998; Boucher & Carlson, 1980; Kirouac & Dore, 1983; Kirouac
& Dore, 1985; Yik & Russell, 1999; Nowicki, 1998), although some studies have
included additional emotions, such as contempt, anxious, or friendly (Kimoko, 1976;
Mehta, 1992), or positive, neutral, and negative affect (Gallois & Callan, 1986). Ekmans
Pictures of Facial Affect (1976), which represent Caucasian adults from the United
States, were used by many of the studies (Kirouac & Dore, 1983; Yik & Russell, 1999).
Several studies have used stimuli depicting multi-cultural groups (Bailey, 1998; Boucher
& Carlson, 1980; Gallois & Callan, 1986; Kimoko, 1976; Mehta, 1992; Nowicki, 1998).
Few studies have used stimuli depicting children (Nowicki, 1998). The picture stimuli
have typically been presented in paper form rather than converted to a computerized
application. The participants enrolled in the studies have been primarily adults recruited
from universities and colleges (Bailey, 1998; Boucher & Carlson, 1980; Gallois &
Callan, 1986; Kimoko, 1976; Mehta, 1992; Nowicki, 1998), although a limited number of



944
studies have also enrolled children (Nowicki, 1998). Participants of both genders have
typically been included in the studies (Bailey, 1998; Boucher & Carlson, 1980; Gallois &
Callan, 1986; Kimoko, 1976; Yik, 1999; Nowicki, 1998). Participants have either been
from a single culture (Gallois & Callan, 1986; Kirouac & Dore, 1985) or from multiple
cultures (Bailey, 1998; Boucher & Carlson, 1980; Kimoko, 1976; Mehta, 1992; Nowicki,
1998; Yik & Russell, 1999).
A potential confound to the previous studies is the participant selection. The
majority of the studies enrolled primarily university or college students, potentially
making inference of the results to the general population impossible. A study conducted
by Kirouac & Dore (1983) investigated this concern, finding that the level of education
accounted for less than 9% of the overall variance in the interpretation of facial emotions.
Thus, findings based upon a sample of participants with university level educations can
be generalized to persons of all levels of education.
Reaction time measurements have been used in the past to identify gender
differences in emotion recognition (Hall, 1978; Everhart, Shucard, & Shucard, 2001).
However, the majority of studies investigating universality and cultural differences in
emotion recognition have not incorporated reaction time measurements into the
methodology. In a study by Kirouac & Dore (1983), the authors used a manually
triggered event-recorder and micro-computer to register and calculate the latency times of
each participants response. The picture stimuli were not scanned into a computer
application; therefore, the rate of stimulus presentation was not precisely controlled.
Thus, synchronization of the manually presented picture stimuli with the computer-
generated timer was impossible. Despite these limitations, important information can be



945
gleaned from this study. Specifically, latencies of 3-7 seconds were identified for the six
universally recognized emotions, yet latency duration did not affect accuracy. In other
words, longer or shorter reaction times were not associated with either improved or
diminished accuracy scores. The participants in their study were not identified as multi-
cultural. Therefore, additional studies are needed to investigate the effects of culture on
reaction time measurements.
The majority of the previous studies on the recognition of facial expression of
emotions did not control the duration of stimulus presentation. Therefore, there has been
considerable variation in the duration of stimulus presentation both between and within
the previous studies, ranging in seconds (Boucher & Carlson, 1980; Gallois & Callan,
1986; Kimoko, 1976; Mehta, 1992) to several minutes (Yik & Russell, 1999). Additional
studies using short stimulus presentation durations are necessary to further investigate the
effect on reaction time and accuracy for the recognition of facial expressions of basic
emotions.
To date, no one has investigated the recognition and reaction time performance of
Child Visual and Adult Visual stimuli in African American and Caucasian young adult
females. The aim of this study was to investigate the interpretation and latency scores
with the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy -2 (DANVA-2).

METHOD
Participants
Eighteen female college students participated in this study. The group was
composed of nine African American females with a mean age of 22.2 years and nine



946
Caucasian females with a mean age of 23.6 years. All participants were enrolled in an
undergraduate or graduate program at East Carolina University. Participants met the
following criteria: no history of neurological problems, normal or corrected visual acuity
as screened by the Rosenbaum vision screener, and normal hearing acuity bilaterally
verified by a pure-tone, air conduction screening.
Materials
Vision and Hearing Acuity. Hearing was screened using a calibrated, portable
audiometer. Vision acuity was screened with a Rosenbaum pocket vision screener card.
Nonverbal Communication Skills
The stimuli items included the Diagnostic Assessment of Nonverbal Affect -2
(DANVA-2) Child and Adult facial expression subtests (Nowicki & Carton, 1993). Each
subtest consisted of 24 photographs (24 child and 24 adult) of reflecting happy, sad,
angry, and fearful emotions.
The DANVA-2 was selected based reliability and validity data presented by
Nowicki and Carton (1993) and several other studies (Bailey, Nowicki, and Cole, 1996;
Baum, 1997). In contrast to other nonverbal communication diagnostic tools, the
DANVA-2 includes child and adult visual stimuli.
Instrumentation
Stimuli were presented on a Macintosh computer through the use of SuperLab Pro
(Abboud & Sugar, 1997), an experimental software program that presents visual stimuli,
auditory stimuli, and serves as a tachistoscope. A tachistoscope is a device that allows the
experimenter to control variable of stimulus presentation, such as the length of time a
stimulus remains on the screen, the placement of the stimulus, and the interstimulus



947
interval, so that all participants receive the same conditions. The computer was
programmed to display an initial blank of 1000ms, followed by a central fixation cross
which remained illuminated for 2500ms. The cross served as a prompt to look at the
center of the screen followed by the photograph. The presentation procedure had already
been confirmed by empirical evidence (Barrow, Hough, Rastatter, Walker, Holbert, &
Rotondo, 2003).
Procedures
Hearing acuity was screened at 20dB at 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz. Each
participant demonstrated hearing acuity within normal limits in both ears. Visual acuity
was examined with letters at the 20/25 level.
The DANVA subtests were administered in random order. During both subtests,
the participants responded to the stimuli with one of the four emotions: happy, sad,
angry, or fearful. Voice detection by the voice-operated relay activates the timer,
providing vocal reaction time data for each stimulus item. A headset microphone was
adjusted to 5 cm from the participants mouth to detect response. The examiner recorded
all responses. The responses were scored according to the DANVA2 manual (Nowicki,
1997).

RESULTS
The DANVA-2 was administered to all participants. Mean percent correct scores
and standard deviations for the DANVA-2 are summarized in Table 1. Reaction time
performance and standard deviations for child and adult facial expressions are listed in
Table 2.



948
Mean reaction times as a function of race and level are presented in Figure 1. A
two- factor mixed analysis of variance was undertaken to investigate differences in mean
reaction times as a function of race and level. The analysis revealed a significant main
effect of level [F (1, 16) = 6.17, Greenhouse-Geisser p = .024,
2
= .29] and
nonsignificant main effect of race [F (1, 16) = 1.86, p = .19,
2
= .10, = .25, at = .05],
and level by race interaction [F (1, 16) = .16, Greenhouse-Geisser p = .70,
2
= .16, =
.066, at = .05]. In other words, participant reaction time was faster for the childs level
regardless of race.
Mean percentage correct identification as a function of race and level are
presented in Figure 2. Prior to inferential statistical analyses, participants proportional
scores were transformed to arcsine units. A two- factor mixed analysis of variance was
undertaken to investigate differences in mean reaction times as a function of race and
level. The analysis revealed a significant main effect of level [F (1, 16) = 7.66,
Greenhouse-Geisser p = .014,
2
= .32] and nonsignificant main effect of race [F (1, 16)
= 0.51, p = .82,
2
= .003, = .055, at = .05], and level by race interaction [F (1, 16) =
.19, Greenhouse-Geisser p = .67,
2
= .011, = .069, at = .05]. In other words, the
proportion of correct responses was significantly higher with for the childs level
regardless of race.

DISCUSSION
The results of the present study indicate that participants recognition of facial
expressions child and adult are not equivalent in accuracy and reaction time. Both groups
had higher identification and faster reaction times with child than adult faces regardless



949
of race. The statistical analysis indicated no significant race effect. These findings are
consistent with previous reports demonstrating universality.
The results of the adult and child stimuli were not expected. Participants in this
study were young adults judging facial expressions of young adults and children. It was
hypothesized that young adults would be faster and more accurate in identifying emotions
in other young adults as compared to child stimuli. On explanation for this discrepancy
could be that children are not able to express subtle changes in facial expression. Ekman
and Friesen (1972) suggested that children had to learn a culturally specific way to
express emotions through facial expressions.
There were no significant race effect differences in accuracy or reaction time.
Based the in-group advantage theory (Kilbride, J.E., & Yarczower, M., 1980; Kincaid,
1990), it was expected that African American participants would have more difficulty
with emotional recognition than Caucasian participants. The DANVA-2 child and adult
facial expression subtests consisted of ten percent minority. The initial hypothesis
suggested that social group membership would result in a race effect. The tachistoscope
procedures with a short consistent presentation time yielded an unexpected performance
by African American participants. Future research should look at a larger number of
participants with a wider range of communication skills and multicultural backgrounds to
further examine the impact of nonverbal communication and reaction time performance.



950
REFERENCES

Bailey, W., Nowicki, S., & Cole, S. (1998) The ability to decode nonverbal information
in African American, African, Afro-Caribbean, and European American adults.
Journal of Black Psychology, 24, 418-431.
Barrow, I.M., Hough, M., Rastatter, M.P., Walker, M., & Rotondo, M.F. (2003) Can
within-category naming identify subtle cognitive deficits in the mild traumatic
brain- injured patient? Journal of Trauma-Injury Infection & Critical Care, 54,
888-897.
Biehl, Matsumoto, D., Ekman, P., Hearn, V., Heider, K., & Kudoh, T. (1997) Matsumoto
and Ekmans Japanese and Caucasian facial expression of emotions (JACFEE):
Reliability data and cross- national differences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior,
21, 3-21.
Boucher, D. & Carlson, G. (1980) Recognition of facial expression in three cultures.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 11, 263-280.
Cohen, J. (1989). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2
nd
ed.).
Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Ekman, P. & Sullivan, M. (1991) Facial expression: Methods, means, and mousse. In
S. Feldman & B. Rime (Eds.), Fundamentals of nonverbal behavior. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Kilbride, J.E., & Yarczower, M. (1980) Ethnic bias in the recognition of facial
expressions. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 8, 27-41.
Kincaid, L. (1990) Convergence theory, In Y.Y. Kim & W.B. Gudykunst (Eds.).
Theories in intercultural communication. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Nowicki, S., & Carton, J. (1993) The measurement of emotional intensity from facial
expressions. Journal of Social Psychology, 133, 749-750.
Ekman, P. (1972) Universals and cultural differences in facial expression of emotion. In
J. Cole (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation, 1971, 19, 207-282.
Elfenbein, H.A. & Ambady, N. (2002) On the universality and cultural specificity of
emotion recognition: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 203-235.
Everhart, D.E., Shucard, J.L., Quatrin, T., & Shucard, D.W. (2001) Sexrelated
differences in ERPs, face recognition, and facial affect processing in prepubertal
children. Neuropsychology, 15, 329-341.



951
Gallois, C., & Callan, V. (1986) Decoding emotional messages: influence of ethnicity,
sex, message type, and channel. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51,
755-762.
Hall, J.A. (1978). Gender effects in decoding nonverbal cues. Psychological Bulletin, 85,
845-857.
Harrison, D., Gorelczenko, P., & Cook, J. (1990). Sex differences in the functional
asymmetry for facial affect perception. International Journal of Neuroscience, 52,
11-16.
Izard, C.E. (1971) The Face of Emotion. New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Kimoko, S., Argyle, M., & Bitti, P. (1976) The intercultural recognition of emotion
expressions by three national racial groups: English, Italian, and Japanese.
European Journal of Social Psychology, 8, 169-179.
Kincaid, L. (1990). Convergence theory, In Y.Y. Kim & W.B. Gudykunst (Eds.).
Theories in intercultural communication. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage
Publications, Inc.
Kirouac, G., & Dore, F. (1983) Accuracy and latency of judgment of facial expressions
of emotions. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 57, 683-686.
Mehta, S., Ward, C., & Strongman, K. (1992) Cross-cultural recognition of posed facial
expressions of emotion. New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 21, 74-77.
Nowicki, S., Glanville, D., Demertzis, A. (1998) A test of the ability to recognize
emotion in the facial expressions of African American adults. Journal of Black
Psychology, 24, 335-350.
Weathers, M., Frank, E., & Spell, L. (2002) Differences in the communication of affect:
Members of the same race versus members of a different race. Journal of Black
Psychology, 28, 66-77.
Yik, M., & Russell, J. (1999) Interpretation of faces: A cross-cultural study of a
prediction from Fidlunds theory. Cognition and Emotion, 13, 93-104.



952
Table 1
MEAN VISUAL ACCURACY OF CAUCASIAN ADULT AND CHILD STIMULI FOR EACH
RACE

Caucasian Adult
Stimuli
(milliseconds)
Standard
Deviation
Child Stimuli
(milliseconds)
Standard
Deviation
Caucasian 75.2 5.38 83.2 7.04
African American 71.3 12.4 81.8 11.0


Table 2
MEAN VISUAL REACTION TIME OF CAUCASIAN ADULT AND CHILD STIMULI FOR
EACH RACE

Caucasian Adult
Stimuli
(milliseconds)
Standard
Deviation
Child Stimuli
(milliseconds)
Standard
Deviation
Caucasian 913.7 152.6 768.9 93.9
African American 1092.4 452.9 892.2 264.1




SUCH UNUSUAL EYES:
AN EXAMINATION OF THE COLONISED OTHERS ABILITY
TO RETURN THE OTHERS GAZE IN ARTHUR GOLDENS
MEMOI RS OF A GEI SHA




AMY BOLTRUSHEK
COLLIN COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
PLANO, TEXAS



954
Such Unusual Eyes: An Examination of the Colonised Others Ability
to Return the Others Gaze in Arthur Goldens Memoirs of a Geisha


ABSTRACT
Jacques Lacans (1982) theory of identity and John Bergers (1972) concept of the
surveyor/surveyed phenomenon underline this examination of the female identity in
relation to the male and the female gaze. If identity exists when the gaze of an Other (i.e.,
the one who supplies the gaze), falls onto an other (i.e., the one who receives the gaze), is
it possible for the other to return a gaze that manipulates the gaze of the Other (Moi,
1985)? Specifically, in analyzing the female identity of Nitta Sayuri in Arthur Goldens
Memoirs of a Geisha, an understanding of how, she, as an other, takes on the Other-
determined identity of a Kyoto geisha as a means of survival, as means of returning a
gaze that manipulates the gaze of all the Others who have seen her as object of desire
and as a territory to be claimed, harvested, and ruled, and as a means of acquiring
control over her identity, her body, and her destiny is achieved.



According to Jacques Lacans (1982, p. 5) theory of identity, humans acquire an
image of [themselves] by identifying with others perception of [them]. Since Lacans
concept of other is gaze-dependent, a distinction exists between being an Other, the one
who supplies the gaze in which a subject acquires an identity and an other, the one who
seeks an identity (Moi, 1985). However, is it possible for an other to form an Other-
determined identity that was not sought based on want but on the need to survive to be
able to return the gaze?
John Berger (1972, p. 8) argues that we choose what to see, and in shifting our
gaze from person to person and object to object, we realize that they, too, possess the
ability to observe us whenever the eye of the other combine[s] with our own eye. Yet,



955
how does gender influence the gaze of the male and female observer in relation to the
assessment of the female identity?
Berger (1972, p. 46) claims that the female identity is split between two distinct
realms: the surveyor and the surveyed. Thus, she must survey who she is and how she
behaves based on how her identity becomes visible to others, specifically to the male
gaze (Berger, 1972, p. 46). Therefore, she turns herself into an object and most
particularly an object of vision: a sight (Berger, 1972, p. 47). The one profession that
promotes the concept of the female as an object of vision or sight is the geisha.
Because a geisha must be very careful about the image she presents to the
world, a constant watchfulness until the required deportment and professional manner
become second nature permeates her world (Golden, 1997, p. 140; Dalby, 1983, p. 217).
As such, is it possible for this constant watchfulness to be monitored by her ability to
survey and be surveyed by a gaze that belongs to both her and to Others? If so, it
elucidates why Arthur Golden begins the memoir of Nitta Sayuri with her simple
declaration of [T]he afternoon when I met Mr. Tanaka Ichiro really was the best and the
worst day of my life. If I had never known him, Im sure I would not have become a
geisha. I wasnt born and raised to be a Kyoto geisha (Golden, 1997, p. 7).
Before a connection is established between two people, one action must occur: a
moment, an instant wherein one surveys or gazes at the other. Once this has transpired,
the surveyor attributes characteristics or even potential to the individual he or she has
surveyed, and this is what has happened to nine year old, Sakamoto Chiyo, who is later
renamed, Nitta Sayuri. It is the male gaze of Mr. Tanaka that surveys her to be a future
geisha and his gaze therein influences the gaze of the women who run the okiya, where



956
girls are bought under the guise of becoming a geishaan object seen by all, but more
importantly, by herself.
By using Lacans theory of identity in relation to Bergers theory of
surveyor/surveyed to analyze Sayuris reflection of her lifes narrative, an understanding
of how the other, specifically, the geisha with such unusual eyes is able to return the
Others gaze in Goldens Memoirs of a Geisha will be achieved. Specifically, with regard
to the concept of surveyor, this analysis will trace the connection of the male gaze as it
influences the female gaze, which in turn, attempts to transform the gaze of the surveyed,
Sayuri. To underline this argument, Robin Morgans (1974 ) theory of the female body as
the land of male colonisers will be used, for it serves as the conduit that alters
Sayuris perception of herself as she uses the most expressive part of a womans
bodyher eyesas she becomes the Other-prescribed identity while returning the gaze
to the men and women who only survey her as the one object that she will never survey
herself to be: a territory to be claimed, harvested, and ruled (qtd. in Humm, 1990, p. 32;
Golden, 1997, p. 159).
The transformation from an ordinary child to that of a geisha often began the
same way for many gir ls: they were sold. Typically originating from impoverished, rural
families, the selling of these girls to an okiya, or geisha house, provided their families
with money and relinquished their parents of the need to provide them with such
necessities such as food and shelter with the intention that she would be educated and live
an existence of greater refinement (Downer, 2002, p. 43). Moreover, such a shift from
peasant child to that of potential geisha was consistent with Confucian code which
identified it as her duty to place the well-being of her family before herself, therefore,



957
deeming her as virtuous and venerable (Downer, 2002, p. 43). In any market place, three
entities are necessarya seller, a commodity, and a buyer.
1
At the age of nine, Chiyo, the
youngest daughter of Sakamoto, a Yoroido fisherman and his ailing wife, captures the
sight of Mr. Tanaka, who acts as both buyer and surveyor to Sakamotos marketable
commodity. Mr. Ichiro considers Chiyo a vendible property that exhibits both value and
more importantly potentialthe potential to be a geisha based on her extraordinary
eyes (Golden, 1997, p. 16). It is during one accidental encounter in particular that
initiates Mr. Ichiros interest in Chiyo, for even as a child, she has the ability to fi[x]
[her eyes] on his face with such fascination yet have no reason to believe hed ever
notic[e] [her] (Golden, 1997, p. 14).
2
Although the preceding statement may seem only
significant within the context of temporary inequality, which undermines the typical
child-adult relationship, or as a means to avoid being labeled impudent, Chiyos notion
that she resides outside the realm of being noticed stems from having no a priori
knowledge of the surveyor/surveyed phenomenon.
The concept of surveyor/surveyed evolved out the social presence that each
gender displays (Berger, 1972, p. 45). As such, power, which may be moral, physical,
sexual, social, economic, and/or the promise of it, accompanies the male presence and
indicates what he may do to or for someone (Berger, 1972, pp. 45-46). Conversely, the
gestures, manners, voice, clothes, surroundings, and opinions convey the female presence
and outlines what she will allow and not allow to be done to her (Berger, 1972, p. 46).
Therefore, as men look at women, the former acquire the title of surveyor and the latter
acquire the label of surveyed (Berger, 1972, p. 46). Moreover, women possess the ability

1
It is the fall of 1929.
2
For further discussion on temporary inequality, see Millers Towards a New Psychology of Women.



958
to be a surveyor of herself, for she has been taught to continuously watch/survey herself
and her actions in relation to how she appears to others, specifically to the male gaze.
Once noticed by this male gaze (i.e., the gaze of Mr. Tanaka), Chiyos only views herself
as a child to be adopted by him because she possesses no other knowledge of how the
gaze of those around her survey her. However, once she is sold to the Nitta okiya, Chiyo
becomes aware of her placement within the surveyor/surveyed phenomena as Mother, the
proprietress of the Nitta okiya; Mameha, the woman who trains her to become a geisha;
the Baron and Dr. Crab, the two men who survey her as virgin territory in need of their
exploration, and eventually for Mr. Nobu Toshikazu and the Chairman Iwamura Ken, the
two men who use their gaze and power in relation to fulfilling Chiyos destiny all survey
her and attribute an identity to her based on their gaze.
Before a commodity is purchased, a buyer performs two forms of inspection: a
physical one and a visual one. And, just like any other item for sale, Chiyos inspections
and subsequent purchase are determined by the gaze of those who assign value to her.
When Mr. Tanaka brings Chiyo to be surveyed by Mrs. Fidget, the name Chiyo gives the
woman who performs the physical inspection, the concept of treating Chiyo with care and
respect with regard to the rather intrusive act she is about to perform on Chiyo eludes this
surveyor. Instead, she resorts to a method of conquer that quickly finds Chiyo with her
pants down around [her] knees [and] a finger between [her] legs (Golden, 1997,
p. 26). This rather forceful method of examination reinforces the notion that Mrs. Fidget
and Mr. Tanaka do not survey Chiyo as a child with feelings. As surveyors, they only
survey her as a good that hopefully has yet to be plundered. However, in reality, they,
themselves, are the ones, who are essentially plundering Chiyo as they essentially rob the



959
innocence that characterize her childhood in an effort to verify that another and
seemingly more marketable form of innocence still resides within her. If Mr. Tanaka had
only viewed her as a child, she could have remained living in her tipsy house in Yoroido
and her destiny would have remained hers to determine. However, once Mrs. Fidget
validates Chiyos value (i.e., her purity), she soon finds herself on display before her
future buyer: Mother of the Nitta okiya.
Upon Chiyos arrival at the okiya, Mother performs the kind of visual inspection
that extends beyond simply determining the quality (i.e., healthiness) of the girl before
her. Specifically, as Chiyos surveyor and future buyer, Mother studies her face to gain
an understanding of Chiyos personality in relation to accepting her and assessing her
potential as a geisha.
3

According to Black Tantric Buddhism, a balanced personality exists when our
Chi consists of five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water (Rossbach & Yun,
1994, p. 123). In a balanced personality, the first four elements appear in 36 degrees in
order to achieve the middle road of balance (Rossbach & Yun, 1994, p. 123).
Conversely, with the latter element, the ideal is to have the greatest amount of still
water, (i.e., insight and intelligence) and a balanced quantity of moving water, (i.e.,
social and business activities and personal drives) (Rossbach & Yun, 1994, p. 123;
p. 128). As for Chiyo, she is the offspring of a translucent gray eyed mother, whose
personality consists of too much water, which made the other four elements hardly
present at all and a father, whose personality contained too much wood (Golden, 1997
p. 9). Ideally, their union should have made a good balance and produced children with

3
Chi is [our] nonbiological selfour spirit, our psyche, our essence [that maintains our] physical,
environmental, and emotional balance, see Rossbach & Yun, 1994, p.14; p.123.



960
the proper arrangement of elements but not so for Chiyo as her personality parallels her
mothers.
As Chiyos potential buyer, Mother surveys Chiyo to be clever and adaptable
based on the shape of her ears while voicing that a good deal of water comprises her
personality, which should enable her to smell a fire before it has even begun (Golden,
1997, p. 43). By making this comment, it reveals that Mother, in all likelihood, realizes
that Chiyos personality retains a greater amount of still rather than moving water,
therefore, reflecting a more intelligent, reflective, and wise character than one who
thrives on opportunity (Rossbach & Yun, 1994, p. 128). Therefore, from the standpoint of
a visual inspection, Chiyo is a purchasable commodity with the potential to become a
geisha. Thus, with her destiny now defined for her rather than by her, as a matter of
survival, she must tuck away her childhood innocence and begin a new identity as a maid
at the okiya. Moreover, she must learn to survey herself in relation to how Others survey
her in an effort to outwardly demonstrate the Other-determined identity that has been
projected upon her while simultaneously never letting Chiyo be completely overtaken.
And, within three years of her purchase, it is time for her to survey herself with regard to
yet another Other gaze-determined identity: Sayuri, the apprentice geisha.
Although Chiyo believes that she understands the difference between becoming
and being a geisha, what she fails to realize is that this transformation that she desires to
undertake involves more than simply being an entertainer and a performer as the term



961
implies (Golden, 1997, p. 143).
4
Specifically, she must further separate herself from her
past by presenting a new identity to the world of Gion.
5

In a ceremony that binds her to Mameha as younger and older sister, respectively,
Chiyo learns that from this moment on, no one, including herself, is supposed to think of
her in relation to the girl she had been her entire life; instead, she is now called Sayuri.
And, upon hearing herself called Sayuri, she admits that it felt strange not to be known
as Chiyo any longer, which serves as a reminder to her that her identity is not self-
created (Golden, 1997, p. 167). But to those involved in this ceremonial transformation,
which includes Mameha and Mother, they exhibit no remorse for the girl called Chiyo
because in reality, none of them really knew her as Chiyo, the human being. Therefore,
with no connection to her on an emotional level, it becomes easy to understand how those
around her accept her transformation with ease for there was never a Chiyo in their world
and thus not a Chiyo to miss; there is only a Sayuri created by their ceremony and
verified by their gaze.
Moreover, to further reflect that the little girl known as Chiyo, running barefoot
from the pond to her tipsy house, no longer exist[s], a change in her physical appearance
also accompanies this change in her identity (Golden, 1997, p. 167). Yet, it is not until
she sits before her mirror that she becomes completely aware of her physical
transformation, which causes her to refer to her reflected self in third person and forces
her to use her gaze to survey herself as Sayuri. She states:
I knew that the person kneeling before the makeup stand was me, but so was the
unfamiliar girl gazing back. I actually reached out to touch her. She wore the

4
Gion is one of the six geisha communities within Kyoto, see Dalby (1983), and the one in which
Chiyo lives.
5
The year is 1934, and Chiyo is fourteen years old.



962
magnificent makeup of a geisha. Her lips were flowering red on a stark white
face, with her cheeks tinted a soft pink. Her hair was ornamented with silk flowers
and springs of unhusked rice. She wore a formal kimono of black, with the crest
of the Nitta okiya. When at last I could bring myself to stand, I went to the hall
and looked in astonishment at myself in the full- length mirror. I couldnt stop
tears from welling up in my eyes, and had to look straight up at the ceiling to keep
them from rolling onto my cheeks. (Golden, 1997, p.166)
Furthermore, it is at this moment that she gains exposure to the surveyor/surveyed
phenomenon as her reflection presents an image of herself that she must now come to not
just acknowledge but suddenly keep a constant vigil in maintaining. Specifically, the
female use of the mirror allows her to turn herself into a sight ; thus, relaying to her the
image that she presents to those who gaze at her (Berger, 1972, p. 51). More importantly,
it teaches her to become a self-policing subject committed to a relentless self-
surveillance [which serves] as a form of obedience to patriarchy [because]
whatever else she may become, she is more importantly a body designed to please and
excite (Bartky, 1990, p. 80). And now that her apprenticeship has begun, her mirror
begins to reflect yet another identity that corresponds to the appearance she presents to
the world:
6
She is ready for her first sexual experience.
The act of female sexual initiation (i.e., vaginal penetration) has been described as
an act of violence that constitutes a real or simulated rape for it ruptures a girls
connection to her childhood and places her abruptly into the world of womanhood
(Beauvoir , 1953, p. 372) Accordingly, it is the males erect penis that demonstrates his
sexual independence; therefore, he becomes the sexual initiator and the female body
serves as the object he desires (Beauvoir, 1953, p. 380). However, with regard to Sayuris
sexual initiation, the pursuit of her body by men is not based on lust but rather the

6
Her first sexual experience will occur in July of 1935, and she is fifteen years old.



963
privilege to be the man who removes her from the realm of childhood to womanhood;
therefore, the pursuit of this ritual deflowerment is known as mizuage.
To accomplish the task of mizuage, both apprentice geishas and the men who
solicit the privilege of being the first to be with her take an active role in initiating an
encounter that she is barely explained but one that he understands very well. Until now,
the apprentice geisha has accrued debts to the okiya that has purchased, fed, clothed, and
trained her (Downer, 2002, p. 131). As for the apprentice geisha, the image she present to
the men who visit the teahouse elicits their attention; specifically, she adopts a hair style
known as the split-peach style (Golden, 1997, p. 165). In creating this hairstyle, the
hairdresser takes the forelock of evenly waxed hair and sweeps it back while the rest [is
brought] up into a large knot like a pincushion on the top of the head. When viewed from
the back, this pincushion has a split in it, as if its cut in two [and] [t]he knot is
formed by wrapping the hair around a piece of fabric [which] is left visible and in
the case of an apprentice geisha its always red silk (Golden, 1997, p. 163).
Therefore, to the world of surveyors (i.e., the male gaze and the female gaze who under
stand the act of mizuage), it essentially advertises her innocence without her completely
realizing the arousing nature of her appearance.
The fact that an apprentice geisha does not understand the suggestiveness of her
hairdo is because she does not yet have the ability to survey herself as an object of male
desire. In fact, Sayuri, herself, admits that [e]ven though [she] wore [the] split-peach
style for a number of year, theres something about it that never occurred to [her] until a
man brings the following observation to her attention (Golden, 1997, p. 163). He states:
Imagine you are walking along behind a young geisha, thinking all sorts of naughty



964
thoughts about what you might like to do to her, and then you survey on her head this
split-peach shape, with a big splash of red inside the cleft (Golden, 1997, p. 163).
Moreover, in not seeing how she physically projects a statement to the male gaze, she
fails to know that she also projects the message of being virgin territory as she solicits a
mizuage patron. The most overt gesture that reinforces the male gaze to survey the
apprentice geisha as pure is by the presentation of a sweet rice cake [known as] ekubo,
which is Japanese for dimple (Golden, 1997, p. 238). However, this is no ordinary
looking delight from the confectioners shop; in fact, the cake has a dimple in the top
with a tiny red circle in the center, which, of course, evokes the desired response in the
man who receives it (Golden, 1997). So, again, the edible good conveys the same
message as her hairstyle: they both identify her as available for an event that only occur
once in her life: his exploration and consumption.
According to Charlotte Bunch (1981), heterosexuality enables every woman to
be the property of a man (qtd. in Humm, 1990, p. 174). However, in the case of Sayuri,
the validity of such a statement meanders between the definitions of ownership and
property, for each apply during different moments of her life. In addition, the act of
mizuage and the prestige that surrounds this event in Sayuris life corresponds directly
to Robin Morgans (1974, p. 76) argument that the female body is a land that has not only
been taken away from women but also has been mined for [its] natural resources (sex
and children), and deliberately mystified. [wherein female] ignorance about [their] own
primary terrain[her] bodyis in the self- interest of the patriarchy. To begin with, the
explanation of mizuage that Mameha gives to Sayuri does not stem from her own
knowledge of her own feminine terrain (i.e., body) but rather solely reflects the same way



965
things had been explained to [her] by her own older sister (Golden, 1997, p. 232).
Secondly, Mamehas explanation places the act of sexual intercourse within the realm of
territorial exploration and colonialisation. She states:
Men have a kind of well, an eel on them[.] [T]his eel spends its entire life
trying to find a home and what do think women have inside them? Caves, where
the eels like to live. when they find a cave they like, they wriggle around inside
it for a while to be sure that well, to be sure that its a nice cave, I suppose.
And when theyve made up their minds that its comfortable, they mark the cave
as their territory by spitting. There are even men who do little in their lives
besides search for different caves to let their eels live in. A womans cave is
particularly special to a man if no other eel has even been in it before. (Golden,
1997, p. 232)
Therefore, Mamehas explanation of sexual intercour se reinforces three phenomena.
First, it perpetuates the notion that the female body (i.e., her cave) as nothing
more than a territory to be discovered, but by not Sayuri, herself, but by a solitary male
explorer (i.e., his eel). When the bidding for her mizuage begins, two explorers compete:
the Baron and Dr. Crab, a nickname Sayuri gives him based on his physical appearance.
As Dr. Crab continuously outbids his mizuage rival, the Barons frustration becomes
increasingly evident as he begins to pou[t] like a little boy when he beg[ins] to think that
he might not win it (Golden, 1997, p. 278). Thus, the Barons behavior reinforces the
importance of being the first to colonise her.
Secondly, Mamehas explanation directly links colonialisation as a professional
behavior that men demonstrate. Specifically, it was not uncommon for apprentice
geishas, like Sayuri, to be pursued by men who were categorized as professional
deflowerers (Downer, 2002, pp. 128-131). Typically, these were wealthy, older men
who enjoyed the pursuit of mizuage and the privilege that accompanied it. Again, in
Sayuris case, the professional deflowers who pursue her are the Baron and Dr. Crab, and



966
as the bidding war over her intensifies, it drives the Baron to exclaim: Im trying to
arrange a mizuage, but a certain annoying doctor keeps getting in my way. Only one man
can be the explorer of an undiscovered region, and I want to be that man! As such, the
Baron learns, what Mameha already knows: Dr Crabs pursuit of mizuage is ceaseless;
after all, it was he who competed for and ultimately paid a record amount for [her]
mizuage and was renowned in Gion as a mizuage specialist (Golden, 1997, p. 233,
p. 237). Therefore, once Sayuri learns this about Dr Crab as well, it becomes less difficult
for her to understand why Mameha comments that a man doesnt cultivate a relationship
with a fifteen-year-old apprentice geisha unless he has her mizuage in mind (Golden,
1997, pp. 232-233). Moreover, in the situation of mizuage, the discovery and ownership
are temporary, wherein the eel is not obligated to return continuously to this cave once
initial discovery (i.e., sexual intercourse) has occurred. Instead, all it needs to do is to
spit thus declaring temporary ownership (i.e., his eel was the first to make this cave its
home) in the same manner an explorer might mark his newly discovered terrain with a
flag. As such, to each of these explorers (i.e., the eel and the explorer of terrain) they only
desire the ability to be the first to inhabit such a land rather than a habitual resident of it.
Finally, as the view of the female body as terrain places it within the confines of a
property to be marked by its first inhabitant, it also corresponds to the notion that this
territory must remain undamaged, in not only a physical sense but with regard to the
reputation that she, as an apprentice geisha, presents as she solicits a mizuage patron.
Therefore, once the bidding for Sayuris mizuage begins, Mameha takes great precaution
and essentially performs damage-control when Sayuris adversary, Hatsumomo attempts
to label Sayuri as damaged mizuage property by insinuating that Chiyo has engaged in



967
sexual intercourse (Golden, 1997, p. 237). If she is in fact damaged as Hatsumomo
suggests, her value as a property decreases dramatically because no man will solicit her
as long as he believes her to be a previously explored terrain. Therefore, to verify that
she, as a property, has retained her status as virgin territory, she will again be subject to
both a visual and physical inspection. As a potential buyer (i.e., mizuage patron) and
explorer (i.e., sexual initiator) the Baron not only inspects the terrain known as her body
by removing all of her garments but also justifies his behavior with the remark that [a]ny
man would do the same(Golden, 1997, p. 261). However, in this situation, Dr. Crab does
not fit within the realm of any man and wont be fooled so readily; therefore, she
must endure another physical inspection (Golden, 1997, p. 273). Once again, these two
encounters render her to the realm of property, wherein her essential value remains
connected to male gaze. As longs as this gaze finds her unexplored, then her property
value remains in tact. However, to understand how these inspections affect the property
they are conducted on, it is essential to trace how the weight of these male gazes
influences Sayuris concept of herself and thus changes how she develops the ability to
return the gaze to those who have only seen her as a territory to be claimed rather than as
a human being.
Until this moment in her life, she has simply been able to return the gaze to those
who survey her as Sayuri. But now, as this gaze transforms her into the status of terrain,
she has difficulty in seeing herself as such. When the Baron stands her in front of his
mirror, she cant bear the thought of what [he] might see for even she had never seen
[her]self so utterly naked before (Golden, 1997, p. 262). Here, Sayuris admittance that
she has no knowledge of her own physical form reinforces the fact it serves the self-



968
interest of the Baron. Specifically, as a surveyor, he knows what to look for, including
the darkness that bloomed on her and her two-plumb-colored circles (Golden, 1997,
p. 262). As she watches her reflection in the mirror, she witnesses his gaze transform her
into an object, which then forces her to acknowledge that to the Baron she represents
nothing more than a thing (i.e., based on her mizuage) for him to possess if he succeeds
in becoming her mizuage patron. This discovery of how she appears to his male gaze
forces her to drop her gaze from her reflection of herself in the mirror until her tears
make it into a blur of silver (Golden, 1997, p. 263).
Sayuris second realization that she is nothing more than a territory to be
explored, and now, more importantly, a highly profitable terrain to be explored stems
from not the male gaze but the female gaze after she undergoes another inspection for her
virginity. Until this point in the okiya, Mother has not secured the label of valuable
property onto her but as the Barons and Dr. Crabs interest in her mizuage increases, she
begins to survey her differently. All a long, Sayuri has been an unprofitable property of
the okiya in the sense that she has accrued an enormous debt to the okiya that has fed,
sheltered, and trained her. However, now that she has been placed within the context of
purchase, Mother, as the owner of okiya and the owner of her (i.e., specifically, the
owner of her mizuage, which once again demonstrates Sayuris disconnection to her own
body), she tells her: What a man wants from you, a many will pay dearly to get. If
you give a man freely what he ought to pay for, youll be cheating this okiya. Youll owe
me money, and Ill take it from you (Golden, 1997, p. 274). Once the physical
examination is completed and Mother learns that she is still in fact intact, her gaze
further turns Sayuri into a valuable property as she grabs her by ear, thus demonstrating



969
her control over her, and states: Youre a very expensive commodity, little girl. I
underestimated you. Im lucky nothing has happened (Golden, 1997, pp. 272-273).
Suddenly, her valuable as a property has increased tremendously as Mother realizes that
with the loss of Sayuris virginity, she, as well as the okiya, will accrue an enormous
about of money regardless of whether it is the Baron or Dr. Crab who wins the bidding
for Sayuris mizuage. Moreover, it prompts Mother to adopt her because as the daughter
of the okiya, all her profit, including that which she would have received after her
mizuage, will continuously become the property of the okiya rather than that of Sayuri.
Consequently, Sayuris ability to be in control of her body both pre- and post-mizuage is
never hers. Thus, it is the value of her mizuage as assigned by the male gaze of the Baron
and Dr. Crab and then secondly the female gaze of Mother that transforms her from that
of a property who is to be essentially sold and harvested (i.e., first sexual encounter)
for her crop (i.e., the breaking of her hymen), which in turn serves, and continuously
serves, to benefit those who only survey her as a land in possession of a one very
important natural resource.
For Dr. Crab, Chiyos mizuage is not only valuable it is also collectible. In fact, as
a mizuage specialist, he keeps labeled vials that contain a dried sample of every
apprentice geishas blood whom he has deflowered. And, as her mizuage patron, he has
bought this aspect of her; therefore, the sample he collects serves, essentially, as a
receipt. Moreover, as he delights in telling Sayuri that the blood he will collect from her
mizuage will be his second sample, for he already owns a sample that resulted from a
previous cut on her leg, his comment demonstrates that the circumstances that surround
this act of ritual deflowerment initiate her place within the context of colonialisation,



970
wherein no part of her physical being, including her blood belongs to her. Fittingly, the
man who actively sought this privilege has also misspelled the name of the territory he is
about to claim on the vial that will soon hold a piece of her. And once Sayuri becomes
aware that his gaze surveys her as a mizuage sample to be added to his collection rather
than a person, she closes her eyes to repel the identity his gaze has cast upon her.
However, once the act of mizuage is complete, she surveys herself and her body
differently.
During the act itself, the closing of her eyes silences her gaze, wherein she put[s]
all the force of [her] mind to work in making a sort of mental barrier between the Doctor
and [herself] (Golden, 1997, p. 283). And, even as she lays there, and squeeze[s] her
eyes tighter, she attempts to remin[d] [herself] how much the doctor ha[s] paid for this
privilege [and] hope[s] at one point that he [is] enjoying himself more than [she]
was [for she] felt no more pleasure there than if someone had rubbed a file over and
over against the inside of [her] thigh until it bled (Golden, 1997, p. 283). However, the
fact that she emphasizes her lack of physical comfort (i.e., demonstrating that she is
human being experiencing pain) and only attempts to remin[d] [herself] of his
privilege demonstrates that she is unwilling to submit to the concept that she is nothing
more than a territory to be claimed. Thus, once his homeless eel mark[s] its territory, he
accredits the territory he has just claimed with a formal bow and tells her, Thank you
very much before he heads off to the bath and leaves her lying exposed on the futon
(Golden, 1997, p. 283). As she is left alone in her post-mizuage state, she acquires the
ability to gaze at her naked form without fear. In doing so, she gains the ability to survey
her form, not as an object, a territory, or a sample of blood but of that of a woman as she



971
remarks, I was almost fascinated lying there, even with my legs spread apart so
revealingly (Golden, 1997, p. 283). In truth, her gaze reveals to her a body that belongs
to her but that she has had no knowledge or control of. More importantly, this realization
initiates her freedom from colonialisation as she gains control over the only land that
she possesses: her own flesh (Morgan, 1974, p. 77). And, in learning this fact (i.e., that
her body belongs to her), she tucks away this revelation until the moment comes for her
to use her body for her own privilege: to determine her own destiny.
Although she has never surveyed herself as an object of desire, she learns to
make herself into an object for the male gaze by acquiring the ability to convey all sorts
of statements [by using] the most expressive part of a womans body: her eyes (Golden,
1997, pp. 158-159). For now, the two most prominent male gazes that survey her belong
to Nobu and the Chairman. However, in surveying her, their respective gazes produce
two incompatible identities of her: the former surveys her only as an object while the
latter survey her as a person, who by training has had to become an object. And because
she now knows how to use her eyes, she is able to manipulate the gaze of the men who
observe her and ultimately establish not only a self-created identity but a self-determined
future.
7

At the age of eighteen, her identity transforms once again in a ceremony known as
the turning the collar and her ability to survey herself as Sayuri, the apprentice geisha
becomes eclipsed by her ability to survey herself as Sayuri, the geisha.
8
In now seeing
and presenting herself as the object that she has longed to be, she attracts two male gazes,
each of which projects a different identity onto her in relation to their individual desires,

7
The year is 1938.
8
A danna is a geishas patron, see Dalbys Geisha.



972
which in turn compels her to return not only a gaze but project a self-created identity for
each gaze that surveys her in attempt to acquire the freedom to exist on her own terms.
9

The first gaze, which belongs to Nobu, confines her to the identity of geisha even
more than to her identity as Sayuri the geisha. By dividing her identity into the realm of
geisha, it allows him to chastise her whenever she comports herself in a manner that
deviates from the identity his gaze attributes to her. Namely, he has deemed her, as
Sayuri, as resourceful, which he believes is a trait not found in geishas. Therefore, once
she, in his eyes, fails to demonstrate this quality, he immediately uses his gaze to relegate
her to the identity of geisha, thus attempting to force her to survey herself based on how
he now surveys her. For example, during his preliminary attempt to become her danna,
he presents to her a jewel and comments, I know perfectly well what you geisha like. So
long as a man gives you presents youll put up with any sort of nonsense (Golden, 1997,
p. 269). By referring to Sayuri as you geisha, he projects an unmerited identity of
anonymity and materialism onto her that must be based on his previous interactions and
observations with other geisha. Moreover, his use of the word nonsense implies that as
a collective entity, geishas do not take an active role in creating their place within the
world because whenever geishas encounter a situation, hold a ceremony or need to make
a decision, they consult their almanacs and horoscopes rather than their intellect to guide
their behavior. As such, it leaves Nobu to label geishas, in general, as an irritating group
of people (Golden, 1997, p. 314). But, what he fails to realize is that as geishas these
women have not been encouraged to survey themselves as human beings or to

9
The initial introduction between Nobu and Sayuri occurs in 1939.



973
demonstrate individuality; instead, they have been trained to be a witty, talkative, risqu,
sexual allur[ing], object of fantasy for his gaze (Dalby, 1983, p. 171).
Yet, in seeing her as Sayuri the resourceful geisha, Nobu believes that she will
have enough sense to understand that he is her destiny and that she possesses the ability
to fulfill his desire to become her danna. However, since has never truly known her as
Sayuri the person, he has no knowledge that she possess desires of her own, which do not
include him. Therefore, he continuously reminds her that she needs to survey herself not
a resourceful person but as a resourceful object of his desire. So, by taking Nobus advice
that [i]f [she] keep[s] [her] destiny in mind, every moment in life becomes an
opportunity for moving closer to it, she realizes that to a certain extent there is validity
to his belief and that she does have a choice in determining her danna (Golden, 1997,
p. 15). As she begins to redirect her gaze towards herself and her abilities, she also uses
her gaze to survey the true identity of Nobu. All a long, through his actions and
comments he has attempted to make her not only believe but view him (i.e., by using her
gaze) as being not like other men (Golden, 1997, p. 269). However, he is no different
from any other man who surveys her as only an object to be acquired as he confesses that
he do[esnt] like things held up before [him] that [he] cannot have (Golden, 1997,
p. 16). With this comment, comes the knowledge that he only wants her so that no one
else will have her and because he surveys her as part of the materialistic you geishas,
he knows that by being President of Iwamura Electric he can provide her with a life of
comfort. But, is not a life of comfort she desires; therefore, she must use her
resourcefulness as Sayuri the geisha, the object of desire, to create a self-determined



974
future that will save her true identity (i.e., Chiyo) and return her to the one male gaze that
has always seen her for herself: the Chairman.
10

During an afternoon stroll beside the Shirakawa Stream that Chairman Iwamura
Ken encounters a weeping twelve year old girl, named Chiyo, whose eyes, at this time,
are not only afraid to look at [him] but also when courageous enough to raise
themselves, they loo[k] away so quickly that he may never have known [she] met his
gaze (Golden, 1997, p. 112). By now, the only remnant of her former identity as a child
is her name, and even though he does not inquire about her background or family, this
gaze provides him with the knowledge of the pain she endures as a not only a child but
also as a human being. It is this acknowledgment of her humanness that serves to reinstall
in Chiyo the belief in herself (i.e., a human being) because her identity as Chiyo and as a
human being was robbed from her three years ago upon being sold to the okiya.
Therefore, once he pauses and does not survey her as only a maid, as she is deemed by
the geisha who accompanies him, Chiyo, for the first time, experiences the degree of
kindness that leads her to imagin[e] a world in which [she] [is] treated with fairness,
even kindnessa world in which fathers [do not] sell their daughters (Golden, 1997,
p. 110). In turn, as he surveys her as a human in distress and surmises that either
[s]omeone or perhaps life has been cruel to, she begins to use that glimpse of her
gaze upon him to view him as someone who could see into [her] as thought [she] [was]
a part of him (Golden, 1997, p. 113). More importantly, after her encounter, her gaze
settles on creating him into an object of not desire, in a sexual sense, but as an object of
rescue.

10
The year is 1932, and his approximately forty-five years old. They will be formally introduced two
years later by Mameha.



975
While his gaze interprets her pain as she sits on the wall of Shirakawa Stream, her
gaze, in turn, interprets his gentle eyes and smooth and serene features as relaying to
her the message that hed go on standing there calmly until [she] wasnt unhappy any
longer (Golden, 1997, p. 112, p. 111 ). Thus, as he stands in front of her, her gaze begins
to transform him into an object of rescue.
11
Moreover, her objectification of him leads her
to refer to him as [her] Bodhisattva with a thousand arms, who will not only alleviate
the pain that lingers within her but also will rescue her from a life that she has had no part
in creating for herself. In addition, she believes that his gaze ha[s] changed her from a
lost girl facing a lifetime of emptiness to girl with purpose in her life (Golden, 1997,
p. 113). Therefore, by attributing purpose to her life as result of his gaze, she, for the first
time, defines her purpose in lifeto be a geishafor it is the only way that she will be
able to place herself in within the visual and phys ical proximity to her object of rescue.
Thus, to ensure that this object of her desire can fulfill the requirement of her gaze (i.e.,
He will rescue her) she must then use her gaze to survey herself as a geisha, the ultimate
object of desire. Yet, at the same time, she, as a geisha, will be the object of desire for
every males gaze; therefore, as she objectifies herself, it perpetuates the hope that her
Bodhisattva will rescue her from an existence she had to create for herself because it will
be the only way that she will ever be able to attract the notice of a man like the
Chairman again (Golden, 1997, p. 114). However, in fulfilling her purpose and
determining her destiny, she learns that in actualizing the latter, she must use her gaze to
combat the gazes of Mameha and Nobu, who attempt to manipulate her into seeing Nobu
as her destiny.

11
Bodhisattva is someone who chooses to work selflessly for the liberation of all living beings from
samsara, See Pauling, 1990, p. 22.



976
Seeing that Mameha has no knowledge of Sayuris self-created desire (i.e., her
childhood longing to be rescued by the Chairman), she, therefore, transfers her gaze of
Nobu as Sayuris rescuer onto Sayuri. For Mameha, the notion of being rescued from the
world of the geisha is not part of her consciousness as she has repeatedly reminds Sayuri
that We dont become geisha so our lives will be satisfying. We become geisha because
we have no other choice (Golden, 1997, p. 294). So, once Mameha labels Nobu as
Sayuris rescuer, it not only creates a sickness inside Sayuri, but it allows her to
secretly object to Mamehas belief that [h]ope and dreams arent part of the geisha
world as she tells herself that if [she] [is] to have a rescuer, it [has] to be the Chairman
and no one else (Golden, 1997, p. 208).
12
Even as the years pass, Mameha still insists
that Nobu remain Sayuris object of rescue because according to her en (i.e., a karmic
bond lasting a lifetime) exists between them (Golden, 1997, p. 295). Though Sayuri
admits that an en does exist between Nobu and herself, she believes that an end,
which she must initiate, exists to their acquaintanceship as well.
In initiating the outcome of her destiny, she combines the advice of Mameha and
Nobu and when blended, they serve as a means of guidance in reaching her freedom.
According to Mameha: If you want to be successful, you must be sure that mens
feelings remain always under your control (Golden, 1997, p. 295). In this blurb of
advice, four key words are present: successful, mens feelings and control. By
applying the concept of success not in terms of being a geisha as Mameha does but
rather to fulfilling her dream, Sayuri then applies the notion of controlling the feelings of
the one man who has forever ignored hers in his ceaseless quest to obtain her.

12
The time period 1938 and 1948 is marked by sporadic contact between Nobu and Sayuri.



977
Specifically, she knows that Nobu will sever all relations with her if she, as Sayuri the
geisha, disappoints him; moreover, his disappointment will then blur his gaze, wherein he
can only survey her as a geisha and thereby no longer wanting her.
13
Therefore, to
remove him from her life, she must disappoint him by having him witness her having sex
with a man whom Nobu not only despises but who also currently desires to be her danna:
Deputy Minister Sato. This act of betrayal, as defined by Nobu, and act of liberation, as
defined by her, serves as a means for her to successfully take ownership of her body,
which colonialisation has previously denied her and uses it (i.e., by initiating sexual
intercourse with the Minister) to successfully free herself from the gaze of Nobu.
Although the gaze that ultimately witnesses her act of liberation is not Nobus, it
does produce the desired result. The gaze that lands on her body belongs to that of the
Chairman, yet rather than seeing her as the sexual object of another, he surveys in her
eyes the same desperation that he saw in her eyes as child by the Shirakawa Stream.
More importantly, his gaze interprets the message conveyed in her eyes: She might
drown if someone [doesnt] save [her] (Golden, 1997, p. 417). Therefore, once his gaze
surveys that the Chiyo in Sayuri is in need, he realizes that her eyes also reflect, much
like a mirror would, a new identity for him: rescuer.
The act of rescue involves nothing more than the object of rescue, the Chairman,
and the child/woman in need of rescue, Chiyo/Sayuri, being brought together in the most
socially appropriate forum of all: a teahouse. For him, the attempt to rescue Chiyo began
at that moment by the stream as her pale-blue eyes let him see straight into her

13
The year is 1949, and this is Nobus second attempt to become Sayuris danna. The first time he
attempted to become her danna was in 1938, but the title went to General Tottori, who later relinquishes
the position during World War II.



978
(Golden, 1997, p. 412). However, at the same time, there was no means for him to overtly
deliver her from her situation as a Nitta okiya maid; he could only covertly aid her by
asking Mameha to find and train the girl he had found. He knew that if she could become
a geisha, a situation that is seemingly better than her current situation as a Nitta okiya
maid, he could then openly rescue her in the most socially acceptable manner: by
becoming her danna. And, the only way he can liberate her completely from the gaze of
Nobu is by telling him of encounter he witnessed between Sayuri the geisha and the
Minister, for he knows that Nobu will not forgive her and therefore forfeit his claim to
her. As for Sayuri, the rescue reunites her with the only man [shed] ever entertained as
Sayuri the geisha who had also known [her] as Chiyo (Golden, 1997, p. 394). However,
in being reunited, she cannot direct her gaze towards the man before her as she did as a
child. Therefore, as the object of rescue he must initiate the one encounter that will
emotionally liberate Sayuri: her first real kiss.
Because he has always seen her as a human being, this kiss signifies his outward
expression of his affection for her, which encompasses the Chiyo, who cried before him
as a little girl and the Sayuri who poured sake for him as a woman. Therefore, as their
lips touch, the encounter leaves her feeling as if she was taking something from the
Chairman [and that he] was giving to [her], something more private than anyone had
given [her] before (Golden, 1997, p. 416). Here, for the first time as a receiver, she
experiences the physical sensation of pleasure rather than being the giver of it as he gives
himself (i.e., his lips) to her. Moreover, this act of physical contact reinforces Sayuri self-
asserted freedom from the confines of colonialisation. Specifically, the notion of the
Chairmans eel spitting in her cave is removed from their relationship and is replaced by



979
the fact she will never experience sexual intercourse with the Chairman in terms of
territorial claim. Furthermore, for her, the sexual act will involve more than simply
[lying] still on the futon as she had to do with Dr. Crab (Golden, 1997, p. 307). From
this point forward, it will be an act that she enters into freely, for she now possesses the
same privileges that men, with regard to themselves, acquire at birth: the ownership of
her own body, the entitlement to experience physical pleasure, and the custody and
creation of her own destiny.
14

Ultimately, the completion of her rescue from the realm of geisha to emancipated
human takes the form of a daughter being purchased, which mirrors the way her life as
Sakamoto Chiyo ended and her life as Nitta Sayuri began. However, in this exchange,
there is no visual or physical inspection, no receipt of ownership, and no continuous
profit for her new owner. Instead, as her buyer, the Chairman simply agrees to pay
Mother a monthly sum on the condition that Sayuris career as a geisha be terminated
(Golden, 1997, p. 421). With her career now over, Sayuri obtains the freedom that she
has been denied her entire life, which allows her to project the one identity that she has
surveyed herself as all along: a human being. Consequently, she is now free to enter into
a relationship with the Chairman that escapes the traditional danna- geisha label. In
reality, it is a union between two human beings, a man and a woman, rather than between
owner and object of desire or rescuer and child/woman in need of rescue.
Furthermore, since neither she nor the Chairman has ever surveyed her as an object that
belongs to him but rather as a human being who belongs with him, the latter is the only
identity of her that their gazes can project; therefore, no Others gaze will be able to

14
The year is 1950.



980
survey her and their relationship as otherwise. After all, there is only one person she can
every truly belong to: herself.
Therefore, the memoirs of Nitta Sayuri serve as a tale of how a girl with such
unusual eyes becomes a geisha and learns to return the gaze once she has formed this
Other-determined identity as a means of survival. While she never submits to the gaze of
Others by surveying herself in relation to how they survey herwhether it is as a
commodity with potential, a territory to be claimed, a sample to be collected, or an object
to be acquiredshe does, however, retain her ability to survey herself as a human being,
who desires ownership over herself, her body, and her destiny. As such, she is then able
to manipulate the gaze of those who survey her, especially the male gazes of Nobu and
the Chairman as one surveys her as an object and the other as a human being. With one,
she must resort to an act to project an identity that manipulates his gaze into surveying
her has a betrayer to a destiny that he has ascribed for her. For the other, her gaze not
only projects an identity of herself but one for him as well. And once united, their
combined gaze projects the most accurate identity of themselves for all Others to survey:
their humanness.



981
REFERENCES


Bartky, S.L. (1990). Femininity and domination: studies in the phenomenology of
oppression. New York: Routledge.
Beauvoir, S. de. (1953). The second sex. (H. M. Parshley, Trans.). New York: Knopf.
Berger, J. (1972). Ways of seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation.
Bunch, C. (Ed.). (1981). Building feminist theory: Essays from quest. New York:
Longman.
Dalby, L. (1983). Geisha. Berkeley, CA: U of California P.
Downer, L. (2001). The secret history of the geisha: Women of the pleasure quarters.
New York: Broadway.
Golden, A. (1197). Memoirs of a geisha. New York: Vintage.
Humm, M. (1990). The dictionary of feminist theory. Columbus, OH: Ohio State UP.
Lacan, J. (1982). Feminine sexuality. (J. Rose. Trans.). New York: Norton.
Miller, J.B. (1976). Toward a new psychology of women. Boston, MA: Beacon.
Moi, T. (1985). Sexual/textual politics: feminist literary theory. London: Methuen.
Morgan, R. (1974). On women as a colonized people. In The word of a woman: feminist
dispatches 1968-1992 (1992, pp. 74-77). New York: Norton.
Pauling, C. (1190). Introduction to Buddhism. New York: Barnes & Noble.
Rossbach, S. & Yun, L. (1994). Living color: Master lin yuns guide to feng shui and the
art of color. New York: Kodansha.



LATINO LITERATURE AND THE DYNAMICS OF CULTURAL
PEDAGOGY









MARK DE STEPHANO, S.J., PH.D.
SAINT PETERS COLLEGE
JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY




983
Latino Literature and the Dynamics of Cultural Pedagogy


Viewed from the standpoint of a new academic discipline, Latino literature
exhibits many of the characteristics of the foundational texts of colonial European
powers. As with all foundational projects that seek to define and give shape to a culture,
Latino literary texts are sufficiently abundant and profound as to allow critics to begin to
draw the initial parameters of a specifically Latino culture in the United States. Carefully
analyzed, Latino literary texts written over the past one hundred years constitute a literary
canon that presents a very clear cultural vision. Perhaps more important, they form the
bedrock of a new culture, that of what Ilan Stavans has termed the New Latino, who
does not identify him or herself with a single nation of Hispanic origin, but who
consciously chooses to construct a personal identity that is eclectic and that draws from
the rich cultural heritage of all Hispanics living in the United States (13). This New-
Latino culture, which is a composite of many Hispanic-American cultural traditions, is
the new face of the Latinos of the United States, who have undertaken the complicated
and essential project of instructing younger Latinos and non-Latinos in the fundamental
elements of Latino culture. Among those areas of human experience that are
indispensable to an understanding of Latino culture, one must include the Spanish
language, Spanglish, religious beliefs and practices, family customs, love and sexual
mores, food, drink, celebrations, questions of ultimacy (i.e., birth, the meaning of life,
and death), and recollection of communal struggles.



984
This essay will examine the ongoing process of cultural pedagogy whereby
United-States Latinos use literature to teach younger Latinos and non-Latinos the
essential elements of New-Latino culture. Drawing upon numerous literary texts from
various genres, I will outline the New- Latino curriculum, which invites the younger
generation of U.S. Latinos to learn about and rejoice in their heritage, and which beckons
to non-Latino Americans as an invitation to the wonders of New-Latino culture. In
particular, this essay will explore the dynamics of how Latino authors infuse their
literature with knowledge that is essential to understanding New-Latino culture. This
pedagogical project functions as a vast challenge to Latino writers and is also a source of
pride, as they themselves have stated, and as I shall document. As Latinos have just been
declared the largest of the U.S. minorities by the federal government, this cultural
pedagogy takes on a tremendous importance and urgency for the commonweal, as well as
for the national security.
Disaffection and/or outright hostility between various Hispanic groups, as they
approach the status of being the absolute majority of the U.S. population, forebode strife,
violence, and national disintegration. Yet, New Latinos can form a new race, as this is
defined in Websters Dictionary: A class or kind of people unified by community of
interests, habits, or characteristics. As Fr. Virgil Elizondo reminds us in his
groundbreaking work, The Future is Mestizo: Life Where Cultures Meet, the new
mestizaje of Hispanics in the United States Stavans New Latinos marks the fact
that these Hispanics already belong to a new culture (as excerpted in Heyck, 441). One
can only hope that the project of constructing the New-Latino culture will transform the



985
pain and resentment of past and current injustices into a self-affirming process of
mapping a positive future for U.S. Latinos.
Of necessity, cultural pedagogy must begin with a recollection of the historical
legacy of various Hispanic-American groups, addressing the question of where they come
from and what has happened to them. Yet this desire to search for the meaning of life and
for identity, both personal and communal, is not born in a vacuum, but rather of pride and
of the struggles of life. It is appropriate to begin with Mexican-American expressions of
their origins and history in the United States. More than any other Hispanic group,
Mexican-Americans have had a long and sometimes bitter association with their powerful
neighbor to the north. Responding to overwhelming American aggression, and embracing
the sufferings, questioning, and fears of two centuries of discrimination, Chicano writers
have undertaken to narrate their personal and communal histories so as to instruct
members of the Chicano community and galvanize them into a unified block.
One of the earliest Chicanos to act as spokesman for the Brown Movement was
Ricardo Snchez, whose revolutionary work Canto y grito mi liberacin (I Sing and
Shout my Liberation) inflamed the imagination of young and old alike. In his Opened
[sic] letter to my conscience, Snchez explains his need to proclaim his chicanismo and
present a manifesto for all Chicanos:
Conscience:
Lo, verily have I questioned my own development and sense of self; seldom have
I taken myself to task when failing to plough-through on those aspects of my life
that need redemption Now here, this very cauldron of chicansmo I stand
confronted by the paradoxical qualities of el valle de tejas a tragic, yet magic,
valley teeming with the desmadrzgo y belleza de la gente de bronce. On every
hand there is the dominant force of racism trying to oblivate la raza, while in
every hovel there is the force of chicansmo driving thru McAllen, Pharr,
Edinburg, etc., the soothing madness of need seeking the answer takes on a



986
balming effect, and my soul soars high higher than even grifa could take it. And
I am forced by the legacy of Jacinto Trevio, Jos Angel, and countless other
carnales who have told the angry, bitter, racist gringo world to hang it up, to now
strive to not only better understand myself, but to become so involved with my
people that only a new social order can stem the tide, only a new social order can
begin to mete out the justice that we not only need, but demand. The pride in our
people is a real, tangible thing it can be measured by the looks of love shared
by friends, lovers, and relatives throughout Aztln. It is a reality articulated by
two chicanos meeting on the street for the first time and extending their hands,
saying simply, mi casa es su casa, and meaning it. [25-26]
In very public fashion, Snchez recalls the great militants of the Brown Movement who
sacrificed themselves for the good of the spiritual homeland of the Chicanos, Aztln. Yet,
Snchez reminds Chicanos that the mythical Aztln does, in fact, exist, insofar as any
two of them choose to build community together. The Chicano homeland exists, first and
foremost, in the hearts of its people, no matter where they find themselves
geographically. This message is of particular significance to young Chicanos, many of
whom are unaware of the complexities of Chicano folklore and the infamous transfer of
territory and rights that is framed in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The concept of
Aztln, a Chicano homeland, may very well be of greater importance to younger
Chicanos who are more assimilated than their parents and are more in danger of losing
their cultural heritage.
Latino cultural pedagogy is constructed, above all, from personal stories that
document occurrences and give shape to dreams. Richard Rodrguez describes the reality
of what numerous Latinos have experienced. Many advance materially but still long to
describe the pain and hardship that often lined the paths to better lives:
I do not write as a modern-day Wordsworth seeking to imitate the intimate
speech of the poor. I sing Ariels song to celebrate the intimate speech my family
once freely exchanged. In singing the praise of my lower-class past, I remind
myself of my separation from the past, bring memory to silence. I turn to consider



987
the boy I once was in order, finally, to describe the man I am now. I remember
what was so grievously lost to define what was necessarily gained. (6)
While heroic figures do appear in Latino literature, it is interesting to note that Latino
culture frequently portrays common individuals performing ordinary tasks as lifes true
heroes and heroines. To Latinos, nothing could be more appropriate than tales of the
lower class overcoming adversity, or Richard Rodrguezs middle-class pastoral that
sings of the class that lives in a public world, lacking great individual power and
standing (6).
Echoing Rodrguez is Victor Villaseors Rain of Gold. Don Po, the founding
father of one of the two families chronicled, foresees the bright future that is heralded by
the hard work that leads to a good life, but that never offers so much abundance as to
allow the family members to consider themselves superior to others:
But Don Pio refused to be silenced, standing up tall and proud all five foot, two
inches of him. Thats it exactly! It will be hard to get anything to grow here! Thats
why nobody wants this land! They only think its fit for goats and snakes! Thats why
we can build our homes here and raise our children in peace for generations to
come!
And theyll be strong, hard-working children because every man will have to do
his own labor! And at no time will our children or our childrens children get so rich
that theyll be able to enslave their neighbor! (97)
Villaseors family narrative not only reminds younger Latinos of the difficulties faced
by earlier generations, but also impresses upon them the need to break the cycle of the
oppressed improving their status and then becoming the new oppressors. The source of
all peace and stability, as Juan, a descendant of don Po recognizes, is the collective
example and memory of ones family:
Juan saw her [his sister Luisas] tears and breathed deeply. He thought of Don
Pio and the night that hed camped on that knoll with his two brothers and how all
their lives had been changed because of that. The thought of Jose [sic], the great,
and how hed almost spared them of the war. Two great hombres whod taken up
ground and reached for the stars and brought miracle after miracle down here to



988
earth. His eyes filled with tears. It was true, it really was true hed been alone up
in Montana, not on his own. For a man, a real macho to be on his own was to be
rooted to the earth with his balls, his tanates, with the blood and flesh of his
familia. (230)
In his work, Villaseor teaches younger Latinos a new kind of machismo not one of
overweening arrogance, abuse, and wonton individualism, but of pride in family, love of
race, and inner strength. Juans decision to remain with the women of his family, support
them, and assume the role of patriarch, rather than heading off, on his own, to bring down
the big money, represents a new force in Latino culture. By choosing to include a scene
such as this, which easily could have been avoided, Villaseor insinuates that it is not
good enough for a man to be far from his home, perhaps living profligately, but sending
money home. A mans presence and example among the members of his family are of
primary importance; this is the new machismo.
In his celebrated Memorias, Bernardo Vega describes the work of the cigar-
wrappers in the El Morito factory in New York. Among their number were numerous
Puerto Ricans, many of whom were actively involved in various socialist political
movements. Through his writings, Vega instructs younger members of the Puerto-Rican
American community as to the remarkable profundity of intellectual acumen and political
cunning of common Puerto Rican laborers, such as these tobacco workers:
With workers of that caliber, the El Morito cigar factory seemed like a university.
At that time, its official reader was Fernando Garca. He read for an hour in the
morning and for another in the afternoon. The morning session was dedicated to
information received over the cable wires: the news of the day and articles about
current events. The afternoon session was for substantive issues, both political
and literary. A Reading Commission suggested books to be read, which were
chosen by the vote of the workshop laborers. Themes were alternated: one of a
philosophical, political, or scientific nature, to be followed by a novel. This was
selected from among the works of Emile Zola, Alexander Dumas, Victor Hugo,
Gustave Flaubert, Jules Verne, Pierre Loti, Jos Mara Vargas Vila, Prez Galds,



989
Palacio Valds, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Gorki, Tolstoy all of these authors were
well known by the tobacco workers of that time. [59]
Latinos found identity not only in their heritage and in family, but also in the solidarity of
their working communities. Puerto Rican laborers banded together, as best they could, to
foster their common desire to keep abreast of events in the world, and to cultivate their
literary interests.
Latino cultural pedagogy draws deeply from religious beliefs, and testimonies of
faith in various supernatural forces abound in the pages of Latino literature. In particular,
the forces of nature reveal the Divine Will and its omnipresence in the lives of Latinos.
As we find in Rudolfo Anayas Bless Me, Ultima, children must learn to be attentive to
the movement of divine spirits in the events of their everyday lives:
And I was happy with Ultima. We walked together in the llano and along the river
banks to gather herbs and roots for her medicines. She taught me the names of
plants and flowers, of trees and bushes, of birds and animals; but most important,
I learned from her that there was a beauty in the time of day and in the time of
night, and that there was peace in the river and in the hills. She taught me to listen
to the mystery of the groaning earth and to feel complete in the fulfilling of its
time. My soul grew under her careful guidance. (16)
Latino cultural pedagogy is often focused on the wisdom and experience of elders, who
have experienced life in all of its complexities and have been sage enough to survive to a
ripe old age, particularly with the help of God. Latinos learn that no matter how bleak
events may seem, one must never stop imploring God for His help, as Judith Ortiz Cofer
illustrates in her reflection entitled, The Black Virgin:
I have seen the women dressed in black climbing the rough steps of
La Escalinata to the front portals of the church and I have understood how the act
itself could bring comfort to a woman who did not even know exactly where on
earth her son or husband was, or even the reasons why he was risking his life in
someone elses war. Perhaps God knew, and surely Our Lady, a woman, wife, and
mother herself, would intercede. It was a mans world, and a mans heaven. But
mediation was possible if one could only get His attention. And so there were
promesas, ways to make your requests noticed. Some women chose to wear



990
hbitos until their prayers were answered, that is, a plain dress of the color that
represented their favorite saint, such as light blue for the Holy Mother or red for
the Sacred Heart Mam Nanda did it all, quietly and without fanfare. She wore
only black since the death of her husband, but mourning and penance had
becoming an intrinsic part of her nature long before; of her twelve children only
six had survived; the other six died in infancy from childhood diseases which
were prevented a generation later by a single vaccine or simple antidote. She had
buried each little corpse in the family graveyard with a name and a date on the
headstone sometimes the same date for birth and death and she had worn
black, kept luto for each. The death of her babies had made her a melancholy
woman, yet one who was always ready to give God another chance. She lobbied
for His favors indefatigably. (1990: 44-45)
Spanish words dot Ortiz Cofers description, and, by observing the actions of Mam
Nanda, we learn of many painful experiences that Latinas have had to endure: losing
their sons and husbands to military service, the death of children, the death of a husband,
and living under the burden of patriarchy. And yet, despite the bitterness of this life,
Latinas remain close to God, always imploring and never despairing.
Latino literature is replete with examples of parents teaching their children the
ways of the world. Not only do the elders try to help the younger generation understand
the anger and discrimination that will be leveled against them, wise elders also attempt to
eradicate racism from the hearts of the young. Esmeralda Santiago recounts how her
father, who seldom spoke seriously to her, forbade her to join in the insults hurled by her
classmates:
Papi, whats an imperialist? He stopped the hammer in midstrike and looked at
me. Where did you hear that word? Ignacio Seplveda said Eekeh
Aysenhouerr is an imperialist. He said all gringos are. Papi looked around as if
someone were hiding behind a bush and listening in. I dont want you repeating
those words to anybody I know that Papi I just want to know what it
means. Are gringos the same as Americanos [sic] ? You should never call an
Americano a gringo. Its a very bad insult. Why do people call Americanos
gringos? We call them gringos, they call us spiks. What does that mean?
Well, he sat up, leaned his elbows on his knees and looked at the ground, as if
he were embarrassed. There are many Puerto Ricans in New York, and when
someone asks them a question they say, I dont spik inglish instead of I dont



991
speak English. They make fun of our accent. Americanos talk funny when they
speak Spanish.
Santiagos father patiently continues to explain the reality of the situation, despite the
difficulty of sensitizing a child to the painful realization that injustice exists and that this,
in turn, spawns hatred and resentment. As to the Americanos who talk funny when they
speak Spanish, Negis father tries to bring balance to the childs grasp of the two
realities, injustice and anger:
Yes they do. The ones who dont take the trouble to learn it well Thats part
of being an imperialist. They expect us to do things their way, even in our
country. (72-73)
What began as a lesson in the use of language soon led to deeper explorations of personal
and social relations. Language is the key to the heart and to the mind.
In his poem, My Graduation Speech, Tato Laviera plays with the potential
confusion that arises from belonging to two language groups, and challenges listeners to
put themselves in his position:
i think in spanish how are you?
i write in english cmo ests?
i dont know if im coming
i want to go back to puerto rico, or si me fui ya
but i wonder if my kink could live
in ponce, mayagez and carolina si me dicen barranquitas, yo reply,
con qu se come eso?
tengo las venas aculturadas si me dicen caviar, i digo,
escribo en spanglish a new pair of converse sneakers.
abraham in espaol
abraham in english ah supe que estoy jodo,
tato in spanish ah supe que estamos jodos
taro in english
tonto in both languages english or spanish
spanish or english
spanenglish
now dig this: so it is, spanglish to matao
what i digo
hablo lo ingls matao
hablo lo espaol matao ay, virgen, yo no s hablar!



992
no s leer ninguno bien

(Algarn 332-333)
This sense of being lost between two languages and of not really having a command of
either plagues many Latinos. While Lavieras bilingual poem brings a smile to our faces,
it also teaches us that being caught between cultures frequently leads to a sense that one
is always incorrect. It increases ones insecurity and reinforces the sense that he or she is
never truly at home. Yet, as Gloria Anzalda points out, one who is the product of several
cultures should not limit him or herself to the boundaries of either, but must find
integration in a new reality:
As a mestiza I have no country, my homeland cast me out; yet all countries are
mine because I am every womans sister or potential lover. (As a lesbian I have
no race, my own people disclaim me; but I am all races because there is the queer
of me in all races.) I am cultureless because, as a feminist, I challenge the
collective cultural/religious male-derived beliefs of Indo-Hispanics and Anglos;
yet I am cultured because I am participating in the creation of yet another culture,
a new story to explain the world and our participation in it, a new value system
with images and symbols that connect us to each other and to the planet. Soy un
amasamiento, I am an act of kneading, of uniting and joining that not only has
produced both a creature of darkness and a creature of light, but also a creature
that questions the definitions of light and dark and gives them new meanings.
(80-81)
Anzalda, like Stavans and Elizondo, reminds New Latinos that their differences, while
viewed as deviant by proponents of mainstream American culture, are the foundation
of a new race and a new culture.
The New-Latino race will, indeed, be formed by the words of those who are
caught between two cultures. As Sandra Mara Esteves argues in her poem Point of
Information (for a Cuban comrade), words have a great power that is deceiving:
Permiso, compaero,
but I have to disagree
about the importance of political economies
over that of a poem.



993
However you see the difference,
I do not.
Between the balance of nations
exists the economy of words.
From these seed the future is formed,
bearing in mind
that only through progressive dialogue
is direction ever found. (62)
Esteves calls our attention to the power of words and the need for literature. The New-
Latino project of teaching younger Latinos and non-Latinos the essential elements of
New-Latino culture must look, first and foremost, to literature, that bonds the intellect
with the heart.
When speaking of matters of the heart, Latinos can be both tender and trenchantly
blunt. The outrageously explicit plays of the Latins Anonymous theater group teach an
extreme version of what might have happened between the conquistador Corts and his
indigenous translator, la Malinche. The show is hosted by an Aztec entertainment
personality, Running Jaw:
RUNNING JAW: (Tossing Cortez a human heart.) Thats right! And the game
is tied.
CORTEZ: Ick! Well, R.J., she was some hot Aztec love kitten. (The rest of the
cast pull out bags of popcorn, with ears of corn still sticking out, and loudly
munch as Cortez launches into a Tony Award-winning soliloquy.) I came to the
New World to conquer the Aztec Empire, but instead, Malinche, that Tempting
Translator, conquered me. Oh! The seorita gives great headdress. Let me tell
thee, life at sea is no picnic. Sure my cabin boy looks great in garter and a wig,
and does a great Dolores Del Ro impression but nothing compares with the
real thing. Alack, I am fortunes fool and Malinches, too. Ohhhhhhhh!
RUNNING JAW: Wow, that was better than El Cid. Lets hear it for the spic,
folks. Is that a great story or what? So, Malinche, did he plant his flag and claim
you for Spain?
MALINCHE: R.J., I never knew I was into white men until I saw him. He was
hung like a horse. So I just flicked my fabulous greas to reveal my
chichimecas and said, Moyolo chocoyotzin tlateo matini, thats Nahuatl for



994
Allo love. Lets play Magellan, you circumnavigate my globes and Ill prove
the worlds not flat! (23-34)
Despite the highly suggestive and irreverent treatment of the subject, the Latins
Anonymous theater group entertains and educates audiences about one of the critical
moments in Latino history. Although graphic and somewhat crude, the scene from the
LA LA Awards exaggerates somewhat yet illustrates what was probably the truth of
the encounter Cortss sexual desire for la Malinche! The scene is brief but filled with
details about Latino history: we witness the Aztec tossing the human heart, a reference
to their ritual sacrifices to the Sun- god, we see corn, that was the staple of the Aztec diet,
we hear of Corts and la Malinche, his translator and mistress, and finally we hear a
reference to El Cid, the national hero of Spain. There are even a few words of Nahuatl,
to remind us that the indigenous Nahuas, were and still are very much a part of the
history of Mexico. For academics, this form of instruction may not be viewed as the most
appropriate, but for others, Latin-specific humor of a racy nature may lead them to want
to find out more about the events that are so mercilessly satirized by the Latins
Anonymous group.
One of the greatest contributions of a humorous work that also instructs is John
Leguizamos Freak, which was nominated in 1998 for a Tony Award. Leguizamos
outrageous depiction of scenes from the everyday lives of his family members brings the
audience directly into the world of crudeness, violence, discrimination, and humor, as
seen through Johns eyes as a little boy. One of the first scenes is the welcome his parents
received at the airport by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service:
My parents left Latin America during the big plantain famine of the late sixties,
and when they arrived in New York City they had such thick accents they
couldnt even understand each other. My moms got all her English from watching



995
television. Fausto, chock full of nuts is the heavenly coffee, theyre creepy and
theyre cookie, that that thats all folks! Woman, what the hell did you
just say? How should I know? Im speaking English. At the airport, the nice,
the very white, very southern customs officer comes over to help. Come now,
strip naked! Deep cavity search time. Last week we found five Nicaraguans inside
one of you people. He starts searching my moms. OOhh, his hands are cold.
Fausto, why dont you touch me like this? Cause Im not looking for anything.
Hey, Mr. Officer, if were being searched, why are you naked? Shut up and
bend over! (3-4)
While we are able to laugh at the events depicted in this scene because of Leguizamos
wit and rapid juxtaposition of events, Freak draws attention to the treatment of many
immigrants when they arrive on American shores. Young Latinos and non-Latinos, many
of whom may never have experienced such treatment, are made aware, through raucous
humor, of the harsh realities of feeling unwanted.
Of the many prejudices that Latinos confront in their everyday lives, gay Latinos
and Latinas face, perhaps, the most discrimination of any group. Oftentimes despised by
other Latinos, their families, and by all those of the mainstream culture who hate
homosexuals, gay Latinos and those who are concerned about them are increasingly
turning to literature to give voice to their suffering. In one of her best-known works of
poetry, A Garca Lorca ms a algunos otros, Ana Castillo recalls those gay Latinos and
Latinas whom society has attempt to sweep into the dustbin of anonymous history. She
addresses her roll-call of victims of prejudice against gays to Federico Garca Lorca, one
of the icon figures of gay Hispanic culture:
Poeta que no dejaste de amar: je taime.
And i will dance for you
until they come and drag me away:
who did not even know your name
will remember mine
and Luchas
Franciscos
Juan Pablos



996
Rodrigos
Barbaras, Esters, Juana Alicias, Yolandas,
and all the maras,
Ricardo from El Salvador
in red shirt and suspenders, dancing with Frida Kahlo,
Miguel recruiting disciples of Oaxaca,
Piri mellowed after Mean Streets,
Gato, Linda as Spider Woman
with Tony as Mark Twain, Marcel
the Little Prince: my son was there;
La India Bonita Crossdresser Bar taking a collection
for the funerals of every other Monday
and they will try
to be rid of us
anyway they can.
We rise out of the ground
like margaritas,
yerba buena,
blades of grass, we the poets,
painters, a merry band of dissonant musicians:
Too many of us and too much of you
to silence with the yanking of one pure
voice that rose
from the ashes of butterflies and doves
to call you by name. (Rodrguez Matos 57)
Latino writers have now taken it upon themselves to educate both the members of the
Latino community and others about the need for acceptance of all people. For, just as
they themselves were victims of discrimination and hatred because of their otherness,
Latinos and New Latinos now find themselves at a crossroads. Just as don Po of Rain of
Gold swore that his children and his childrens children would never become oppressors
because of their great wealth, so, now, must all Latinos embrace a new future of
tolerance, understanding, and love, or otherwise throw themselves back into the evil
repressions of the past.
Development of a New-Latino culture in the United States offers the best possible
hope for successful integration of Latinos into mainstream American society without



997
losing their culture. As Latinos embrace the richness of their heritage and strive to forge
unity among the various Hispanic constituencies that contribute to the New-Latino
reality, it is hoped that they will also recognize that they are contributing to the creation
of a new race. Rather than choosing to remain mired in the conflicts and divisions of the
past, New Latinos may rejoice in the energizing project of developing New-Latino
culture. Whether the dynamics of their pedagogy be the use of Spanglish, family
narrative, poetry, humorous plays, irreverent skits, novels, memoirs, or essays, New
Latinos have much to share regard to their rich and varied culture. Many different
perspectives are needed: those of many national groups, different sexual orientations,
diverse religious beliefs, colors, ages, social classes, educational levels, and professional
backgrounds. Only when we have heard from all these groups and from every individual
will we be able to say that the project is truly concluded. But even then, the ongoing
process of deepening our understanding of the New-Latino culture will have just begun.



998
WORKS CONSULTED

Algarn, Miguel, ed. Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Caf. New York: Henry
Holt and Company, Inc., 1994.
Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me, Ultima. New York: Warner Books, 1994.
Anzalda, Gloria. Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt
Lute Book Company, 1987.
Esteves, Sandra Mara. Bluestown Mockingbird Mambo. Houston: Arte Pblico P, 1990.
Heyck, Denis Lynn Daly. Barrios and Borderlands: Cultures of Latinos and Latinas in
the United States. New York: Routledge, 1994.
Leguizamo, John and David Bar Katz. Freak. New York: Riverhead Books, 1997.
Leschin, Luisa et al. Latins Anonymous. Houston: Arte Pblico P, 1996.
Ortiz Cofer, Judith. Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican
Childhood. Houston: Arte Pblico P, 1990.
Rodrguez, Richard. Hunger of Memory. New York: Bantam, 1983.
Rodrguez Matos, Carlos A., ed. Poesda, New York: Ollantay P, 1995.
Snchez, Ricardo. Canto y grito mi liberacin. Garden City: Anchor Books, 1973.
Santiago, Esmeralda. When I Was Puerto Rican. New York: Vintage, 1994.
Stavans, Ilan. The Hispanic Condition: Reflections on Culture & Identity in America.
New York: HarperCollins, 1995.
Vega, Bernardo. Memorias. Ed. Csar Andreu Iglesias. Ro Piedras: Ediciones Huracn,
1977. [Translation, my own]
Villaseor, Victor. Rain of Gold. New York: Delta Publishing, 1991.



THE PHILOSOPHICAL PICARESQUE:
LAZARI LLO DE TORMES









DR. JOAN KENNEDY
COLLIN COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
PLANO, TEXAS




1000
The Philosophical Picaresque: Lazarillo De Tormes


The adage that great things may be wrapped in small packages certainly describes
the anonymous picaresque novel Lazarillo de Tormes (1554). This short narrative
depicting the adventures of a low-born hero struggling to survive the ups and downs of a
Sisyphean existence provides the seed for other prose narratives that will develop from
the Renaissance to modern times. The seemingly simple language of the novel in fact
carries with it a philosophical dimension, sophisticated irony, occasional classical
references, and new possibilities for heroic depiction. The brevity of the narrative,
consisting of a prologue and seven chapters (tratados), belies the depth of its meaning,
which in a tragic/comic way speaks out for the underdog of society, the picaro or hero
who is disenfranchised from his Spanish milieu.
Speculation about the books authorship has occupied scholars for over four
centuries. The first name to be put forward was that of Fray Juan de Ortega, a Jeronymite
who was leader of his order in 1552. Fray Sigenza (1605), a fellow Jeronymite, refers to
Ortega as the student responsible for that little book called Lazarillo de Tormes that
has been circulating and read with great interest (as cited in Guilln, 1971, p. 80). The
twentieth-century French Hispanist Marcel Bataillon (1966) also makes this claim. On
the other hand, Fr. Andre Schott (1608) attributes the Lazarillo to Don Diego Hurtado de
Mendoza, a distinguished poet, diplomat, and historian (as cited in Bataillon, 1973).
Numerous other names have been suggested such as the Valds brothers (Spanish



1001
humanists and Erasmians), but Ortega and Mendoza seem to be the strongest claims
according to Bataillon (1973).
While the books authorship continues to prompt scholarly speculation, certainly
the author represents a voice echoing a perspective in the humanist tradition. It is no
anomaly that this novel emerged amidst the wave of Renaissance humanism with its
emphasis on personal achievement, personal learning, personal importance, personal
effort, personal engagement in worldly affairs, but in this case for a human existing on
societys fringes. The egocentric nature of the picaresque narrative rings true during the
European Renaissance and offers a literary contribution to humanistic concerns that will
flower and become full-blown in the American Revolution of 1776 and the French
Revolution of 1789. While precedence for this type of fiction occurred in works such as
Petronius Satyricon (C. E. 60), Apuleius Metamorphoses (later named The Golden Ass)
(C. E. 150), the medieval French Fabliaux, the Arabic Maqama (C. E. 1000), and even
the French beast epic Renard the Fox (C.E. 1200), Spain more fully developed this
unique, literary form that flowered in the sixteenth-century.
The great popularity of the Lazarillo perhaps may be attributed to its
autobiographical form. Three different editions of La Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de
sus fortunas y adversidades circulated in 1554 in three cities: Burgos, Alcal de Henares,
and Antwerp. W.S. Merwin (1985) states that the book was immediately successful with
all classes that could read, and its popularity so general, five years after its publication,
the Inquisition placed it on the Index, probably because of its satirical portraits of the
priest and the pedlar of indulgences. However, copies continued to be smuggled in from



1002
abroad, and Philip II had an expurgated edition published in Spain that was kept in print
another three decades (p. xiv).
But why would this little narrative be so popular? In the chivalric romance stories
prevalent at the time, the life of a given person had been sustained and manipulated by an
author who remained always on the outside, portraying human actions much as a painter
might depict the image of a person or a fragment of nature. But the Lazarillo offers a
different perspective. Here the reader enjoys the illusion of seeming to observe human
life directly, without any intermediary of traditional topics, which had provided the story
tellers with predetermined frames of happenings. The narrative perspective of the
Lazarillo offers a breath of fresh air from the formulaic depiction of kings, knights, and
ladies involved in quests, fantastic adventures, love triangles, courtly tradition, and codes
of honor. The picaro was a new breed of hero making his appearance at a time that the
libros de caballeria or books of chivalrya class of literature derived from the Arthurian
romances of the early Middle Ageshad public appeal. This type of idealistic fiction
portraying upper class characters, however, began to pass from vogue during the
Renaissance. The popular chivalric romance, Montalvos Amids de Gaula, met its
challenge with the emergence of a work such as the Lazarillo as the tastes of the Spanish
Renaissance reading public began to change.
As Lazarillo, the picaro or hero of the novel, travels across the Spanish
countryside in his episodic adventures, the reader observes a realistic treatment of the
seamy side of life in sixteenth-century Spain as well as satire of its society. The central
interest of the novel offers not the magnificent, conquering Spain of Charles the Fifth, but
a humble little figure devoid of those values esteemed by that world. The new hero, the



1003
picaro, possesses a complete awareness not only of his bare self but also of his will, a will
capable of sustaining itself in the face of the severest adversity. The Lazarillo, because of
this novelistic style, contributed to the development of the literary genre later called the
modern novel.
This new literary style ushered in by the Lazarillo and its imitators has prompted
a large body of scholarship attempting to define the genre.
1
Numerous scholars such as
Harry Sieber (1977), for example, have focused on an examination of the formal structure
of the novel in order to ascertain a strict definition of the genre. Sieber identifies features
such as first-person narration; lower-class, wandering protagonist; episodic, open-ended
plot; initiation rite of the picaro; and satire of current society. While exploring the
contextual background of picaresque fiction he states: The emphasis of the picaresque
on poverty, delinquency, upward mobility (self- improvement of the picaro), travel as an
escape from despair, social satire of a system unresponsive to the needs and desires of a
growing community of have-nots, all reflect the socio-historical contexts (p. 6). Then
reflecting upon the picaros learning process, Claudio Guilln (1971) states: The total
view of the picaro is reflective, philosophical, critical on religious and moral grounds. As
an autobiographer and an outsider, he collects broad conclusions. The picaro is an
ongoing philosopher, as a constant discoverer, experimenter and doubter where every
value or norm is concerned, never ceases to learn. Each person or action is for him a
possible example (p. 82). In agreement, Robert Alter (1964) sees the picaresque novel

1
A complete bibliography of scholarly works on the picaresque novel would occupy many pages; a
checklist is contained in J. Laurenti (1973), Bibliografia de la literatura picaresca: Desde sus origins hasta
el presente.



1004
in general as a literature of learning, a literature of experience (p. 3). The Lazarillo de
Tormes provides the earliest example of picaresque fiction.
2

My examination of the philosophical dimension of the novel builds on current
scholarship yet runs counter to what previous scholars such as A.D. Deyermond (1975)
have observed; he interprets the picaresque as being nihilistic, while ending in the moral
death of the picaro (p. 32). Stuart Miller (1967), in addition, describes the world view as
being negative and nihilistic (pp. 9-78). Other scholars such as Jack Dueck (1973) deny
that the picaro is an existential hero. Dueck states of the picaro: He should not be
likened to the desperate existential hero who knows his fate is the absurd (p. 13). I
maintain, however, that indeed the picaro Lazarillo represents an existential hero who
struggles against an absurd fate of which he is fully aware and one who must make
relativistic moral choices as survival tactics.
This Spanish Golden Age (Siglo de Oro) novel offers a narrative expression of a
specific philosophical vision that emerges from a culture undergoing extreme social
change and conflict. The following elements comprise the Lazarillos picaresque
philosophic stance: it is morally relativistic; it is existential in outlook; and it is anti-
nihilistic. The ancient Greek Myth of Sisyphus, furthermore, provides a central metaphor
for the protagonists struggling human condition. The existential philosophical attitude
expressed in Lazarillo represents an evolving sensibility examining mans place in a
hostile world and a protest against that condition. Ironically, the picaro maintains a
positive attitude toward his wretched condition by continuing his struggle, drawing upon

2
Credit for establishing the existence of a coherent picaresque subject matter must be accorded to F.W.
Chandler (1899) for his descriptive overview of thirty-four Spanish picaresque novels in Romances of
Roguery (New York: Macmillan).



1005
his own creativity while learning from othershe creates meaning for himself in the
midst of a hostile world.
When using the term philosophy, I do not imply a formal system of beliefs, but
an attitude displayed by the picaro. The term existential, in a general sense, refers to the
picaros exploration of the circumstances of his existence on earth and his reliance on his
will to confront opposing forces. The existential philosophical attitude of the picaro
represents an evolving sensibility that can be discerned here and there in the past; but it is
only in recent timesthe nineteenth and early twentieth centuriesthat it has become a
sustained outlook preoccupied with examining mans place in a hostile world and a
protest against this condition. The narrative, while being a precursor to the development
of the modern novel, also acts as a forerunner in the exploration of existential concerns.
At the heart of my discussion of Lazarillo lies the notion that the implication of
existential philosophy, thus defined, is that man is what he makes of himself.
3

The picaros condition illustrates the existential problem of a man who finds
himself alone in a world that is irrational, purposeless, and meaningless, yet this does not
preclude that his life has value. What stance should he adopt? How can he find a center or
focus for his life? He finds fulfillment in the hardness and courage with which he faces
up to terrible truths. His society dehumanizes him while rejecting and isolating him. Yet
the picaro confronts his world, revolting against its hostility by making choices that
assure his survival. In doing this, he creates a place for himself and meaning amidst a sea
of turmoilhe explores the possibilities for meaning that life offers on its own terms.

3
See the following text for a discussion of existentialism: W.V. Spanos (1966), A Casebook On
Existentialism. Spanos provides an excellent overview of the topic.



1006
At the core of the picaresque narrative is the picaros continued attempt to
integrate into a society that continually denies him access. While confronted with a
turbulent environment, the picaro manages to create his imaginative life every day,
adjusting and creating his moral vision to suit the circumstances. The creative act imbues
life with some form of meaning, and often the creative impulse is born from pain,
hardship, and frustration. His protean nature, consequently, reflects his highly creative,
positive, humanistic, philosophical approach in the face of forces beyond his control. He
is subject to the ups and downs of fate (fortuna). However, a positive impetus arises: the
protagonists creative vision supplies a unifying factor in the narrative, thus taking the
work beyond the closed world of nihilism.
The picaresque novel, furthermore, offers a testament to a personal struggle that
echoes the trauma of a civilization. The Lazarillo grew out of and reflected a society that
was in a confused state. Amrico Castro (1957) discusses the state of conflict in the
Spanish monarchy that bred the picaresque novel. Jos Maravall (1986), furthermore,
stresses that this culture was provoked by social crises of major proportions, felt in all of
Europe and perhaps more intensely in Spain during the greater part of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. Crises occurred in the social and economic structure of the Spanish
monarchy, while economic problems vacillated with alternating periods of growth and
recession. To meet the challenges of this chaotic world, Spain organized its resources
along lines that were openly repressive or more subtly propagandistic. Depletion as a
result of its adventures abroad, internal mismanagement, expanding ecclesiastical power,
the gypsy problemall combined to make Spain ripe for a landscape of vagabondage
and beggary (pp. 19-53). In relation to this turbulent socio/historical background, I



1007
maintain that the picaresque novel that emerges in this world represents a positive,
creative response emphasizing the need for man to strive and survive amidst these
numerous conflicting forces.
The ancient Greek Myth of Sisyphus, in addition, offers the central metaphor for
Lazarillos daily struggle while serving many masters: the blind beggar, the miserly
priest, a proud gentleman (hidalgo), a Friar (homosexual, perhaps), a hypocritical and
swindling pardoner, an artist, a constable, and an enterprising archpriest. Like Sisyphus,
Lazarillo relies on trickery and thievery to outwit his masters. Ironically, it is from these
masters that he has learned the art of survival in a harsh and chaotic world. Lazarillos
harsh existence carries with it symbolism reminiscent of Sisyphus story whose central
concern is mans perpetual conflict throughout life. The gods punished Sisyphus for his
trickery by condemning him to a perpetual existence of pushing a huge stone to the top of
a high hill in Hades only to have it continually roll back down the hill. The task of
pushing the rock in Hades bears a resemblance to a philosophical principle that
Lazarillos actions display. The picaros task is life itselfa life consisting of ups and
downs of fortune, unpredictability, harsh masters, unresponsive society. Attempting to
survive the harshness of life is the rock that Lazarillo symbolically must push. And push
he does, relying upon his own wits and creativity. Metaphorically the picaro does not sit
at the bottom of the hill, giving up to lifes frustrations. Consequently, the personal
narrative of the picaros life embodies both ontological as well as epistemological
implications. The power of myth to capture such an eternal struggleliving and
learningis poignantly depicted in the novel.



1008
The story of Lazarillo is a feigned memoir, an account of the narrators life from
his birth until some time before the moment when he chooses to begin writing. The whole
is written ostensibly for an unknown person whom Lzaro (the adult narrator) addresses
as Your Grace (Vuestra Merced) during his narration. The Prologue tells us that this
person has requested, or commanded, an explanation of an undisclosed matter (el caso),
so Lzaro complies by telling his story. Lzaro seizes the opportunity to creatively
construct past events to serve the purpose of justifying his present situation. At the
beginning he states: I think its a good thing for them (the reader) to know that there is a
living man who has seen so much misfortune, danger, and adversity (Lazarillo, p. 4).
( en ella algn gusto hallaren, y vean que vive un hombre con tantas fortunas, peligros
y adversidades)
4
With this opening statement, the picaro immediately establishes his
view of the harsh nature of his existence, while pointing to the necessity for the reader to
understand his condition. The word living indicates that he has, in fact, survived
misfortune, evil, and adversity. The tone implied by this statement is that of pride in his
ability to combat forces within his world.
Lazarillo follows with: Id also like people who are proud of being high born to
realize how little this really means, as Fortune has smiled on them, and how much more
worthy are those who have endured misfortune, but by dint of effort and cunning, have
rowed and reached a good port (p. 4). (y tambin porque consideran los que heredaron
nobles estados cun poco se les debe, pues fortuna fue con ellos parcial, y cunto ms
hicieron los que, sindoles contraria, con fuerza y maa remando, salieron a buen
puerto.)

4
All references to the Spanish text are taken from the R.O. Jones (1966) edition of La Vida de
Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus Fortunas y Adversidades. This is based on the Burgos edit ion (1554).



1009
This passage first identifies the element of Fortune (fortuna) to which the picaro
is constantly subjectedboth rising and falling in a rhythmic, Sisyphean pattern
throughout the narrative. When he uses trickery to obtain bread from his second master,
the miserly priests basket he laments his short- lived good fortune: But it wasnt in my
stars for me to enjoy that short respite from hardship because after three days I was in
trouble again as I saw my murderer at an unusual time bending over our chest turning the
loaves over and over again and counting and recounting them (p. 20). (Mas no estaba
en mi dicha que me durase mucho aquel descanso, porque luego al tercero da me vino la
terciana derecha, y fue que veo a desora al que me mataba de hambre sobre nuestro arcaz
volviendo y revolviendo, contando y tornando a contrar los panes.) When life goes well
for Lazarillo, Fortune steps in as he realizes that my bad luck wouldnt have it (p. 22).
(mas no quiso mi desdicha) Fortune sends more bad luck than good for Lazarillo. In his
discussion of the picaresque novel, Richard Bjornson (1977) explains that an
emphasis upon the inconstancy of fortune in a world of illusory appearances is evident in
all of these works (p. 167). This inconstancy of fortune provides a major element
contributing to the chaos of the picaros existence, change (mudanza) being an
inescapable part of his fate.
This mutability requires Lazarillo to be constantly on his toes, confronting the
weight of lifes vicissitudes as he struggles to survive. On a social level, the picaros
lowly birthborn in the River Tormes to a miller Tom Gonzles and his wife Antona
Prezcondemns him to a life of hardship. This is an immediate indication that the book
is anti-chivalric, for it rejects the grand sounding names like Amads de Gaula, Lisuarte
de Grecia, and the fantastic adventures they undertake. Indeed, Fortune has not smiled



1010
upon himhe is certainly not a member of the high born class (nobles estados).
Lazarillos circumstances are so dire that he perceives the accomplishments of being well
fed and clothed as a mark of success, which he gains by marrying the Archpriests
concubine depicted in the last chapter. Furthermore, the reader sees the irony of his
good fortune at the end of the novel, since the good port to which Lazarillo has
rowed as he becomes the town crier (pregonero) married to the Archpriests mistress is a
far cry from a haven of social respectability.
The above passage, by emphasizing his misfortune, on one hand, and his
determination on the other, establishes his propensity to meet adverse circumstances
head on. Consequently, from the very beginning of his story a specific philosophical
principle begins to emerge. The reader discovers the picaros commitment to create
meaning by taking some significant action. Lzaro identifies a source of anxiety as being
all of his misfortunefortuna does not favor himand suggests that he has overcome
these vicissitudes through use of a determined will. The fact that he has rowed and
reached a good port implies a conscious effort on his part. Thus, while fortuna remains a
force in the picaros life, he still has the ability to effect certain changes. His feigned
autobiography becomes testimony to an examination of the existential human condition,
one in which an uncaring universe includes changing fortuna, always buffeting the
picaro. This mutability is coupled with a hostile society, with it illusory appearances
which seem to defy the picaros search for firm ground or stability. Chaos is the
substance of Lazarillos life. Yet the picaro persists with his free will, attempting to live a
life that meets his physical needs as well as his social need for respectability.



1011
Following the standard procedure of prologues written in the Renaissance period,
the author next establishes his scholarly nature by including references to the classics. He
starts by paraphrasing Pliny: There is no book, however bad it may be, that doesnt have
something good in it (Lazarillo, p. 3). (Y a este propsito dice Plinio que no hay libro,
por malo que sea, que no tenga alguna cosa buena.) Next he quotes Cicero who says,
Honor encourages the arts (p. 3). (La honra cra las artes.) The picaro continues by
pointing out, Who thinks that the soldier who reaches the top of the scaling- ladder first
hates life the most? No, of course he doesnt; its the same in the arts and literature (p. 3)
(Quin piensa que el soldado que es primero del escala tiene ms aborrecido el vivir?
No por cierto; mas el deseo de alabanza le hace ponerse al peligro. Y as en las artes y
letras es lo mismo.) The picaro uses his creative imagination to confront lifes problems,
the novel becoming a philosophical extension of the protagonists life. Lzaro is hoping
to accomplish something through the act of writing. This something goes beyond a
mere response to vuestra merceds request. The creative act can possibly imbue his life
with importance as well as create meaning for a life that initially may have seemed
without purpose, going nowhere, facing nothingness while buffeted from master to
master, living from hand to mouth.
Another factor established by the Prologue is the picaros ability to gain a
measure of control over his past hectic life. First, in using the epistolary form for the
novel, the author draws upon a common Renaissance mode of communication: letter
writing. One can speak to others through this medium, implying in a humanistic sense
that the audience is human also, and of course Lzaro addresses a specific person, vuestra
merced. Also, Lzaro proceeds, in a Renaissance humanistic sense, to approach



1012
relationships as if a good life could be lived on ethical terms based on mans relationship
with other men, rather than his relations with God. The act of telling his own story in a
manner in which he chooses allows the picaro to order the events of his past, selecting the
appropriate elements to serve his current purposethat of appeasing vuestra merced and
explaining current circumstances in a favorable light. In referring again to Ciceros quote
used by the picaroHonor encourages the artsa double meaning for the word
honor (honra) becomes a possibility. On one level, honor refers to a significance or
meaning attached to a specific human life as internalized by the picaroa subjective
concernwhile on a societal level an importance and justification of a life within a
community are impliedan outer, objective concern.
Lzaro, therefore, is attempting to further his position in society, justifying
himself to create a more honorable image in the community of Toledo. He states:
very few authors are prepared to write about themselves. After all, its not easy to
write a book and if they go to the trouble they want to be rewarded, not financially but
with the knowledge that their work is bought and read and praised if it deserves praise
(Lazarillo, p. 3). ( muy pocos escribiran para uno solo, pues no se hace sin trabajo, y
quieren, ya que lo pasan, ser recompensados, no con dineros, mas con que vean y lean sus
obras, y si hay de qu, se las alaben.) The idea of respect and honor within the local
community played a very important role for the sixteenth-century Spaniard. And Lzaros
reconstruction of his past through the writing process serves as a stabilizing force as he
gains a measure of controla sense of stability within himself and a place of honor (at
least in his own eyes) within Toledo.



1013
The Prologue, consequently, acts as a microcosm of the remainder of the novel.
The author, in three paragraphs, clearly and concisely expresses major philosophical
concernsa testimony to the classical restraint that he employs. A specific philosophy is
put forth, one that will unfold as Lzaro takes the reader from episode to episode of his
past experience. A propensity to seek order and meaning, to take some kind of self- willed
control of rapidly changing, adverse circumstances that seem to defy order will grow
from the seeds of philosophical ideals stated in the Prologue. And the irony of the human
condition takes its place at the center of Lazarillos philosophical outlook. The picaros
attempt to seek stable ground constantly eludes him as he drifts from master to master.
The blind beggar, who is derived from traditional folklore (Bataillon, 1958),
becomes the first master that Lazarillo serves and initiates the picaro into the harshness of
the worlds ways. Lazarillos philosophical principle becomes one of active involvement
in his society, learning quickly to play its game. He is an astute student of his master, the
blind beggar: We began traveling and in just a few days he taught me thieves slang, and
when he saw I was quite sharp, he looked very pleased. He kept on saying: I wont make
you a rich man, but I can show you how to make a living. That was true because after
God, he gave me life, and though he was blind he revealed things to me and made me see
what life was about (Lazarillo, p. 5). (Comenzamos nuestro camino, y en muy pocos
das me mostr jerigonza, y como me viese de buen ingenio, holgbase mucho, y deca:
Yo oro ni plata no te lo puedo dar, mas avisos para vivir muchos te mostrar. Y fue
ans, que despus de Dios ste me dio la vida, y siendo ciego me alumbr y adestr en la
carrera de vivir) The irony of this passage becomes clear as the blind beggar is the one
to show Lazarillo how to see and respond to what life offers. Using insight gained from



1014
his blind master, Lazarillo soon outwits the old man on several occasions, the picaros
sharp wit persisting as a matter of survival.
The blind beggar becomes the agent of Lazarillos awareness of lifes
vicissitudes. The beggar smashes the picaros head against a stone bull statue on a bridge
in Salamanca, breaks a wine jug on his face, beats him, and starves him, all the while
teaching him trickery and thievery. Yet Lazarillo gets revenge in the end by tricking the
beggar into jumping headlong into a stone pillar. The head-against-rock motif suggests
lifes harsh deception, yet the picaro joins in societys deception becoming a masterful
trickster. Lazarillo avers that the blind man guided and enlightened him on the pathway
of life. What Lazarillo means is that his first master taught him to trust no one and to
always watch out for himself. As a consequence of assimilating the blind beggars
philosophy, the picaro faces his world with anxiety, seeing it as a jungle in which
everyone is a potential enemy of everyone else. According to Virginia Ramos Foster
(1975), this particular attitude reflects a prevailing outlook of Spanish Golden Age
society that Gracin describes in his El discreto.
Lazarillo serves a variety of masters after his awakening encounter with the
blind man. He runs away and joins a priest, who is even more miserly than the blind man.
Lazarillo bemoans the fact that he has gone out of the frying pan, into the fire
(Lazarillo, p. 17). (Escap del trueno y di en el relmpago) The satire of clergy that
emerges from his story becomes evident when he states that compared to the priest, the
blind man was as generous as Alexander the Great. All I can say is that the money-
grubbing meanness in the world had been collected into this gentleman. I dont know if it
was natural to him or whether he had assumed it when he first put on his clerical robes



1015
(p. 17). (No digo ms sino que toda la laceria del mundo estaba encerrada en ste. No s
si de su cosecha era, o lo haba anexado con el hbito de clereca.)
This episode focuses on the picaros struggle with starvation while fearing his
death. The priest keeps a chest full of bread locked each day so Lazarillo cannot access it.
The situation is ironical in that the priest, a figure who should offer both spiritual and
physical comfort for the picaro, denies both. The situation reflects that gulf between what
humans desire from the world and what the world denies. The entire sequence is
dominated by images of battle and locked doors. In traditional terms, a clergyman opens
doors to the spiritual life, but the priest of Maqueda locks up his hacienda (wealth), and
Lazarillo is continually seeking to open doors which separate him from sustenance and
physical life. The picaro continually ponders, how I could take care of myself (p. 23).
( como me podra valer.) Lazarillos existential philosophical principle is an
affirmation of life, no matter how difficult or futile. Indeed, he affirms his life by
outwitting the priest in the end by having a duplicate key to the basket made. The
exasperated and embarrassed priest throws Lazarillo out into the street and tells him,
Lzaro, from today on youre on your own (p. 27). (Lzaro, de hoy ms eres tuyo y no
mo.) The episode is reminiscent of how Sisyphus trickiness is punished by Pluto. And
the primary motive for trickery for both Lazarillo and Sisyphus is an escape from death.
The recurrence of specific human reactions to lifes vicissitudes become apparent
in the first two tratados of Lazarillos story, which can be interpreted on a mythic level.
In the ongoing struggle of mankind pitted against a hostile universe, survival becomes of
primary importance. The miserly priest symbolizes both societys uncaring attitude as
well as the universes benign response to mankind. Like the episode with the blind



1016
beggar, on a societal level the fundamental situation remains the same: individuals are
separated by a lack of generosity and trust, and the only viable approach to survival is a
pragmatic one, involving selfishness, petty materialism, and deception. The moral stance
of the picaro is based on pragmatic self- interest, an attitude he must maintain for self-
preservation. His situation also symbolizes the nature of human existence on a universal
level, as death remains a constant companion. In the face of the conditions, the
philosophical stance taken by Lazarillo indicates that man must use his will to create
meaning for himself in an absurd world which defies complete understanding and
absolute truths: humans also must strive ingeniously for survival in a universe that is
indifferent to their struggleand this is the world of the picaro.
In these early episodes, Lazarillo appeals to both God and his own common sense
when he is almost starving to death. His concept of God reveals a self-contradiction, as
the picaros attitude toward the deity changes rapidly from paragraph to paragraph. He
sees the face of God (la cara de Dios) within the precious bread locked in the miserly
priests basket. His outlook of a sustaining God rapidly shifts to a one of only seeing
misery for Gods creatures: Oh, my God, I said then, how much misery and
misfortune falls to the lot of your creatures and how short- lived are the pleasures in this
troublesome life! (p. 22). (Oh, Seor mo!dije yo entoncesa cunta miseria y
fortuna y desastres estamos puestos los nacidos, y cun poco turan los placeres de esta
nuestra trabajosa vida!) While reflecting upon his hard lot in life, the picaro ironically
says: Blessed art thou, oh Lord you send the illness and then the medicine (p. 33)
(Bendito seis vos, Seorqued yo diciendoque dais la enfermedad y ponis el
remedio!) Lazarillos God also reminds him of tricks. The deity reflects Lazarillos



1017
society and present circumstances that do not offer him firm support, always shifting and
unpredictable. This whimsical God who is both fellow trickster and avenger seems to be
borrowed from the ancient Greek tradition rather than a Christian one. And as God
frequently remains silent in the heavens, Lazarillo learns that self-reliance is the picaros
only firm ground.
From a philosophical perspective, religion, as represented by the Priest of
Maqueda, has proven sterilethe Priest has almost starved the picaro to death while God
is unpredictable. Lazarillo has not been sustained by a sense of religion. He has called
upon God but frequently has found him wanting. Without a firm religious foundation, the
picaro, like other humans in this situation, frequently views death perhaps as total
annihilation. If possibly there is no afterlife, each humans life is an end in itself with no
significance in terms of a personal God; man dies and his only kingdom is of this earth.
Life therefore must be lived to the fullest, with ingenuity, making the most of
circumstances, no matter how confusing, puzzling, or turbulent. Buffeted by the ups and
downs of a life that seems devoid of meaning, or seems to offer nothing but cruelty,
harshness, and trickery, the picaro must be creative in responding; so he relies on a type
of situational ethic in which he adapts to the circumstances by taking protean forms
which ironically he has assimilated from his various masters.
The third master, a squire (an escudero, that is, an hidalgo of the lowest rank),
seems more promising for Lazarillo. But a long walk through the streets of Toledo from
morning until mid-afternoon followed by their arrival at a gloomy and almost bare house
does not deceive Lazarillo. His master, he now realizes, walked past the food stalls not
because his house was well stocked, but because he has no money. The escudero has



1018
nothing but his aristocratic pretension, his concern for appearances, and a noblemans
loathing for menial work, all elements pointing to a sixteenth-century Spanish perspective
held by a segment of the population. Lazarillo now has to fend for both of them, which he
does by begging and by attracting the sympathy of neighbors. The squire disappears at
the end of the month, without paying the rent, leaving the boy to face the creditors. The
episode demonstrates the irony of Lazarillos situation. An allegedly prosperous hidalgo
who should be able to sustain the young picaro in his service must rely on the young boy
for sustenance.
A dichotomy in the picaros character is illustrated in the comic episode with the
swindling pardoner in Tratado V. Lazarillo is impressed with the clergymans tricks and
so-called miracles used to swindle people out of their money while selling them
indulgencesI never saw anyone more adept or shameless in my life. He sold more
than I ever saw or think or hope Ill see again (p. 46). ( el ms desenvuelto y
desvergonzado y el mayor echador dellas que jams yo vi ni ver espero ni pienso que
nadie vio.) On the other hand, at the close of the chapter the picaro reflects on the
pardoners hypocrisy and swindling: I wonder how many others like him there are
swindling innocent people (p. 51). (Cuantas destas deben hacer estos burladores entre
la innocente gente!) The reader observes a moral consciousness emerge within the
picaro as he is torn between admiration for the adeptness of the pardoner at duping the
public and sympathy for the innocent ones swindled out of their money. The picaro,
however, ultimately assimilates the perverted values that he observes in his masters as
well as society in general. The epistemological dimension of the novel becomes clear.



1019
As Lazarillo continues to move from master to mastera friar, a pardoner, an
artist, a chaplain, an archpriesteach episode reveals the harsh reality of life that he must
face. He observes the trickery and thievery that his masters employ and learns along the
way the art of survival. The final episode shows Lazarillo established in public office as a
town crier. Behind his official faade he takes his cut from the sale of wines and other
things, and is married to a woman who is publicly reputed to be the mistress of the
archpriest of San Salvador, his patron.
However, the metaphorical friction between human and rock provides the spark of
life, forcing the picaro to use his wits to confront the ups and downs that define his
existence. His life is one of constant struggle, yet the picaro rebels against this uncertain
life and moves ahead, facing each moment in a creative act that is self- generated. His
creative thrust is born from frustration: pain, cruelty, rootlessness.
Lazarillo realizes that humans must, on a daily basis, be involved with living life
to the fullest (a humanistic, Renaissance ideal) even though mundane. Heroic, grandiose
actions are not the primary substance of daily survival for the picarothe seemingly
little, daily acts provide the essence of his existence. The very finiteness of this existence
demands action.
The struggle of the picaro as a hero combating conflicting forces is an age-old
one, played out in literary fiction for centuries. The author of the Lazarillo, however, has
used this type of narrative to make a statement about the position of a lower-class person
in Spanish society rather than one of upper-class nobility. The novel becomes an ironic
representation of Lazarillos efforts to confront societys restrictions and gain upward
mobility. Yet the act of telling is a gesture of self- assertion by the lowly, insignificant



1020
outsider and points to the fact that perhaps his audience, the upper-class Spaniard with
inherited honor like vuestra merced, who is being addressed, should take note that this
alienated individual can speak out from his lower-class position in society. Indeed,
Lazarillo de Tormes claims this distinction: it is the earliest example of a first-person
narration of a lower-class, alienated individual, as hero, shaped into artistic form of the
novel. His story reveals the individuals place in the universe and society, a questioning
about the value of that life, and a quest for an identity that would integrate him into the
order of things. The creative act of writing his story gives some value and meaning to that
life. In literary tradition development, the picaresque plays a central role in expressing a
positive philosophical attitude in a nihilistic world.
Lazarillo, consequently, shares common ground with Sisyphus on a metaphoric
level, determined to maintain tension between himself and his rock in a day-to-day
struggle. The picaros life moves forward in a cyclical pattern with his whole being
exerted toward accomplishing nothing. Yet a dignity arises from his struggle just to be
in this world. Lazarillos sinking to the depths of despair, like Sisyphuss journey to the
bottom of the hill, involves a psychological defeat that in turn is followed by a surge of
creativity. After the rock rolls back down the hill, let us imagine that Sisyphus and
Lazarillo feel momentary despair, defeated once again by the weight of the rock. Yet
according to the myth, Sisyphus is not defeated by despair, just as the picaro does not
give up his struggle. They once again push the rock back up the hill. In this perpetual
process, Lazarillo and Sisyphus ultimately become masters of their days.



1021
REFERENCES

Alter, R. (1964). Rogues Progress: Studies in the Picaresque Novel. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Bataillon, M. (1958). La vie Lazarillo de Torms. Paris: Editions Montaigne.
Bataillon, M. (1966). Erasmo y Espaa (A. Alatorre, Trans.). Mexico: Fondo de Cultura
Econmica.
Bataillon, M. (1973). Novedad y fecundidad del Lazarillo de Tormes (2
nd
ed.,
L.C. Vsquez, Trans.). Madrid: Anaya.
Bjornson, R. (1977). The Picaresque Hero in European Fiction. Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press.
Castro, A. (1957). Hacia Cervantes. Madrid: Taurus.
Deyermond. A.D. (1975). Lazarillo de Tormes: A Critical Guide. London: Grand &
Cutler Ltd.
Dueck, Jack (1973). Uses of the Picaresque: A Study of Five Modern British Novels.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Notre Dame.
Foster, V.R. (1975). Baltasar Gracin. Boston, MA: Twayne Publishers.
Guilln, C. (1971). Literature As System: Essays Toward the Theory of Literary History.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
La Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus Fortunas y Adversidades (1554). (R.O. Jones
Ed., 1966). Manchester: University Press.
Maravall, J.A. (1986). Culture of the Baroque: Analysis of a Historical Structure
(T. Cochran, Trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press.
Merwin, W.S. (1985). From the Spanish Morning. New York: Athenaeum.
Miller, S. (1967). The Picaresque Novel. Cleveland: Case Western University Press.
Sieber, H. (1977). The Picaresque. London: Methuen.



LENGUAJE Y MEMORIA EN EL COMN OLVIDO Y VARIA
IMAGINACIN DE SYLVIA MOLLOY









LAURA R. LOUSTAU
CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY
ORANGE, CALIFORNIA



1023
Lenguaje y Memoria en El Comn Olvido y Varia Imaginacin de
Sylvia Molloy


En los ltimos dos aos Sylvia Molloy ha publicado dos novelas: El comn olvido
(2002) y Varia imaginacin (2003). Ambas novelas tratan sobre experiencias personales
y familiares vividas principalmente en la Argentina, aunque tambin van acompaadas de
vivencias en los Estados Unidos y en otros pases.
1
En El comn olvido el protagonista
reside en Estados Unidos y regresa a Buenos Aires para arrojar las cenizas del cuerpo de
su madre al Ro de la Plata, tal como lo haba deseado su madre antes de morir. En este
viaje el protagonista recorre espacios y tiempos asentados en la memoria y (re)descubre
ciertas identidades afectivas y verbales que si bien no le permiten llegar a cerrar captulos
de su vida, el proceso mismo reconfirma su continuo estado errante y la imposibilidad de
(re)construir una historia nica y verdadera del pasado familiar y personal. Varia
imaginacin, escrita en primera persona y publicada inmediatamente despus de
El comn olvido, es una autobiografa corta (105 pginas) que incluye recuerdos de la
niez de la protagonista, fragmentos de su vida familiar y de su entorno cuando resida en
Buenos Aires. El libro se caracteriza por el recuerdo de ciertas imgenes, detalles o
situaciones en la vida de la narradora. Molloy misma explica que en Varia imaginacin le
interesa escribir sobre lo visual, la imagen, el impacto de algo que se ve o algo que se

1
Molloy ha reflexionado sobre las experiencias del escritor que escribe desde afuera de su pas de
origen y sobre las relaciones que existen en cuanto al autor, la lengua, la escritura y la nacin. Molloy se
pregunta el destino de la escritura cuando se la desplaza: [C]uando se la disloca, se la desfamiliariza, se la
aliena. Qu significa escribir en (desde) otro lugar? Cmo se tejen las sutiles relaciones entre autor,
lengua, escritura y nacin? Cundo empieza la extranjera de un texto? En el desplazamiento geogrfico,
en el uso de otra lengua, en la extraeza de la ancdota, en el efecto de la traduccin (En breve crcel
pensar otra novela 30). Estas reflexiones tratan de responder a los interrogantes de los autores que escriben
en el extranjero o desde afuera de un crculo poltico y cultural hegemnico.



1024
reconoce o algo que pasa que rompe el orden cotidiano (Schettini). Molloy observa que
no intenta una descripcin detallada de lo personal y familiar, sino que arma el libro de a
pedacitos y no aspira a construir un itinerario, una vida y mucho menos un yo
(Schettini). En los libros de Molloy el acto de recordar y lo que se recuerda posee un
carcter evocativo que no atae directamente a circunstancias polticas. Los protagonistas
no han sido prisioneros polticos ni han sido vctimas de la represin de estado, pero s
sus recuerdos cuestionan, entre otros temas, las polticas del exilio, la marginalidad y la
desterritorializacin en sus manifestaciones ms diversas.
En ambos textos, El comn olvido y Varia imaginacin, hay una conexin muy
estrecha entre al acto mismo de narrar, de recordar y el lenguaje que se emplea para
articular el andamiaje de la memoria. La particularidad de ambas novelas es que los
narradores son conscientes de las tretas de la memoria y es as que especulan sobre el
acto mismo de recordar, cuestionando ambos su poder y su fragilidad. En este ensayo
estudiamos las formas en que los dos textos dialogan y al mismo tiempo se
complementan utilizando el lenguaje como eje (des)ordenador del anlisis. Nos
detenemos en tres instancias donde se intensifica la relacin entre lengua y memoria en
las dos novelas.
2
En la primera instancia dos idiomas extranjeros, el ingls y el francs, se
convierten en un pndulo oscilatorio que le permiten a los protagonistas simultneamente
recordar y olvidar, anclarse y desplazarse, orientarse y desubicarse; en la segunda

2
Se ha estudiado ampliamente la relacin entre lenguaje y memoria. A modo de ejemplo ver el
interesante artculo El lenguaje es memoria de Flora Guzmn. En este artculo la autora seala la relacin
entre la identidad y la lengua. Guzmn hace un recorrido lingstico desde antes de la llegada de los
espaoles. Se centra principalmente en el noroeste argentino. La autora explica: Despus de tantos aos
Amrica sigue luchando por manifestar su propia identidad, construyendo esforzadamente su propia
cultura, interpretndola, a partir de la lengua (7). Guzmn apunta que El lenguaje es memoria y ah ha
quedado atrapada nuestra propia historia. Todo ha quedado en las palabras que, cada vez que convocamos,
actualizan saberes inconscientes encerrados en lo que decimos (5).



1025
instancia los personajes conscientemente utilizan un lxico que reflexiona sobre el acto
de recordar y sobre el concepto de la memoria misma y en la tercera, las imgenes que se
emplean para representar traslados corporales y mentales nos muestran el carcter mvil
y transitorio, desterritorializado, no slo de los cuerpos sino de la identidad de los
personajes.
Existe una estrecha relacin entre los recuerdos (guardados en la memoria) y la
articulacin oral y escrita de esos recuerdos, los que pasan por el tamiz de la elaboracin
narrativa. Esta relacin entre memoria y lenguaje sugiere que no existe una
referencialidad nica remitida a una sola realidad (a los sucesos) sino que lo importante
es la enunciacin o la narracin, el lenguaje mismo que se utiliza para recordar (Molloy,
Acto de presencia 15-16).

LA EXTRANJERA LINGSTICA
En los libros que analizamos, el ingls y el francs ocupan un lugar importante
dentro de las lenguas habladas ya que las familias de los protagonistas son de herencia
inglesa y francesa aunque hablan el espaol argentino por haber nacido y haberse criado
en Buenos Aires. Muchas de las voces que se escuchan en El comn olvido intercalan el
ingls y el espaol pero como se indica en una de las reseas del libro no se trata del
spanglish propio de la cultura latina domesticada en los Estados Unidos, sino a la inversa:
la mayora de los personajes son descendientes de ingleses que conforman los resabios de
lo que supo ser un crculo de elite en la Argentina de mediados del siglo pasado (E.C.,
Nowhere Man).



1026
La narradora de Varia imaginacin recuerda cmo de nia se convirti en figura
intermediaria, traductora de idiomas y de culturas, espacio mvil y fluido que an ahora
desde la adultez no ha abandonado. Al hablar de la influencia del francs en su vida, la
narradora dice:
El francs ocupa en mi vida un lugar complejo, est cargado de pasiones. De
chica quise aprenderlo porque a mi madre le haba sido negado. Hija de franceses,
sus padres cambiaron de lengua al tercer hijo. Mi madre era la octava. En lugar de
hablar francs con la familia, mis abuelos pasaron al espaol, hablando francs
slo entre ellos. Yo quise recuperar esa lengua materna, para que mi madre, al
igual que mi padre, tuviera dos lenguas. Ser monolinge pareca pobreza. (27)
Ya en la adolescencia el conocimiento y aprendizaje formal del francs y ms delante de
sus literaturas (Proust, Racine, Gide) le posibilit, no slo servir a un tercero o actuar de
intermediaria para su madre, sino iluminar sus conocimientos sobre la sexualidad en
general y ms importante sobre su propia sexualidad. Ella admite haberse reconocido en
Andr Gide por su protestantismo, [] sus interminables debates morales acerca de una
sexualidad que yo adivinaba ser la ma aunque no estaba del todo segura (28). El acceso
a la literatura francesa le posibilita la entrada y la salida a espacios vedados a sus propios
padres, a espacios de pensamiento y de conocimiento que la independizan fsica y
verbalmente.
Pero no todas las experiencias lingsticas mencionadas en Varia imaginacin se
aferran a la errancia. En otra instancia, cuando la narradora recuerda a su abuela paterna
inglesa, admite que siente una obsesin por saber en qu idioma ella misma le habl a su
abuela antes de morir:
Recuerdo haberle hablado, no s en que idioma. Este recuerdo, este no saber en
qu idioma le habl no me deja. De hecho, he recurrido a l en dos relatos, trying
to make sense of it: en uno de esos relatos, un chico habla en ingls y hace feliz a
la abuela, en el otro se niega. (76)



1027
La ambigedad caracteriza al recuerdo y esta obsesin por no poder recordar la persigue.
Tal vez la narradora est ms preocupada por no poder recordar, por la incapacidad fsica
de completar el acto de recordar, que por la felicidad de la abuela paterna. La enunciacin
de ambas posibilidades la ubica una vez ms en el deseo de encontrar una respuesta
concreta pero que obviamente la narradora no encuentra porque ese lugar nico, real y
verdadero no existe. El recuerdo mismo oscila entonces entre el acto de recordar y el acto
de olvidar, entre la errancia y la permanencia lingstica. La extranjera lingstica le ha
proporcionado a la narradora por un lado otra forma de pensar el pasado y de pensarse en
el pasado y por otro, y ms que nada, una gran frustracin y angustia por no poder
reconstruir la totalidad del hecho. Este ejercicio mental slo confirma la inevitable
fragmentacin del acto de la memoria y de lo recordado.
Al hablar de memoria y de cmo se recuerda el pasado Salman Rushdie,
refirindose a la India dice: el escritor de la India que escribe fuera de su pases
obligado a verse en espejos rotos, algunos de cuyos fragmentos se han perdido para
siempre (11). Para Rushdie el espejo est roto porque a la distancia el escritor no puede
recuperar exactamente lo que perdi; se ve obligado a crear ficciones, no lugares reales,
sino espacios imaginados. (10). En El comn olvido Daniel trata de reunir los retazos de
las experiencias vividas en la niez en Buenos Aires (que l ha reprimido por mucho
tiempo) pero se encuentra que el acto de recordar (juntar los espejos rotos) es doloroso,
de all que se valga de otros y de la imaginacin para armar su pasado.

ESTRATEGIAS DE LA MEMORIA



1028
En Acto de presencia, Molloy indica que la autobiografa hispanoamericana no
cuestiona ni indaga el proceso mental de recordar hechos del pasado, aunque lo que se
enuncie sean precisamente datos y hechos que se asientan en la memoria. Molloy se
expresa as:
Si bien se centra en un memorator que evoca un pasado del que es, ms o menos,
protagonista, la autobiografa hispanoamericana es parca en especulaciones sobre
el acto mismo de recordar. La memoria apenas se considera: rara vez se menciona
su funcionamiento y jams se la cuestiona. Ya dada por descontado, ya relegada a
una posicin utilitaria, est notoriamente ausente, como tema de un ejercicio cuya
prctica misma depende de ella. (186)
Por el contrario, en las dos novelas que estudiamos, aunque de diferentes maneras, los
personajes reflexionan sobre la memoria, reniegan de la falta de ella y utilizan estrategias
verbales y fsicas para recordar. Por ejemplo, en El comn olvido se observa la reflexin
sobre el acto mismo de recordar desde las primeras pginas: Deca mi madre (y vivira
para experimentarlo en carne propia) que la memoria es un don elusivo, a menudo
infernal (14). El narrador lo atestigua cuando explica que aunque trata de recordar a su
madre, no logro detener una imagen fija sino un torbellino de figuras superpuestas es
ms fcil recordar objetos que fueron suyospor eso conservo algunos de esos objetos:
para convocarla, para celebrar alguno de sus muchos gestos perdidos, para sentirme
menos solo (14). Como estrategia se busca un objeto perdurable para recordar porque
los rostros se escabullen en las grietas de la memoria.
Al referirse a su padre, el narrador dice Son pocos los recuerdos que tengo de l
y a estas alturas no s si son mos (18). De igual manera, Daniel desde Buenos Aires
trata de reconstruir la vida de sus padres por los fragmentos y las versiones de vida que le
cuentan los otros personajes: Ana, la hermana de la madre, Cirilo Dowling, el primo
segundo del padre, Beatriz, la sobrina de la madre de Daniel, Charlotte, amiga y posible



1029
amante de su madre. Aqu la estrategia cambia, se inventa el pasado segn las voces
ajenas para que le pertenezca al que enuncia el recuerdo. Es menos doloroso recordar
algo transmitido por otra persona, que no recordar nada. Aunque como se observa en el
siguiente ejemplo, lo que se puede recordar de haber vivido de nio es en la adultez
efmero y borroso:
Cmo imaginarme, en esta ciudad pobre y abaratada, la juventud de mi madre
cuando apenas recuerdo la ma? Yo tena doce aos cuando me llev de aqu y a
los doce no se han almacenado suficientes recuerdos, quiero decir recuerdos de
lugar que permitan recrear, de lejos, el espacio. Durante aos vi a Buenos Aires a
travs de sus ojos, en sus relatos, y ahora que traigo sus ojos para ver, slo se me
brinda un teln chato y deslucido contra el que intento, en vano, representarme
una comedia de la que nunca fui protagonista. (El comn olvido, 29)
El protagonista reflexiona sobre la dificultad de pensar y recordar espacios narrados por
otros. Descubre que lo que su madre le ha contado sobre Buenos Aires son imgenes y
escenas que no se pueden recrear principalmente por el tiempo transcurrido y porque el
lenguaje es memoria, funcin endeble e insuficiente. En El comn olvido es Simn, el
compaero de Daniel que vive en Nueva York, el que mejor articula y describe el tipo de
memoria verbal y fsica que persigue a Daniel en Buenos Aires: La memoria que
pareceras querer tener [es] una memoria que te permita recuperar todos los datos, con
total precisin, una memoria donde no haya huecos, interrupciones. sa es la memoria
que no te ensea nada, mi querido, porque para entender tienes que aceptar los huecos,
incluso provocarlos, tienes que aprender a olvidar (225). Se sugiere entonces que
conscientemente el protagonista seleccione y fragmente el recuerdo para poder de esa
manera armar una historia personal ms certera y as ms cerca de una cierta realidad
personal.



1030
Por el contrario, en Varia imaginacin no hay referencias tan explicitas sobre el
acto mismo de recordar pero s existen estrategias literarias que aluden a la
reconstruccin de la memoria. Por ejemplo en Homenaje la narradora, mencionando
una gran cantidad de palabras y frases alusivas a la costura, intenta ingresar en los
recuerdos de su madre:
Plumet, broderie, tafeta, falla, gro, sarga, piqu, pao lenci, casimir, fil a fil, brin,
organza, organd, Canes, rangland, manga japonesa, canotier, talle
princesauna presilla, un hilvn, las hombreras, ribetear, enhebrar, una pestaa,
vainilla, punto yerba, un festn. La sisa, la hechura.
Recuerdo estas palabras de mi infancia, en tardes en que haca los deberes y
escuchaba hablar a mi madre y a mi ta que cosan en el cuarto contiguo.
Reproduzco este desorden costurero en su memoria. (21-22)
Estos fulgurantes destellos de memoria (Chababo) que la narradora (des)ordena para su
madre son otro intento por ubicar tiempos y lugares pasados. Este desorden al que
alude la protagonista no hace ms que homenajear (de all el ttulo) las memorias propias
y ajenas y organizar, aunque fragmentadamente, el espacio domstico de las mujeres de
su familia. Es interesante que el elemento (des)ordenador sea el lenguaje, las palabras,
que portadoras de una fuerte intensidad potica reconstruyen un pasado que, como bien
ha indicado Ariel Schettini, en Varia imaginacin ese pasado se representa como retazos
autobiogrficos, trozos de lo vivido, lo contado y lo imaginado.

(DES)TERRITORIALIZACIN CORPORAL E IDENTITARIA
En el intento por reconstruir el pasado, en las vivencias de las sacudidas de la memoria
(El comn olvido 35) el lenguaje que se emplea se conecta a un vaivn entre
desplazamiento y permanencia, entre destiempo y tiempo fijo, entre desorientacin y



1031
orientacin. El sentimiento de errancia y de desubicacin que siente Daniel al llegar a
Buenos Aires es casi aterrador:
No he conocido ciudad donde se pueda estar ms a la deriva, sin tener la
sensacin de llegar a ningn lado [M]i Buenos Aires se deshace a cada paso.
No es slo que los lugares que crea conocer van siendo reemplazado por otros, es
la ciudad entera que, como presa de un sacudimiento ssmico, se va desplazando,
deslizndose hacia otras latitudes, inventndose un nuevo centro a medida que
desaloja el viejo Tengo la sensacin de una ciudad flotante. (36-37)
La desterritorializacin fsica y psquica de Daniel es rizomtica en el sentido que no
encuentra referentes geogrficos citadinos y adems el protagonista siente que la ciudad,
con l adentro, se desplaza y se ramifica a otros espacios. Hay que recordar que una de
las metforas espaciales ms poderosas estudiadas por los crticos franceses Gilles
Deleuze y Flix Pierre Guattari, es la del rizoma, la cual llega a establecer las
subjetividades de la desterritorializacin: Un rizoma no tiene ni principio ni fin, est
siempre en el medio, entre cosas y entre seres, intermezzoel rizoma es alianza,
nicamente alianza (Mi traduccin 25).
3

Esta desterritorializacin rizomtica le produce a Daniel un gran desasosiego,
una gran angustia porque se da cuenta que no tengo a quien contarle estos cambios salvo
a mi madre y mi madre ha muerto (37) pero por otro lado, Daniel no est totalmente
convencido que su madre entendera su zozobra (37). Camina por las calles de Buenos
Aires, deambulando pero al mismo tiempo tratando de encontrar algn edificio o iglesia,
que l cree recordar habrselo escuchado nombrar a su madre. Intenta territorializarse,
pisar tierra conocida en su memoria. Pero esta empresa no tiene xito y Daniel se pierde

3
Vanse las siguientes definiciones del rizoma segn Deleuze y Guattari: The rhizome is an
antigenealogy. It is short-term memory, or antimemory. The rhizome operates by variation, expansion,
conquest, capture, offshoots the rhizome pertains to a map that must be produced, constructed, a map
that is always detachable, connectable, reversible, modifiable, and has multiple entryways and exists and its
own lines of flight the rhizome is an acentered, nonhierarchical, nonsignifying system with a General
and without an organizing memory or central automation, defined solely by a circulation of states (21).



1032
por las calles de Buenos Aires. La aparente seguridad de un recuerdo no lo lleva al
destino, sino que lo desubica ms, lo desterritorializa. En cierto sentido, desplazamiento,
memoria y lenguaje se vuelven parte de la experiencia de Daniel, un exiliado en Buenos
Aires y tambin en Nueva York, al que ahora desde Buenos Aires tampoco considera su
lugar permanente. La experiencia del viaje ha dislocado a Daniel an ms. Ya es
oximornicamente un permanente ser errante.
En Varia imaginacin el captulo que le da ttulo al libro de Molloy, se recuerda
de qu manera la madre de la protagonista trat el tema de las relaciones amorosas con su
hija. Una vez ms el tema se plantea a partir de un viaje. Se sorprendi y se ri, recuerda
la protagonista, cuando su madre le pregunt si tena un hijo en Pars, por la frecuencia
con la que viajaba a ese pas europeo. La protagonista inventa un amante imaginario,
Julin, que viaja en la mente de la madre y de la hija, aunque ambas saben que es una
artificialidad. Finalmente la protagonista le cuenta a su madre que en realidad el amante
hombre es mujer. La madre dice no saber mucho de esos amores, y admite no recordar
ninguna referencia que alguna vez le hizo a su hija sobre las mujeres mayores que buscan
secretarias jvenes parisinas para encuentros amorosos. Una vez ms se plantea el deseo
desde la errancia y la extranjera, desde el desplazamiento y la permanencia de un
recuerdo fragmentado. Simn, en Estados Unidos, Cacho en Buenos Aires, Julin hombre
y Julin mujer, en Francia, son algunos de los nombres y espacios que se piensan en
relacin a experiencias amorosas de los protagonistas y se recuerdan desde el hoy de la
narracin. El espacio de las relaciones amorosas no encuentra fronteras (se mueve de
norte a sur y de este a oeste) ni lenguajes (francs, ingls, espaol), sigue las pautas de
movilidad no slo del recuerdo mismo sino de la propia identidad de los protagonistas.



1033
Tanto Daniel en El comn olvido como la narradora en Varia imaginacin deambulan
hasta el final en una suerte de desterritorializacin identitaria, lingstica y nacional. Las
ltimas lneas de El comn olvido lo atestiguan:
Llegamos [a Nueva York] con tormenta de nieve. El invierno se vino temprano,
anuncian por lo menos dos pies de nieve, me dijo en espaol el taxista, a pesar de
que yo le haba dado la direccin en ingls. Cmo sabe que hablo espaol?, le
dije. Esas cosas siempre se saben, me contest. Y no pregunt ms. (356)
En este ensayo hemos analizado tres instancias donde es posible poner nfasis en
la relacin entre lenguaje y memoria. Nos hemos detenido en la extranjera lingstica del
francs, ingls y espaol para denotar la ambigedad y el carcter incierto del acto de
recordar; en la segunda instancia hemos analizado la forma en que los personajes
conscientemente reflexionan sobre el concepto de la memoria y finalmente hemos
estudiado el empleo de ciertas imgenes rizomticas que han demostrado el carcter
mvil y transitorio no slo de los recuerdos sino tambin de las identidades de los
personajes.
Es posible encontrar en los mismos ttulos de los libros estudiados, El comn
olvido y Varia imaginacin, un punto de contacto iluminador en cuanto al tema del
lenguaje y la memoria, pues es en el vaivn entre la imaginacin y el olvido donde
residen los resquicios de la memoria que aunque fragmentada y elusiva siempre vale la
pena rescatar no slo para reconstruir trozos de pasados personales sino familiares y
colectivos.



1034
BIBLIOGRAFA

Barrenechea, Ana Mara. Archivos de la memoria. Palabras introductorias. Archivos de
la memoria. Rosario: Beatriz Viterbo Editora, 2003.
Chababo, Rubn. Lecturas. Tras los gestos mnimos (sobre Varia imaginacin de
Sylvia Molloy) 2003. 28 de octubre de 2003
http://www.beatrizviterbo.com.ar/prensa.asp?vernovedad=225
Deleuze, Gilles and Flix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia.
Trans. by Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987.
E.C. Rev. of El comn olvido by Sylvia Molloy. Nowhere Man 15 de enero de 2004
<www.literama.net/resenas/molloy.html>
Guzmn, Flora. El lenguaje es memoria. Torre de Papel 4.1 (1994): 5-18.
Massare, Bruno. Memoria de una juventud en Olivo Clarn.com 2003. 3 de octubre de
2003 <http://old.clarin.com/suplementos/cultura/2003/07/26/u-00601.htm>
Molloy, Sylvia. Acto de presencia. La escritura autobiogrfica en Hispanoamrica.
Mxico, D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Econmica, 1996.
. El comn olvido. Buenos Aires: Editorial Norma, 2002.
. En breve crcel: pensar otra novela. Punto de vista. Revista de cultura 21.62
(1998): 29-32.
. Varia imaginacin. Rosario: Beatriz Viterbo editora, 2003.
Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary Homelands. Essays and Criticism. London: Granta Books.
1991.
Schettini, Ariel. Saldos y retazos Pgina 12 2003. 28 de octubre de 2003
<www.pagina12web.com.ar/suplementos/libros/vernota.php?id_nota=697&sec=>
Vezzetti, Hugo. Activismos de la memoria: el escrache. Punto de vista. Revista de
cultura 21.62 (1988): 1-7.



PRISON LITERATURE:
WHERE SHOULD IT BE LEADING BLACKS IN THE 21
ST

CENTURY?






THERESA MOHAMED, ED.D.
ONONDAGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK




1036
Prison Literature: Where Should It Be Leading Blacks in the 21
st

Century?


Since slavery, White Americans domination of Blacks has also included control
of the legal system. In a society nurtured on racist ideologies, exhibited through the
genocide of Native people and the enslavement and dehumanization of Black people, the
institutionalization of racism into the legal system was tantamount. Until today, young
Black men are disproportionately incarcerated, and this practice is itself slaverys legacy;
the early plantation can be viewed as a prison with mass incarceration of black people.
These blacks were prisoners without crimes. Today, actual prisons have replaced the
plantations, and Blacks remain largely a criminalized group.
In an examination of prison literature, from such individuals as Malcolm X,
Angela Davis, George Jackson, Mumia Abu-Jamal and others, solutions can be garnered;
it is crucial, upon entering the twenty- first century, that Blacks utilize the resources of
those who have served in the trenches during the struggle for human rights. This is urgent
since the criminalization and incarceration of Blacks continue to dramatically impact the
black community. This examination must take into account the root causes of
discriminatory practices against Blacks.

THE LEGACY OF DISCRIMINATION
The causes are rooted in centuries of discriminatory laws against African-
Americans, which led to an inherited legacy of victimization and abuse, beginning with



1037
the black codes in the south right after slavery. These laws managed to keep blacks in an
extended state of slavery by reestablishing slavery under a new name. The rights of free
men were restricted under just about any circumstance: they could not travel about freely,
be vagrant, hold certain jobs, own a gun, vote, nor participate in the judicial sys tem. They
could have their children taken from them and be whipped for any real or devised
infraction. The Reconstruction Acts passed by the Republicans were no match for the
terrorism of the KKK and lynch mobs, who forced blacks into compliance and meted out
their own brand of justice in order to insure continued domination. Often, in the southern
court, the judge and jury were members of the KKK. The Klan posed a constant threat.
Lerone Bennett, Jr. (1988) says that blacks were lynched almost on a daily basis, and, in
some communities, it grew into a form of entertainment. Bennett explains:
As the decades wore on, and as Negro-baiting became more virulent, lynching
became more barbarous, and lynchers became more sadistic. Victims, including
women, black and white women, were burned at the stake, mutilated, hacked to
pieces, and roasted over slow fires. Contrary to the generally accepted view, only
a small percentage of the 1217 persons lynched between 1890 and 1900 were
accused of rape. Othersthe overwhelming majoritywere charged with the
crimes of testifying against whites in court, seeking another job, using offensive
language, failing to say mister to whites, disputing the price of blackberries,
attempting to vote and accepting the job of postmaster (p. 271).
Hine, Hine, & Harrold (2003) say that justice was segregated. Blacks who insisted
on jury service were beaten by the KKK and forced to step down. In addition, Blacks
were charged with crimes more than whites and were given longer sentences and fines.
Even as the victims of crimes, they would be punished. Race mattered most when it came
to white jurors; therefore, whites were rarely punished. Of course, black-on-black crimes
were not as harshly punished as black-on-white crimes (p. 329). This pattern holds true



1038
today, and possibly explains why black-on-black crime is most prevalent. The following
court cases against Blacks illustrate this new form of slavery later on around 1936:
Alabamas new Burglary Law was applied here for the first time today when a
jury found James Thomas, guilty of burglary in which $1.50 was the loot and
fixed his punishment at life imprisonment. The jurors had heard a strong plea
from the prosecutor for the death penalty.
Milly Lee was a Negro woman convicted of using abusive language, and
fined one dollar and cost. She worked out the fine in two days, but it required
nearly a year of labor to satisfy the costs consisting of fees to judge, sheriff,
clerks and witnesses, totaling $132 (Franklin, 1998, p. 7).
Such cases were enslavement under the guise of the law. Other cases show where
the local deputy sheriffs and others drew no pay but were paid on a commission basis,
contingent on how many blacks they arrested: The judge who tried the accused then
drew his pay from the court costs he levied against those he found guilty. Whenever
former slave owners, construction companies, labor contractors, or the state itself needed
a supply of cheap labor, local sheriffs, police, and judges operating on the fee system
obliged with alacrity (Franklin, 1998, p. 5). Blacks, unable to pay court fines, were
ushered off onto chain gangs to provide free labor for the state under conditions often
resembling concentration/slave camps. The convict-lease system helped to build the
infrastructure of the south. Thus the basis for continued racism and discrimination
remained economic.
The emergence of Jim Crow laws caused even more suffering for blacks. These
laws isolated blacks in a space that was under constant surveillance. Within this space,
interactions were created that would lead black men straight to prison. And because
separate was not equal, blacks had little hopes of stepping outside of their designated
space; therefore, they were denied social, economic, and political opportunities. As
Blacks were being deliberately criminalized, by being arrested for any infraction:



1039
vagrancy, loitering, creating a public nuisance, and so on, they received exaggerated
sentences, uncommon to the general population. These actions were two- fold: to gain
slave labor and to remove the problem (Black men and women) from society.
This scenario happened nearly one and forty years ago, and the scene is not that
different today. Segregation still exists in many communities across the country. These
contained communities are bubbling over with frustration, poverty, and hopelessness,
leaving young black men to survive, sometimes through criminal activities. These dying
communities are often left to fester and reproduce the same disillusion and despair. When
these criminal activities spill over and affect the mainstream populations, the result is the
incarceration and criminalization of Blacks.
When it came to blacks, circumvention of the law became the norm. These
injustices were so deeply rooted that they continue until today; they are built into the
system and function on their own as institutionalized racism and discrimination are meant
to do. Since there has always been a direct economic benefit to whites, these practices
have never been aggressively challenged but have been maintained for generations. The
legacy of privilege has been passed on to Whites while the legacy of discrimination has
been maintained for Blacks. A more cohesive definition of institutional racism follows:
Race prejudice is rooted in the belief that ones own race warrants a positive
attitude and that other races should be viewed negatively. When institutional
power is added to prejudice, the result is racism. Within such a perspective, if the
social, political, economic, religious, and educational structures or the major
institutions in a society benefit a particular racethe white race in the United
Statesat the expense of other races, the practice is identified as institutional
racism. (Mann, 1993, p. 21)
Today, young black men are still disproportionately incarcerated. Although
numbering only 12 percent of the population, they represent 40 percent of those



1040
incarcerated in this country. And at least 30 percent of all black men will be incarcerated
during their lifetime, according to Justice Department statistics. This has dramatic
implications for the black family. As a result, the stability of the black family will always
be influx. Many of the marriageable men between the ages of 20 and 34 years old will be
behind bars. This continues to be a constant source of disruption in the black family. It
also means disenfranchisement from the political process. Their rights to shape the
policies that will affect their lives, as well as their children, have been removed. Over one
million Black men have lost the right to vote because of felony convictions.
Black men convicted of crimes when they were young and caught up in the cycle
of victimization will not get a second chance. This also includes employment
opportunities that will now be denied because of a criminal record. Unable to support a
family, the frustration begins to build all over again. More unfortunate is that
incarceration of black men has become an acceptable way of life for many black
communities, and a rite of passage for many young men. This is the legacy that was
handed down to them.
Black inmates between 20 and 34 years of age are a disproportionate number at
12 percent, compared to White inmates in this age group at 1.4 percent. Since many of
the marriageable age Black men are in prison, this contributes to the black single-headed
households, leaving more Black children to be born out of wedlock. This is turn has a
direct affect on educational failure, drug abuse and early parenthood. (Tucker, 2003,
p. C2) These young inmates are also prone to become career criminals because of their
exposure to other hardened criminals. Certainly there are violent black criminals who
deserve to be incarcerated; however, minor offenders should not be housed with hardened



1041
criminals. This abuse is compounded by the fact that blacks are six times as likely as
whites to be sentenced by juvenile courts to prison time For those charged with drug
offenses, black youths are 48 times more likely than whites to be sentenced to juvenile
prisons (C2). At every stage of the justice system, discrimination accumulates and
skyrockets when juveniles are tried as adults (Wilson, 2000, p. 68). Usually kids of
color are thrown in jail while White kids committing comparable crimes get
rehabilitation.

MALCOLM X AND GEORGE JACKSON
Malcolm X and George Jackson exemplify this group of young Black men who
are often criminalized. Thus, there are many similarities between the lives of Malcolm X
and George Jackson. Jacksons Soledad Brother and The Autobiography of Malcolm X
were both published to educate blacks. In both texts, it is not until Jackson and Malcolm
are in prison that the veils of ignorance begin to fall away. It is here where they begin to
understand the structure of a racist society and come to the realization that they will never
truly be free in this country because their freedom poses a threat to the capitalist structure
since blacks were used as fuel for the capitalist machinery. A new world opens up to both
men while in prison as they begin the process of self-education. Self-education, however,
is not enough. Both are mentored: Malcolm by Elijah Muhammad and Jackson through
his affiliation with the Black Panther Party. Both of these men symbolize the struggle of
all blacks in their efforts to free themselves from the shackles of an ever-constant
oppressive society. Both are that percentage of young men who fall into a silent world
filled with hate, and, subsequently, resort to a life of crime.



1042
On the streets, Malcolm had been a hoodlum, hustler, pimp, dope dealer and thief.
It was too difficult for Malcolm to rise above his circumstances to become anything else.
His childhood experiences, as detailed in the autobiography, are those of knowing that his
father has been murdered by white supremacists. He watches his mother go crazy after
the white insurance salesman cheats her out of her husbands death benefits. As a result,
all the children are split up. Malcolm realizes that his being black is a problem to society,
so the process of self-destruction of his worthless life begins. This is his escape into the
deeper levels of hell. If he wanted to fight back, he wouldnt know where to begin
because he must first seek out his true identity, which is hidden from Blacks in this
society.
Jackson does not fare much better. His early life is troublesome. He commits a
number of robberies with friends as his life spins out of control. He notices early on that
he is different from whites and that he is kept separate from them. Subsequently, he
notices the all white school across the street from his own school, where the children are
driven to and from school in large private buses and cars. He takes the streetcar that he
has fallen off a hundred times. He describes their school: They had a large grass and
tree studded garden with an eight- foot wrought iron fence bordering it (to keep us
out ). The white students yard was equipped with picnic tables for spring lunches,
swings, slides and other more sophisticated gadgets (p. 6). The facilities at Jacksons
school are much more substandard. When children from both of these schools notice
these differences, intensified feelings of inferiority prevail for Black students, and
intensified feelings of superiority prevail for the whites. Both Black and White children
are forced into societys proscribed roles at an early age.



1043
W.E.B. Dubois says that at a young age Blacks are made to feel different. They
realize they are a problem to society. They are not allowed the entitlements,
opportunities, or promises that whites have. Their existence alone causes anxiety for
many whites. As a result, they internalize these feelings of inferiority (p. 38) They begin
to feel impotent in a society where they do not even have power over their own lives
(Mohamed, 2001, p. 322). At this point, many black youths will carve out a niche for
themselves in the streets. Majors and Billson (1992) explain:
Toughness, violence, and disregard of death and danger become the hallmark of
survival in a world that does not respond to reasonable efforts to belong and
achieve. The frustration that inevitably wells up from believing in a role that one
cannot fulfill effectively spills over into other ways of proving masculinity: being
cool, being tough, and sinking deeper and deeper into the masking behaviors that
remove the sting of failure. (323).
Angela Davis (1971) explains this phenomenon further: In the context of the
class exploitation and a national oppression it should be clear that numerous individuals
are compelled to resort to criminal acts, not as a result of conscious choiceimplying
other alternativesbut because society has objectively reduced their possibilities of
subsistence and survival to this level (p. 28). On this path, the next inevitable encounter
is with the judicial system. Davis continues, The vicious circle linking poverty, police,
courts, and prison is an integral element of ghetto existence because it is deeply rooted
in the Black mans existence and part of the racist machinery of the judicial system
(p. 33). Davis points out that not all black criminals have committed crimes, and the
built in racism of the judicial process unfairly metes out its kind of justice (p. 28).
The case of George Jackson clearly exhibits the classic frame- up. In 1960 Jackson
went on trial for allegedly robbing a gas station for $70. Since he is poor and uneducated,
he is unable to afford a good lawyer. The one he has urges him to plead guilty because he



1044
has two prior arrests although he did not commit the crime. At the age of eighteen, he is
railroaded like many other young black men and is given an outrageous sentence of one
year to life. Eight of these are spent in solitary confinement under unnatural conditions.
When he is not in solitary, he is locked up for 23 hours a day. A guard is murdered
while Jackson is in prison, and he and two other inmates are charged in the slaying
because they are known militants. Eventually Jackson is acquitted of murder charges,
only after he has already been murdered in prison.
Malcolm finds similar disparities within the legal system. Malcolm and his friend,
Shorty, are arrested in 1946, along with two white female accomplices. First, the girls
bail is set low, but Shorty and Malcolm get a bail they cannot raise, $10,000
(X, Malcolm, 1964, 149). Malcolm and Shorty received three concurrent eight to ten year
sentences, and the girls received a one to five year sentence in the womens reformatory.
Later Malcolm learns that the average burglary sentence for a first offender was about
two years. A letter from Elijah Muhammad helps Malcolm to understand what took place
during the sentencing: The black prisoner, he said, symbolized white societys crime of
keeping black men oppressed and deprived and ignorant and unable to get decent jobs,
turning them into criminals (169).
A new world opens up for Malcolm while in prison as he begins the process of
self-education. He is shocked when he begins reading about slaverys total horror.
Malcolm feels angry and cheated when he realizes that the truth has been hidden from
him for all of these years. He learns that the history that was taught to him in school had
been whitened and that the black man has been brainwashed for hundreds of years. The
power of knowledge enables Malcolm, for the first time in his life, to forge an identity.



1045
His life changes 360 degrees: he is strong, confident, and focused. He is able to follow a
strict moral code. The Malcolm who emerges from prison in 1952 goes on to lead his
people from under the veil of ignorance and to build the Nation of Islam into a wealthy,
powerful national organization by creating new temples. He attracts many of his
followers from prison, just as he was recruited.
Jackson also forges an identity while in prison. He says, I met Marx, Lenin,
Trotsky, Engels, and Mao when I entered prison and they redeemed me. For the first four
years I studied nothing but economics and military ideas (Jackson, 1994, p. 16). While
Malcolm recruits on the streets, Jackson recruits Blacks within prison. Jackson attempts
to transform the black criminal mentality into a black revolutionary mentality. As a
result, he is subjected to the worse violence while in prison and labeled a militant activist.
It also meant for him automatic denial of parole, but he does not relent. Jackson receives
affirmation for his work from the Black Panther Party. He is made a member of the
Peoples Revolutionary Army at the rank of general and field marshal and is put in
charge of prison recruitment.
Malcolm and Jacksons lives are exceptions because most black prisoners remain
ignorant of the forces that have shaped their lives, and are, therefore, unable to forge
positive change. Usually, those who are imprisoned for minor offenses become career
criminals. Malcolm and Jackson should not have had to take this route. The educational
system should have provided an alternate course. Education has usually meant a way out
for many white immigrant groups that were subsequently allowed to assimilate into the
larger society. Unfortunately for many blacks, the educational system fails or mis-
educates them. The failure of schools to respond to the needs of blacks have helped to



1046
fortify the walls that keep them imprisoned. Andrew Hacker (1995) says that it is mainly
the insensitivity in schools that has had the most damaging effects on young peoples
psyches. This happens when cultures and contributions are distorted, marginalized, or
omitted (p. 173). He feels that black childrens needs have not been served in schools,
and their abilities and aspirations are discouraged or destroyed (pp. 175-6).
The educational system in America is self- serving because knowledge is
legitimized and shaped by those individuals in control, and racist historical forces have
shaped it: Blacks went from inferior segregated schools to hostile integrated ones.
Michael Apple (1993) says:
We must acknowledge and understand the tremendous capacity of dominant
institutions to regenerate themselves not only in their material foundation and
structure but in the hearts and minds of people (p. 62). In a capitalist economy,
only the knowledge required by economically powerful groups would become
legitimate in publicly supported schools The state tends to balance the opposing
interests of different segments of dominant groups Economic, political, and
cultural elites will seek a maximum amount of support from other groups for their
educational policies in return for conceding a minimum amount of
diversification (p. 67).
Naim Akbar (1999) agrees that damage is being done to young Black people as a
result of ignorance. They dont know who they are or what they are capable of achieving.
He says that Black peoples minds must be liberated and knowledge of the self is of
utmost importance in removing the shackles. However, the problem is that Blacks are
overloaded with information on whites and receive little to no information about
themselves. Akbar (1999) says:
This barrage of information about European and American greatness is
systematically given to themselves to insure that they maintain their
consciousness of who they are. Quite accurately, they realize that unless their
children are given information about themselves they will never develop the
consciousness that will permit them to maintain their control and influence over



1047
the worlds major resources and their actions of self-determination and survival
within the human family (p. 34).
Of the insights to be gained from the writings of Malcolm and Jackson are that
black children must be provided with the tools to succeed in a racist society. The same
way that children cannot be sent out ill-clothed in winter and expect to survive, they
cannot be sent out into a racist society without the tools to combat the many layers of
hostility and discouragement they will face. They will become discouraged, and the anger
will be turned inwards. Jackson, Malcolm, and many other young Black men and women
have turned this anger inward: the results are inculcation of inferiority, high drop out
rates, teen pregnancy, criminal involvement, and other self-defacing acts. Ideally, then,
Black children must develop a sense of identity that is continually nurtured before even
starting school. How many Black children are being subjected to this misdirection on a
daily basis? This will help protect their fragile psyches from racial-based incidents that
may occur. For Malcolm, his last hope was in school, where he was at the top of his class,
but his teacher discouraged his pursuits. Malcolms eighth grade teacher told him that he
couldnt be a lawyer because that was not a realistic goal for a nigger. Malcolm
internalized this rejection and developed a sense of worthlessness. He subsequently
dropped out of school in the eighth grade and pursued a destructive course. Malcolm did
not know his worth, so he was easily led astray.

ANGELA DAVIS
Angela Davis early life differs markedly from the lives of George Jackson and
Malcolm X. Davis parents were educated and provided the guidance that she needed to



1048
be successful in school. However, like Malcolm, Jackson and other Black children,
ambivalent attitudes toward the white world developed early for Angela Davis (1974):
On the one hand there was our instinctive aversion toward those who prevented us
from realizing our grandest as well as our most trivial wishes. On the other, there
was the equally instinctive jealousy which came from knowing that they had
access to all the pleasurable things we wanted. (p. 85)
Davis noticed the differences within the Alabama school system she attended. The
black segregated school was shabbier compared to the white school. The textbooks were
used, torn, and insufficient. There were no sports or gym, and the school was controlled
by an all- white board of education. Although the surroundings and conditions inculcated
inferiority in the children, the school had a Black teaching staff that instilled a strong,
positive identification through the teaching of black history. The Black National Anthem
was sung, and individuals like Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and
others were studied, along with the required curriculum.
Although Davis mentions that the teachers prepared students for the obstacles
they would face in a white racist society, she said that they did so as part of the natural
order of things, rather than the product of a system of racism, which we could eventually
overturn (1974, p. 92). She also felt that the school emphasized individual strivings and
accomplishments over collective struggle. Davis saw contradictions when Black teachers
put on a good show for White visitors, who called Black teachers by their first names, a
euphemism for Nigger. Also, she saw blacks in the community fighting amongst
themselves instead of fighting the real enemy (p. 93).
Psychological oppression is largely responsible for the self-defeatist attitudes that
these teachers and many other Blacks attach to themselves. Psychological shackles allow
many Blacks to view long-standing discriminatory practices as acceptable ways of life,



1049
like many of the discriminatory practices within the judicial system. Such practices must
be openly challenged and Black children must be provided with the tools to prevent their
own victimization. Without such changes, Blacks will continue to participate in and
contribute to their own victimization.
Even though Davis childhood is carefully guided and structured by teachers and
parents, she ends up on the FBIs ten most wanted criminals list on charges of murder,
kidnapping, and conspiracy. As a result of Davis affiliation with the Communist Party
and commitment to the struggle for human rights, she becomes a political prisoner. Davis
is criminalized and spends sixteen months in jail and is eventually acquitted of all
charges. Blacks fit the profile for being political prisoners in this country. Coramae
Richey Mann (1993) says:
Many minorities view themselves as political prisoners. In fact, it has been said
that all black prisoners are political prisoners, for their condition derives from
the political inequity of black people in America. A black prisoners crime may or
may not have been a political action against the state, but the states action against
him is always political. This knowledge, intuitively known and sometimes
transcribed into political terms, exists within every black prisoner. (p. 236-7)
In her autobiography, Davis (1974) portrays the inhumanity of jails and prisons,
and she discusses how inhumane treatment encourages obedience and submissiveness
that keeps the prisoner imprisoned: Jails and prisons are designed to break human
beings, to convert the population into specimens in a zooobedient to our keepers, but
dangerous to each other (p. 52). Such treatment is reminiscent of the dehumanizing
process that took place on the early plantations that left Blacks broken and hopeless.
Davis teaches the women prisoners how to stand up for their rights when they are treated
as little more than animals: they can have no toilet paper, soap, tooth brushes, washcloths
or books in their tiny, filthy cells. Davis brings in conscious-raising books, begins



1050
discussion groups, starts exercise regiments, and educates the prisoners. She tries to
awaken in them an unknown potential through collective political activity. Even today,
Angela Davis continues in the struggle as she fights for social justice for all people.
Even though the major focus has been on Black male prisoners, possibly because
women, in general, are a much smaller percentage of the U.S. prison population, Black
women have experienced the greatest increase over the years. Paula Johnson (2003) in
her book, Inner Voices, captures the stories of some of these women trapped in the
system of inequalities, and reveals the urgency of eradicating unjust judicial practices.
Bureau of Justice Statistics show that two-thirds of incarcerated women are those of
color, a majority African-American: Black women have an incarceration rate of 200 per
100,000; Hispanic women have a rate of 87 per 100,000; and, White women have a rate
of 25 per 100,000 (p. 6).

MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
Mumia Abu-Jamal was arrested on December 9, 1981 and convicted shortly after
for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer. At that time he was a well-known activist
and journalist. In his earlier years he was a member of the Black Panther Party, leading
many to speculate that his conviction was based on his political beliefs and associations,
making him a political prisoner (1996, p. 177). This illustrates the tragedy of this double-
edged sword of injustice. African-Americans are to be punished for committing even a
minor crime or for being a conscientious thinker and activist.
Certainly, the details of his case pose many questions. First, Mumias court
appointed lawyer had very limited funds to carry out an investigation, one hundred and



1051
fifty dollars. Also, the attorney was inexperienced and tried to be excused from the case.
Next, the jury was hastily assembled. Mumias lawyer was forced to expedite the
selection process. Of the jury composition, one jury members best friend was an ex-
police officer, who had been shot in the line of duty. An alternate jurors husband was a
Philadelphia police officer. Counsel made no objections to these blatantly suspect
selections. Then an African-American juror was replaced with a white male. There are
just some of the questionable practices that took place during the trial.
On the day of the shooting, Mumia, who was also a cabdriver with a permit to
carry a gun, arrived at a scene where his brother was being beaten by police officers. A
shooting took place, which left a police officer dead and Mumia wounded. An
examination of Mumias weapon did not prove that the fatal bullet that killed the police
officer came from his gun. Deeply troubling was the testimony of the prosecutors four
key witnesses: one was a prostitute with an extensive arrest record serving a prison term.
Her eyewitness accounts varied with each telling, and were contradicted by the other
witnesses. Two other witnesses said they saw Mumia running to the scene but did not see
the shooting, although they do confirm that shots took place. The final witness, a cab
driver, who was closest to the scene of the shooting, said that the shooter fled the scene
and ran into an alley way, giving a description of the man that was much different than
Mumias. This account would clear Mumia because he was found shot at the scene.
However, at the trial, the cabdriver changed his story, saying that the shooter sat down on
the curb at the scene. A resident of the community confirmed that a man ran from the
scene as well, but this was never followed up. These questionable facts would lead to
reasonable doubt in most peoples minds.



1052
At a new trial thirteen years later, the same Judge heard Mumias case. Although
Judge Sabo had since retired and was only helping out with backlogged cases, he was
chosen to hear the case, and the outcome was predictable. Mumias has spent over twenty
years on death row. Mumia confirms the alarming Justice Department Statistics, which
show that in 1994, Blacks constituted 40 percent of men on death row. In Pennsylvania
over 60 percent of death row inmates were Black (111 out of 184), although they are only
9 percent of the states population (p. xxvii). There is a strong possibility that many of
these Black men on death row could be innocent.
In 2000, Governor Ryan of Illinois halted all executions in his state. Northwestern
University journalism and law students uncovered key evidence that overturned the
convictions of seven death-row inmates in this state. Mayor Richard Daley blamed
incompetent defense. Another investigation found that thirty-three death-row inmates in
Illinois were represented by attorneys who were later disbarred or suspended. Without an
investigation of how this tragedy was allowed to happen, the new governor of Illinois is
pushing to have the moratorium on the death penalty lifted (Cole, 2000, p. 68). It is back
to business as usual.
A number of studies conclude that Blacks who kill Whites are more likely to
receive a death sentence than if their victim were Black. As well, juries remain mostly
white throughout the U.S, and these white juries are more sympathetic to white victims.
In the Baldus study, more than 2,000 murder cases were examined that took place in
Georgia in the 1970s. Racial disparities were discovered: Baldus and his colleagues
found that defendants charged with killing white victims received the death penalty
eleven times more often than defendants charged with killing black victims (Cole, 1999,



1053
pp. 132-133). And Blacks killing whites received the death sentence 22 percent of the
time while white defendants charged with killing black victims received the death penalty
in only 3 percent of the cases. It seems that Georgia prosecutors sought the death penalty
in 70 percent of cases involving Blacks, while seeking the death penalty only 19 percent
of the times in cases that involved Whites. Such statistics have been replicated in every
study on race and the death penalty (p. 134). Mumia implores people to wake up to these
injustices that are claiming Black lives.

WORKING TOWARD A SOLUTION
Malcolm and Jacksons lives clearly illustrate that self-knowledge is a critical
factor in forging a positive identity. Children should never be ignorant of the
accomplishments and contributions of African-Americans to this country. They must
understand that slavery is not their crime or shame and that inferiority and superiority
roles, established during slavery, were predicated on myth and out of greed. Their fragile
psyches must be fortified to withstand the scars that they will inevitably encounter while
growing up in a white, racist society. Sad as this may seem, this is the reality for Black
children in this country. Sadder still, is the parents nightmare of watching their children
suffer abuses in a country that they have sweated, toiled and fought for and of which they
are citizens. In order to educate children and combat racisms destructive forces, a list of
reading materials and documentaries that children can view at appropriate stages of their
development should be established in consultation with Black psychologists, historians,
and social scientists. They must be a requirement of every African-American household
to insure that children develop as healthy an identity as possible. It is just not realistic to



1054
expect Black children to accomplish this in a racist society without the tools to do so.
Like Malcolm and Jackson, who had mentors in prison, children must also have
guidance. In many cases, parents can serve as mentors.
However, in many inner city neighborhoods children will not have the appropriate
guidance because many Black parents remain psychologically oppressed, and they pass
this oppression onto their children. Thus, the segregated inner cities remain the greatest
challenge; they are Jim Crow replications, where life itself is a prison because individuals
remain corralled off. This is where the largest prison/plantation recruits are derived.
Escape is a deeper hell inside of societys prison. Ways of reaching this population must
continue to be devised. Social justice movements are one way of becoming directly
involved in order to effect change. Initiatives aimed at addressing this urgent problem
must be promoted. The ultimate goal is to uproot criminal injustice. All energies must be
expended in this effort to overthrow the system of oppression.
Psychological oppression has been and continues to be the greatest challenge to
Blacks. Malcolm X, George Jackson, Angela Davis, and Mumia Abu-Jamal have all
sacrificed a great deal to bring their message to the people. They tried to wake Black
people up in order to free their minds from the psychological shackles maintained over
the last three hundred years through the institutionalization of racism and discrimination
in every facet of Black peoples lives. Only through awareness and a conscious effort will
Blacks be able to free themselves from these remaining shackles. Black people must
control their own fate. Criminalizing young Black youths is one way of silencing their
voice in the struggle and keeping them oppressed.



1055
The shackles include inferior complexes that Blacks have lived with for
generations because they are reinforced by the dominant culture through institutionalized
racism. Inculcation of inferiority damages the psyche and undermines abilities. Facts that
attest that these inferior complexes still exist include: a lack of respect for African-
American leadership and expertise, continued emulation of white looks while thinking
negatively about dark skin and bad hair. The high black-on-black homicide rate is also
indicative of inferiority. The fact that we remain as consumers and laborers, rather than
manufacturers, planners, and managers, has a lot to do with the sense of inferiority
(Akbar, (1999), p. 15). Blacks must build on the strengths of their past and provide strong
images for Black children. We must seek to overcome the plantation ghost by
identifying the forces which lead to enslavement and self-abasement. We must build
and maintain strong, clean, and safe communities. The ability to influence our
environments in some small way is the first step towards building or restoring self-
respect (p. 15).
Finally, the issue of reparations has been a topic of debate. Reparations is
necessary to combat criminal injustice since it is a public airing. It is about uncovering
many practices of the past in order to understand how they affect all people today. It is
about uncovering the myths in which both Blacks and Whites have become enslaved. All
people must understand the atrocities that were committed during slavery, the same way
they understand the events of the Holocaust. Whites must understand that their liberty
and freedom to enjoy this country came at the expense of black labor. Reparations seeks
the political power that a public apology has to offer toward healing, repair, and
restoration. In addition to Blacks being compensated for the unpaid wages of their



1056
ancestors, reparations is a way for Blacks to heal from the psychological damages, which
still affect them today. Reparations will force people to be honest about practices that
exist that infringe on one group and that has a direct benefit for another group. Intensified
efforts in the call for reparations must be made as part of the solution to criminal
injustice.



1057
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Akbar, N. (1999). Breaking the chains of psychological slavery. Florida: Mind
Productions & Associates.
Apple, M.W. (1993). Official knowledge: Democratic education in a conservative age.
New York: Routledge.
Bennett, L. Jr. (1988). Before the mayflower: A history of Black America. New York:
Penguin.
Cole, C. (2/14/2000). Death takes a holiday: Illinois halts executions while reviewing
mistakes. Time, p. 68.
Cole, D. (1999). No equal justice. New York: The New Press.
Davis, A. (1974). Angela Davis: An autobiography. New York: International Publishers.
Davis, A. (1971). If they come in the morning. New York: The Third Press.
Dubois, W.E.B. (1997). The souls of Black folk. New York: Bedford/St. Martins.
Franklin, B.H. (1998). Prison writing in 20
th
-century America. New York: Penguin.
Hacker, A. (1995). Two nations: Black and White, separate, hostile, unequal. New York:
Ballantine.
Hine, D.C., Hine, W.C. & Harrold, S. (2003). The African-American odyssey. New
Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Jackson, G. (1994). Soledad: The prison letters of George Jackson. Chicago: Lawrence
Hill Books.
Johnson, P.C. (2003). Inner lives: Voices of African-American women in prison. New
York: NYU
Mann, C.R.. (1993). Unequal justice: A question of color. Indianapolis: Indiana
University Press.
Mohamed, T. (2001). Malcolm X: If you respect the founding fathers, then you have to
love him. Paper presented at the National Association of African-American
Studies Conference: Monograph Series.
Wilson, A. (2/14/2000). Lock em up! Minority youths are more likely to face trial as
adults. Time, p. 68.



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X, Malcolm. (1964). The Autobiography of Malcolm X: with the assistance of Alex
Haley. New York: Ballantine.
Tucker, C. (4/20/2003). Stop jailing young Black men. Post Standard, Syracuse, NY:
p. C2.



INTERCULTURALITY IN RICHARD WRIGHTS HAI KU











NATACHA ROGLET
KENT STATE UNIVERSITY
KENT, OHIO




1060
Interculturality in Richard Wrights Haiku


ABSTRACT
This study is based on Richard Wrights Haiku: This Other World. Wrights collection of
haiku should be considered on the same level as Black Power or Pagan Spain, for the
core of these three pieces lies in the quest for identity, a quest for the other. This study
will provide a reading of Wrights haiku in the light of Bakhtins Dialogic Imagination,
in order to focus on the social aspect of his poems. I will show that the dialogic aspect of
his haiku is achieved through a specific type of haiku, i.e., senryu, which, because of the
interactions it implies, conveys universality.



According to Mikhail Bakhtin, any form of discourse is ideological. He argues
that poetry gives rise to the conception of a purely poetic, extrahistorical language, a
language far removed from the petty rounds of every day life, a language of the gods,
whereas the art of prose is close to a conception of languages as historically concrete
and living things(Bakhtin, 1990, p. 331). In other words, he opposes poetry, as a purely
aesthetic literary form, to fiction, as the expression of a social environment. The main
difference between the two genres is that, unlike poetry, prose or fiction allows dialogue.
It is through dialogue, and more particularly the social diversity of speech types () and
by the differing individual voices dialogism that the social aspect of the written
piece is revealed.
In fact, even if a large part of Richard Wrights haiku is of a traditional kind in
terms of content, some of it is regarded as senryu that Blyth defines as expressions of
moments of vision into, not the nature of things, but the nature of man (Blyth, 1949,



1061
p. 1). Thus, in writing haiku, Richard Wright did not forget about his social condition,
and carries on his quest for identity. Instead of reading Wrights haiku as a piece apart
from the rest of his work, it should be considered as a continuum. Actually Wrights
readers will already be familiar with the writers use of the intercultural as, prior to
Haiku: This Other World, were published Black Power and Pagan Spain dealing
respectively with Ghana and Spain. In Haiku: This Other World, contrary to the
aforementioned narratives, the intercultural aspect lies in the form a Japanese three-
line poem following a 5-7-5-syllable pattern. The intercultural aspect, or the perception of
the Other, is emphasized by personal material about Richard Wright an African
American man living in France and writing Japanese poetry. The word interculturality
comes from sociology and indicates a change in the perception of the Other i.e., the
expression of another culture (Universit de Lige, 2003, para. 2).
I will try here to provide a reading of Wrights Haiku: This Other World (2000) in
the light of Bakhtins Dialogic Imagination (1990), in order to focus on the social aspect
of his poems. I will show that the dialogic aspect is achieved by means of a specific type
of haiku, i.e., senryu, and that it conveys universality.
In the glossary provided at the end of Bakhtins Dialogic Imagination (1990),
dialogism is defined as follows: the characteristic epistemological mode of a world
dominated by heteroglossia. Everything means, is understood, as a part of a greater
whole there is a constant interaction between meanings, all of which have the potential
of conditioning others. As mentioned earlier, a short poem like haiku, due to its very
form, does not contain dialogue. Very few utterances between inverted comas are to be
found. In any case, it never includes response. In this sense, any notion of dialogism has



1062
to be excluded. However, it is important to underline that according to this definition of
dialogism, attention should be paid not to every single 817 haiku but rather to the whole
collection. According to Roland Barthes (as cited in Hakutani, 2002), the collective
body of all haiku is a network of jewels in which each jewel reflects all the others, and so
on (Hakutani, 2002, p. 10). This remark about haiku in general can be applied at a lesser
extent to one particular poets work, such as Wrights. Indeed, Wright uses the same
patterns. For example, a recurrent character is that of the prostitute. She is first referred to
as a childless mother (378), a prostitute (380), or simply a girl (415)
1
. The way
Richard Wright names and describes her conveys interaction between the three poems
and in consequence, their dialogic aspect. The first one reads as follows:
Upon crunching snow,
Childless mothers are searching
For cash customers.
Here, the nature of the occupation is simply alluded to, unlike #380:
In the sea-scented wind
A prostitute is laughing
With moon- glinting teeth.
This is here clearly stated. In the third one (415), the nature of the job is again hinted at:
In a drizzling rain
In a flower shops doorway,
A girl sells herself.

1
These numbers refer to Wrights haiku (2000) as published in Haiku: This Other World. New-York:
First Anchor Book Edition.



1063
According to Bakhtin (1990), all words have the taste of a profession, a genre, a
tendency, a party, a particular work, a particular person, a generation, an age group, the
day and hour(Bakhtin, 1990, p. 293).
Comparing the three haiku dealing with the prostitute, one might consider another
kind of interaction among them. This lies in the tone which goes from neutral (pure
description) in the first and third haiku mentioned to joyful atmosphere in the second one.
In so doing, the prostitute is no longer a set character with set features but rather a many-
faceted one, a character seen through a prism. Different haiku can thus shed light on
different aspects of actors of society. This conveys the cultural contrast of Wrights
haiku, which is African American in content and Japanese in form. The fact that
characters are repeated several times gives consistency to the whole work.
Moreover, according to Bakhtin (1990), one of the criterions that convey
heteroglossia is that of humor. He states in The Dialogic Imagination that heteroglossia is
allowed in satiric and comic genres and others (Bakhtin, 1990, p.287). Some pieces of
Wrights haiku are really comical, insofar as it makes the reader smile or even laugh. A
few examples could be held up here:
#10
Shut up, you crickets!
How can I hear what my wife
Is saying to me?
#20
The dogs violent sneeze
Fails to rouse a single fly
On his mangy back.



1064
It is in the reactions of the reader that Wright best succeeds in establishing dialogism. As
already mentioned, prose is dialogic by nature as it allows dialogue between
characters. On the contrary, Wrights haiku is dialogic both in the response that each
piece entails in the collection and in the contact that it establishes with the reader. It is in
the multiplicity of tones that Wrights dialogue, a dialogue between the poet and his
reader, is embedded. The reader can smile or laugh as noted earlier. Wrights haiku is so
multiform that the reader can also be surprised; he can read it with disgust; he can read it
in awe or with sadness as exemplified in the following:
#150
Late one winter night
I saw a skinny scarecrow
Gobbling slabs of meat.
#287
The sun is as hot
As the big red carbuncle
On the fat mans neck.
#164
I slept so long and sound,
But I did not know why until
I saw the snow outside.
Along with Blyths criteria (1949), I will define Wrights senryu as opposed to
haiku. In This Other World, the two forms can, most of the time, be differentiated by the
presence of characters. Yoshinobu Hakutani argues that A haiku is not a haiku if it is an
expression or representation of human subjectivity. In a haiku the poet, the subject, is
absent (Hakutani, 2001, p. 4). It is then similar to slices of life or as Blyth (1949) puts it
the expression of a moment of psychological insight into the life of human beings



1065
(Blyth, 1949, p. 12). Senryu allows him to describe life as it is, i.e., imperfect. Human
beings are presented in any kind of situation. On the one hand, men can be dead, men can
be urinating, men can be sick, men can be old and disabled. On the other hand, women
can be nude and fat while cooking, women can be spitting in their handkerchiefs, and so
on and so forth. Life can be harsh, weird, comical, and it is presented as such. As stated
in Wrights Blueprint for Negro Writing (1978), all the complexity, the strangeness,
the magic wonder of life that plays like a bright sheen over the most sordid existence,
should be there (Wright, 1978, p. 44), there meaning Negro writing, here represented
by Wright himself.
Indeed, haiku refers to ideal and romantic beauty, whereas senryu refers to reality.
Thus, senryu deals with an imperfect world, where a human plays the main part. A
human is the object of study in Wrights senryu, as it is in his whole work. He is to be
defined through the narrator/author, I, and the other characters. According to Bakhtin,
to borrow Mary Klages expression, poetic language, [] has been conceptualized
historically as centripetal, and novelistic language is centrifugal (Klages, 2001, para.
18), In the Dialogic Imagination, the terms centrifugal and centripetal are defined as
follows:
These are respectively the centralizing and decentralizing (or decentering) forces
in any language or culture. The rulers and the high poetic genres of any era
exercise a centripetal a homogenizing and hierarchicizing influence; the
centrifugal (decrowning, dispersing) forces of the clown, mimic and rogue create
alternative degraded genres down below. The novel, Bakhtin argues, is a de-
normatizing and therefore centrifugal force. (425)



1066
Still, Wrights senryu is clearly centrifugal
2
insofar as it tends to push things
away from a central point (author/narrator) and in all directions (Klages, 2001, para.
15) i.e., the Other. So doing, a human fits in personal and global history. As mentioned
earlier, Wrights senryu consists of what is called slices of life. This refers to a
humans personal history, which considered on a greater scale describes a whole society
and in consequence, the world. By reading Wrights haiku, the reader will learn about
him/herself. Similarly, the poet learns about himself when writing about any member of
the society, i.e., the Other. Wrights haiku does not focus on African-American men. He
starts his research with himself to reach absolute truth about human beings. According to
Hakutani (2002), truth is often a revelation from other (Hakutani, 2002, p.14).
Richard Wrights haiku could be considered as postmodern. Haiku, by its very
form (short poem of three lines only) and by its lack of unity, allows Wright to
deconstruct his vision of the world to quote Hakutanis phrase (Hakutani, 2002, p. 7).
Hakutani also emphasizes the fact that postmodernism is characterized by the lack of
center (9) decentering, centrifugal aspect to borrow Bakhtins concepts , as
opposed to traditional haiku, which would give a centralized vision of the world
(Hakutani, 2002, p. 9). Actually, Wright reveals his own vision of the world gradually,
piece by piece, i.e., haiku after haiku, by means of slices of life as mentioned above.
Indeed, senryu is the literature of the unliterary, the poetry of the bourgeoisie. It has no
appearance to keep up, it is unashamed in its lack of embellishments and figures of
speech (Blyth, 1949, p. 7). In this sense, senryu is a form of haiku that has, in a way,

2
The word centrifugal was also used by Walt Whitman (1900) in Crossing Brooklyn Ferry:
Lookd at the fine centrifugal spokes of light around the shape of my head in the sun-lit water, (stanza 3,
l.33-34).



1067
degenerated. This is the very goal of postmodernists: they tend to parody past art,
refrain from all absolutes, and deconstruct established images and ideas (Hakutani,
2002, p. 7). For example, haiku traditionally describes the beauty of nature. Yet, Wrights
senryu will enhance its ugly or appalling part, as exemplified by the following haiku:
#18
Sparrows excrement
Becomes quickly powdery
On sizzling pavements
#25
A horse is pissing
In the snow-covered courtyard
In the morning sun.
Richard Wrights senryu is universal insofar as he uses not only humor, but also
universal characters and themes. The characters that Wright describes can belong to any
society, any world. They could be classified in two categories. The first one would be
purely descriptive with a hunchback (373), a thin girl (377), an old woman (407), a tall
pretty girl (458), a black boy (458), a nude fat woman (436), a young man (637), an old
lonely man (561-583), etc. The second one would be constituted of occupations
3
such as
the milkman (735), the mailman (750), a clerk (620), the popcorn man (611), the preacher
(541), an old priest (374), the servant (375), a newspaper boy (376), a washerwoman
(448), and as already mentioned, the prostitute. Except for the newspaper boy maybe, all
these characters could be found in any other country, hence the intercultural aspect of
Wrights haiku.

3
The same characteristic is again found in Walt Whitman: Song of Myself includes a great number
of occupations ranging from the musician to the fare-collector (stanza 15).



1068
Wrights haiku meets Bakhtins definition of poetry: In the majority of poetic
genres, the unity of the language system and the unity (and uniqueness) of the poets
individuality as reflected in his language and speech, which is directly realized in this
unity, are indispensable prerequisites of poetic style (Bakhtin, 1990, p. 264). There is a
parallel between Wrights work and Wrights personal life. As shown by many critics,
Wrights work equates with a quest for identity that he only seems to fulfill in the mirrors
of foreign countries, as exemplified by his trip to Ghana and Spain, for example. This
conveys interculturality. It is only through the Other that Richard Wright can find and
define himself. Wright tackles several times the themes of alienation, loneliness and
identity, feelings that anyone can experience, anywhere. Words like alien and foreign
are repeated several times as mentioned above. It is through the Others difference that he
can accept his own difference, hence his many trips overseas.
The fact that Wright refers so often to foreignness and alienation could only be
interpreted as the description of what black people like him have been enduring. It allows
him to set this social reality within history. This is, for Wright, part of the role that a
Negro writer has to endorse. In Blueprint for Negro Writing, he argues that Negro
writers must have in their consciousness the foreshortened picture of the whole,
nourishing culture from which they were torn in Africa, and of the long and complex (and
for the most part, unconscious) struggle to regain in some form and under alien
conditions of life a whole culture again (Wright, 1978, p. 47). Besides, it would not be
far-fetched to think that the fact that the blacksmiths hammer is evoked so often in
Wright s haiku collection (179/195/197) refers to the fear and oppression endured by
slaves:



1069
#179
The summer moonlight
Gleams upon a blacksmiths forge,
And cools red ambers.
#195
O Blacksmiths hammer
How hot and hard must you pound
To change this cold wind.
#197
A blacksmiths hammer
Beating the silver moon thin
On a cool spring night.
The blacksmith is never mentioned. Only work and pain, symbolized by the tool, are
alluded to. Similarly, one might notice that the foreigner or stranger pattern is
recurrent. He is the main protagonist of many of Wrights haiku
(12/132/134/147/461/519):
#12
Oh, Mr. Scarecrow,
Stop waving your arms about
Like a foreigner!
#461
Entering my town
In a heavy fall of snow,
I feel like a stranger.
This clearly refers to Wrights own quest for identity. Besides, Bakhtin (1990) argues that
behind the narrators story, we read a second story, the authors story (Bakhtin, 1990,



1070
p. 314). In other words, Wrights haiku and Wright as a poet are interdependent as shown
above.
As already seen, Wright is highly conscious of his identity as he has always been
throughout his work. In Blueprint for Negro Writing, he argues that Negro writers,
propelled by the harsh conditions of their lives, have demonstrated this consciousness and
mobility for economic and political action (Wright, 1978, p. 38). Actually, Wright looks
for a deep sense of a whole universe (Wright, 1978, p. 39). It is in his self-description,
in the description of the other, and in the confrontation with the foreign that he fulfills his
own identity. Bakhtin (1990) argues that individual consciousness lies on the border
between oneself and the other (Bakhtin, 1990, p. 293). He continues:
The word in language is half someone elses. It becomes ones own only when
the speaker populates it with his own intention, his own accent, when he
appropriates the word, adapting it to his own semantic and expressive intention.
Prior to this moment of appropriation, the word does not exist in a neutral and
impersonal language [] but rather it exists in other peoples mouths, in other
peoples contexts, serving other peoples intentions: it is from there that one must
take the word, and make it ones own (293-294).
As he grows conscious of the world, Wright makes his reader undergo the same process,
because the reader will make the poets discourse his.
Although Bakhtin (1990) states that Rhythm, by creating an unmediated
involvement between every aspect of the accentual system of the whole (via the most
immediate rhythmic unities), destroys in embryos those social worlds of speech and of
persons that are potentially embedded in the word (Bakhtin, 1990, p. 298), the reader
will adapt it to his own world and reality. Owing to the fact that haiku is very short, it
proves to be less restrictive in terms of meaning. This is the space in which the reader can
read the poem according to his/her own reality. This underlines again the role of the



1071
reader. The consciousness of the writer is that of the reader, thus conveying a sense of
unity through difference. Hakutani reports Constance Webbs comments (as cited in
Hakutani, 2001): Wright would try to bring the life and consciousness of a black
American (Hakutani, 2001, p. 2). Richard Wright was leading, to quote Michel Fabre
(as cited in Hakutani, 2001), a courageous and incessant battle against all that prevents
an individual from fully belonging to the world (Hakutani, 2001, p. 3). That is the
reason why, though deeply interested in describing the beauty of nature, he chose to deal
with the imperfect, the degraded, the weak, in other words, with ourselves (Blyth,
1949, p. 17), hence the universal aspect of Richard Wrights haiku.
Richard Wrights haiku is dialogic. The dialogue lies not only in the collection of
poems itself, but also in the response that his discourse entails. Wrights Haiku: This
Other World (2000) should be considered on the same level as Black Power and Pagan
Spain, for the core of these three pieces lies in the quest for identity, a quest for the Other,
hence the importance of Bakhtins theory in the analysis of Wrights Japanese poetry.
Moreover, haiku enables Wright to measure his own world by an alien poetic form
(Bakhtin, 1990, p. 287). Haiku #563 reads as follows:
Could this melody
Be sung in other countries
By other birds?
The answer is yes, because Wrights haiku deals with what human beings have in
common, no matter their origins. Wrights haiku thrive on the intercultural visions they
offer.



1072
REFERENCES

Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich (1990). The Dialogic Imagination. Trans. Caryl Emerson
and Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Blyth, R.H. (1949). Senryu: Japanese Satirical Verses. Tokyo: Hokuseido.
Hakutani, Yoshinobu, ed. (2002). Postmodernity and Cross-Culturalism. Madison, NJ:
Farleigh Dickinson UP/ London: Associated UP.
Hakutani, Yoshinobu (2001). Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, and the African Primal
Outlook upon Life. Southern Quarterly, 40 (Fall 2001), 39-53.
Klages, Mary (2001). Mikhail Bakhtin. Retrieved in April 2003 from the Web site of the
University of Colorado at Boulder:
http://www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/bakhtin.html
Whitman, Walt (1900). The Leaves of Grass. Philadelphia: David McKay.
Wright, Richard (2000). Haiku: This Other World. New-York: First Anchor Books
Edition.
Wright, Richard (1978). Blueprint for Negro Writing. Richard Wright Reader. Eds. Ellen
Wright and Michel Fabre. New-York: Harper & Row.



JOS KOZER Y EDUARDO ESPINA:
POESA NEOBARROCA LATINOAMERICANA









RAFAEL E. SAUMELL
SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY
HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS




1074
Jos Kozer y Eduardo Espina: Poesa Neobarroca Latinoamericana


Jos Kozer (La Habana, Cuba, 1940) y Eduardo Espina (Montevideo, Uruguay,
1954) pertenecen a un grupo potico llamado neobarroco, cuya ubicacin geogrfica
abarca desde los Estados Unidos hasta los pases del llamado cono sur latinoamericano,
pasando antes por Brasil donde naci y radica Wilson Bueno (1949). Roberto
Echavarren, poeta y exegeta, explica en el libro Medusario algunas de las caractersticas
de esa esttica:
La poesa neobarroca es una reaccin tanto contra la vanguardia como contra el
coloquialismo ms o menos comprometido. A) Comparte con la vanguardia una
tendencia a la experimentacin con el lenguaje, pero evita el didactismo ocasional
de sta, as como su preocupacin estrecha con la imagen como icono, que la
lleva a reemplazar la conexin gramatical con la anfora y la enumeracin catica
la poesa neobarroca promueve la conexin gramatical a travs de una sintaxis
a veces complicada B) Los poetas neobarrocos pasan de un nivel de
referencia a otro, sin limitarse a una estrategia especfica no tienen estilo, ya
que ms bien se deslizan de un estilo a otro sin volverse los prisioneros de una
posicin o procedimiento. (1996: 13-14)
Tanto Kozer como Espina viven en los Estados Unidos: el primero desde 1960 y
el segundo al menos a partir de 1980. Escriben solamente en espaol y estn vinculados
al mundo acadmico de este pas. Kozer se retir del Queens College de Nueva York. En
los ltimos cuarenta y cuatro aos ha regresado a Cuba una sola vez, invitado a participar
en la Feria del Libro de 2002 en La Habana. La editorial Letras Cubanas haba publicado
en 2001 una antologa de sus poemas titulada No buscan reflejarse, preparada por Jorge
Luis Arcos. El segundo es profesor de literatura hispanoamericana en Texas A&M,
College Station. Vuelve con frecuencia a su nativo Uruguay donde ha pasado largas
temporadas All colabora asiduamente en el diario capitalino El Observador. Kozer y



1075
Espina acumulan una bibliografa sustanciosa y han recibido varios premios. Sus
poemarios han sido y continan siendo objeto de estudios en publicaciones especializadas
y hasta en libros.
1
De la poesa y de la prosa europea se consideran descendientes de Luis
de Gngora y Argote, de Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas y de Marcel Proust. De
Latinoamrica toman como modelos referenciales a Sor Juana Ins de la Cruz, a Jos
Lezama Lima y a Haroldo de Campos.
2

Nstor Perlongher sintetiza esta diversidad de orgenes con una aclaracin muy
pertinente: A diferencias del barroco del Siglo de Oro el barroco contemporneo
carece de un suelo literario homogneo donde montar el entretejido de sus minas
(Medusario, 27). Ni el barroco ni el neobarroco latinoamericanos deben verse como una
extensin mecnica del barroco europeo. Severo Sarduy ha estudiado dichas diferencias e
indicado que en estas tierras lo que llamamos barroco implica espacio del dialogismo, de
la polifona de la carnavalizacin, de la parodia y la intertextualidad red de
conexiones, de sucesivas filigranas, cuya extensin grfica no sera lineal, dimensional,
plana, sino en volumen, espacial y dinmica. no es slo lo que figura, sino tambin lo
que es figurado, que ste es el material de la literatura.
3
No obstante, Echavarren admite
la existencia de rasgos equivalentes entre la produccin europea y americana. Enfatiza
que de un lado y otro del ocano comparten una tendencia al concepto singular, no
general, la admisin de la duda y de una necesidad de ir ms all de las adecuaciones

1
Ver Jos Kozer. La voracidad grafmana: Jos Kozer. Edicin de Jacobo Sefam, 2002 y de Enrique
Malln, Con/figuracin Sintctica. Poesa del des/lenguaje, 2002.
2
Hago esta enumeracin de influencias basado en las admitidas por Jos Kozer en su ensayo indito
The Neo-Baroque: A Converging in Latin American Poetry. En lo adelante, cada vez que me refiera a sus
ideas sobre el neobarroco, la recepcin literaria y sus modelos de lectura, me basar en esta comunicacin.
3
Citado por Rita V. Molinero en su J.L.L. o el hechizo de la bsqueda: 109.



1076
preconcebidas entre el lenguaje del poema y las expectativas supuestas del lector, el
despliegue de las experiencias ms all de cualquier lmite (Medusario, 17).
Por razones de tiempo, voy a concentrarme en dos aspectos del neobarroco
sealados en el anlisis de Echavarren: la diferencia de aqul con el coloquialismo ms
o menos comprometido y la sintaxis a veces complicada. Asimismo, incluir
observaciones hechas por Kozer y Espina sobre el oficio potico, las cuales comentar
desde el punto de vista de la recepcin literaria de la esttica neobarroca.

EL COLOQUIALISMO MS O MENOS COMPROMETIDO.
En su ensayo El cambio en la poesa en espaol a partir de los aos 40, el
crtico Guillermo Rodrguez Rivera seala que 1954 es un ao importante para la poesa
hispanoamericana. A partir de esa fecha, y comenzando con los libros de Csar
Fernndez Moreno (Argentino hasta la muerte) y de Fayad Jams, cubano, (Los prpados
y el polvo), al prosasmo tpico de la poca se aade la aparicin de poemas que no slo
testimonian una experiencia personal que trasciende y, de ese modo, implica lo social,
sino poemas que asumen deliberadamente una intencin potica y pretenden la
aprehensin de una experiencia colectiva. Ms adelante especifca que en aquel perodo
surge una poesa social prosasta, conversacional, antipotica (107-108).
Para Echavarren aquel coloquialismo deviene en un compromiso combatiente
instrumento de agitacin anti- yanqui y procubana, aliada a ratos con la msica (canciones
de protesta) (12). A manera de ejemplo, recordemos a cuatro poetas mencionados por
Rodrguez Rivera: el nicaragense Ernesto Cardenal, el salvadoreo Roque Dalton, el
uruguayo Mario Benedetti y el cubano Roberto Fernndez Retamar. En cuanto a las



1077
canciones de protesta basta mencionar a dos trovadores importantes, ambos de Cuba:
Silvio Rodrguez y Pablo Milnes.
En los casos concretos de Kozer y Espina puede decirse que, al igual que los
coloquialistas, exploran y desarrollan los ejercicios prosastas, se interesan por abordar
asuntos de la llamada cultura popular y de la vida cotidiana, admiran a poetas
antecesores como Csar Vallejo, sobre todo el de Trilce, leen y se vinculan, de un modo u
otro, con las poticas generadas en los Estados Unidos y Francia. Sin embargo, no
abordan los temas polticos. Al contrario de lo proclamado por Fernando Alegra sobre
los coloquialistas, los neobarrocos no intentan cantar ni proclamar, en sus versos, la
necesidad de llevar a cabo la reforma agraria (Rodrguez Rivera, 112).
Recientemente, Kozer ha expresado muy difanamente cul es su postura al
respecto: vivo literalmente devorado por la necesidad de hacer poesa he optado por
desentenderme dentro de lo posible del homo politicus para ceirme (por aquello de
zapatero a tu zapatoal homo poeticus (Encuentro 2002: 1). Quizs porque sabe
demasiado adnde la politizacin ha llevado a los creadores cubanos, Kozer ha evitado
ser poeta civil o intelectual pblico. Esto no quiere decir que no tenga criterios slidos
sobre la revolucin de 1959 o cualquier problemtica semejante. Sin embargo, no ha
hecho de esos asuntos la materia primordial, ni tampoco secundaria, de su obra. Al crtico
Jos Homero le dice: Mas Cuba se me fue, a los veinte aos me expuls El siglo XX
es el siglo del exilio [Vctor] Hugo exiliado es un fenmeno grandilocuente y
romntico: hoy Hugo sera un exiliado ms, otro caso. Homero le pide a Kozer que
defina la palabra casa. Y aqu va la respuesta: Casa es el lenguaje (La voracidad,
89-95).



1078
Algo similar sucede con Espina quien apunta: El espaol es el pas que llevo y
que me lleva, la nica patria cuyo himno reconozco como propio (Malln, 166). Sobre la
dimensin poltica, el crtico y lingista Enrique Malln le pregunta: Tu poesa es
entonces una poesa de lucha? Espina contesta: Llenar una pgina en blanco es una
lucha. Ponerse a escribir requiere mucha voluntad y sentido, de entrega a algo que no se
sabe bien qu sera Pero mi poesa no es una poesa de lucha. Hablar de poesa de
lucha me hace recordar [sic] a la poesa latinoamericana sesentera, que haca metforas
con el Che Guevara. De esa poesa, triste y autodenominada combativa, no qued nada
(155).
Lo anterior no implica que Kozer o Espina traten de vivir en una suerte de
campana al vaco, ajenos e indiferentes a las contingencias histricas, o que mantengan
una actitud purista ante la creacin. En todo caso, para ellos lo histrico tiene que ver ms
con la evolucin de las ideas y de las imgenes poticas, o sea, con la historia de la
esttica y no con la historia de determinados proyecto polticos, econmicos o sociales.
Timothy Hampton en su Introduction: Baroques (1991), puntualiza una importante
reflexin sobre este tema cuando estudia la obra de Jean Rousset dedicada al arte barroco
en Francia. All el barroco es percibido ahistricamente como una serie de ejercicios de
estilo encaminados hacia un ideal lingstico (4-5). Simplemente, el neobarroco
latinoamericano declina ser tomado como la versin potica de cualquier movimiento no
literario. Espina lo expresa muy claramente: La poesa no es un arma ni creo que cambie
nada. En todo caso, si lo es, debe ser un arma contra el salvajismo que en distintas cuotas
tenemos (Malln, 102). Todos somos testigos de nuestro tiempo, subraya Kozer ante
el entrevistador Miguel Angel Zapata y aade: porque todos de algn modo



1079
escribimos Hagas la escritura que hagas, escribas el poema que escribas, tuyo es el
testimonio, participas del testimonio, eres otro evangelista, otro ngel o mensajero, otro
testigo (La voracidad 72-73).

LA SINTAXIS A VECES COMPLICADA
La sintaxis neobarroca no es complicada a veces, lo es siempre. Para empezar a
demostrarlo, citar varias estrofas tomadas de varios poemas: a) Galaxias (1984) de
Haroldo de Campos; b) Muerte de Narciso de Lezama Lima; c) Furias de Kozer y c)
Un secreto de estado de Espina. En todo sellos notaremos cmo se eliminan los lmites
entre poesa y prosa, creando lo que el propio Campos denomin proesa. Podemos
darnos cuenta que no hay signos de puntuacin, que abundan las anforas, las
aliteraciones, el polisndeton, los retrucanos, la acumulacin, el montaje de entramados
fnicos, visuales, sintcticos, o sea, lo barroco.
De Campos:
Y empiezo aqu y pienso aqu este comienzo y repito y relanzo y me arrepiento y
aqu me pienso cuando se vive bajo la especie del viaje lo que importa no es el
viaje sino el comienzo por eso acometo por eso me meto a escribir mil pginas
escribir miliunpginas para acabar con la escritura para abarcar con la escritura
para finiciar con la escritura por eso recomienzo por eso lanzo y por eso entrelao
escribir sobre escribir (Medusario: 287).
Lezama Lima:
Ascendiendo en el pecho solo blanda,
olvidada por un aliento que olvida y desentraa,
olvidado papel, fresco agujero al corazn
saltante se apresura y la sonrisa al caracol.
la mano que por el aire lneas impulsaba,
seca, sonrisas caminando por la nieve.



1080
ahora llevaba el odo al caracol
enterrando firme odo en la seda del estanque. (Orbita: 66)
Kozer:
Todas con tiaras de esmeralda diamante rub sobre acero inoxidable
tiaras de esmeralda diamante rub sobre cobre
de senos abultados el monograma en la estola es el cordero o la cruz (todas de
ojos rasgados): la larga cabellera encrespada a la hora de
las borrascas a la hora del vendaval roza al cordero (rasga) la cruz, son flamgeras
(pelo rubio): una la Refractaria se hizo para aqulla (Medusario: 323)
Espina:
No ha de burlarse lo que el hielo
eludi: entre semanas permanece
aceptando la necesidad de salvar
la vida de lapa, la capa perezosa
cuyas partes suman una manera. (Postfacio: Deslenguaje, 292-93)
De la sintaxis en Espina, el crtico Gustavo Verdesio ha hecho un anlisis que
puede ser utilizado para incluir a Campos, a Lezama ya Kozer: Se pierde la capacidad
de organizar el discurso en la forma acostumbrada debido a la abundancia de las
disgresiones. A esto puede juntarse lo expuesto por Malln, tambin con respecto a
Espina: habiendo llegado a este nivel de conciencia a travs del lenguaje, el lector puede
reelaborar las construcciones verbales formando nuevas entidades; nuevas realidades
inexistentes en la periferia del texto (Malln, 35-36).
En este sentido, afirm en un trabajo anterior que el lector de poesa puede y debe
ser capaz de reelaborar las construcciones verbales. De ah que me parece legtimo
preguntarse a continuacin: Cmo leer la poesa neobarroca? En una comunicacin
indita dedicada a los poetas neobarrocos, Kozer sugiere una estrategia: paciencia,



1081
paciencia y gran experiencia de lectura [patience, patience and great reading
experience]. Aqu nos hallamos frente a dos principios de la esttica de la recepcin:
a) los lectores no consumen pasivamente los significados presentados; ms bien los
construyen activamente en la medida en que van encontrndolos; b) el texto literario es
un hecho que ocurre dentro del lector (Tyson, 154 y 157).
El lector de poesa neobarroca debe proceder como la araa cuando sta construye
su red. Es el lector informado, educado, ideal u ptimo. Kozer opina que dicho
lector debe respirar ms asmticamente [to breathe more asthmatically]. Alude a
Lezama Lima y a su enfermedad real, a la funcin fsica del acto de leer, pero adems a la
pausa, al paso de la denotacin a la connotacin, precisamente tal y como funcionan las
palabras y las imgenes poticas, o sea, la materia de la literatura segn Sarduy. Malln
nos entrega esta cita de Espina: el lector debe optar por aproximarse al mundo a travs
del lenguaje e intentar incorporarlo dentro de s, para, de esa forma, desde el lenguaje,
regresar al mundo en un interminable respirar rtmico (73) [mi nfasis]. De no hacerlo,
sera un lector literal o denotativo, y se perdera frente a cualquier expresin potica.
Pero un lector educado como Contador Borges, poeta brasileo, puede hacer
lecturas muy sorprendentes. Vale la pena contar una ancdota narrada por Kozer. Cuenta
que Borges, luego de leer un libro suyo escrito en homenaje a Franz Kafka (Un caso
llamado FK), hizo un comentario sui gneris. Le hizo saber a Kozer que Un caso le
record el personaje de Bat Masterson, un conocido vaquero del oeste americano. Kozer
reaccion ante esta observacin diciendo que se imaginaba a Kafka o quizs a Bat
Masterson revolcndose en sus respectivas tumbas. Pens que, a lo mejor, Borges estaba
bromeando. En ningn caso se inquiet por ese tipo de lectura. Por eso Kozer indica que



1082
no le teme a ninguna lectura abierta, extrema, tpicamente neobarroca, ni siquiera a una
interpretacin kitsch, en el sentido en que la literatura no es una disciplina rgida sino
flexible.
A propsito del lector literal, Espina cree que la poesa lo enfrenta a la
imposibilidad y acota: Mejor dicho, a la posibilidad de no entender el mundo como
verdad manifiesta (2002, 48). En materia de recepcin, lo potico es lo que no se ve. Lo
invisible son las vinculaciones materiales entre el texto, la espiritualidad porosa del
consumidor, su entrenamiento literario y su disposicin para ampliar el campo de lo
verosmil. Para superar esa imposibilidad, Charles Baudelaire sugiri en su poca que
el poeta fuera un vidente (voyant), pues as sera capaz de ver a travs y ms all del
mundo real hacia el mundo de las formas y de las esencias ideales (Cuddon, 1991: 941).
Por eso los neobarrocos pueden reclamarse igualmente como baudelerianos,
suscribiendo la idea de Perlongher antes presentada, acerca de la ausencia de un suelo
literario homogneo entre los primeros. Igualmente, hay mucho de simbolismo en la
idea propuesta por Espina. Mallarm dijo que la poesa es sonido con asociaciones ms
que palabras con significados (Barnet, 344). Anoto lo mallarmeano en Espina
valindome de sus propias palabras: Teniendo en cuenta el estrato fnico y lingstico
de mi poesa, lo que realmente regenta es el inconsciente del lenguaje el lector sufre la
prdida de la conciencia o del significado, a travs de su entrada en la inconciencia del
lenguaje (Malln, 37).
Para leer mejor la poesa neobarroca, Kozer propone tres modelos bsicos de
lectura, basados en imgenes de volumen y de peso: pesado, medio ligero y ligero.
Espina clasifica en el primero. Kozer entre el segundo y el tercero. No puedo dejar de



1083
comentar que los nombres escogidos para identificar esas categoras tambin forman
parte de la atraccin neobarroca por la cultura popular y por la irona. En ellas podemos
sentir los ecos de la msica rock, ver los rtulos de alimentos y bebidas y la participacin
en ciertos deportes como el boxeo. Kozer declara que l no es nicamente lo que come,
sino adems y en lo fundamental lo que lee, excluyendo el tiempo consagrado a beber
vino. En la poesa neobarroca, confiesa, todo cabe, incluyendo los desechos. En muchas
oportunidades, stos constituyen el texto mismo.
Por sas y otras razones, podemos inferir que el neobarroco, esttica americana,
tiene una cualidad plutnica. Con este trmino Lezama Lima alude a la energa interna,
al fuego, al mundo interior de ese arte bautizado por l como reconquista (La
curiosidad , 303).
Con el bagaje potico asumido el poeta procede a reconquistar las palabras para
construir el poema. En ese suceder tiene lugar una formacin de acontecimientos en los
cuales participan las grafas, los sonidos, los ritmos, las asociaciones sonoras y
semnticas. De ah que del nico resultado del cual puede el lector ser testigo es del
poema impreso. ste, lejos de ser una construccin slida, entera, ntegra, terminada, se
convierte en verdad en la referencia derruida de un proceso entendido como vestigio
anotado. Para Espina escribir significa construir ruinas. Sus lectores no deben buscar
una construccin tangible: Cuando lo escribo [el poema] noto que la fragmentacin de
esa experiencia fue re/unida por el lenguaje y se pierde. Entonces lo que hago es hacer
para deshacer. Postergar el fin (Malln, 39).



1084
OBRAS CITADAS

Barnet, Sylvan et al. Symbolism. The Study of Literature. A Handbook of Critical
Essays and Terms. Boston, Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1960: 342-344.
Campos, Haroldo de. Galaxias (10 fragmentos). Traducciones de Hctor Olea, excepto
por el fragmento 4, traducido por Nstor Perlongher. Medusario. Muestra de
poesa latinoamericana. Seleccin y notas de Roberto Echavarren, Jos Kozer,
Jacobo Sefam. Prlogos de Roberto Echavarren, Nstor Perlongher. Eplogo de
Tamara Kamenzain. Mxico, D.F.: FCE, 1996: 286-313.
Cuddon, J.A. Symbol and symbolism. Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary
Theory. Third Edition. England: Penguin Books, 1991: 939-942.
Echavarren, Roberto. Prlogo. Medusario. Muestra de poesa latinoamericana.
Seleccin y notas de Roberto Echavarren, Jos Kozer, Jacobo Sefam. Prlogos de
Roberto Echavarren, Nstor Perlongher. Eplogo de Tamara Kamenzain. Mxico,
D.F.: FCE, 1996: 11-17.
Espina, Eduardo. Postfacio: Deslenguaje. Con/figuracin Sintctica. Poesa del
des/lenguaje. Santiago de Chile: RIL Editores, 2002: 235-297.
Hampton, Timothy. Introduction: Baroques. Yale French Studies. 80 (1991): 1-9.
Homero, Jos. Entrevista a Jos Kozer. La voracidad grafmana: Jos Kozer. Crtica,
entrevistas y documentos. Edicin de Jacobo Sefam. Mxico, D.F. Facultad de
Filosofa y Letras. Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, 2002: 83-89.
Kozer, Jos. La voracidad grafmana: Jos Kozer. Crtica, ent revistas y documentos.
Edicin de Jacobo Sefam. Mxico, D.F. Facultad de Filosofa y Letras.
Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, 2002.
. Hablando se entiende la gente. Encuentro en la red. Ao III. Edicin 504,
Jueves, 28 noviembre 2002.
http://arch.cubaencuentro.com/rawtext/cultura/2002/11/28/10933.html.
. The Neo Baroque: A Converging in Latin American Poetry. Ponencia indita.
Lezama Lima, Jos. La curiosidad barroca. Obras Completas. Tomo II.
Ensayos/Cuentos. Mxico, D.F.: Aguilar Editor, S.A., 1977: 302-325.
. Muerte de Narciso. rbita de Lezama Lima. Ensayo preliminar, seleccin y
notas de Armando Alvarez Bravo. La Habana: Ediciones Unin, 1966: 65-70.



1085
Malln, Enrique. Con/figuracin Sintctica. Poesa del des/lenguaje. Santiago de Chile:
RIL Editores, 2002.
Molinero, Rita V. Jos Lezama Lima o el hechizo de la bsqueda. Madrid: Editorial
Playor, S.A., 1989.
Perlongher, Nstor. Prlogo. Medusario. Muestra de poesa latinoamericana. Seleccin
y notas de Roberto Echavarren, Jos Kozer, Jacobo Sefam. Prlogos de Roberto
Echavarren, Nstor Perlongher. Eplogo de Tamara Kamenzain. Mxico, D.F.:
FCE, 1996: 19-30.
Rodrguez Rivera, Guillermo. El cambio en la poesa en espaol a partir de los aos 40.
Encuentro 3 (Invierno de 1996-1997): 97-113.
Sarduy, Severo. El barroco y el neobarroco. Amrica Latina en su literatura. Editor
Csar Fernndez Moreno. Pars: Siglo XXI Editores y Unesco, 1972: 139-166.
Tyson, Lois. Reader-Response Criticism. Critical Theory Today. A User Friendly
Guide. New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1999: 152-195.
Zapata, Miguel Angel. Jos Kozer y la poesa como testimonio de la cotidianidad. La
voracidad grafmana: Jos Kozer. Crtica, entrevistas y documentos. Edicin de
Jacobo Sefam. Mxico, D.F. Facultad de Filosofa y Letras. Universidad
Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, 2002: 61-81.



TRANSNATIONAL FEMINISM AND THE POLITICS OF
LOCATION IN SOUTH ASIAN WOMENS FICTION









JASPAL SINGH
NORTHERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
MARQUETTE, MICHIGAN



1087
Transnational Feminism and the Politics of Location in South Asian
Womens Fiction


While looking at the transnational cultural production and reception of texts by
postmodern and postcolonial feminists, Indrapal Grewal and Caren Kaplan critique
certain forms of feminism [that] emerge from [the feminists] willing participation in
modernity with its colonial discourse and hegemonic First World formations that
wittingly or unwittingly lead to the oppression and exploitation of many women. In
supporting agenda of modernity, therefore, feminists misrecognize and fail to resist
Western hegemonies (Scattered Hegemonies 2). In other words, can transnational
feminists live in the West without being Western (Scattered 7)? In order to examine
the question raised above, I will discuss Shani Mootoos novel Cereus Blooms at Night
(1996) by investigating Mootoos location to understand identity politics for the
transnational diasporic subject, who explores gender and sexual oppression in the
Caribbean while residing and publishing in the West.
According to Kaplan, Virginia Woolfs modernist concerns with space and
location in A Room of Ones Own, intersect with Western feminists exploration of
world space for women in their shared sisterhood (Scattered Hegemonies 137). She
juxtaposes the articulation for this need for physical space as a matter of material and
spiritual survival with the expansion and contraction of colonial worlds (137). Kaplan
states: The claiming of a world space for women raises temporal questions as well as
special considerations, questions of history as well as of place Can such claims be



1088
imagined outside the conceptual parameters of modernity? Can worlds be claimed in the
name of categories such as woman in all innocence and benevolence, or do these
gestures mark the revival of a form of feminist cultural imperialism (137)? Like Kaplan,
I too am interested in the politics of location for transnational feminist critical practices
and their various uses, and would like to examine the repercussions of such practices. In
order to do so, it is necessary to focus on the production and reception of feminist
theories in transnational cultures of exchange (138). For the purpose of this paper, I
would like to ask this question: How are texts by transnational women theorized and
received in the Western academy?
Too often, Western feminists have ignored the politics of reception in the
interpretation of texts from the so-called peripheries, calling for inclusion of
difference by making room or creating space without historicizing the
relations of exchange that govern literacy, the production and marketing of texts,
the politics of editing and distribution, and so on. Most important, feminists with
socioeconomic power need to investigate the grounds of their strong desire for
rapport and intimacy with the other. (139)
As the earlier questioncan transnational feminists remain in the West without
becoming Western?suggests, transnational feminist critical practice must analyze and
contextualize the politics of location in female-authored texts to critique the
commodification of ethnic cultures.
Shani Mootoo, who was born in Ireland and grew up in Trinidad, is a film maker
and visual artist who now resides in Canada. Mootoo is also a published poet as well as
the author of Out in Main Street. Her first novel Cereus Blooms at Night (1996) is set in a
fictional Caribbean island called Paradise, in Lantanacamara, which conjures up the
Caribbean with its distinct flavor, language patterns and tropical flowers and plants.
Mootoo, who is a product of four cultures, India, Ireland, England and Trinidad, shows



1089
her characters negotiating in and out of many different and difficult spaces. Her short
stories, Out in Main Street (1993), focus on sexual identity construction for the
transnational subject. Stories of women of South Asian descent in the first world and the
question of national identity becomes complicated with issues of sexuality; nationalism
and gender are topics addressed by many diasporic writers, such as Farida Karodia and
Agnes Sam of South Africa, but for Mootoo, the question is about sexuality
specifically, gay, lesbian, and trans-sexual gender identity.
In the first story, Out on Main Street, narrated by an Indo-Trinidadian lesbian,
we come to see the identity politics of the transnational diaspora. No longer Indian, nor
fully Canadian, the narrator struggles with her identity in an in-between state. The
Indians in Main Streets Punjabi market feel contempt for the narrators lack of
Indianness as well as her lack of femininity. She struggles with being, as Appadurai
puts it in another context, racialized, biologized, minoritized (Modernity at Large 170)
in the first world. The diasporic subject has space to negotiate an identity, albeit in
trouble territories. While in Out in Main Street, there is the seductiveness of plural
belongings for Indians who have moved from the former colonies to the first world, of
becoming American while staying somehow diasporic, [of] an expansive attachment to
an unbounded fantasy space (Appaduria 170), in Cereus Blooms at Night, Mootoo
focuses her attention to the Indian diaspora in the Caribbean and their painful negotiation
for personal and sexual identity. She shows the struggles and pain of the displaced and
dispossessed Indo Caribbean, who, due to the severe colonial oppression and postcolonial
condition, become alienated; in their alienation, we see the internal and external violence
of the subjects formed in this troubled space. Abused, they either become abusers, or find



1090
escapein the in-between spaces, through madness, or displacement, physically or
metaphorically, to the liberating place of the West. Yet beyond madness, in the
Bhabhalian Third Space (Dissemination 149), there is transformation for Mootoos
characters, through healing, there is hope, there is an idealized spacethe unbounded
fantasy space (Appadurai) for all creatures, mad, queer, or the nervous. I examine
Mootoos politics of location to provide an analysis of the novels characters, who move
or fail to move to that unbounded fantasy space and show how they can be
(mis)interpreted by mainstream readers. The narrative begins with the arrival of a
madwoman, Mala Ramchandin, to the Paradise Alms House. She is suspected of murder.
The circular narrative tells the story of Malas family, which spans about sixty years, to
the present time. The narrator of the story is Nurse Tyler, whose own story of sexual
ambiguity and homosexuality is interwoven with Malas sexual abuse, as well as with her
mothers, who ran away with a woman her father used to be in love with. The subplot of
the story revolves around Ambrosia, or Otoh, the son of Malas childhood friend,
Ambrose or Boyee, who is born a female but convinces everyone that she is male.
The narrative provides many details about the life of indentured Indians in the
Caribbean. Old Man Ramchandin, who was only ever known as Ramachandin, was an
indentured field laborer from India (26). He and his wife, Janaki, had come to the island
to escape his inherited karmic destiny as a servant labourerif not for himself, at
least for his son who had been born just before they left India. In Lantanacamara, it was
easier to slip out of caste (27). He believed that with hard work and money, he could
educate Chandin out of the fields (27). Toward that end, when Reverend Thoroughly
A White man, who set up school and church for Indians(28)takes young Chandin to



1091
live and study with him, while converting him to Christianity, Ramchandin allows his son
to be taken so he can be educated out of the fields. Soon, however, Chandin is
embarrassed by his parents reluctance to embrace the smarter- looking, smarter-acting
Reverends religion (30). He no longer visits his parents. It is not only Chandin who feel
the wretchedness of his existence; old man Ramchandin too finds life in the barracks in
the Caribbean equally oppressive and wishes a different destiny for Chandin.
Chandin Ramchandin, who eventually becomes so alienated from himself, and
who perpetrates the worst kind of sexual and physical abusive toward his own loved ones
due to alienation and loss, as I will show later, although comprehensible even if not
acceptable, becomes hopeless. His education and transformation is in actually a
hindrance leading to alienation and loss to such a degree that he turns extremely
oppressive and violent. As Frantz Fanon claims in The Wretched of the Earth,
colonialism uses extreme violence to keep the subject so formed oppressed, and when the
oppressed subject cannot bear the oppression any longer, it either explodes in revolt, or it
implodes (Fanon 1961). Since violence is also cyclical, the abused then becomes the
abuser. The nervous condition of the postcolonial subject is amply represented in
Mootoos narrative. We see the madness in Chandinwho constructs his masculinity in
opposition to the abused body of his daughterexploding in the text.
Chandins soul is imprisoned by colonial ideology. According to Ngugi, the
bullet was the means of the physical subjugation [of the colonized]. Language was the
means of spiritual subjugation (5 Ngugi Decolonizing the Mind). If, as Ngugi claims, the
introduction of the colonizers language is like a cultural bomb that changes the psyche
of the victim, we can see such cultural violence represented in Chandins character.



1092
Ngugis asserts that language was the most important vehicle by means of which the
colonizers kept the soul of the colonized imprisoned; we see such examples when
Chandin, as a young boy, is torn from his family and adopted by Reverend Thoroughly.
Slowly but surely, the boys psyche begins to change. He starts to believe in the
superiority of the White man.
In his innocence he felt that his peoples lack of these things (the chandelier, the
fine cabinets, carved chairs and side tables and lamps with fancy shades in the
Reverends house) was a result of apathy and a poverty of ambition. He thought
of his parents mud house and the things there, the peerahs they used for sitting
on, the rough planks of wood used as shelves, the cattiyas instead of mattresses on
high wood frames, the enamel wares, the paltry pitch-oil lamps, and most
saddening of all, the latrine with the particular odour that etches itself on ones
brain. He felt immense distaste for his background and the people in it. (30-1)
The outsiders viewpoint is really well put by the author who can see the dismal
quality of life in the Indian homes. However, the outlooks appears more dismal that it
should, for with only a few days in the Reverends home, Chandin could not have
become so aware of the stark difference in the two homes. However, Mootoo, who lived
in the Caribbean up until the age of 19, and who now resides in Canada, could and did
see the immense disparity in the two lifestyles and can write it with such clarity. One
must be aware of the Metropolitan privilege of such writers who can negotiate two
territories with relative ease; although she herself is still a minority in the West, Mootoos
account of the dismal lifestyles of the Caribbean Indians, though not unfounded, are
highly exaggerated. However, for the Western readers, the Indians in the Caribbean
might appear gloomy and dreadful, living as they did in abject poverty; it is the diasporic
writer, who portrays the Indo-Caribbean in such a monolithic way, that we have to be
weary about. There is no heterogeneity in their representations; they appear
homogeneously oppressed and lead truncated lives. V.S. Naipaul succeeded as a writer



1093
by writing about the Indians in the Caribbean as abject and dismal, in purely Black or
White representation in such texts as A House for Mr. Biswas. When one is aware of the
audience, the tone and the intent of the text seem to alter to fit Western stereotypes.
While the oppression that the indentured laborers suffered is well recorded in recent
times, the representation of their lives as monolithically dreary and bleak has to be read
with caution.
Chandin, who copies the mannerisms of the Reverend painstakingly, and who
imagines that in three years of learning, he could win the love of Lavinia, the Reverends
daughter, practices for the power to change. After all, she has a best friend, Sarah, a new
convert to Christianity, which shows that Lavinia was not prejudiced against people like
him (32). He sees in his mirror what he fears, a short darkly brown Indian-
Lantanacamara boy with blue-black hair; however, he was determined to change.
Chandin took note of the Reverends rigid, austere posture, so unlike his own
fathers propensity to bend and twist or fold his body whichever way the dictates
of comfort tipped him. He practiced sitting upright, with his back unswayed and
his legs planted firmly on the ground or crossed severely at the knees. Other times
he diligently studied and imitated the Reverends pensive stroking of his chin and
tapping of his fingers against a book. When he walked, even though he had, by
the age of fourteen, reached full height and was quite short, he made strides as
wide as the towering Reverends and he clasped his hands, similarly, in a little
entwined knot behind his back. His usual thoughtfulness turned weighty. He now
brooded with an air of romantic sullenness. He stroked his chin habitually and
reveled in the tragic knowledge that his love-sickness could bleed so freely within
him and yet be invisible, or so he thought, to the family with whom he lived and
his schoolmates. (34)
However, in spite of his careful imitation of the Reverend, he realized that
Lavinia could never belong to him because the Reverend, who had guessed at his intense
feelings for his daughter, expressedly forbade it on the grounds that she is his sister, even
though Chandin is adopted and is not truly a brother to Lavinia; the Reverend,



1094
however, does not object to his daughter becoming engaged her cousin in the West
where she is sent to stay, explaining to Chandin, when he points it out, that [he] is not
truly her cousin (45). Because of the Reverends treatment of him, and because Lavinia
is now out of his reach, Chandin turns to Sarah, a woman from his background for
security (45). Chandin, who still mourns the loss of Lavinia, is an indifferent and
dispassionate (49) husband to Sarah, and the two seldom speak to each other unless it is
strictly necessary. He enjoys his daughtersMala and Ashabut only from a distance.
He is committed to performing his duty as the Reverends interpreter and field assistant
and resents both the church and the Reverend, often feeling chained to both. However,
when Lavinia, whose engagement doesnt last, returns from the West and picks up with
Sarah again, Chandin is elated and is almost transformed back to the youthful and
enthusiastic person. However, later when Sarah runs off to Canada with Lavinia,
Lantanacamarans come to know that Chandin pick (sic) up with [his] older
daughter (47).
What stands out is the idea of perversions and sexualities in the Caribbean and in
the West. Lavinia has convinced Sarah that the West is a safe place for them to be a
family and even though Asha and Mala are unable to escape with their mother, we
assume that the two are safe there (59). Tylerwho was neither properly man nor
woman but some in-between, unnamed thing (71) could identify with Mala because she
has secrets and I had secretsthe secret of Malas incest (124); he could also eventually
become a lover of Otoh, or Ambrosia, the son of Ambrose, Malas childhood friend.
We find out that when Ambrose (Boyee), Malas childhood friend, returned from the
West, educated and gentrified, he finds Mala leading a truncated life as her drunken



1095
fathers caretaker; Asha has eventually run off to the West and to liberty from her fathers
abuse. Ambrose starts to woo Mala again. As their love for each other blossoms, the
threat from her father becomes imminent. One day, discovering the record player, which
was a gift to her from Ambrose under her bed, the drunken Chandin crosses the limits of
abuse of his daughter, who herself crosses the limits of tolerance and escapes into
madness. Malas resistance manifests itself by her disappearance from sight of the towns
people, emerging rarely to plant snail shells along the boundaries of her yard; Lavinia had
once told her that the protection of ones loved ones will be ensured the fullest
protection of the benevolent forces of the universe if one had been kind to the snails
when they were living (54). The Lantanacamaran start to view her as the mad woman.
Many decades later, it is Otoh, or Ambrosia, who had transformed himself into a
boy, who becomes the inadvertent cause for Malas arrival to the Paradise Alms House.
Ambrose, unable to forget the woman he loved, and married to another, sleeps right
through the month (109) and his mother, Elsie, hungry for a male in the house, went
along with his (her) strong belief that he (she) was really and truly meant to be a boy
[she] soon apparently forgot she had ever given birth to a girl (109). Everyone soon
forget that Otoh was ever born a girl. So flawless was the transformation that even the
nurse and the doctor who attended the birth, on seeing him later, marveled at their
carelessness in having declared him a girl (109). However, he gets the name Otoh
because his vivid imagination gave him the ability to imagine the many sides of the
dilemma (and if there were not a dilemma, of turning it into one) and the waxing inability
to make up his mind (109). This habit of weighing matterson the one hand with on
the other earned him his nicknameOtohin childhood, to which he answered to this



1096
day (109). The ambiguity of Otohs gender refers to the Bhabhalian third space of
empowerment, where the postcolonial subject, the bearer of hybrid identity, might dwell.
When his father, who wakes up once a month to deliver a bag of groceries to
Mala, falls down the steps and injures himself, the task falls to Otoh. Otoh dresses up in
his fathers old clothes from the West, carries the old repaired record player and
approaches Malas house in the hope of meeting the woman his father was devoted to
for thirty years. Mala misrecognizes Otoh as Ambrose and leads him to her fathers
remains in the basement. Otoh rushes out of the house in fear and Mala see this as
Ambroses second abandonment of her. Otohs confused story as he runs out of her
basement, the arrival of the police and the eventual discovery of Chandins body leads to
Malas arrival at the Paradise Alm House, where she is no longer a part of the real
world.
The circular narrative allows us to see Malas coping mechanism while under her
fathers sever sexual and emotional abuse; we see her resistance through midnight creeps
into the neighborhoods home in the dark; her ability to be with one with the creatures
and insects and her eventual merging with the silence of non-verbal communication with
them provide us with insights into her reconstruction that goes on in the space she has
descended into. Where she has survived so long is no longer safe after the towns
peoples discovery of Chandins body and her eventual disintegration and disengagement
with reality as we know it leads her to Tylers care.
While pondering deviancy and its definition, Tyler, Malas male nurse at the
nursing home, thinks about his own perversion. He muses:
Over the years, I pondered the gender and sex roles that seemed available to
people, and the rules that went with them. After much reflection I have come to



1097
discern that my desire to leave the shores of Lantanacamara has much to do with
wanting to study abroad, but wanting to be far more with wanting to be
somewhere where my perversion, which I tried diligently as I could to shake,
might be either invisible or of no consequence to people to whom my foreignness
was what would be strange. I was preoccupied with trying to understand what was
natural and what perverse, and who said so and why. Chandin Ramchandin played
a part in confusing me about these roles, for it was a long time before I could
differentiate between his perversion and what others called mine. (47-8)
Tyler, who sees a reflection of himself in Mala, tenderly cares for her and brings her back
to health. Tyler and Otoh become lovers; Tyler cross-dresses openly with Malas
encouragement when she steals a nurses uniform for him, and he finds acceptance in the
community. When Tyler and Otoh stroll in the garden arm in arm, Hector, the gardener
wishes that his gay brother, who left town (we presume to the liberating West!) never to
be seen again, could meet the two of them. There is calm and acceptance in this space.
Ambrose visits Mala everyday. At this point in the narrative, Mala suddenly utters her
childhood name of Poh-Poh in delight at a bird. Even Elsie, Otohs mother, declares that
she has always remembered that Otoh is a female; she says there are always a handful of
people like you in every village (238). However, she also states that almost everyone in
this place wish they could be somebody else or something else This is the story of life
in Lantanacamara (238). There is hope of happiness in Paradise, Lantanacamara again,
even though most of the inhabitants are displaced and alienated, and even though Mala is
still virtually silent, there is hope, after all, for her abused and alienated subjectivity.
Thus the narrative ends with hope and acceptance in Paradiseof Otohs and
Tylers love, of Malas and Ambroses alliance, even when, as a people, the Indo-
Caribbeans are still struggling with alienation brought on by neocolonial structures of
their society. Additionally, queer people have been part of the Caribbean sexual
landscape and have been part of the community for a long time (Smyth 142). What is



1098
problematic in this text is that once the fluid sexualities of the Third World spaces begin
to be defined by First World ideology, misreading can occur. It is not that suddenly
queerness is going to be accepted in Lantancamara; as Elsie declares, there have always
been people like Otoh around. It is only when Western ideas of gayness are imposed onto
the Third World spaces that the problem takes on a new face. Take India, for example. It
is a land of fluid sexualities; the strict gender construction of masculinity and femininity
as defined in the West are only visible in certain mainstream and urban sites. Women
have solidarity and community in the domestic spaces for centuries without it being
termed feminist, womanist or lesbian/gay. It is only recently, with movies such as Deepa
Mehtas Fire, and the Hindu fundamentalists reactionary politics that such practices are
coming into popular discourse. Even with that, the majority of India remains
disconnected with such ideas. In Paradise, if Tyler and Otoh find acceptance as a gay
couple, it is because of the previously mentioned sensibilities and not because in the new
millennium, we are stepping into an idealized and utopian new world order. On the other
hand, representing Ireland and Canada where gay sexualities are accepted as normal, as
seen by Sarahs and Lavinias example, and where only race matters for immigrants as
Tyler suggests (48), distorts the reality of gays of color. While there are urban centers and
spaces where there is more visibility for gays of color, they are still a very marginalized
and often-times exploited members of the gay community. In many gay film festivals, for
example, films of or by gays of color are tokenized. Therefore to read Cereus Blooms at
Night, one must not forget the location of the writer, the text and the reception of it in the
West. In addition, while the text is located in the Caribbean, there is no Afro-Caribbean
presence in the novel. While the narrative too is reflexive of the black/white dualism, and



1099
where the Caribbean is represented as dismal, abusive, oppressive for the people of the
Indian diaspora, and where freedom, liberty and happiness are located in the West, one
wonders at the absolute absence of the Afro-Caribbean element; if any is present, one is
hard put to find it. Even the Indo-Caribbean identity is ambiguous for the most part. That
remains incidental. We are always only sure about the White presence. It is not hard to
imagine where the measure of standard lie. Mootoo is very aware of her Western and
Westernized audience; it is written primarily for such an audience. It is no wonder that
such authors enjoy what is becoming known as the Cosmopolitan embrace. Once again,
we have a writer mainly tackling issues of interracial relationship between just blacks and
whites. Sarah can transcend not only her race but also her queer sexuality in the West.
The reality for many gays and immigrants of color tells a different story. Mootoo
becomes complicit in the exploitation of Afro-and Info-Caribbean landscape by
supporting the agenda of modernity as she misrecognize and fail to resist Western
hegemonies (Scattered 2). She fall prey to the conventional belief in travel as
transformation (Scattered 141) as she resides, works, and publish in the West. While her
videos are critiques by Ian Iqbal Rashid as resisting the longing for a pure culture of a
mythical homeland, (Rashid 341), Judith Misrahi-Barak calls Cereus Blooms at Night a
novel that deals with childhood and the beginning of life. It is a utopic space that
Mootoos novel points to that is so disturbing. Thus while she lives in Canada, the novel
explores what Smyth calls the monolithic colonizing discourse with the myriad
possibilities and multiple identities offered by the main characters (Smyth 151). As
Kaplans comments on Probyns critique of postmodern theories of location indicate,
where we speak from and which voices are sanctioned need to be probed as the local



1100
does not exist in a pure state (149). As Probyn very correctly points out regarding the
subaltern subject: Living with contradictions does not necessarily enable one to speak of
them, and in fact for concrete reasons, it may be dangerous to do so (149). For Mootto to
suggest in the novel otherwise, is indeed utopic, and hence points to fantasy and idealism.
Thus, Mootoo is from the West and has indeed become Western.



1101
WORKS CITED

Appadurai, Arjuna. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization.
Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1996.
Bhabha, Homi. Dissemination: Time, narrative and the margins of the modern nation.
The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge, 1994.
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. 1963. Trans. Constance Farrington. New
York: Grove Press, 1963.
Grewal, Indrapal and Caren Kaplan. Scattered Hegemonies. Minneapolis: U of
Minnesota P, 1997.
Misrahi- Barak, Judith. Beginners Luck among Caribbean-Canadian Writers: Nalo
Hopkinson, Andr Alexis and Shani Mootoo. Commonwealth Essays and Studies.
22, 1 (1999 Autumn): 89-96.
Mootoo, Shani. Cereus Blooms at Night. New York: Avon Books, 1996.
Rashid, Ian Iqbal. Introduction to the Videos of Shani Mootoo. Wide Angle: A Film
Quarterly of Theory, Criticism, and Practice. 17, 1-4 (1995): 341-2.
Smyth, Heather. Sexual Citizenship and Caribbean-Canadian Fiction: Dionne Brands
In Another Place, Not Here and Shani Mootoos Cereus Blooms at Night
Ariel: A Review of International English Literature. 30, 2 (1999 Apr.): 141-60.



POLITICAL CRITICISM IN THE FICTION OF
ELENA GARRO, LEADING 20
TH
CENTURY MEXICAN
FEMINIST AUTHOR






DR. RHINA TORUO
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS OF THE PERMIAN BASIN
ODESSA, TEXAS




1103
Political Criticism in the Fiction of Elena Garro, Leading 20
th

Century Mexican Feminist Author


Elena Garro was one of the leading feminist voices in Mexico during the 20
th

century. When she passed away on August 22, 1998, The New York Times wrote in her
obituary:
While male voices predominated in Latin American literature, Ms. Garro, through
acerbic intelligence and lyric intensity, achieved a level of recognition and
importance usually unavailable to women. The president of the National Council
for Culture and the Arts in Mexico, Rafael Tovar y de Teresa, labeled Ms. Garro
as one of the three most important female writers that Mexico had produced,
alongside the 17
th
-century nun and poet Sor Juana de la Cruz and Rosario
Castellanos, Ms. Garros contemporary. (Anthony De Palma, Aug 25, 1998.
Section B; p7; column 1).
Elena Garro in her correspondence with Emmanuel Carballo, (Protagonistas de la
literatura Mexicana, 1986, p. 505), joked that before she was born, her rebellious nature,
what she described as a rebellious particle, provoked from within her mothers womb
such a disagreement with her father that her mother, Esperanza Navarro, left her Spanish
husband, and boarded a boat headed for her native land of Mexico. Garros mother
arrived at Veracruz and traveled on to Puebla to her sisters home. Three days later, Elena
was born. Thus, Garro was not born in Spain, but in Puebla, Mexico on December 11,
1916,
1
when the Mexican Revolution was raging. This is important because it is the
Mexican Revolution, and the betrayal of that revolution, that formed the core ideas

1
All dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc., state that she was born in 1920. She told me 1920 during all of
my interviews with her during 1994 to 1997. But in April 24 1998, when I visited her for the last time and
asked again when she was born, she answered December 11, 1916. This date was unknown until she passed
away and Proceso, a Mexican magazine published her Last will, in August 30, 1998. See my book, Tiempo
destino y opresin en la obra de Elena Garro (teactra) 2
nd
ed. (updates first ed. by adding new articles)
(July 1998), The Salvadoran University Press, p. 16.



1104
around which she wrote her first novel and her first play. I will focus on these pieces of
work in this essay.
She was always intrigued by the right and left of things. For example, by playing
with toy soldiers, she reversed the expectation of what toys little girls should play with.
And she also learned to read from right to left. This allowed her to create a means of
communication that only she and her little sister could understand.
At the age of 13, Garro knew Latin and could speak English and French. When
she was 17, she was a choreographer at the National University of Mexico where she
began her university studies. When she was 20, she married Octavio Paz, who later
became the laureate of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1990). She accompanied him to his
diplomatic post in Paris where they lived and worked from 1945 to 1951. She met several
surrealist writers, including Andre Breton. During that period, she began her writing
career as a journalist. Later she wrote dramas, novels, short stories, screenplays, and
poems, 18 books in total.
Her rebellious particle was evident even in her passion for helping people and
fighting against injustice. In a public dialogue in 1991, at the National University of
Nuevo Leon, Monterrey, Mexico, Minerva M. Villareal asked Garro about the story when
she portrayed a prisoner to find out was wrong in the womens jail for minors. I was
among the public in that dialogue and remember how Garros memory was sharp and
vivid in detail as she answered:
There was the jail for female minors, and it was said that many atrocities were
committed. The head of the Department of Health and the editor of the magazine
[Asi], asked me if I wanted to go into that place for a few days, but as a prisoner,
to see what was really happening. I accepted. The police officers grabbed me on
the street, and took me to a warehouse where minors were gathered. The
following day they took me to jail.



1105
She continued her story, telling us that she was photographed while cleaning the
bathrooms. The last thing she wanted was for the photo to be published, as her husband
had no idea she was doing this! But her sacrifice was rewarded. Garro said:
I discovered that there were many brutal punishments; they would leave the
young girls standing in some barrels of excrement with their arms crossed all
night long, or they would be put in underground cells. It was very sad; all of them
were underage. Sometimes they would say to me: Oye gera (Listen, Blondie.)
They spoke a language that I did not understand. Are you stupid? Or, do you
pretend to be? I did not understand, and I would say, Well, I think I am stupid.
One day when the photographer came, I casually told him, I cannot tolerate it
anymore. I am going to leave. The following day the head of the Department
of Health took me out. Mrs. Falcon Cano, the prison director got angry. I wrote
the articles and they were very successful. They fired that woman, because she
was very cruel to the young women. This is why they wanted me to go into the
prison, so that they could verify if it was true or if they were lies. (Patricia Rosas
Loptegui & Rhina Toruo (1981): Elena Garro, entrevista. Hispmeric,
p. 56-7; my translation).
During the fifties, Garro become very active and fruitful in many fields, and wrote
many screenplays and poems. Like the Mexican painter, Frida Khallo, Elena Garro was
breast fed upon the culture of the Indians. She learned from them, the Nahualt language.
Her respect for Indians and love of social justice led to her being engaged in both
political journalism and political activities. As journalist, she wrote: Two million
Indians without land, and 15,000,000 acres in a few white hands (Siempre, Sept. 1,
1965). Articles written in this tone caused the Indians to request her help in defending
them before the courts to recover their lands, which many years ago they had received
from Emiliano Zapata during the Mexican Revolution. Garro was a strong and vocal
supporter of the Indians in their petitions ; she made too much noise and created trouble
for the government that in 1959 the Mexican president, Adolfo Lpez Mateos, asked
Octavio Paz to take his wife out of the country. Paz sent her to New York. That same



1106
year, he went to Paris as the Second Secretary of the Mexican Embassy where Garro and
her daughter later joined him.
Elena Poniatowska, a contemporary Mexican writer who went with Garro several
times to the state of Morelos wrote in regards to this:
The peasants of Ahautepec consider Elena Garro as a true Joan of Arc. They also
looked up to her like a feminine Emiliano Zapata and it appeared logical to them
that she would raise her flag and march to the front of the procession. She was the
one that did all the transactions and bureaucratic paperwork for the people of
Ahuatepec. Elena fought long and hard to help them recuperate the lands that had
once been given to them by Emiliano Zapata. (Poniatowska 1999, p. 10)
These autobiographical aspects of Garros life help us to understand her
revolutionary nature. She was opposed to a very patriarchal system of government in a
very patriarchal society.
An analysis of the political criticism in some of her fictional works reflects her
own criticism of the government politics of the time. I will analyze Garros first two
literary works, which share a common theme related to the Mexican Revolution. Her first
novel, Recollections of Things to Come, was published in 1963. Garros second work is a
historical documentary-drama about one of the great figures of the Mexican Revolution,
Felipe Angeles. The play, Felipe Angeles, was published in 1967, by the journal Catl of
the University of Veracruz, and in 1979, by the National University of Mexico, right after
the theatre group of the Mexican University performed that play in Sitges.
I will start with the novel, Recollection of Things to Come (1963), which was
awarded the important Xavier Villaurrutia Prize for that year, 1963. It has been translated
into English, French, Polish, Swedish, and German.
2


2
It has also been made into a movie .



1107
The historical framework of this novel refers to the final period of the Mexican
Revolution. The plot of Recollection of Things to Come revolves around the rebellion of a
fictional whole town, Ixtepec, against the local government of General Francisco Rosas
in the context of the La Guerra de los cristeros, the Cristeros Revolt, during the last
years of the Mexican Revolution (1926-1929).
This work acknowledges the small town of Iguala, in the State of Guerrerro,
where Garro grew up. Many people there, whom Garro had known, admired her ever
since childhood. This novel depicts life in the small Mexican village of Ixtepec during the
grim days of the Cristeros Revolt. The town itself is the hero and the narrator of this
novel. It is narrated in the first, singular person, and in present time. The narrator/town
tells its own story against an unstable political governmental change, religious
persecution, the taking of the land, and all types of power abuse.
This is a book that does not depend for its effectiveness on narrative continuity. It
is a book of episodes that leaves the reader with a series of vivid impressions. The novel
begins with a poetic tone:
Here I sit on what looks like a stone. Only my memory knows what it holds. I see
it and I remember, and as water flows into water, so I, melancholically, come to
find myself in its image covered with dust, surrounded by grass, self-contained
and condemned to memory and its variegated mirror. I see it, I see myself, and I
am transfigured into a multitude of colors and times. I am and I was in many eyes.
I am only memory and the memory that one has of me. (Recollection of Things to
Come, p. 3)
Garro subverts the concept of time in this novel. Time is circular, as is the
structure of the novel. It begins in the present, describing the town, the homes, and then
describes the days. It then reverts to the past, narrating from its foundation to the moment
of the Cristero Revolt:



1108
I knew other times: I was founded, besieged, conquered, and decked out to
receive armies. I knew the unutterable joy of war, which creates disorder and
unforeseen adventure. Then they left me undisturbed for a long time. When the
Revolution was in its final agony, a last army, encircled with defeat, left me
abandoned in this dry place. Many of my houses were set on fire after their
owners had first been shot to death. (Recollection of Things To Come, pp. 3-4)
The narrator depicts with vivid metaphors what happened to the Ixtepec people
when the Cristeros Revolt began. The Mexican President Plutarco Elias Calles (1924-28),
in July 31, 1926, published the law that people called Calless Law which prohibited the
public practice of the Catholic religion. The government closed all churches, confiscated
some, and punished those who disobeyed the law; some were even given the death
penalty. At meetings of the Midland-Odessa (Texas) Spanish Literary Club that I
founded, we have discussed this novel and many people have told us stories about their
parents. During that time, they were neither allowed to be baptized nor to have Catholic
weddings. In the novel, Recollections of Things to Come, General Francisco Rosas, was
in charge of executing this order in Ixtepec. The whole town rises up against the abusive
government. They organize a party and invite General Rosas, a handsome and young
officer, and all the soldiers under his service. While General Rosas was dancing with a
beautiful Ixtepan girl, Isabel Moncada, other people from the town cover up the escape of
the priest to protect him from being executed for celebrating a hidden Mass. In the middle
of the night, the priests escape is discovered, and the whole town becomes a prisoner in
the palace where the party took place. This part of the novel, according Enmanuel
Carballos book about Elena Garro, was a particular favorite of some readers:
Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes especially liked the episode in the novel of the
celebration organized by the Moncada family in which the people of the town of
Ixtepec covered- up the priests escape, so the military would not execute him. To
Paz, this seemed like a brilliant idea. Carballo would so often tell the story all



1109
over the country that Carlos Fuentes and Luis Buuel wanted to steal this novel
from Garro. (Carballo 1986, p. 505; my translation)
Isabel Moncadas little brother was among the people who helped the priest
escape and among the many villagers executed in the days that followed. Naturally,
Isabels family was mourning these deaths, but despite this atrocity, Isabel has fallen in
love with Rosas and could not give up loving the dictator of her people and the assassin
of her little brother. At the end of the novel, when Isabel Moncadas nanny takes her to
request forgiveness from the Holy Mother, she suddenly runs away from the Holy
Mothers statue and attempts to go back to her lover, General Rosas. At this moment, she
is transformed into a stone.
When Isabel becomes a stone, the structure of the novel becomes completely
circular. The novel begins with the narrator telling us he is the Ixtepec town. But the
narrator also is the collective memory of Ixtepec, sitting on a stone that is more than a
simple stone. It is the transformed Isabel. The memory contemplates the stone, because
the fate of the village was decided when Isabel Moncada chose to continue as the lover of
the corrupt Rosas.
The political criticism, implicit in this novel, is that the prohibition of public
religious practice is used to distract the public from their fight against the illegal
distribution of the lands. Throughout the novel, there is hidden criticism of those who
betrayed the Mexican Revolution by all kinds of violations, such as taking over the
Indians lands to build nice houses with large gardens. Garro lived the last years of the
Mexican Revolution in Iguala, Guerrero, and these autobiographical aspects are seen in
the novel. For instance, when the presidential car went through the city, the children



1110
would run after it yelling Viva Cristo Rey (Hail to Christ the King); Garro and her
sister were among those children.
Now I will discuss the dramatic work, Felipe Angeles. Garro wrote the play in
1954. If was first published in 1967 by the journal Catl of the University of Veracruz
and then in 1979 by the National Autonomy University of Mexico Press right after the
theatre group of the Mexican university performed the play in Sitges. Garro wanted to
show through military documents the arbitrariness and opportunism of the political
injustice in the farcical martial trial of Felipe Angeles.
Felipe Angeles is a documentary work that dramatizes the military trial of a
federal general, Felipe Angeles, one of the greatest forgotten heroes of the Mexican
Revolution. He fought with Francisco Villa in the Mexican Revolution. Angeles held a
very important role during the democratic regimen of President Francisco Madero who
named him director of the military school of Chapultepec. Angeles was a brilliant man
who completed his post degree studies in France. He held a career as a military man and
was faithful to his principles of justice and freedom. These principles caused him to
openly criticize abuses of power. For that reason, he fought against the dictatorship of
Porfirio Diaz and became a leader whose moral, military, and academic prestige became
a disadvantage to General Venustiano Carranza, then the president of the republic.
In 1914, Angeles was a member of the National Convention. He participated in
the preparation of the Constitution of 1917. He later decided to become a member of the
North Division under the command of Francisco Villa. When Villa retired, Chihuahua
and the United States of America recognized the government of Venustiano Carranza in
1915. Angeles was then exiled to the United States. When World War I ended, he



1111
returned to Mexico. He feared that the United States would intervene in Mexico because
of his countrys continuing civil war.
Prior to returning to Mexico, Angeles, together with friends sharing the same
ideals, decided to establish a society that unified all Mexicans. This society decided
Angeles should take these ideas to Mexico. He entered his country being a member of the
Mexican Liberal Alliance. He wanted to convince Pancho Villa to abandon his bloody
revolt and work to engage in a dialogue with Carranza to obtain the pacification of the
country and prevent the potential American threat. He returned in 1918, in order to put
himself in contact with Villa, with whom he remained for five months. However, they
were soon separated by political differences. This was mainly because Angeles
intentions were more humanistic than military in relation to Francisco Madero, the
democratic president of Mexico. Angeles did not share the violent methods of Villa.
Angeles hid in the mountain ranges but was discovered, taken prisoner, and court
marshaled in Chihuahua. He was accused of treason by Carranzas forces and executed in
1919.
Angeles was very loved by his people for many reasons, but especially for
obtaining Zacatecas, and for saving the lives of hundreds of soldiers in Chihuahua when
Pancho Villa ordered their execution. Angeles convinced him to spare their lives.
Garro adopts the style of social realism in this play and speaks through Angeles to
criticize the opportunists who fought for justice at the beginning of the Mexican
Revolution, but afterwards wavered in their ideals and submitted themselves to the orders
of the new dictator. The denunciation of the corruption and deconstruction of the
Mexican Revolution is delivered not only through the speeches and dialogues of General



1112
Felipe Angeles, but particularly through the ambiguous conduct of the group of generals
who looked for reasons to condemn him and who, at the same time, recognized that
Angeles is innocent. Their desire to condemn Angeles transforms him to a martyred hero
of the Revolution. With that same vote, the failure of the Mexican revolution is affirmed.
Dieguez- He wants to leave us his life and death like one of those maps of famous
battles, very traced, with every piece an explanation, so tomorrow it can be read
like a beautiful text. (Felipe Angeles, p. 44; my translation.)
Escobar- If we kill him, we assassinate the Revolution. (Ibid., p. 47; my
translation.)
Having established the high regard in which General Angeles was held, Garro is
able to reinforce our understanding of his value as a man of discipline with a great
capacity for organization. Like the backsliding generals, we identify him with the
Mexican Revolution, defining him as one of the greatest assets they have. If they kill him,
they will betray the Revolution.
The court martial begins with the reading of a letter that Angeles had sent during
his exile. For the audience, the letter awakens feelings of sympathy and solidarity for the
main character, Angeles. In the epistle, there are paragraphs full of rhetorical figures and
ethical categories expressed by a military man in exile, especially as he recounts his last
military actions and the history of his participation in the revolution. He also gives
reasons for which there could not be a good understanding between himself and General
Carranza.
The letter constitutes historical background of this work of art, which is also a
true artistic jewel. Garro eloquently presents these extraordinary characters through the
power of the dialogues. Her words effectively create in the audience a strong sense of
empathy with this hero. Furthermore, General Angeles is aided by his lawyers who were



1113
contracted by a group of strong women representatives of the pro-defense Committees
of General Angeles. The side of goodness is coherent and solid. They are the voices of
the town of Chihuahua. This court- martial trial play reveals the unity between the town of
Chihuahua, the women, and general Angeles.
On the other side, the group of military men and accusers lack unity in the criteria
to judge the innocence or guilt of Angeles. The role that Garro assigned the women is
very significant.
From the first act, Garro reveals the possibility that Angeles may not participate in
his own defense as if it were an obligation to forestall bloodshed in his hometown. In the
second and third acts, Angeles suggests that if his death will prevent the bloodshed of his
town, he is willing to offer himself. I would die peacefully if I could believe that there is
truthfulness that I will receive the punishment for the sins of our movement. (Ibid.,
p. 52)
The play rails against the violation of Felipe Angeless rights in a corrupt exercise
of due process and bitterly criticizes the military leaders who sacrifice the revolutionary
ideals and the best individuals amongst them in their lust for power.
Elena Garro, above all, was an extraordinary writer. She experimented with new
techniques in narrative and dramatic genres. Fernando Alegra, writer and critic, Emeritus
Professor at the University of Stanford, considered her a pioneer of magical realism.
Alegra quoted from the novel, Recollections of Things to Come, and suggested how the
characters from this novel influenced the writing of One Hundred Years of Solitude by
Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
There are other heroines and enchanted characters in the Latin American novel,
but none like Francisco Rosas, Julia Andrade and Isabel Moncada. Colonel



1114
Aureliano Buenda? Remedios la Bella? They are the same family. It is clear that
Elena Garro created her own characters before and left a modelit is a
temptation to say that Elena Garros novel stays like a strange note that Garca
Marquez, years later, executed to a grand orchestra. (Alegra 1986, p. 277; my
translation.)
In the 1970s, Gabriela Mora, Emeritus Professor of Rutgers University, was one
of the first critics to write about Garros work. She also makes a comparison between
General Francisco Rosas and Colonel Aureliano Buenda from One Hundred Years of
Solitude, A figure (General Rosas) more pathetic than hateful; this character has a great
resemblance to Colonel Buenda, of whom he could be a precursor of (Mora 1977, p.
92). Dr. Mora has in her possession a letter written in 1974 by Garca Marquez and
addressed to Garro, where he acknowledges having read the Recollections of Things to
Come.
.3

Elena Garro referred to magical realism in her novel during an interview in her
home at which I was present
4
with Dr. Vernica Beucker from the University of
Dsseldorf. During the interview, she asked why her novel, Recollections of Things to
Come, was not among the so-called Boom of Latin American novels of the 1960s;
Garro responded, [Because] it was written four years earlier, was considered religious
referring to the Cristeros Revolt, and also because I am a woman. (Toruo 2001,
p. 107)
Elena Garro masters the magical realism of developing themes in cyclical and
circular time. She also writes with the classical style, as in Felipe Angeles, where the

3
Gabriela Mora was a close friend of Elena Garro, and she helped Garro and her daughter by giving
them the plane tickets to leave the United Status and go to Spain in 1974 (personal interview with Gabriela
Mora, 1996).
4
I was there because I organized a conference in Garro s honor with the collaboration of professors
fromPIEM of El Colegio de Mxico, and support of Instituto de Cultura de Morelos and my university,
The University of Texas of the Permian Basin.



1115
artist Garro imitates reality, taking the concept of imitation from the point of view of
Aristotelian Poetics. Garros work, as a whole, reflects how instead of ending her
fictional works with poetic justice, she prefers a deep sense of social realism. She wrote
with a mythical, magical and mysterious style. One encounters hair-raising passages at
multiple levels. While Garro is eloquent in her exorcism of human oppression, her genius
is at its highest when she articulates the horrors of Mexican society in particular.




1116
WORKS CITED

Alegra, Fernando. (1986) Nueva historia de la literatura hispanoamericana. 4
th
ed.
Hanover, NH: Del Norte.
Carballo, Enmanuel. (1986) Protagonistas de la literatura mexicana. Mxico: (Secretaria
de Educacin Publica) Direccin General de Publicaciones y Medios.
Garro, Elena. (1963) Los recuerdos del porvenir. Mxico: Joaqun Ortiz.
. Felipe ngeles. (1979) Mxico: Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico.
Poniatowska, Elena. (1999) Elena Garro y sus tormentas. Bal de recuerdos.
Homenaje a Elena Garro. Edicin preliminar, prlogo y bibliografa por Mara Garca y
Robert Anderson. Puebla: Editorial de la Universidad de Tlaxcala, Mxico;
p.5-15.
Rosas Loptegui, Patricia, and Rhina Toruo (1991). Elena Garro, entrevista.
Hispmerica, 60. p. 55-71.
Mora, Gabriela. A Thematic Exploration of the Works of Elena Garro. Latin American
Women Writers: Yesterday and Today. Eds. Yvette E. Miller and Charles M.
Tatum (Pittsburgh: Latin American Literary Review, 1977), pp. 91-97.
Toruo, Rhina Elena Garro (2001) Notable Twentieth-Century Latin American Women:
A Biographical Dictionary, eds. Cynthia Margarita Tompkins and David William
Foster. Greenwood Press. Westport, Connecticut, London: (p.106-111).
Tiempo destino y opresin en la obra de Elena Garro. (Time, Destiny and Oppression in
the Work of Elena Garro) 2
nd
ed. update, added new articles since the first edition.
The Salvadoran University Press, July 1998.



REVOLUTIONARY MATTERS:
CONSIDERING WEST AND ASANTE AS MORE THAN
COMPETITORS






JULIE BORKIN
WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY
DETROIT, MICHIGAN



1118
Revolutionary Matters: Considering West and Asante as More than
Competitors


ABSTRACT
Molefi Asante (2003) builds his argument for Afrocentrism by comparing the differences
between his vision for African American identity and the moral and intellectual priorities
addressed in the works of Cornel West, suggesting West has abandoned his culture while
parading as if speaking for it. The posited polarization in these scholars work echoes a
tradition of factiousness that captivates the audience in a political spectacle and limits the
range of recognition. Using Edelmans work on political spectacle and Betskys work on
iconicity, I argue that these intellectuals offer a needed face, an idealized hero that spawn
competing camps of African Americans and that the polarizing feud between West and
Asante works as a verbal trauma fostering for the audience yet another spectacle of black
bodies in pain. The contemporary scene is reduced to mere symbolic shorthand, hindering
the possible alternative configurations for productive African American identity.



It started with a project, a paper to compare two recent generations of radical
African American political thought. I chose this assignment over 50 others because I am
concerned about the status of African Americans in the national culture and have an ever-
growing list of questions and concerns about representation and identity politics.
Accompanying the single sentence assignment was a list of books by authors including
Carmichael, Cleaver, Cruse, West, Asante, Gates, and Houston Baker. These writers are
some of those often cited big name thinkers, the names that form something of a canon
of readings from the margin, yet each with very different cosmologies. As I read,
compared, and processed, I was attempting to perform my studentness, my political



1119
scienceness, and my moral commitment to some possibility of liberalism and yet still
hold to my poststructuralist understandings.
But I was nervous from the beginning. For in this project, my location as a scholar
felt vulnerable and my understanding and competence pitifully inadequate. My
commitment to cultural considerations has been shaped in part by Edward Saids
scholarship, and specifically, his 1994 work Representations of the Intellectual. I believe
with Said that cultural studies work requires commitment and risk, boldness and
vulnerability (Said, 1994, p. 13). It is these tools that equip me to explore arenas of
human freedom and knowledge. I choose to linger, despite unfamiliar or conflicting
ideologies and interpretations, and am already all too aware that the potential and passion
I hope can clear spaces for newly articulated positions also threaten to betray them.
Once I began to immerse myself in the discourse of these and other authors, the
competing ideologies I expected to encounter seemed embedded in virtually every twist
and turn of their arguments. From the 1960s when Martin Luther King Jr.s peaceful
resistance was countered by Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamiltons (1967) call for
Black revolution, to contemporary conversations among public figures in politics, media,
and the academy, high- visibility narratives centering on competing paradigms have
framed conversations about how to be an African American. Intellectual conversations
seem immersed in exploring the possibility, responsibility, and perceived failures of
Black identity and alliances.
For the contemporary part of my initial project, I emphasized the work of Cornel
West and Molefi Asante. In much of his work, but especially his 1993 Race Matters,
West urges both individual and collective accountability as the essential tools to actualize



1120
democracys promise. As remedy for a pervasive perception of hopelessness, West calls
for individuals of all races to prioritize a love ethic and a deep sense of both shared
humanity and public responsibility made manifest in social, cultural, and political realms.
Asantes Afrocentricity (1980, 1998) advocates placing African ideals at the center of
any analysis of African culture or behavior, upending the Eurocentric dominance in
image construction, art, government, law enforcement, and especially education as a
means of recentering the African-American identity and esteem. He suggests the
addiction to hegemony will be reconfigured only when a diversity of cultural
perspectives is embraced without hierarchy.
Both West and Asante seem to accent the singularity of their approach rather than
to reach out and find common ground with other African American thinkers. In his latest
book, for example, Asante (2003) builds his argument for Afrocentrism by emphasizing
the differences between himself and West. He reiterates the need for Afrocentrism,
explaining that two separate national visions remain, renaming the race and color labels
of black and white as people of the Promise and the people of the Wilderness. For
example, people of the Wilderness are those who remain outside of American privilege,
according to Asante, viewing America as a foreign country and the American dream as
inaccessible while people of the Promise are those privilege-holders who create a
wilderness of spirit in all those who stand in the way of their dreams and ambitions. As
Asante writes, the irony of the American founding is that the nation was not a
Wilderness made by Native Americans but a Wilderness of spirit made by whites looking
for a promise (p. 23). The Promise was built and is maintained by enslaving and
discriminating, forcing the people of the Wilderness to the margins. In a chapter



1121
ironically titled The National Survival, Asante uses Wests 1993 critique as a
springboard to attack West and other African American intellectuals including Henry
Louis Gates Jr., Shelby Steele, and Glenn Loury. Their misunderstanding of the
Wilderness dwellers undercuts any useful thought they may advance and Asante
warns the group that one cannot divest oneself of ones culture and then parade as if
speaking for it (Asante, 2003, p. 241).
This finger pointing is not all one-sided. While not naming Asante specifically,
West (1993) did say that those race-embracing rebelsreproduc(e) similar hierarchies
headed by themselves within a black context. Much, though not all, of Afrocentric
thought fits this bill (p. 65). And this sort of exclusionary practice is not limited to West
and Asante. Recently, at Wayne State University in Detroit, Dr. Henry Louis Gates
participated in a conference, extolling his Encarta Africana project, an interactive CD-
ROM that chronicles African American political and cultural history, leaders, and events.
When the audio-visual equipment hindered his planned presentation, Gates shifted to an
impromptu discussion of the history of the project, claiming that key rivalries between
African American leaders had hindered this important project from being published for
nearly 100 years (Gates, Humanities Center, 2003). In the long list of African American
intellectuals past and present Gates cited and praised, Asantes name was not mentioned
even once, and Asantes two-decade project detailing Afrocentrism, widely
acknowledged for its scholarly contribution to rhetoric and humanities, is omitted
completely from Encarta Africana (Encarta Africana, 1993-2000).
It is perhaps tempting, following this tradition, to continue to set African
American intellectual positions in tidy camps along some oppositional set of categories



1122
by exploring the rhetorical strategies and point-counterpoint maneuvers through their
publications. But, I want to suggest that maintaining their work as polemic rhetorics
works as a spectacle, maintaining a shorthand script that forecloses dialogue and covers
over important areas of discussion. The danger of such a limited perspective, as Harold
Cruse (1967) so prophetically warned nearly 40 years ago is that the American social
system quite easily absorbs all foreign, and even native, radical doctrines and neutralizes
them (Cruse, p. 361). In this paper then, I begin by noting how contemporary political
discourse is inherently fused with matters of cultural practice and identity politics, further
complicating the space of resistance. Then I address the factiousness between
contemporary African American intellectuals as the work of political spectacle. Finally, I
explore some of the complexities and possibilities involved in posing alternative
configurations.

CULTURAL PRACTICE AND IDENTITY POLITICS
In the introduction to Caroline Kennedys Profiles in Courage for Our Time, a
recent volume to complement her father John F. Kennedys earlier tome noting the efforts
of heroic political figures, it is not surprising that the emphasis turns almost immediately
toward multiculturalism. New groups of Americans women, African Americans,
Latinos- have entered the political system, embracing a different kind of courage: the
courage to compromise (Kennedy, 2002, p. 6). Indeed these new groups are largely the
impetus and the featured participants in contemporary identity politics. To enter the
political system, for these and others whose delayed admission to the political system
seems de-emphasized in frantic efforts such as Kennedys to laud their presence at all, is



1123
indeed a courageous choice. For these politicians, such new groups who represent
historically disenfranchised identities, are often expected to bear the mantle of their group
identity along with their role as public servant. Sadly, however, despite chosen stance or
quality of labor, many become perceived not as courageous, but rather to have
compromised - not only by those from outside their group identity, but judged so by those
who share their identities as well.
Besides politicians, leaders from these and other marginalized
1
groups who work
in other realms, including writers, musicians, film directors, athletes, actors, and
academics are similarly scrutinized for how they practice their identities. Including these
leaders from beyond traditional political structures, as Cruse urged, is an important and
necessary addition to political thought and process, for, as bell hooks notes, the artistic
production is always, always political (Arguing with the Homeboys, 1991). Besides the
blending of politics and culture in their spheres of leadership, these leader politicians
and artists alike - are held responsible to and for those with which they are identified. If
they take action beyond what has been deemed appropriate practice for their identity or if
some alliance of group members acts outside the acceptable range of practices, these
choices can cause leaders to become other to the already othered disenfranchised
group. Said (1994) noted this trend in his work on the representation of intellectuals.
They represent achievement, fame, and reputation that can be mobilized on behalf
of an ongoing struggle or embattled community. Inversely prominent intellectuals
are very often made to bear the brunt of their communitys approbrium, either
when factions within it associate the intellectual with the wrong sideor when
other groups mobilize for an attack (p. 43).

1
Throughout this paper, I have referred to members of particular groups, including African Americans,
Latinos, and women as disenfranchised or marginalized. This is by no means an attempt to evaluate or
displace their identity, nor a comprehensive list of all groups who experience similar struggles.



1124
In just one recent example, entertainer-activist Harry Belafonte compared
Secretary of State Colin Powell to a plantation house slave (Amana, 2002). In the
firestorm of publicity that followed, Belafonte added Bush advisor Condoleezza Rice to
the list of those privileged only by acquiescing to the master, and others attacked
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Though the specific political direction of these
African-American governmental leaders extends beyond the focus of this paper, it is
important to note the perceived violation of expected group alliance implied. In further
response to the controversy regarding Powell, Jesse Jackson said, we are simply on
different teams (ibid, 2002, n.p.).
In this instance and in the larger national contextual understanding of these new
group politicians, who they are and how well they are perceived to fulfill their
assignments often centers on how true they are to particular identities whether they
prefer such an emphasis or not. As such, the perceptions and possibilities of political
intervention are marked by the range of recognition of these new group members by
the public at large and by the members of their own groups as well. In this precarious
space political and cultural leaders live, choose, and act, accompanied by watchers from
all sides who quickly note and judge any perceived imbalance creating conflict and
division.

FACTIOUS SPECTACLES
Such squabbles often become public spectacle. Citing a dispute between two
African American artists, hooks notes in the world of racial integration where ones shit
gets checked publicly, in the newspapers even, with everybody watching, such



1125
critiqueplays right into racist assumptions that a struggle must take place
(hooks, 1991). Within African-American discourse, such factiousness goes back at least
to the years of leadership of W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington. The legacy of
these two is inevitably framed as a competition, and the shorthand labels of separatism or
assimilation continue as the foundation for the accusations of competing loyalties to
individual, group, or national African American identity. Cruses classic Crisis of the
Negro Intellectual also framed the issues of black leadership along an axis between black
nationalism and integrationism laying the emancipatory possibilities only with Black
Nationalism (Cobb, 2002).
Examples of the division between African American leaders over the matter of
political responsibility have often included both political and cultural representatives and
have often been made public as well. In the 1950s, Harold Cruse criticized musicians
Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, and Nat King Cole, suggesting they chose personal
ambition above their political responsibilities as Negroes (Cobb, 2002). In the 1960s,
Malcolm Xs tell it like it is rhetoric worked in polarity against the political ideology of
Martin Luther King and others who advocated non- violent intervention, but also split
away from his mentor and guide Elijah Muhammad (Haley & Malcolm X, 1964).
Moving to more contemporary disputes within the African American community, poet
and playwright Amiri Baraka (the former LeRoi Jones) scoffed at film- maker Spike Lees
political clout and labeled him a black yuppie (hooks, 1991).
Academic scholarship, too, has accepted the logic of categories, though not
always in tidy binary opposition. Marable (1995, as cited in Herring, Jankowski, &
Brown) suggests three categories or schools of thought based on various political



1126
advocacies: the nationalist or separatist school including the work of Marcus Garvey and
Louis Farrakhan, the radical multiculturalists from such leaders as Jesse Jackson and
Cornel West, and integrationists including the work of Henry Louis Gates and others. In
his work on Stokely Carmichaels rhetoric, Stewart (1997) also maintains categories of
thought in 1960s Black political thought, but moves the argument forward by suggesting
it is not only useful, but necessary to reframe the dynamics of development in African
American discourse, creating a symbolic realignment in how their works are read.
In the struggle for recognition, equity, equality, and the range of recognizable or
welcomed identities, I want to suggest that African American public identity as re-
presented across a variety of contexts including political, academic, and artistic,
contributions has for too long been framed primarily through the ubiquitous logics of
assimilation and separatism. Questioning the long-standing framework of factiousness
within African American political thought offers an important opportunity to examine the
role of dissent in contemporary political matters, and contributes to the understanding of
multiple citizenship and subjectivities.
Because in the current alignment of the conversation a zero-sum game seems
certain, I wonder if a different orientation may help reposition the conversation. We have
not done enough by merely noting the complexity of identity politics. It is not enough for
African Americans to be duly noted in fresh editions of historical, political, and cultural
texts only to be dismissed as merely contentious citizens or worse. The crisis is here, still,
and the danger, as noted earlier through Harold Cruses (1967) concern that the American
social system so easily folds resistance back into itself. By normalizing the factiousness
within African American discourse, the work of Black intellectuals has been isolated into



1127
polarized rhetorical fragments centering on competing nationalisms, as either African
Americans or United States citizens calling loyalty and good citizenship into question.
Once their positions appear polarized and oppositional, attention to the productive space
of intervention is closed off, lost in political spectacle. The significance of factiousness as
political spectacle must be underscored. According to Edelman (1988), political spectacle
is created as political problems, crises, enemies, personalities, and leaders are constructed
and reported across the media. This dynamic and contested process, beyond merely
reporting or informing an audience, includes the audience as co-creator of the reality or
legitimacy of a problem and the roles of leadership assigned. Leaders are constructed as
signs of competence, evil, nationalism, future promise, and other virtues and vices and
[as such]introduce meaning to a confusing political world (p. 37). One of the ways
that a particular meaning works as symbolic shorthand centers on the creation of
difference and opposition in leaders.
Whether or not they make a difference, aspirants and incumbents present
themselves as unique choices, offing something different from their rivals in style,
personality, policies, empathy, or intelligence. A high proportion of their
publicized actions and language bear that message, and followers offer it as
rationale for accepting the role. (p. 49).
This perspective helps explain that the symbolic scripts substitute for a broad
understanding of the leaders messages, but must not be considered as some intentional
effort to reduce the ideological platform of the leadership. Also, while conflict between
leaders brings with it the possibility of attention and the hope of new support or
constituents, in the attending spectacle Edelman cautions, the rhetoric of opposition
diminishes the prospects of policy change (p. 51).



1128
This spectacalized version of discourse consolidates group affiliations, and here
specifically, around blackness as an unavoidable, irreducible sign. Here I track with
Elizabeth Alexander (1994) who argues that black bodies in pain for public
consumption has been an American national spectacle for centuries (p. 78). The
collective cultural trauma of African American memory is reactivated in a gladiator-style
competition of polarizing language and practice that allows the spectator to remain at a
distance and without personal implication. In the matter of Asante and West, the attention
stirs not a discussion on the uniquenesses between two scholars, but a re-presentation of a
generations- long political spectacle embodied in the shorthand political signs of
separatism or assimilationism. Seekers of the real African American identity are forced
to dismiss one or the other as too much this and not enough that. The arbitrariness and
dissonance in their language and politics is managed through a shorthanded figure of
their work forcing followers and readers to choose, to become either a follower of West
or of Asante as a means of containing their own uncertainty. These names and positions
become symbolic producers of meaning that are deployed toward an ongoing crisis in the
political meaning of African Americanness. They become the bearers of the chaos
figures invoked to symbolize the larger unmanageable threatening forces especially of
whiteness. The sign of West or the sign of Asante works as an icon, a symbol in a
material form that, as Aaron Betsky (1997) notes in his work on iconicity, condenses the
complexities and presents the unpresentable. Put differently, these intellectuals bodies of
work, the much larger ideas these intellectuals represent, are molded into more
manageable and familiar condensations fostered by the spectacle. While other leaders
whose discourse tracks along similar lines may be seen as part of the cast represented



1129
by the polarized positions of separationism and assimilationism, West and Asante are
important for their distinct style. Cornel West is regularly shorthanded by his
trademark three-piece suit, Afro, and glasses and Asantes philosophy, labeled
Afrocentrism, is shorthanded in citations across academic disciplines.
This iconized spectacle works, I argue, because icons create what stands in for a
sense of community. The iconicity of these intellectuals grants a community of shared
interests and values through features followers share in common with them soothing the
unacceptably delayed admission to the larger American community that continues to
complicate the status of previously marginalized groups. Yet the embattled status of the
group continues to complicate matters of community and alliance. In these intellectuals
discourses, the contradictory sensibility of accessibility and identification, (He is like
me) yet alienation and uncertainty (we cant trust them), parallels the paradoxical
nature of icons, for according to Betsky, icons function an object of art, use, and
mystery all at the same time (p. 22).

RECONFIGURING POSSIBILITIES
At this point, Id like to return to the original assignment description that
animated this project. The task was to compare two recent generations of radical African
American political thought and yet for that assignment as well as this one, despite a
valiant effort to reshape the conversation, I instead got caught in the logic that replayed
the very polarizing positions I claimed to oppose! Worse still, my recourse was to suggest
commonalities between the two positions that opened a space of hope. Certainly Saids
call for commitment, risk, and vulnerability, that ideal that I claimed to hold, must require



1130
something different than that. Did I read, research, and write only to find myself in an
impossible space or a tidy formula of hope?
Perhaps not. Here, I believe that perceived failures of identity politics and the
discomforting uncertainty of poststructuralist theory both bring a sense of disarray and
loss that limits the range of intelligible responses to particular crises. My own temptation
to write over the black bodies in pain with my own version of why cant we all just get
along by finding logical threads that suggest similarities was an effort to resolve the
anxiety and find some answers that contribute to the conversation and the sense of hope. I
believe within these complexities remains an important and useful space worthy of
further discussion. My assignment caused me to notice the force of particular polarizing
rhetorics that extends beyond individuals, political theory, or specific historical contexts.
Toward that end, I offer two possible areas of attention that may help guide further
efforts: a clarification of moralism and the realm of loyalties.
According to bell hooks (1991), the space for critical exchange should
acknowledge a diversity of perspectives without succumbing to suppression or
polarization. As she notes, a dynamic space for critical exchange should exist in which
meaningful black artistic production could emerge and be critiqued (p. 38). In the open
space of communication there is no need to snub those who do not unequivocally agree
with all parts of anothers work, whether intellectual, political, or artistic, and especially
on the basis of some privileged loyalty.
While West would argue that his paradigm calls for exactly that, the moral
bearing ciphered as the space of hope by hooks and others is far more than political
correctness or mere moralism. As Wendy Brown (2001) notes, a richly configured



1131
political or intellectual morality bears an openly contestable character insofar as it must
be willing to give account of itself and be tested against other accounts of the good
(Brown, p. 37). Moralism, she explains, should not be confused with a moral goal but is
rather precisely the kind of identity politics that has trapped the leaders of those
marginalized groups as it tends to conflate persons with beliefs in completely non-
volunteristic fashion: persons are equated with subject positions, which are equated with
identities, which are equated with certain perspectives and values (Brown, p. 38).
And so, toward that end, all involved those who seek and those who speak,
must examine our processes of conjuring that do violence through idealizing and
demonizing to negotiate consciousness. It is time to check, own, and expose not only
others violence, but our own. Browns richly configured morality is a vulnerable,
reflexive, and responsive dance between each of our intellectual locations, social
orientations, and moral investments. These are the operating logics and attachments by
which we function and those same arenas of investment Asante calls necessary for
adapting to an Afrocentric perspective (Asante, n.d.).
Also at the heart of this discussion is the matter of loyalty, whether some
particular individual, group, or community commitment will lead toward protection or
fight and toward what goal. Edward Said (1994) urges intellectuals to accept a role
beyond represent ing the collective suffering of a particular group and instead accept the
task, explicitly to universalize the crisis, to give greater human scope to what a
particular race or nation suffered, to associate that experience with the suffering of
others (Said, p. 44). In this way, without denying the historical specificity the



1132
opportunity guards against the possibility that a lesson learned about oppression in one
place will be forgotten or violated in another place or time (ibid).
Because West and Asant e have become icons, their status and positions have
turned into artifacts. Even as they perform their specific tasks, they are, as Betsky notes
not used up by use but give us both memory and projection, making our past present
and promising us a future as well. This potent force of attachment to memory and
affective structures mandates further attention to the meaning- making possibilities of the
future, however complicated. For those of us committed to listen, learn, risk, and still
remember, a space beyond polarizing discourse or historical specificity is a welcome
space of hope and possibility.




1133
REFERENCES

Alexander, E. (1994). Can you be Black and look at this?: Reading the Rodney King
Video(s). Public Culture, 7, 77-94.
Amana, H. (2002). House slaves and sacred cows. SeeingBlack.com. Retrieved
December 03, 2003.
Asante, M. (1998). The Afrocentric idea. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Asante, M. (2003). Erasing racism. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books.
Asante, M. (n.d.). Where is the white professor located?
http://www.asante.net/articles/White-Professor.html. Retrieved February 15, 2004.
Betsky, A. (1997). Icons Magnets of Meaning. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art.
Brown, W. (2001). Politics out of history. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University
Press.
Carmichael, S. & Hamilton, C.V. (1967). Black Power: the politics of liberation in
America. New York: Random House.
Cobb, W.J. (Ed.). (2002). The essential Harold Cruse. New York: Palgrave.
Cruse, H. (1967). The crisis of the Negro intellectual. New York: William Morrow and
Company.
Edelman, M. (1988). Constructing the political spectacle. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Encarta Africana. (1993-1999). Appiah, K.A. & Gates, H.L. (Ed.). On Microsoft
Encarta: Microsoft.
Gates, H.L. (2003, November). W.E.B. DuBois and the Encyclopedia Encarta Africana.
Paper presented at The Humanities and Social Change, Wayne State University
Humanities Center.
Haley, A. & Malcolm X. (1964). The autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Random
House.
Herring, M., Jankowski, T. & Brown, R.E. (1999). Pro-Black doesnt mean anti-White:
The structure of African-American group identity. The Journal of Politics, 61(2),
363-386.



1134
hooks, b. (1991, September 17). Arguing with the homeboys. Village Voice, pp. 42-43.
hooks, b. and West, C. (1991). Breaking bread: insurgent Black intellectual life. Boston:
South End Press.
Kennedy, C. (Ed.). (2002). Profiles in courage for our time. New York: Hyperion.
Said, E. (1994). Representations of the intellectual. New York: Vintage.
Stewart, C.J. (1997). The evolution of a Revolution: Stokely Carmichael and the rhetoric
of Black Power. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 83, 429-446.
West, C. (1993). Race matters. Boston: Beacon Press.



IN THE SERVICE OF COMMUNITY:
THE ROLES OF THE BRAZILIAN AMERICAN CHURCH IN
RE/CONSTRUCTING IDENTITY






PAULA BOTELHO
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE COUNTY
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND



1136
In the Service of Community: The Roles of the Brazilian American
Church in Re/Constructing Identity


Brazilians have established their lives in the U.S. for many decades. They come
for different reasons and stay under diverse economic, social, and linguistic
circumstances. Although Brazilian immigration to the U.S. seems to be significant, and
that Brazilians are actively participating in the American economy, little attention is paid
to them in the research literature and media.
This study focuses on the roles of a Brazilian church in the process of
constructing and maintaining cultural identity of expatriated Brazilians. It examines some
of the churchs practices and discourses between Brazilian church members and the
church aimed to maintain cohesion to the community. It also investigates the discourses
about life in the U.S., the conflicts Brazilians experience, and perceptions Brazilians have
of Americans.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Little research focusing on Brazilians affiliation to religion and to churches in the
U.S. has been done. However, the studies available make relevant considerations and
invite further exploration of the field.
Margolis (1994) looked at Brazilians in New York, though religion was not the
main focus of her study. She interviewed Brazilians and did ethnographic field work.
Half of the research sample participated in Portuguese-speaking religious services with



1137
some regularity, and most attended Catholic services. However, the total of Brazilians
attending the services was higher in the case of Baptists, Pentecostals and members of the
Universal Church (Margolis, 1994: 211-19).
By the time Margolis research was being done, the interview with the main priest
of that church showed that Brazilians longed for a place for social activities, in addition
to going to mass. Gatherings after the masses were very usual, with conversations
continuing on the outside (Margolis, 1994:211). In contrast, the Pentecostal church in
Brooklyn presented a strong community ethos, which seemed to increase attendance and
involvement. Mutual assistance was strongly valued, and members were connected to a
network of resources that provided jobs and other forms of support.
1
The church typically
sponsored bible classes, youth gatherings, summer camps, and other practices, in addition
to the service.
Martes (1999), in a study in Massachusetts, examined several aspects of the
Brazilian experience, including their religious affiliations and connection to services and
communities. A little more than half of her research sample participated in Portuguese-
speaking religious services, and most attended Catholic churches. She shows that
Brazilians were connected to churches when they felt lonely, longing for Brazil, or when
they wanted to socialize in a place considered safe, trustworthy, and protective. The

1
Despite such community ethos, Brazilians religious gatherings are marked by a cordiality that
contrasts [] to the disunity that pervades the community as a whole. (Margolis, 1994:219) Another
studies (Martes, 1999, 2001) also discuss the lack of solidarity among Brazilians in Massachusetts, though
emphasizing a still current romantic belief of immigrant communities as lacking conflictive relations.
Brazilian interviewees from these three studies frequently stated their discomfort with the lack of solidarity
among their compatriots. However, it contrasts with their involvement in a network of resources and social
activities. Thus, the ambiguity towards ones own ethnicity should be reconsidered, and taken as part of the
process of constructing multiple identities. It is also necessary to have solidarity and unity as accurate
scholarly notions, without assuming their meanings from common knowledge.



1138
religious choice seemed more related to an expectation of being connected to people than
to religious motivations (Martes, 1999:140).
As Martes (1999) shows, the number of Brazilian Catholics is greater than that of
evangelicals, but there are more evangelical than Catholic churches. The differential
power of the evangelical churches is impressive. The religious network provided by them
to support their stay in the U.S. also helps Brazilians immigrate to this country. Despite
the Catholic churches also being concerned with their members support, the evangelical
churches are more emphatic in helping their members, besides promising and
encouraging social mobility. Such theology of prosperity strengthens their bonding and
devotion to the church, and their expectations of being economically successful.
Evangelical churches are also a fundamental locus of socialization of their members. The
catholic churches organize social activities, but they are more sporadic and festive.
Evangelicals have many constant activities and meetings, working as a kind of club and
guaranteeing more stable participation. Brazilian Catholics in Massachusetts participate
of communities more concerned with political issues. In Framingham, for example, the
Brazilian political context, the meanings of being an immigrant to the U.S., and the
importance of solidarity are common themes, along with discouraging the accumulation
of money. Such theology works towards shaping their identities as immigrant workers.
This trend causes intense conflict, since Brazilians perceive themselves as temporary in
the U.S. Additionally, the U.S. represents a chance of improving life, making it possible
to become employers instead of employees in a later return to Brazil. In this sense,
evangelicals have a discourse more compatible with Brazilians expectations (Martes,
1999:135-6).



1139
Beserra (2003), in a study of Brazilians in Los Angeles, examined an Adventist
church as one of her two ethnographic case studies. At the time she collected data
Adventists were the largest and most permanent religious community in the greater
Los Angeles area. Most members were Brazilians, though there were a few Portuguese
members. The foundation and development of this church brings in stories of conflict
about having spaces for amusement versus spaces for evangelical activities (Beserra,
2003:81). However, when one of the churchs minister tried to replace amusement for
evangelization, several families withdrew (Beserra, 1999:99). The Adventist community
had Portuguese, food, behaviors and other elements of Brazilian culture as aspects that
bonded them to the church. Also, the church represented to most Brazilians the only
opportunity for entertainment, because of their economic limitations and constant
workload. Thus, this and the previous studies found that socializing with other
compatriots is a strong need of Brazilians living in the U.S. They also confirm the role of
the church as a network of resources, communication, and learning [] how to get by as
an immigrant and how to widen networks (Beserra, 2003:109).

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The present study utilized participant observation of the service and the lunch
after service within a Baptist church that features a service in Portuguese for a Brazilian
audience. Four semi-structured interviews with Brazilian members of the church were
also made, in addition to interviews with a key informant. A snowball technique was used
to select cases. The community was chosen based on the criterion of being a mainstream
religious group. Data was collected in 2002, and involved twenty hours of interviews and



1140
twenty-five hours of fieldwork. Interviews and field notes were translated from
Portuguese into English. Data analysis is based on a qualitative, interpretive approach. It
constitutes the first study focusing on Brazilians in the Washington, D.C., area.

THE COMMUNITY
The community chosen for this study is a Baptist church in the Washington, D.C.,
area that features a service in Portuguese for Brazilians. About a hundred Brazilians
usually go to that service on any Sunday. A few Americans participate as well.
2

Brazilians level of education was reported as above the average of other
churches you will get to know
3
, as the key informant said, suggesting a concern with
social class.
The Brazilian members are of all ages, and most are permanent church members.
Couples are in the majority. A hundred Brazilians typically go to the service. Children are
present, too, but they do not stay during the sermon. They are either perceived as
bothersome to adults that want to listen to the service, or are old enough to participate in
Bible study. During the service, they go to a Brazilian day care and Bible study in groups
according to their ages, located in the same building.

THE BRAZILIAN INTERVIEWEES

2
These seem to be American husbands of Brazilian wives. American wives of Brazilian men did not
seem to constitute part of the audience, but this aspect and also gender percents require more fieldwork.
3
In 2001, the church circulated a questionnaire to two hundred members. A hundred and twenty filled
it out, showing that 3% of the interviewees had elementary level degree; 48% high school degree; 43%
undergraduate degree; and 6% graduate degree.



1141
Four informants provided data for this study. As a group, they all were from
Minas Gerais, in the southeast of Brazil. They were middle age, half male and female,
documented and undocumented. Three were married and had children. With one
exception, they all had Brazilian spouses and Brazilian relatives in the U.S.. Two of four
had large extended families in the U.S., most living in the Washington area. All
informants were Baptists before they moved to the U.S. In Brazil, they all worked in
activities different from those they had in the U.S. They were all from the middle class in
Brazil, according to their definition. In the U.S., all currently worked. Carlos
4
had an
administrative position in a Brazilian office. Mirtes worked as a housecleaner and as a
book saleswoman. Maisa was a house and dog keeper. Antnio owned a home
improvement company and also worked as a subcontractor.
Three of them considered returning to Brazil to be improbable. Two of them
immigrated with the purpose of staying. One did not have plans to stay, but after he got
married and constituted a family he put together a plan to stay.
All interviewees reported a strong pride in being Brazilians and strongly valued
Portuguese. All spoke Portuguese with their Brazilian relatives, friends, and nuclear
family in a regular basis. All of their Brazilian-American children spoke only English
among themselves, as well as with Americans. With parents, they tended to speak
English, even though the parents would respond in Portuguese and insist on its use.
None of the interviewees grew up around languages other than Portuguese. In
Brazil they had English courses, which they said did not teach them much. In the U.S.
none took English classes, declaring that studying and work was difficult. By that time

4
All names are pseudonymous.



1142
they all spoke English, but were not happy with their skills, and did not classify
themselves as fluent. Most of what they currently learned was from everyday life in the
U.S., and they reported that there was nothing they could not solve, a fact they proudly
recounted. Their main problems were in English conversation.

FINDINGS
What does socializing and being around compatriots mean to Brazilians?
Connection seems related to engaging in circumstances that bring Brazilian
culture to Brazilians. In the state of Maryland and the D.C. area Brazilians are widely
dispersed. Church services and activities and also the Brazilian markets seem to reunite
them. The closest place to D.C-Maryland with a bigger and more locally concentrated
Brazilian community is Newark, NJ. The town has a large Portuguese and a Brazilian
community, with many businesses run by both, and Portuguese is heard commonly.
When he felt full of longing for Brazil, Carlos used to go to Newark: That place is
Brazilian, is our way, our style. Thus, we run to get there, to go to Brazilian restaurants, it
is wonderful, it is good, there you step on Brazilian ground, Carlos described. The place
nourished him with some pieces of Brazilian culture. Brazilian food, Brazilians poking
around, Brazilian atmosphere, is all he and other Brazilians sometimes need. They
constitute markers of ethnic group life, and they create identification with ones own
ethnic group (Wallace, 2001:59). Even certain attitudes considered inappropriate in the
U.S. and also in Brazil such as throwing garbage on the ground is common in the
Brazilian Newark community, as Carlos described. Because there is a strong need of



1143
cultural connection, the connotation of inappropriateness seems to disappear, and this and
other pieces of cultural experience are brought together.
Being around other Brazilians seems to be crucial to the maintenance of a cultural
identity. Maisa reported: There are some things that are important to me, and I do not
want to lose them, such as being Brazilian, relating with Brazilians, and being myself. I
do not want to become an American and being like them because I am here. I must learn
their language, but I do not have to be like them. I have this friend that went to an
American church to learn more English, because there she studies the Bible in English,
and she relates with Americans. She wants to absorb everything that is American.
However, she does not have what I do, that I consider to be important, that is connection,
solid friendships with Brazilians, people that I can count on [].
In the U.S., all Brazilian interviewees related with Americans, but it was
restricted to work, or related to their childrens friends and school. They all had Brazilian
friends, mostly from church. Carlos was an exception. He would regularly participate in a
Brazilian-American soccer team. Because Brazilians constituted the majority, it seemed
to reinforce a feeling that the few Americans who were part of the team were a minority
in that group and needed to adapt. They would negotiate conflict through language. As
Carlos stated, it was not an obligation to code-switch to English only because they were
Americans. If Brazilians perceived an interest from Americans in participating,
understanding and speaking Portuguese, they would value and appreciate it, and make
efforts to include them in the conversations, Carlos pointed out. If they noticed lack of
interest in communicating with them, Brazilians would keep joking and talking among
themselves without engaging Americans in the conversation. When the group would



1144
notice that there were difficulties but there was an attempt to understand and to be part of
the group, they would switch to English. It is not because there is one, or two, or three
Americans that it will force us to use English, Carlos said. This story confirms the role
of language as a cultural system that grants power to participants of a certain group.
Thus, Portuguese was a way of asserting Brazilian identity in that group.
Family was also crucial for these Brazilians, and most had their primary and
extended families around them. I think that what holds us tight to a place is having a
family. What we miss, the basis, what structures us on a place is the family. We miss it a
lot, Antnio declared. The presence of the family, in Antonio and Mirtes story is
striking. They had, respectively, fifty and forty members of their families that gradually
immigrated to the U.S., and have lived here for many years. Additionally, both
interviewees were family related (a fact unknown to me when I chose them as research
participants.) Mirtes and Antnio were relatives (Mirtes was Antnios sister-in- law), and
both families comprised a total of ninety persons. They were constantly meeting in social
events: holidays, birthday parties, going to the pool during the summer, and trips to the
beach and to the mountains. As Antnio reported, [] I believe that I am much happier
here than my brothers that live in Brazil, without the family. It looks like they are the
foreigners. And the U.S. is becoming a home for us. Therefore, family seemed to
represent to Antnio not only an ingredient of his staying in the U.S. Family meant a
condition for him to stay and to feel he belonged to a life here. Further investigation on
this issue would be very relevant. Like Antnio, many other Brazilians may be able to
cope with a life in the U.S. because they can count on family. On the contrary, lack of
family may represent the impossibility of staying permanently in the U.S.



1145

AT HOME IN THE U.S.: THE ROLES OF THE BRAZILIAN CHURCH
Communities and Resources
Affiliation to a community creates learning opportunities necessary to functioning
and to understanding the world.
As a social practice, learning implies an engagement in a community, where
newcomers and old-timers interact and exchange information and resources (Lave &
Wenger, 1991).
Data available shows that Brazilians create and participate in communities in the
U.S. even before they immigrate. As Goza (1994:144) discusses, looking at immigration
to North America and Canada, many Brazilians were connected to preexisting social
networks.
After they immigrate, most Brazilians participate in a church. Fulfilling needs
other than spiritual seems essential to them: A person arriving in this country has a
strong need of looking for a group that she can fit into, and then trying to organize life,
because, gosh, it is terrible to arrive on a place that you know no one, where do I go?
To the right, to the left, forward, back?do you understand? The person needs a starting
point. I think that our church plays a very important role in the lives of Brazilians that
live in this area, Mirtes pointed out.
In the Brazilian church, newcomers and old-timers share stories and conversations
that focus on problems and difficult cases, which characterize a community (Lave and
Wenger, 1991:108). Participants create for themselves a sense of belonging. In the
present case, such feeling seemed also influenced by the churchs discourse about



1146
belonging. The main minister led such discourse, which goal seemed to be getting group
cohesion, as discussed later.
Religion was not the only focus for Brazilian interviewees. Mirtes husband got a
better job through the church. She has also helped other compatriots, providing
information and directly assisting many, accompanying them to places to solve problems
related to schooling, housing and other issues. She had realized that Brazilians she met
that had moved to the U.S. needed the same information and had the same needs. Some
jobs Carlos got also originated from church connections. In the Brazilian church he
learned about the particulars of U.S. culture, such as dealing with health insurance,
financing a house, etc. Carlos earlier learned that a church represents possibilities, though
he thinks it is not the only possible community. To him, to be involved with a group is
what matters.
The church formally contributes to the formation of a community of resources, in
many ways. It advertises jobs, businesses, housing for rental with prices and location,
clothes and make up for sale, food for parties and other events, home improvement,
guitar and piano classes, and sales of Brazilian products such as Brazilian clothes and
lingerie, and Brazilian food.
Community Building
It is good to see people from our country, that speak our language, and to see that
there is a larger group. (Antnio)
Being a member of a bigger group of Brazilians is a matter of not feeling isolated
as an ethnic group, as Antonio remarked above. The community also means [] social
interaction, and the exercise of sociability that it is practiced there (Antnio).



1147
The church also represents the chance of being Brazilian. Closeness, for example,
is an important feature in Brazilian culture. Intimacy is often built even among strangers
that by coincidence sit next to one another. They simply start talking to each other, and
very often find activities and people in common, or just chat for the pleasure of
interacting or passing time. The attitude is not perceived as invasive. Proximity seems to
be understood as being friendly, and constituting an opportunity to know others.
At the church, Brazilians could exercise such conviviality. Brazilians would get to
know others, and get to be known through the community. The church formally provided
this. One of its ways was circulating personal information about their members: babies
that were born, their names, features, and when they would be at home; members that
were sick and their health problems. The church would also give special weight to
Brazilians birthdays, important events in Brazilian culture. A message on a flier
constantly emphasized the churchs intention to publish the exact date of their birthdays.
It also warned Brazilians to notify the church in case the birthdays were not correctly
listed.
A Pro-Community Discourse
The church in the present study is focused on building a cohesive community. To
get Brazilians united, the church overtly emphasizes some values, such as family
membership and belonging, mutual support, and protection.
While stressing that immigrants were apart from their families not really, as
earlier demonstrated - and that they felt some kind of longing, the church would try to
make it equivalent to a family: The church is a family. We need a family. In the context
of a church of immigrants, for many of us here this is the family. We do not have here



1148
our in- laws, nephews and nieces, our parents, nor my daughters grandparents. This
church is our family. Here is the place that we come on weekends; you are our fr iends,
our siblings. Many times we play the role of fathers to some. Some women work as
mothers, the church is a family. In fact, many Brazilians were involved in a network of
people, as discussed earlier. They got to be friends with other Brazilians, share their lives,
and mutually support themselves. They made it not only because it was useful, but also
because it helped them maintaining their cultural identities.
The churchs discourse also evoked longing for belonging, which certainly
mobilizes feelings. The goal seems to be to maintain and reinforce community cohesion.
The main idea is that belonging to a community was not being homeless, abandoned:
Gods project is that the church could be a family, among other things. That it could
shelter those who do not have family. God had this intention [] To give those that dont
have a house, a family. The church is a family. (Minister) The church would explicitly
highlight the theme of belonging, which is very important for immigrants, and certainly
very significant to Brazilians: We are a group of people, we have headquarters. As you
have your house, your father and mother had an address, this family has an address. We
spend all week long studying, working, but we meet here. The family meets here
on.(days and times)
5
. So, it is not only a matter of believing in God, it is also a matter
of belonging to something. The use of terms such as headquarters, and address
shows that the place was not anonymous. It was known and permanent. It had an identity,
with activities and schedules. When the discourse somehow relates parents longing and
belonging to something, it seems to be saying that the church fulfills the absence of the

5
Not specified here, to avoid identifying the community.



1149
parents, and it turns to be like the cozy place that parents house represents. Such words
seem to create or fortify some nostalgia for being apart, and nostalgia may reinforce
group cohesion. Furthermore, the verb shelter suggests that the church might impose on
their members some fear of being abandoned.
Brazilian Culture in Church Practices
Brazilian culture and values are recognizable in the church practices. Events
during church services and lunches are notably Brazilian in many ways.
During services, Brazilians seek closer physical proximity. Touching is very
common. Members greet others with kisses and hugs, even after the service has started,
and couples hug and kiss while they attend it. There are frequent conversations between
those who sit close. Some people leave their seats to talk to others, and some remain
sitting, but many communicate from a distance. There is an exchange of smiles and
looks, and once in a while some little business is taken care, such as giving someone
something they brought from home.
Lunch after church service is cozy and warm. The food smells wonderful in the
air. People chat in the food line, hungry for eating and for interaction. They come and go
as they please, returning to their places in line. While they are gone, those who are in line
in front or behind get closer and talk. Getting the food is another Brazilian experience.
Choosing the location of rice and beans on the plate
6
is an important social event. The
detail underscores how the community creates a family context. It is only in your own
family or in places you are very intimate that you can choose the location of rice and
beans on your plate. People can also ask for more food than is served, and very often they

6
As part of Brazilian eating culture, many Brazilians do not like when rice gets mixed with beans in
the plate, it seems to bother the flavor.



1150
offer extra food. Going to another room after getting the food and choosing a place to sit
provides another opportunity to interact with those they already know, and also with
those whom they have never met. Very quickly they talk about trivialities and of their
personal lives.
Being personal was also observed in the ministers attitudes. During services, the
main minister and his substitutes gave personal examples from their lives, sharing
intimacy with the audience. For example, the minister once discussed his discomfort in a
situation in which his daughter misbehaved in an airplane.
Adults interaction with children is another notable and central feature of
Brazilian life, and the same happens in this community. Touching and getting close to
even unfamiliar children is very common in Brazil, with or without asking the parents
permission, and the same attitude is recurrent in the church. Once I took my husband and
Mariana, my then nine month-old-daughter, to a lunch at the church, after I was done
with fieldwork. Those Brazilians whom I had interviewed ran to meet us. Maisa, for
example, took Mariana in her arms and walked with her through the room for about an
hour, showing her to everyone. That was not just a matter of politely offering to take care
of the baby while my husband and I were having lunch. It was also because close
interaction with children is meaningful to Brazilians in general. She stayed with Mariana
even after we ate. In the meantime, other people also played with my daughter, offered
her food, talked and carried her.
Little overt social control of Brazilian children by their parents was another
feature observed. This does not mean that they are not taught social behavior, but that
they usually interact more freely with other children and adults. During lunch they would



1151
play, ran, scream, and laugh in a loud, agitated and happy tone. Adults would reciprocate
with them, playing, talking, hugging, kissing, and carrying them in their arms, without
telling them to be quieter.
These all seem distinctive traits in Brazilians interactions, and contrast to some
degree with interaction in U.S. culture. As Maisa said, when I go to the Brazilian
church, I feel like I am in a piece of Brazil []. You feel you are really Brazilian.
Because during the week is different, you are relating with Americans, it is their way.
You have to live according to their way, if you want to live well. Of course you will not
stop being yourself [] But when Sunday comes, I am myself, there in my little slice of
Brazil. In touch with her home cultures values, Maisa felt she belonged to a group and
could maintain a cultural identity. Feeling at home seems to work as a crucial ingredient
to Brazilians adaptation to a life culturally different from the Brazilian experience.

COLLECTIVE CULTURAL CRITICISM: CRITICIZING THE U.S. WITHIN
THE COMMUNITY
The church also creates dialogues through which Brazilians criticize what they
disagree with or dislike in U.S. culture. The church created interesting strategies to
discuss cultural difference. The church featured a political criticism of U.S. norms, and
reflections about religion were often connected with stories about U.S. society. These
stories discussed perceptions of American style of interacting that Brazilians disliked,
disagreed with, and criticized.
One of the narratives observed was centered on American parents and their social
control of childrens behavior in public, as well as child abuse. Traveling by plane with



1152
his children once, the ministers daughter was acting inappropriately, as he described. He
talked to her, but she did not change her behavior: Americans were looking When I
get there, I thought, the FBI will be waiting for me, the minister said, and everyone
laughed at his ironic critique. He was situating his embarrassment with a social ostracism
he perceived by Americans in situations like that. He was also expressing a disagreement
with what seemed to him and to the audience an exaggerated way of controlling
childrens behavior, and of child abuse. In Brazil, children are expected to behave,
though there seems to be less control over them. Brazilian children are louder than
mainstream American children, in public and private spaces. In Brazil, childrens
constant behavior monitoring seems to be rejected and understood as detrimental to them.
Americans were also criticized through the context of death taxes
7
: Taxes. Just
try to go anywhere, you will pay taxes for sure, okay? No way of escaping, no way.
Republicans are now trying to go against what they call the death tax. These are taxes
over inheritances. When a person dies, that becomes an income to those people who were
related to the person. Taxes eat almost half of the inheritance, and they want to protest
against these taxes, so, as we see, death also pays taxes! Then he laughed hard, and the
audience laughed, too. If his interpretation of the U.S. legal system was correct or not,
does not matter. The important issue is that his meta-discussion was somehow situating
Americans as obtuse.
Another example was found in a service the key informant led. He described the
encounter of Christians with God on Judgment Day. In such discussion, he criticized
Americans social isolation, and how geography interferes with interaction: Will we

7
Though not all American states act the same way in legal terms, he seemed to be making a
generalization or maybe mistaken about Americans behavior in the legal and in other areas.



1153
present excuses [on Judgment Day]? But God, my wife was very annoying, my children
were pests, in Brazil inflation was a problem, in the U.S. nobody speaks to anyone,
everything is far Will we present lots of excuses? Brazils context was also criticized
in this example, and despite not finding other examples in the dialogues, it is suggested
that Brazil was also a target of criticism.
Brazilians appropriate cultural behavior in the U.S. was also examined. As
pointed out, the minister shared the stories with the audience. The sharing seemed to
create group solidarity to disapprove, individually and collectively, certain ways of
acting. In one of the church services the key informant conducted, he criticized the
practice of buying a green card to stay in the U.S.: I am sorry if I am going after
someone, or hurting someone, but there are among the among other immigrant groups,
though Im not sure if this happens among Brazilians, the practice of buying a green card.
Well, it is easy, just go to Washington, D.C., in such-and-such street, that you buy a
green card for $50. He was pretending he did not know that some Brazilians falsify
immigration documents. This is evident in the hesitation in his first sentence. He was
going to mention that Brazilians get illegal documents, but he made it more generic and
played innocent to criticize it better later. He was aware of the practice, and he was
including Brazilians in the criticism of misconduct. Next, someone in the audience
whispered the address of the place to negotiate false documents, and he responded:
What did you say? Is it in Columbia Ave?, and laughed hard with the audience. With
that comment, he was telling the audience that the reference to that address suggested that
Brazilians also falsify documents, as if he did not know it, and then he criticized the



1154
approach: this is a wrong thing, wrong thing, wrong thing it is morally wrong, it is a
crime, you can go to jail for falsifying documents
At the same time Brazilians and other immigrants were critized, they also seemed
to recognize themselves as clever, while Americans were perceived as unintelligent. The
gaps of the adopted culture were collectively recognized, and they were criticizing the
system as easy to fool, and not smart enough to stop the practices. The shared laughing in
this other context created group solidarity through sarcasm, and revealed that the group
was moving towards a political criticism of the U.S. system.

CONCLUSIONS
At the level of a community, participation in a Brazilian Baptist service facilitates
Brazilians connecting with their culture of origin, reasserting their national and cultural
identities, and reviewing the values of a life in the U.S.
Proximity, intimacy, and the feeling of belonging are recuperated within the
church practices. Thus, Brazilians preserve what they culturally treasure, and do not want
to lose.
The church gathers Brazilians that also look for other needs, in addition to
cultivating spirituality. Community participation and large extended families that also
immigrated to the U.S. help Brazilians to bond, and to feel comfortable in the adopted
culture. Through the church, Brazilians also get engaged in a community of resources and
people. Such connections enable them to build access and learn about U.S. culture, as
well as to become involved in a collective criticism of it. Criticizing seems to ease



1155
cultural conflict. Looking at values that contrast with values of Brazilian culture also
helps Brazilians situate themselves in U.S. culture.
The role the church plays does not seem to reinforce assimilation into U.S.
culture, nor does it assume a cultural superiority of the host culture. The communitys
approach encourages maintenance and development of Brazilian identity. Brazilians seem
to understand that a life in two cultures creates positive experiences and bicultural
competence. They are engaged in developing cultural awareness, and seem to preserve
the confidence that it is possible to live in two cultures and be happy without making
concessions to their sense of cultural identity. The collective criticism developed by the
community seems also to be crucial to the negotiation of values Brazilians want to
review, change, exclude or maintain.
Further research on how cultural discontinuity is perceived and negotiated may
answer some questions such as: Can cultural criticism work as a tool for building
solidarity among Brazilians? Can criticism facilitate Brazilians political engagement?
Would cultural comparison reinforce assumptions of superiority and inferiority of each
culture?
A few researches in the field of Brazilians in the U.S. have focused on Brazilians
trying to make a political point while affirming their uniqueness and an imagined ethnic
superiority (Margolis, 1994; Beserra, 2003). Beserra (2003) also suggests that Brazilians
experience ambiguity in their relationship to Americans, either over-estimating or
devaluing them. In any case, assumptions of low or high position in a field, in Bourdieus
(1984,1986) terms, seem to be part of the construction of their identities as Brazilians in
the U.S.



1156
It may be possible that when Brazilians perceive themselves as superior the
challenge becomes proving to Americans that they have value. One strategy could be
devaluing Americans in different contexts, such as group conversations, newspapers, and
also in church services. They may also build an essentialized perspective of themselves as
the most socially appropriate people. In this view, they may compare themselves with
Americans, as a way of establishing distinctiveness, and add power to their identities.
Thus, another issue that requires further exploration is if cultural criticism creates a
hierarchy through which Brazilians situate Americans in inferior position on a values
scale.




1157
REFERENCES


Beserra, B. Brazilian immigrants in the United States. Cultural imperialism and social
class. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2003.
Bourdieu, P. The forms of capital. In: Handbook of theory and research for the Sociology
of Education. New York: Greenwood Press, 1996.
. Distinction: a social critique of the judgment of taste. Cambridge. MA: Harvard
University Press, 1984.
Goza, F. Brazilian immigration to North America. International Migration Review 28,
1994.
Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning. Legitimate Peripheral Participation.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Margolis, M. Little Brazil: An ethnography of Brazilian immigrants in New York City.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994.
Martes, A.C.B. Brasileiros nos Estados Unidos. Um estudo sobre imigrantes em
Massachusetts. (Brazilians in the United States. A study about immigrants in
Massachusetts). Sao Paulo: Paz e Terra, 1999.
. Brazilian entrepreneurs in Boston. Trust and solidarity. (work in progress).
Paper presented at the Latin America Studies Association. Washington D.C.,
2001.
Wallace, K. Relative/Outsider: The art and politics of identity among mixed heritage
students. Westport, CT: Ablex. 2001.



CYBERSPACE, THE GREAT EQUALIZER











DIANE HOWARD, PH.D.
UNIVERSITY OF MARY HARDIN-BAYLOR
BELTON, TEXAS



1159
Cyberspace, the Great Equalizer


In the sphere of the World Wide Web (WWW), there is a qualitatively new,
virtual dimension. Elements of the visceral world, such as those related to physical
bodies, places, and cultures seem less significant and impacting in this new world. The
WWW has created a dimension where our minds and souls can freely share, connect, and
bond with people around the globe. Cyberspace scholar, Pierre Levy (1998), describes it
as a deterritorialized world in which there is more of a sense of a global collective we
who work, communicate, experience collectively in virtual communities, virtual
corporations, and virtual democracies. The equalizing, leveling, anonymous, and
disembodying aspects of communication in cyberspace can provide powerful
opportunities for social justice, enfranchisement, inclusion, and equal opportunity.
Skillful interactive communication techniques can supercede tendencies to diminish,
dismiss, or stereotype others due to gender, ethnicity, racial, and cultural differences.
The contemporary world of the Internet is more than simply an information
highway (Levy, 1998). It is a unique dimension, which affects almost every area of many
of our lives, in which we are required to learn fresh techniques to effectively collaborate,
instruct, facilitate, and cooperate. In order to positively enjoy the truly democratic
possibilities that e-technologies can provide, we must acquire new skills to effectively
foster civil and productive relationships and communities in Cyberspace. Effective
distance communication, facilitation and moderating techniques via modern
e-technologies can enhance personalizing, humanizing, equalizing, socializing, and



1160
therapeutic interactions. (Howard, 2000, 2002). We need to learn constructive
communication skills in order to participate effectively and viably.
Distance communication technology is ubiquitous. It affects most everything that
many of us do. It shapes interpersonal, group, and public communication. It has potential
for empowering the marginalized and disenfranchised. It provides the opportunity for an
equal playing field, when we can access the technology and learn to use it as effectively
as possible. Computers, the Internet, and distance technology applications touch
professional, personal, educational, economic, political, and social spheres of life. They
cab provide potential benefit for the globe, when we harness them and use them
effectively, constructively, and positively.
E-technologies can provide limitless access to information and productive
opportunities. Communication in Cyberspace, the dimension provided by a global
network of connected computers, provides potential enrichment for people all over the
world. The virtual world facilitates highly efficient mobility and portability of
information dissemination and communication, which is supplemented by electronic
multi- media (Havel, 1999). It provides virtual mobility and portability in interactive
discussions, collaborations, and projects across national borders and time zones around
the globe. Most obstacles specific to real mobility are absent in Cyberspace.
Through virtual mobility, real collaborative links become more efficient,
time-saving, and cost-effective. Information and communication content is more portable.
It can be transferred quickly and easily into different cultural contexts in a global setting.
New computer- mediated, distance communication technologies do not replace older



1161
forms of onsite or distance communication, but add to, enhance, and expand
communication possibilities and options around the world (Levy, 1998).
The fact is that people in many countries are rapidly using modern technological
information and communication skills. Around the globe, people are involved in Internet
communication. People around the world are participating in various kinds of
e-communities, due in part to the informality and free access of Internet e-groups. Virtual
learning communities and the contents related to them are constantly developing and
expanding.
Cyber communities are creating new and various cultures facilitated by emerging
technological possibilities and norms. We need to pay attention to specific, concrete
guidance as to how to communicate effectively via Web sites, e- mail, e-discussion
groups, e-discussion groups, e-communities, message boards, audio conferences, and
voice mail. Further, we must address effective e-teaching, videoconferencing,
videostreaming, Webcasting, e-job hunting, and e-publishing. As we learn and master
effective cyber communication skills, we can be enhanced personally and professionally,
not diminished or displaced, by modern communication technology.
Pierre Levy (1998) contends that communication in the virtual world can cultivate
collective intelligence, which can encourage the development of intelligent communities.
He states that sharing of information, knowledge, and expertise in e-communities can
promote a kind of dynamic, collective intelligence, which can affect all spheres of our
lives. He contends that the virtual world can foster positive connections, cooperation,
bonds, and civil interactions. In e-groups or communities, which are flexible, democratic,



1162
reciprocal, respectful, and civil, this collective intelligence can be continually enhanced
and enhancing (Levy, 1998).
Researchers in science, education, business, and industry are pooling their
collective intelligence, knowledge, and data in collaboratories. These are virtual centers
in which people in different locations work together in real time, as if they were all in the
same place. Science, education, commerce, and industry have become increasingly
global. Collaboration, which is efficient, maximizing, and time-saving among distance
researchers in these fields, has become more critical.
As distance technology has become more efficient and cost-effective, distance
collaboration has become more common. The National Science Foundation and National
Institutes of Health have encouraged grant recipients to form collaboratories. These
scholarly, virtual groups are cybersteps beyond distance sharing of asynchronous data
when researchers individually take what they want from online databases.
Collaboratories enable researchers at distant locations to interact, hold lab meetings, and
work with data in real time (Buyya, 2001).
In the various forms of e-groups or e-communities participants are free to
communicate ideas without the limits related to the physical body, i.e., appearance,
gender, race, ethnicity, and status symbols. Levy (1998) suggests further that they are
free to participate in virtual community and to add to the collective intelligence.
In Cyberspace each of us is a potential transmitter and receiver in a space that
is qualitatively differentiated constructed by its participants, and explorable.
Here we no longer encounter people exclusively by their name, geographical
location, or social rank, but in the context of centers of interest, within a shared
landscape of meaning and knowledge. Cyberspace provides large and
geographically dispersed groups with instruments for cooperatively constructing a
shared context communication now involves participants in a form of



1163
interaction. This dynamic collective context serves as an agent of collective
intelligence, a kind of living bond. Cyberspace promotes connections.
Best-selling author, Howard Rheingold (2000), argues that the technology, which
makes virtual communities possible, has potential to empower ordinary citizens at a
relatively small cost. He suggests cyber technology can potentially provide lay citizens,
as well as professionals, with leverage and power, which is intellectual, social,
commercial, and political. He further insists that civil and informed people must
understand the leverage cyber technology provides. They must learn to use it wisely and
constructively, as it can not fulfill its positive potential by itself. We must appreciate,
respect, nurture, and foster positive and meaningful relationships in our visceral and
virtual lives. We must also learn to empower each other and to create constructive
communities that wisely use their leverage and power.
We can concretely and basically begin by working at positive communication in
our cyber communities. As we show respect for each other by observing etiquette in our
personal and professional visceral worlds, we need to use n-etiquette in our e-groups.
This e-community etiquette can facilitate civil and clear communication. It is also useful
when e-communities have access to frequently asked questions (FAQ) in the group.
Using FAQ in an e-group can assist participants to avoid unnecessary repetition and
enable everyone to dialogue with some basic understanding of the topics commonly
addressed by the group. Further, we need to empower other members of our e- groups
(and thus our communities) by giving, when we can, helpful feedback, assistance,
facilitation, and encouragement.
E-group communication is most productive when participants are truthful and
honest, not deceptive. Communicators, however, should be careful not to disclose



1164
personal information, which may make them vulnerable to unethical, harmful others. All
users of e- mail or e-group technologies need to remember that e-communication is
public, not private. We should avoid giving personal information, which could be used to
hurt us by unscrupulous people. We also need to guard again naively forwarding
erroneous and deceptive information. We need to ascertain the truthfulness of material
we forward.
In their book Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies
for the Online Classroom, Palloff and Pratt (1999) suggest behaviors that facilitate
developing effective e-communities. These are honesty, responsiveness, relevance,
respect, openness, and empowerment. Just as we must appreciate, respect, and nurture
face-to-face relationships and communication, we must do the same in Cyberspace. We
need to conduct ourselves in civil and constructive ways to encourage satisfying,
meaningful, and productive personal and professional visceral and virtual relationships.
Civil e-communication that can productively and constructively empower others
most often utilizes effective e- mail skills. Effective interpersonal e-mail can be used
powerfully to facilitate, empower, strengthen, and support in academic, professional, and
personal communication. In interactive, e-communication, positive, others-centered
skills, such as empathizing, listening, looking for common ground,
repeating/rephrasing what the other has said, refraining from attacking, and avoiding
pre-mature judging should be common practices. Since privacy in e- mail is limited,
caution in e-mail communication is justified, however.
E- mail communication must be considered as public. It is not truly private, as
there are many ways in which e-mail can find its way into public view (Verderber, 2001).



1165
E- mail can be a valuable means for instructors, supervisors, administrators, and bosses to
remind and/or reinforce students or employees (Hannon, 2002). E- mail may be best
suited for quick updating, brief making of plans, and condensed sharing of ideas (Beebe
et al., 2001). However, in some situations in which significant communication must take
place at a distance, e-mail can be a lifeline for information and support. Some people are
actually able to communicate more openly and effectively in e- mail than in face-to-face
communication when they are easily distracted, intimidated, or hesitant to speak aloud.
Since facial, verbal, and other sensory communication clues are often limited in e- mail,
misinterpretation of e- mails can easily happen.
E- mail can be a useful and valuable tool of communication in our personal and
professional lives; but it also has potential pitfalls, which we must seek to avoid if we are
going to use it effectively. First, we must utilize basic good, interpersonal skills, which
involve communicating positively, constructively, and respectfully. We need to
empathize, listen, look for common ground, repeat/rephrase what others say, refrain
from attacking, and avoid pre- mature judging. We need to especially work at writing in a
clear style to avoid possible misunderstandings.
Here are basic guidelines for clear, respectful e- mail, personal or professional,
which guard against potential misinterpretation, confusion, and irritation.
Use short, specific descriptions in subject lines.
Use appropriate greetings or salutations, as in face-to- face communication
(San Diego, 2002).
Try to use less than 65 characters in a line and no more than 25 lines of text
(Elam, 1997).
End lines with a carriage return (Elam, 1997).
Use appropriate grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.



1166
(1) Dont use all capital letters. This is considered shouting, or yelling.
(2) Dont use all lower-case letters. This makes you appear uneducated,
unprofessional.
Choose language carefully.
(1) Use informal language in personal correspondence.
(2) Use formal language in business correspondence.
(3) Use short, concise, clear language and sentences.
(4) Simplify messages.
(5) Choose words and write the message carefully.
(6) When using the reply button, include, restate, or paraphrase the senders
language.
(7) Break down messages into simple components.
(8) Compensate for the absence of non- verbal language by adding more
adjectives.
(9) The longer the message, the more it needs to be broken into sound
bytes.
Dont blurt a message impulsively.
(1) Use appropriate etiquette.
(2) Dont say anything electronically that which would not be said face-to-
face.
(3) Dont vent emotions.
(4) Be careful of what might be offensive to other cultures.
(5) Be careful of the tone of messages.
(a) Dont be so short, concise, or direct that messages sound brusque or
rude.
(b) Use adjectives or adverbs to clarify tone.
(c) Avoid sarcasm, which could be misinterpreted (Fielden, 2001).
(6) Refrain from pre-mature judging or attacking.
Re-read messages and use spelling, grammar checks before sending.
(1) Re-read what the message says and how is said before sending it.
(2) Watch for possibilities of misinterpretation.
(3) Avoid using abbreviations, which can be misunderstood or not understood
at all.
Confirm, empathize, and sympathize in e-mail communication.
(1) When disagreeing, try to respect the others position and look for common
ground.
(2) Listen and pay attention to what a correspondent is saying.
(3) Dont flame or use aggressive language (Fielden, 2001).



1167
Consider the correspondent.
(1) Analyze how that individual has presented himself/herself.
(2) Match a correspondents level of language and communication behavior.
Respond, at least briefly, to e- mail from personal or professional contacts.
Little can be assumed about respondents (their frame of mind, interpretation
of your message ), so be gracious and careful in wording and phrasing
(Elam, 1997).
Practice civility, utilize good manners, and use please or thank you (San
Diego, 2002).
Consider re-writing or not sending a message, which is not fair, honest, or
constructive.
Protect against computer viruses, which can be delivered through e- mail.
(1) Avoid opening attachments from unknown sources.
(2) Install virus protection software.
(3) Keep the anti- virus software updated.
Protect against from unwanted e-mail by using a spam blocker or blocked
senders list.
Dont send unwanted, unsolicited e- mail messages.
(1) When it is received, request politely to be removed from the senders list.
(2) Dont forward e-mails without the understanding or permission of the
sender.
Be very careful in forwarding messages.
(1) Make sure that any forwarded message is truthful and accurate.
(2) The truth of alarmist e-mails, such as rumors, virus warnings, pleas for
help, prayer requests can be checked out on sites such as
TruthOrFiction.com.
Use appropriate closings.
Place messages for references in well-organized folders.
Carefully decide when to use e- mail and/or the telephone.
(1) It is sometimes best to follow-up e-mail with telephone communication
and/or negotiation.
(2) Communication, which needs to take place in real time, should take place
over the telephone, since e- mail is asynchronous (Conrad, 2002).
In addition to suggestions for constructive e-mail, here are some further basic
guidelines for fostering effective communication in e-communities.
Newcomers to a group should introduce themselves.



1168
(1) Before participating, take time to study an e-communitys postings or
work.
(2) Welcome newcomers.
In a synchronous group, participants must commit to time set aside for the
group.
Use appropriate salutations or greetings.
In subject lines include brief descriptions of postings.
(1) This is a courtesy to readers, who may or not be interested in some
messages.
(2) In replying, keep the subject description intact.
Post messages to appropriate individual, groups, or lists (Fielden, 2001).
When replying to an individual from a message received on a listserv, be
careful to respond only to that individual and not to the whole list.
Post messages respectfully.
(1) Observe the n-etiquette, which is posted for the group.
(2) Utilize precise and concrete language.
(3) Give specific details and examples.
(4) Participate with civility and respect in an e- group.
(5) Be honest but proceed cautiously with self-disclosing, so as not to be hurt
by unscrupulous group participants.
E-technologies provide wonderful potential for leveling the playing field around
the world. The equalizing, leveling, anonymous, and disembodying aspects of
communication in Cyberspace can provide powerful opportunities for social justice,
enfranchisement, inclusion, and equal opportunity. Skillful interactive communication
techniques can supercede tendencies to diminish, dismiss, or stereotype others due to
gender, ethnicity, racial, and cultural differences. However, we must harness
e-technologies and practice effective e-communication, e-education, and e-collaboration
skills in order to maximize the positive, constructive, and productive potential available
in Cyberspace.



1169
REFERENCES


Beebe, S., Beebe, S., Ivy, D. (2001) Communication principles for a lifetime. Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
Buyya, R. <rajkumar@csse.monash.edu.au> (2001, July). Making Cyberspace collaboration
succeed. <tripathi@amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de> (2001, July).
Elam, P. (1997). A neophytes guide to effective e- mail. WebNovice.com. Retrieved
August 11, 2002 from http://www.webnovice.com/email.htm.
Fielden, N. (2001). Internet research. Jefferson: McFarland.
Hannon, K (2001) Using e- mail to communicate with students can make you a better
teacher- and increase class participation. ASEE, 2. Retrieved August 11, 2002
http://www.asee.org.
Havel, I. (1999). The advent of cyberculture: Preliminary notes for the session on
changes and chances for the society: Self-organization of the European
Information Society through communication networks. Vienna Peace Summit,
Charles University, Prague.
Howard, D. (2000). Autobiographical writing and performing: An introductory,
contemporary guide to process and research in speech performance. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Howard, D. (2002). Enhanced by Technology,-Not Diminished: A Practical Guide to
Effective, Distance Communication, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Levy, P. (1998). Becoming virtual: Reality in the digital age. (R.B. Bononno, Trans.)
New York: Plenum Publishing.
Palloff, R, Pratt, K. (1999) Building learning communities in Cyberspace. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Rheingold, H. (2000) The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier.
Cambridge: MIT Press. San Diego, G. (2002). The art of writing e-mail. Online
Marketing Since 1994. Retrieved August 11, 2002 from http://www.net-
market.com/email.htm#salutations.
Verderber, K., Verderber, R. (2001). Interpersonal communication concepts, skills, and
contexts. Australia: Wadsworth.



NON-STANDARD DIALECT FEATURES IN SCHOOL-AGE
CHILDREN









GALE J. ISAACS, PH.D.
ELIZABETH CITY STATE UNIVERSITY
ELIZABETH CITY, NORTH CAROLINA




1171
Non-Standard Dialect Features in School-Age Children


Non-standard dialect (NSD) is chronicled in a host of studies that include social
and structural linguistics (Labov, 1969, 1972; Lado, 1957; Sapir, 1921; Taylor, 1971);
bidialectism (Adler, 1987, 1989; Geiger &Greenberg, 1976; Kloss, 1977; Taylor, 1985);
the deficit-difference argument (Mecham, 1975; Yoder, 1970); competence (Rogers-
Wright, 1979; Wiener, Lewnau, & Erway, 1983) and comprehension and performance
(Adler, 1987; August & Garcia, 1988; Baratz, 1970; Carter, 1982; Cunningham, 1976;
Labov, 1969; Wolfram, 1991). Despite the volume of information gathered on this issue,
what appears to be lacking heretofore, is research on factors relating to the persistence of
NSD in spoken language. According (Parker & Riley (1994), defining a dialect as either
non-standard or standard is a sociological judgment, not a linguistic judgment. For this
study, dialect refers to any variety of language which is shared by a group of speakers
(Wolfram, 1991, p. 2). NSD is defined as any socially stigmatizing feature of verbal
language production in the academic culture specifically (Parker & Riley, 1994) [e.g.,
They is , they be , this be Tony hat ]. Standard dialect (SD) is defined as the
form of American English used in the classroom (textbooks and teachers) with minimal
variation. In this context, minimal variation means that if an individuals speech is free of
features that can be defined as non-standard, then the speech is considered standard
(Wolfram, 1991).
NSD as utilized in this study subsumes Black English (BE) but is neither
synonymous with BE nor Ebonics, rather, all dialects which deviate from SD are



1172
considered NSD. Fordham (1988) states that it is erroneous to perceive SD as White
English since SD is merely a way of speaking the English language by individuals
within all racial groups who have had successful access to education. The persistence of
NSD, despite exposure to SD, has lead to differing opinions concerning the
appropriateness of NSD. Many educators conclude that students who use non-standard
English as their primary means of communication experience difficulty when they are
required to process information presented in SD, and when they respond to situations in
which they are expected to respond in SD (August & Garcia, 1988; Taylor, Payne, &
Anderson, 1987; Wolfram & Christian, 1989).
The most obvious dialectal differences occur in production (Baugh, 1984; Fasold,
1969; Labov, 1972; Raspberry, 1986; Smitherman, 1977). Production differences become
more apparent once children begin their adaptation to academic life, and in many
instances, these production differences seem to resist change. Children who exhibit
production differences do not make the shift from various language change situations
such as talking with parents and friends (by this time the gap has narrowed between the
two) to talking in the classroom (Laosa, 1988).
There is little information on which variables are important to the dialect shift
process. However, research with populations that generally speak other than standard
dialect indicates that grade in school, sociolinguistic awareness, comprehension, and
prior exposure to SD may all be variables that play a role. Fishman (1991) notes that
most children start out as dialect speakers and come to school speaking varieties of
dialect that are not identical to the variety used in school. As children settle into the
language environment of the school culture, and as they learn more sophisticated forms



1173
to code ideas, adjustments or adaptations to listeners are demonstrated. During this period
of language development and change the non-standard dialect speaker undergoes a
dialect shift toward the variety of dialect spoken more widely in the school culture in
which he participates.
Previous studies have suggested that a shift from varieties of NSD to the language
environment of the school culture occurs between seven and eight years of age (Adler,
1987, 1989; Bountress, 1984; Fishman, 1991; Ramer & Rees, 1973; Ratusnik &
Koenigsknect, 1975; Stewart, 1964). Bountress (1984) further adds that there is a large
and uniform decline in the dialectal features exhibited in the language of elementary
school children during this period of dialect shift. A 1980 study by Richard Day
investigated preferences among 87 kindergarten and first grade children toward Hawaii
Creole English and Standard English. The subjects were enrolled in two schools; one
located in an industrial area and the other in a residential area. The younger children
preferred the non-standard dialect while the older children preferred the standard dialect.
He concluded that: (a) sociolinguistic awareness of dialect may be an aspect of
communicative competence, and (b) grade in school is more important in determining
linguistic preference than is school location. It is widely assumed that the best place to
learn standard dialect is in the classroom (Adler, 1990; Fishman, 1991; Rapalos, 1990;
Shuy, 1972). According to Mehan (1984) school success is not limited to academic
matters, rather students must also know that certain ways of talking are appropriate in
certain contexts. While previous research offers no concrete evidence, there is an
assumed relationship between NSD (performance) and comprehension of SD
(competence).



1174
Hulit and Howard (2002, p. 141) maintain that there have been questions
about the relationship between comprehension and production for as long as language
development has been studied and they suggest that there is a widely held view that
some comprehension is necessary for production. Bloom (1974) stated that the
relationship between comprehension and production is one of shared independence.
Labov (1969) stressed that NSD speakers comprehend SD even though they may not
produce it and that the childs competence must be distinguished from his performance.
Weener (1969) stated that students who are regularly exposed to two dialects might
develop bidialectal comprehension skills but speak only one of the two. Jagger and
Cullinan (1974) reported that five year old Black NSD speakers demonstrated that there
were no forms that they were unable to use. Ash and Myhill (1986) concluded that the
greater the exposures to SD, the fewer NSD features were evidenced. From the viewpoint
of accepted linguistic theory, it is not unusual for speakers who are in close contact with
speakers of other dialects to be affected in their speech by the other dialects (Butters,
1989). Geiger and Greenberg (1976) suggest that the process of recognizing social dialect
distinctions is a developmental one that proceeds from (a) linguistic features (including
sex and age of speaker, and the topic) to (b) reliance on lexical differences and, finally, to
(c) discrimination of syntactic features. Wiener, et al. (1983) looked at dialect
discrimination as a means of measuring language competency.
Although NSD has usually been identified as a behavior practiced by non-White
populations (Fordham, 1988), the present study looked at the use of NSD by both
African-American and White persons. Where race is involved, previous studies have
tended to investigate and compare non-Whites and Whites of different socioeconomic



1175
status (SES) (e.g., low SES non-Whites and middle to high SES for Whites) (Cazden,
1970; Labov, 1970; Bernstein, 1971). If not SES, previous research was conducted from
an environmental perspective of inner city for non-Whites and suburbia for Whites
(Mecham, 1975; Heller, 1988; Norton, 1990). Still, others have worked from an
educational stance by comparing, for example, children enrolled in Headstart programs to
children enrolled in private daycare centers (Adler, 1993). During the elementary school
years childrens language begins to reflect gender differences (Craig & Evans, 1991;
Sause, 1976) and research indicates that girls are more advanced in speech and language
during the early years than are boys (Van Riper, 1971, 1982, 1992). Given that speech is
a learned behavior, and that spoken language is a form of social knowledge (Piaget,
1962), it seems likely that communicative differences between males and females are
manifestations of environment. Hulit and Howard (2002) consider these communicative
differences as conversational style differences and Taylor (1990) sees gender as a major
influence of language behavior. While gender difference studies typically reveal little
about language acquisition specifically, they have tended to shed some insight into basic
language and social differences between boys and girls.
The present study was designed to examine aspects of language that have been
associated in the literature with dialect production, and NSD in oral language specifically,
in order to identify factors which may relate to the persistence and change of NSD over
time. Three questions were addressed in this study:
(1) Are school age children able to discriminate between non-standard dialect and
standard dialect across grade levels, race, and gender?
(2) Does the comprehension of standard dialect vary across grade levels, race, and
gender?



1176
(3) Does the production (use) of non-standard dialect vary across grade levels,
race, and gender?
SUBJECTS
The subjects were 114 third, fifth, and seventh grade students. They were enrolled
in attended four schools that were all within a ten mile radius located both inside and
outside of the city limits. The students ranged in age from 8.0 13. 0 years.
Socioeconomic status was assumed to be representative of demographics in the areas
where the schools were located. The schools within the city limits were located in middle
to upper- middle income areas ($35,000- 76,000 yearly income) and the schools located
outside city limits were located in a middle income area (average $32,000 yearly
income). All subjects included in the study had normal hearing and no prior or current
experience in exceptional childrens services (including speech-language remediation).
Subjects were evenly distributed across grades and across race (see Table 1). Overall,
35% were male and 65% were female.
TABLE 1.
Frequency Distribution of Race and Sex By Grade

Grade Male Female African
American
White
3 15 25 19 21
5 14 26 19 21
7 11 23 19 15
Total 40 74 57 57

PROCEDURE
Data collection took place in a room specifically designated for that purpose
within the participating schools. Each subject was initially seen for hearing screening and
was tested individually. The races of the data collectors were representative of the races
of the subjects, interaction between the two was not race specific. That is, the White data



1177
collector was not limited to working with White subjects only, nor was the Black data
collector limited to working with Black subjects only. The investigator did not attempt to
create an artificial environment different from the reality of a public school environment.
The performance of the subjects [F(4, 99) = .941; p .05] was not affected with regard to
the races of the data collectors. Subjects were administered three experimental tasks
designed to measure the discrimination of NSD and SD, comprehension of SD, and
production of NSD.
Discrimination
A dialect discrimination task was constructed to include contrasting pairs of
sentences. The sentences paralleled five selected features that are commonly associated
with NSD, and five selected features commonly associated with SD (see Appendix A).
The features were:
(a) subject- verb agreement/subject-verb disagreement,
(b) negation/multiple negation,
(c) possession/absence of possession,
(d) use of copula/absence of copula, and
(e) absence of be presence of be
(Adler, 1979; Andersson & Trudgill, 1990; Carter, 1982; Labov, 1969; Washington &
Craig, 1994). The sentence pairs were tape-recorded for presentation to the subjects. The
subjects were required to indicate whether these twenty randomly ordered, pre-recorded
sentences were School Talk or Not School Talk (see Appendix B). The subjects
wrote their responses on a form that was numbered to correspond to the number of the
recorded sentence being presented. The form was divided into two columns: School
Talk and Not School Talk. The subjects were asked to check the column that best
characterized each sentence. The range of scoring was zero to twenty with an assigned



1178
point value of one for each correct response. The total correct response was converted
into a percentage score.
Comprehension
The syntactic and semantic subtests of the Language Assessments Tasks (LAT)
(Kellman, Flood, & Yoder, 1977) yielded data that were used to measure comprehension.
The LAT is a protocol designed to provide a description of language function
(expressive, receptive, content, and communicative). Peterson and Marquardt (1990)
report that there is currently no other measure which provides a similar breadth of
language description for this age range (p. 150). The sections of measurement for
comprehension, language content, production, and communicative function of the LAT
were plotted to compare with Piagets cognitive levels. While the validity of the
composite has not been determined, this protocol stands alone in the language-function
description for the specified age range (Peterson & Marquardt, 1990). On the
comprehension of syntax subtest the subject was asked to indicate an understanding of
before/after, conjunctions, and comparative, transitive, and passive relationships. For
example: Before and After: Clap your hands after you sit down. Passive Relationships:
Linda was phoned by Joyce. Who answered the phone? For comprehension of the
semantics subtest, the subject was required to demonstrate an understanding of
vocabulary, Wh questions, idioms, familial relationships, and riddles. For example:
Vocabulary for the meaning of double function words: Why do we call candy sweet and
nice people sweet? Riddles were read to the subject after which he/she was asked:
Whats funny about that? A general list of the comprehension tasks is located in



1179
Appendix C. Scoring of the LAT was a one point per item rawscore that was converted
into a percentage score.
Production
Data from the Sentence Production Task of The Test of Dialect Dominance
(TDD) were used to identify the degree to which the subjects used NSD and thus, those
whose primary linguistic orientation is NSD. Lewnau (Wiener, et al.) developed the test
by in 1983 with a sample of 460 subjects.
The Sentence Production Task of the TDD contains pictures that were used to
elicit production of five features that differ in NSD and SD. Where formal assessments
do not usually compare production and discrimination on similar structures, these five
features are identical to those in the discrimination task: (a) subject- verb agreement,
(b) negation, (c) possession, (d) absence of copula, and (e) presence of be. The subjects
were presented with parallel versions of sets of verbal prompts accompanied by pictures
that were designed to elicit specific linguistic features. Each subject was shown five
pictures and given a verbal prompt. For example, the subject was shown a picture of a
girl and a table on which milk had been spilled. The examiner said: It looks like the girl
had an accident. What happened? The subject answered by using a SD form or a NSD
form. The degree to which the subject used NSD was determined by the total number of
NSD features he/she demonstrated during the administration of the TDD. NSD features
were recorded on a protocol checklist. The information yielded a raw score between zero
and eleven. A percentage was computed from the rawscore. All responses were tape-
recorded.




1180
RELIABILITY
Reliability data were collected for the data generated from the TDD. Tapes of 10
respondents were randomly selected and independently analyzed for interjudge reliability
by two certified speech- language pathologists and a senior student-clinician. The
reliability measure between the two speech- language pathologists was 1.00 and between
the first speech- pathologist and student-clinician, .98; and between the second speech-
language pathologist and student-clinician, .98.

RESULTS
This study utilized a 2x2x3 cross-sectional design. The independent variables
were grade, race, and gender. The dependent variables were dialect discrimination scores,
comprehension of SD scores, and NSD production scores.
A separate three-way MANOVA was used to test each task measure. The overall
MANOVA results indicated that significant differences exist for grade level [F (8, 198) =
12.63; P< .01]. No differences were indicated for the variables race [F (4, 99) = 0.941; p
> .05] and gender [F (4, 99) = 1.396; p > .05]. The Tukey a procedure was implemented
for post hoc analysis.
Discrimination
The measure of discrimination indicated that there was a significant difference
among grades three, five, and seven [F (2, 102) = 36.20; p < .01]. Students in grade seven
(M = 80.00, SD = 11.87) scored significantly higher than did those in grade three (M =
55.88, SD = 7) and those in grade five (M = 65.00, SD= 13.25). The outcome measure for
gender indicated that girls are better able to discriminate than boys [F (1, 102) = 5.64; p <



1181
.05]. Means (with standard deviations in parentheses) for females and males were 68.24
(14.13) and 62.63 (15.23), respectively. No significant effect was indicated for the
variable race, [F (1, 102) = 3.26; p > .05].
Comprehension
Syntax. The measure of syntax comprehens ion indicated that there were no
significant differences across grade levels, [F (2, 102) = 1.73; p > .05], race [F (1, 102) =
.37; p > .05], or gender, [F (1, 102) = .33; p> .05].
Semantics. Semantics comprehension, on the other hand, indicated significant
differences across grade levels [F (2, 102) = 20.01; p < .01]. The subjects in grade three
scored below the fifth and seventh graders with a mean of 86.20 (SD = 5.3). The subjects
in grade five had a mean of 92.50 (SD= 8.6) and those in grade seven had a mean of
96.59 (SD = 3.6). There were no significant differences for the variables of race [F(1,
102) = .13; p > .05], and gender [F (1, 102) = .04; p > .05].
Production
Production levels of NSD varied across grades [F (2, 102) = 9.56; p <.01]. There
was a significant difference between grades three and five and between grades three and
seven. However, there did not appear to be a significant difference between grades five
and seven. Subjects in grade three exhibited greater levels of NSD usage than did the
other grades (M = 48.48, SD = 14.6). Subjects in grade five had a mean of 32.93 (SD =
20.6), and those in grade seven showed a mean of 28.74 (SD = 18.6). A decline in
specific NSD features was evidenced across all grades with one feature falling out
completely by grade seven. Figure 1 shows the distribution of the production of NSD
features across grade levels.



1182
In grade three all five features were observed while in grade five the presence of be
declined considerably and disappeared completely by grade seven. The NSD feature with
the greatest staying power was multiple negation and was exhibited across all grades.
In order of decline the features were: presence of be, subject-verb disagreement,
absence of possession, absence of copula, and multiple negation (see Table 2).

TABLE 2
Usage of NSD Features Across Grades by Percentage

Features % Grade 3 % Grade 5 % Grade 7
Absence of Copula 91 80 74
Multiple Negation 97 88 92
Absence of Possession 86 54 47
Presence of Be 24 02 0
Subject-Verb Disagreement 90 41 32
Absence of Past Tense 51 39 17
Pronoun Difference 72 7.5 0
n=40 n=40 n=34

No significant differences were revealed for the variables of race and gender for
production levels of NSD. However, in grade three Black subjects (37 %) were more
likely to exhibit absence of possession than were the White subjects (28 %). Similarly, in
grade three, Black subjects (35 %) were more likely to produce absence of copula than
were their White counterparts (22%).

DISCUSSION
The main focus of this study was whether or not discrimination skills,
comprehension, and production level of non-standard dialect of school age children are
related to the persistence of NSD. The answer appears to be two- fold. First, grade in
school accounted for the greatest variation in discrimination, comprehension (semantics),



1183
and NSD production. This finding was in the direction anticipated because a normal
maturation process is to be expected as children get older and the differences among the
grade levels may be attributed to adaptation and acculturation to the school environment,
social and academic maturity, and continuing developmental linguistic skills. Also,
greater language demands are placed on school children as they matriculate through the
grades (Rogers-Wright, 1979). That semantic comprehension showed a marked
difference across grades contends that certain linguistic competencies increase as
progression through the grades increases. McCormick and Schiefelbusch (1990) view
semantic relations as a realization that words represent ideas or concepts about things and
do not represent objects, events, or relationships per se. The more the child is able to code
relations between objects, the further the semantic development (Lahey, 1988).
The order of words is the first linguistic strategy that children employ (Lahey,
1988) this may account for the fact that the syntax component of comprehension was not
a significant variable across grades. In most cultures (academic included) it appears that
girls are more readily engaged in the kinds of activities that foster greater social
interaction, all of which encourage high levels of social skills and stimulate their
speaking and listening environment (Piaget, 1962; Wadsworth, 1989). In many areas of
communicative function young males typically do not perform at the same level as
females (Staley, 1982). Therefore, it is not difficult to accept that the female subjects
demonstrated greater discriminatory skills than did the male subjects. Further, this
Conclusion offers a new specific instance of when females may seem more sensitive to
the potential of socially penalizing behaviors. It is important to note that the gap between
the production of NSD and SD narrows as progression in the grades occurs. That is,



1184
while NSD production was evidenced by subjects in all grades, its presence was of
greater proportion in grade three than in grades five and seven; the higher the grade level,
the lower the number of NSD features exhibited. The prominence of NSD, despite its
decline, suggests that if the dialect shift has not occurred by the time children leave the
elementary grades, then it is unlikely that the transition will take place. This finding
supports current literature that suggests children increase their ability to control standard
dialect as they progress through the grades (De Stefano, 1979). Similarly, Day (1980)
concluded that grade level is paramount in determining linguistic orientation. The present
study further extends this premise by noting the change in the use of NSD features across
grade levels. Further, the finding that production levels of NSD and comprehension
appear not to be associated may indicate that dialect production is not predicated upon the
comprehension of standard dialect. Second, race was never found to be a significant
variable across levels of discrimination of NSD vs. SD, comprehension (syntactic or
semantic) of SD, and NSD production. This is contradictory to findings in the current
literature that fail to depict mainstream White children as speakers of non-standard
dialect. In an attempt to look into possible interactions among the variables in the study,
the investigator found that grade had the greatest effect on NSD production. Males were
more likely to produce multiple negation than were females over the entire grade
spectrum, while younger females (grade three) of both races tended to use be more than
males. Males in the lowest grade appeared to be the greatest users of subject-verb
disagreement. The subjects from schools located within the city limits showed no real
differences in production of NSD than did those subjects from schools located within the
city limits whose income levels were higher.



1185
This study makes a contribution to the literature as an empirical venture in the
persistence of NSD. In addition, it examined those aspects of language that have been
associated in the literature with dialect production and non-standard dialect specifically.
It establishes empirical evidence that NSD speakers comprehend SD. Further, the
findings of this study confront current literature that reasons NSD persists because of the
inability to comprehend SD. The findings clearly suggest that the structural components
of comprehension, syntax and semantics per se, are not significant variables in non-
standard dialect production. Collectively these findings support those of Labov (1969)
and foster the idea that NSD speakers comprehend SD even though they may not produce
it and, moreover, that the childs competence must be Distinguished from his
performance.




1186
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A RHETORIC OF IDENTITY:
AN INQUIRY INTO SYMBOLIC SYNTAX AND COMPOSITION
OF BLACK IDENTITY IN BAMBOOZLED






GERALD ALAN POWELL, JR., PH.D.
SAINT JOSEPHS COLLEGE INDIANA
CROWN POINT, INDIANA



1192
A Rhetoric of Identity: An Inquiry into Symbolic Syntax and
Composition of Black Identity in Bamboozled


ABSTRACT
The exploration into the epistemological function of symbols, their validity, and
how they contribute to identity formation is imperative because of their rhetorical
properties in the conceptualization and communication of black identity. In order to
conduct such an effort, I draw from the term symbolic material to explore the formation
of black identity and the representation of that identity, encrypted within Bamboozleds
(Lee, 2000) character Pierre Delacroix. What emerges from this meditation is a fresh
perspective from which to understand the evolution process of identity formation.
Symbolic material, specifically, highlights the subtle psychological and rhetorical fabric
interwoven into identity formation and composition. To finish, I introduce questions that
future researchers might address.



INTRODUCTION
At the vanguard of many black and mass media, the related issue of concern is
representation; this is not a new phenomenon. Blacks are part of a growing number of
groups whose language, culture, and voice have altogether been muted or voiced over.
Blaxploitation films of the sixties and seventies are exemplar of this dynamic,
demonstrating the rhetorical properties that aid in the ideological development of and
exploitation of ideas and images about black identity. According to Koven (2001),
[Blaxploitation] films offer a warped view of black culture. These films contain the
dreams and aspirations of American blacks, and also sell the images back to them (p. 7).
Most notable, these films disseminate essentialist logic and a language of negative
difference, which participate in symbolic representations of racism, sexism, and so forth



1193
(McPhail, 1996). While blaxploitation films were prominent in the late sixties to early
seventies, their legacy still remains benign. Hollywood producers surreptitiously double-
talk. Images, sounds, dispositions, and attitudes that once signified sneering conceptions
of blacks are now hip, jive, and palatable in the name of artistic license and because it is
part of an intercultural sensitivity campaign and acceptance of difference.
Passivity and intensity are the themes by which individuals experience each other.
Technologies such as radio, televis ion, and film are the new armchair modalities of
research, representing peoples initial communicative contact and experience with each
other. Contributing to this dynamic is film; film has the ability to blur the lines between
what is perceivably fact and what is fiction. In other words, film can participate in the
recreation of the real or it can make the imaginary seem real. In either case, the real
or the imaginary is grounded in language. The same stands true with films based on
historical events; once the director interprets and re-presents the discourse, it becomes
thrown in the sea of intertextual interpretation and expression, no matter how real it
appears. Andre Bazin (1974) noted what he called reproductive fallacythat is, the
scenic, situational, character, oratorical, and visual qualities in film that bring about a
psychological or emotional realism for viewers. The reproductive fallacy, therefore, is the
blurring of idealism with realism. Modality refers to the veracity of the medium and its
position and relationship to reality (Bazin, 1974). Within this line of reasoning, film may
recreate an event; hyperbolize and misrepresent a cultures people, language, and
worldview; create miscreants and heroes; standardize good and evil; and participate in the
legislation of such ethical values. Such has been and still is the case with cinematic
portrayal of blacks.



1194
JUSTIFICATION FOR THE STUDY
This essay makes a concerted effort toward the continued re-examination of black
identity in film. Most articulations of black identity, no matter how liberating, are
dictatorial; they replace one interpretation with another. A great portion of black studies
research examines black identity through historical, psychological, and sociological
paradigms, with emphasis on suffering, alienation, and disenfranchisement. This study is
different in three ways: First, although it recognizes that issues of suffering, alienation,
and disenfranchisement are important, it examines symbols as the primary mechanism of
identity construction. Second, the study does not make an attempt to provide a new
definition for black identity; rather, this study aims to examine the developmental process
of black identity from a symbolic perspective. Third, while addressing the first two
issues, by default, this study deconstructs many of the myths about black identity that
were thought to be a matter of fact, rather than attitudinal. In doing so, this essay is
didactic in that it clarifies issues of representation and misrepresentation.
The need for a reexamination and articulation of black identity is backed by some
important postulates. Diawara (1993) declared The mode of representation of the
nineteenth-century minstrel show typifies a principal characteristicthat persists in the
increasingly liberalized regimes of later representation of a speculative self through the
mask of the alien (p. 183). According to McPhail (1996), Contemporary popular and
academic commentators have criticized mainstream media for its negative depictions of
African-Americans (p. 127). Nathan Godfried (2002) stated that the mass media
further reinforce racism/sexism by changing history to suit the desired image of the
dominant group and presenting stereotypic, negative images of non-dominant groups,



1195
reinforcing the notion that in our society only the reality of a certain people is valid
(p. 9). Crowdus and Georakas (2001) expressed a need for scholars to direct their
attention to the spurious ideology assembling black identity, masked as comic relief and
impression.
Frankly, cinematic culture is a culture of representation with technologically
advanced styles of entertaining. Many times, viewers are seduced by coyness and pass it
over as comical, but cinema is benignthere is no such thing as entertainment for
entertainments sake; it always contains precarious ideological messages of persuasion.
As viewers engage a phenomenon, the phenomenon impregnates them with deep
structural meaning and codes that they are unaware of. Part of peoples social
responsibility is to become aware of the way the interplay of codes are structured. By
doing so, consumers become critical of persuasive messages.
The preceding arguments are justifiable claims for the continued investigation of
black identity and its portrayal in film, highlighting the consubstantiated relationship
among symbols, ideology, myth, and current interpretations of black identity. This study
is important because it rhetorically engages the work of Spike Lee, a prominent political
voice in black culture. I am not suggesting that Lee is a leading authority concerning race
relations, identity, and culture; however, Lee is important because his films are, arguably,
the most impervious to the editing of Hollywood producers. This asset is important
because too often the film directors vision is often in conflict with the interest of the
producers.





1196
BAMBOOZLED
Grounded in satire and irony, Bamboozled (Lee, 2000) fastidiously broaches
issues of culture and identity that are rarely addressed constructively and openly by
blacks or whites. Bamboozled (Lee, 2000) captures the uncensored incites and individual
narratives of Pierre Delacroix, Sloan, Cheebah, Manray, and the Mau Maus; these incites
are crystallized through the characters interaction with discursive and non-discursive
language. The synergy between the characters, and the language the characters embrace,
create a rhetorical shift for the viewernamely, the two are consubstantiated at once,
bearing each others psychological cross. In other words, the characters are metaphorical
figures of you and me, revisiting, traversing, and experiencing themes of racial and
cultural identity that often are devalued or misconstrued. Resonating from Bamboozled
(Lee, 2000) is a distinct identity ratio in which black temperament can be understood
symbolic material.

BLACK IDENTITY
Most contemporary encounters with black identity are critical and urge
participants to engage in a more interpretive, fluid, and dynamic conceptualization. An
often-used word illustrating this notion is Diaspora, describing continuous linguistic
repertoire, thinking patterns, and worldviews that are encountered, formed, and
transformed (Asante, 1998). Reasons for Diaspora are intertwined in a post- modern
webbed notion of an ephemeral, contingent self, interminably partnered to social
engagements and historical and political exigencies. The operative word, notion, admits
to the sovereignty of the individual relating to the social construction of his or her



1197
identity rather than a denotative state of existence and expression of ones self. Within
this line of reasoning, the individual is condemned to be free; which is to say that he or
she must constantly negotiate his or her identity until an adequate balance is achieved
between the punctuated, predetermined self and the authentic self. Communicative
theorist Ronald Jackson (2002) examined various degrees of sovereignty and authenticity
through three components, which are understood as cultural contracts: Ready-to-sign,
Quasi-completed, or Cocreated. These three stages of identity formation and
transformation are a set of ideological restraints that one is forced to assimilate. Jackson
(2002) maintained, The term cultural contracts refers to the end product of identity
negotiation; hence every signed or agreed- upon cultural contract has a direct impact on
ones identity (p. 49). The fundamental purpose of Jacksons (1999) theory is to gain
further insight into the process of cultural identity negotiation. To negotiate identity
implies that identity formation be considered a communication phenomenon among two
or more individuals that are driven by message exchange over a period of time (p. 4).
British cultural studies scholar Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay (1996) identified
cultural identity as a balance of effectively managing various spheres of ones existence,
which are developed and sustained, both internally and externally. The complex dialectic
between the two is both rhetorical and ideological as it is grounded in rules, laws, roles,
and appropriateness. Hence, identity is a projection of the values of a given culture and is
a struggle between heterogeneity and homogeneity. Identities are then the points of
identification, the unstable points of identification, or the sutures that are made within the
discourses of history and culture. Cultural identities are therefore not an essence but a
positioning. Hall and du Gays (1996) commitment to cultural identity as a positioning



1198
reaffirms that identity is not a tangible entity; rather, it is a construction of interests,
demands, needs, and fulfillments. It is a response to how people perceive one another,
how people perceive themselves, the synthesis of the two, and the effective presentation
of peoples selves for the most favorable outcome; from this perspective, individuals are
rhetorical agents, putting forth their best rhetorical smiles for the best possible outcome,
position, and status. Not all social scientists examine black identity from a rhetorical
platform; that is, the self is not a victim of communicative forces, whose penultimate goal
is to achieve identification for purposes of social position. Black identity is also an
existential issue in that one is more concerned with intrapersonal resolve, harmony, and
balance, less the social presentation of the self.
Contemporary scholar Cornel West (1993) described the soul of the African
American as alienated and estranged, faced with the truism of strained realities. Within
the same principle of reasoning, each African American must somehow resolve this
conflict individually. The impetus of this turmoil is found in the obfuscation between
diversity and multiculturalism. Whereas diversity signifies a quantitative remedy to
homogeneity, multiculturalism signifies a qualitative effort to appreciate and understand
cultural difference. Unfortunately, some individuals have mistaken diversity for
multiculturalism. This leads to more than a quandary as alluded to in Du Bois (1903)
theory of Dual Consciousness. Alienation, according to West (1993), is an existential
journey of conflict; it emphasizes the following common themes: question of identity, the
experience of choice, and the absence of rational understanding of the universe with a
consequent dread or sense of absurdity in human life. The history of the African
American is a mosaic of these themes mentioned by West. West characterized the



1199
African American as lost between two worlds of existence. Wests (1993) theory
suggests that the present-day African Americans task is to find his or her own existence.
Once he or she finds it, he or she will have a voice. Because of the existential turmoil,
Wests theory positions African-American identity as a discontinuous process of
intrapersonal demands. West (1993) noted
The modern black diasporan problematic of invisibility and namelessness can be
understood as the condition of relative lack of black power to represent
themselves to themselves and others as complex human beings, and thereby to
context the bombardment of negative, degrading stereotypes put forward by white
supremacist ideologies (p. 16).
The second principle of alienation is alienation as a category of oppressive
systems. In this mode of thinking, alienation is a set of racially contrived tyrannical
structures that aim to distance an individual from his or her culture. According to West
(1993), this is done through the control of language and ideology. As such, alienation is
articulated as any wide-ranging system of beliefs, way of thought, and category that
provide the foundation of control. For example, West examined the past condition of the
slaves who were brought to America. These slaves were stripped of their language,
religion, and family. These conditions were intentionally set up to oppress the slaves and
distance them from what is familiar. West noted that the African American is alienated in
so far as he or she cannot understand or accept him- or herself. In other words, the
African American is alienated because he or she only identifies with his or her culture
superficially (West, 1993).
James Baldwin (1974), in his seminal work, If Beale Street Could Talk, described
the inner conflict of identity. As the issue of personal and social identity confronts Tish, a
character in Baldwins novel, she is aware of the difference between herself and others.



1200
This awareness of race, culture, and gender makes her a stranger to herself. Emanating
from Tishs account is an untenable inner-turmoil accounted for in the works of Dubois
(1903) and West (1993)difference and alienation. Both difference and alienation are
symptoms of a conflicted and unhinged self, marked by petulance and despair, but do not
succumb to social turmoil. Tishs account exemplifies the self amidst consistent motion,
activity, and demand.
Accounted for in the various theories and proverbial beliefs about black identity is
a theme often ignored, but nevertheless significant, as black post- modern identity is
predicated upon the metaphysics of language. Each effort, by the scholars postulating
black identity, is an honorable one. It is not my attempt to classify my name with the
aforementioned scholars or to contribute to these new metaphorical systems. Rather, the
issue put forth is the foundation by which these systems are made possible.
Wittgenstein noted that the harmony between thought and reality is found in the
grammar of language (Anscombe, G.E.M., Wright, von, G.H., 1968). The interrogation
of Wittgensteins postulate is the conceptual ground on which the author examines the
development of black identity in Bamboozled (Lee, 2000). In other words, the plethora of
conceptualizations of black identity is only achieved and made possible through an
understanding of what is termed symbolic material.

SYMBOLIC MATERIAL
I use the term symbolic material to underscore the bilateral relationship between
symbolic consumption and self-actualization. In this light, symbols satisfy societal and
intrapersonal created needs and fantasies that are internally processed and presented as



1201
part of ones identity. When an individual identifies with a commodity, he or she is
seduced into a referential symbolic system, unique from other systems of symbolic
discourse. In other words, each commodity requires its consumers to take part in a host of
activities that confirm its status, place, and symbolic value. Consider, for example, my
own personal affinities toward high-end sports cars. If I align my interests and identity
with a Porsche, a web of conspicuous activities would besiege mefinding an adequate
estate to park the vehicle, belonging to a country club, and if I am lucky, having money
left over for kids to attend private school. Commodities and personal artifacts signify
more than physical entities; they carry an existential significance vital to the identity of
the individual.
In most cases, individuals are not aware of the ideological effects of the artifacts
they embrace. Like the sheep in a wolfs clothing, members of American culture are
mesmerized by appearances without consequences because they do not seem artificial.
Appearances are, in fact, a hyperreality after which contemporary culture references their
identity. Marcuse (1968) noted that people recognize themselves in their commodities;
they find their soul in their automobile, hi- fi set, split- level home, and kitchen equipment.
The very mechanism that ties the individual to his or her society has changed, and social
control is anchored in the new needs that it has produced. An effect of symbolic material
is that as we engage a phenomenon, the phenomenon is also engaging us. That is, the
signifier and the signified are interacting at a rate in which the two are indistinguishable.
Symbolic exchange demands that people are inextricably linked and altered by the
phenomenon they embrace. As the phenomenon of social value metamorphoses, so do
people.



1202
Delacroix
Pierre Delacroix is a Harvard graduate, speaks with a dainty accent, dresses in
exquisite suits, possesses rare jewelry, and resides in a highly desirable living space for
which he struggles to make payments. Delacroix changes his name from Pierless to Pierre
in order for others to concede to the spurious identity he has of himself; and in spite of his
efforts, Delacroixs concerted efforts fail due to the reticence others have about his
identity.
Reticence is a byproduct of the obfuscation between the values of a sign and other
signs within a codified system. In other words, Delacroix may have access to certain
commodities (signs), but his skin color (code) does not reconfirm this privilege of access.
The derivation of meaning depends on the code in which the sign system occupies. A
consequence of an incongruous sign and the coding system is semantic noise and
misrepresentation. The term semantic noise is particularly appropriate because it allows
for the recognition that using language is not merely phatic communication, or just
putting words to thoughts, but is inclusive of the specific phrasing and framing of thought
to establish personal identification. Dunwittys dialogue with Delacroix reconfirms this
point.
Dunwitty: You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard
education and your pretentious ways.
Dunwitty: Brother man, Im Blacker than you. Im keeping it real, and
youre frontin trying to be White.
Delacroix: Im an oreo, a sell out? Because I dont aspire to do
Homeboys from Outer Space or some nigger show? Im a
Tom? Im Whiter than White and youre Blacker than
Black? Is that what you think?



1203
Dunwitty: Thats exactly what I think.
Dunwittys comment not only exploits Delacroixs relentless effort to assimilate
into white culture, but it also underscores the incompatibility between the sign system
and the code it inhabits; this is why, in Dunwittys mind, Delacroix is an oreo
(Tondeur, 2002). Stuart Hall (Lubiano, 1998) reported, Symbolic lines are being drawn,
and what we know about culture is that once the symbolic difference existspower uses
difference as a way of marking off who does and who does not belong (p. 298).
Delacroix will buy and do anything to persuade others that he is not black.
In a different scene, Delacroix comes into a board meeting late.
Dunwitty: Do you know how much information can be dispensed in
one minute alone?
Delacroix: I didnt find out about this very important staff meeting
until.
(Delacroix rolls up his sleeves, looking at his Jaeger-LeCoultre.)
In the subsequent scene, Delacroix comments that he would have canceled his
Pilots session if he had been aware of the meeting. What is of importance in this situation
has little to do with his coming to the meeting late or that he was not informed of the
meeting, but has everything to do with the artifacts and lifestyle that symbolize his quest
for upward social mobility. Rogin (2001) stated that Delacroix, although educated, will
embrace any artifact that outwardly communicates how dapper and well to do he is.
Accumulation is the most pervasive feature of Delacroixs persona; in his bizarre world
of ecstasy, identity loses value by virtue that there are too few signifiers and far more
signified, leaving Delacroix bemused and suffocated by symbols.
Delacroixs predicament is not novel and is captured in myths receding from
Greece, Babylonia, to modern accounts of man. His story is an allegory of greed;



1204
humanity endowed with artificial wants is consumed by those wants that supposedly
provide satisfaction. Like a receding shoreline, satisfaction is illusive and never quite
attained. Delacroixs identity is interminably anchored in the illusiveness of
satisfactionones ability to find fulfillment in commodities in society. These needs are
not so much directed at objects but at values; the distortion of two creates hysteria, which
is primarily the reason Delacroix finds himself in commodities.
Soon after Dunwitty adjourns the meeting in which Delacroix enters late,
Dunwitty makes it clear that he wants a racist television show, one that mirrors blackface
minstrelsy. Delacroix is reticent, yet obliges, justifying it as satirical and pedagogical; he
then meets with Sloan, his assistant, and divulges his true feelings about and motives for
the show.
Delacroix: Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And thats what Im going to
give him. Its going to be so racist, so negative, he wont
have the balls to put it on the air. Hence Ill prove my
point.
Sloan: Sounds risky to me.
Delacroix: You getting cold feet?
Sloan: Im in till the end.
Delacroix: Good. Im going to need your support.
Sloan: Cant you just quit? Walk away?
Delacroix: And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I
get fired. And thats what I intend to do.
We can begin to understand the formulation of Delacroixs identity by examining
that which he idolizes and desires; his neurosis is derived not from the nature of the
objects he collects but from his fascination with them. His identity is really a composite
of embryonic desires, fascinations orbiting concentrically, participating in the



1205
development of the self. In this context, identity manifests as part of a symbolic process,
fueled by the imagination of the individual. That is, ones imagination contributes to the
development of the self.
The viewers never know who Delacroix really is; that is a matter of
psychoanalysis, and I am not convinced that psychoanalysis, or any discipline, could
divulge such information. Viewers are privy, however, to the manifestation and vestiges
of these embryonic fascinations as contributors to Delacroixs identity.

IMPLICATIONS
When I reflect on the rhetorical approaches to articulate black identity put forth
by Lee and researchers, I am always reminded of, and in some cases dictated to, what
black identity is. My intent in this essay is not impulsive; it is not to contribute to the
encyclopedia of what black identity is. Rather, it is investigative in that the focus is to
understand the discursive properties of identity formation represented in the character
Pierre Delacroix.
Symbolic material is the preliminary step prior to any conceptualizations of black
identity and arguably identity at large; specifically, it sheds light on the invisible
psychological and rhetorical fabric interwoven into identity formation and composition.
The manifestation of the psychological and rhetorical elements is the totality of the
identity roles that people play. To this end, black identity, however researchers have
attempted to describe it, is fundamentally anchored in a composite of embryonic wishes,
needs, and desires not fully developed that play themselves out in artifacts that
individuals consume or desire. Situated between reality and imagination, human beings



1206
have the ability to identify, misidentify, create, and destroy the very notion of identity. If
identity is this fluid, there needs to be a container; symbolic material is both rigid and
flexible enough to accommodate issues of identity and identity formation and
composition. Emerging from this meditation are two distinct questions. If symbolic
material is truly worth investigating, we must ask ourselves: who controls the discourse,
language, and ideas to which our fantasies and desires are attached? And to what degree
does this abnegate our autonomy in terms of us shaping our identity?



1207
REFERENCES


Anscombe, G.E.M., Wright, von, G.H. (1967). Ludwig Wittgenstein: Zettel. California:
University of California Press.
Asante, K.A. (1998). The afrocentric idea. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Baldwin, J. (1974). If Beale street could talk. New York: The Dial Press.
Bazin, A. (1974). Renoir. London: W. H. Allen.
Crowdus, G., & Georakas, D. (2001). Thinking about the power of images: An interview
with Spike Lee. Cineaste, 26, 46.
Diawara, M. (1993). Black American cinema. New York: Routledge.
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1903). The souls of black folk. Chicago: A.C. McClurg.
Godfried, N. (2002). Identity, power, and local television: African Americans, organized
labor and UHF-TV in Chicago, 19621968. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and
Television, 22, 117130.
Hall, S., & du Gay, P. (1996). Questions of cultural identity. California: Sage
Publications.
Jackson, R.L. (1999). The negotiation of cultural identity: Perceptions of European
Americans and African Americans. Westport, CT: Blackwood.
Jackson, R.L. (2002). Exploring African American identity negotiation in the academy:
Toward a transformative vision of African American communication scholarship.
Howard Journal of Communications, 13, 4357.
Koven, J.M. (2001). Blaxploitation films. Great Britain: Cox & Wyman.
Lee, S. (Director). (2000). Bamboozled [Film]. (Available from Forty Acres and a Mule).
Lubiano, W. (1998). The house that race built. New York: Random House.
Marcuse, H. (1955). Eros and civilization: A philosophical inquiry into Freud. New
York: Vintage Books.
McPhail, M. (1996). Race and sex in black and white: Essence and ideology in Spike
Lees discourse. Howard Journal of Communication, 7, 127138.
Rogin, M. (2001). Nowhere left to stand: The burnt cork roots of popular culture.
Cineaste, 26, 1415.



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Tondeur, C. (2001). Bamboozled by blackness. Black Camera, 16, 1011.
West, C. (1993). Keeping faith: Philosophy and race in America. New York: Routledge.



TECHNOLOGY USAGE AND AFRICAN AMERICANS











DR. RUBY L. WIGGINS
DR. LOCORD D. WILSON

JACKSON STATE UNIVERSITY
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI




1210
Technology Usage and African Americans


The Digital Revolution is causing a stir! African Americans have participated
as equals in the technological world only as consumers, otherwise existing only on the
margins that defined the nation, unrepresented as designers, innovators, and
implementers of our systems and machines. It is important that we understand and come
to terms with this now. There are technological developments in the making that could
permanently affect the destiny of African Americans, as Americans and as global citizens
(Walton, 1999). How can African Americans achieve the promise of America?
The United States has a history of introducing technology into schools to solve
educational challenges. The 1960s saw the introduction of both programmed instruction
and educational television in the classroom followed in the 1980s by microcomputers.
During the 1990s state and federal initiatives placed more computer technology into P-12
classrooms in hope that technology would solve our educational challenges (Morrison &
Lowther, 2002).
According to B.F. Skinner, there are more people in the world than ever before,
and far greater parts of them want an education. This demand cannot simply be met by
building more schools and training more teachers. Education, therefore, must become
more efficient and effective programs must be established. Effective programs begin with
careful planning and a focused understanding of student needs. Appropriate technology
can only be selected once these elements are understood in detail. Quality programs take
time to blossom; they rely on consistent and integrated efforts of administrators, faculty,



1211
students, and support staff. Timing is very important for effective learning since students
best utilize information when it is available at the same time that they are ready to learn
(Sharp, 2002).
Today computers and technology are a necessary part of everything that we do. In
order to insure that our society is prepared for the technological age, the U.S. Department
of Education has adopted four technology goals which are designed to train teachers to
use technology in order to help their students. Since African Americans make up such a
large portion of the population of students in public schools, this training will prove to be
quite beneficial to the students success. The goals, according to Forcier and Descy
(2002), are:
v All teachers and students will have modern computers in their classrooms.
v Every classroom will be connected to the information superhighway.
v Effective and engaging software and on- line resources will be an integral part
of every school curriculum.
v All teachers will have the training (i.e., highly qualified) and support they
need to help all students learn through computers and through the information
superhighway.
Computer technology has revolutionized the lives of individuals with disabilities
in school, at home, in the community, and in the workplace. The availability of products
and services can make the difference between a disability that substantially limits major
life activities and one that does not (Bowe, 2000).
The National Council on Disability (1993) has estimated that approximately 75%
of special education students could be educated in the regular classroom if the
appropriate technologies were made available. These technologies, if utilized, would
greatly impact the African American community.



1212
Computers can help teachers to challenge and educate students with special needs
because of their versatility and capability. According to Malouf (1991), good computer
software meets the needs of persons with disabilities because of the remedial feedback,
unhurried pace, limitation of errors, and the repetition of missed items.
Computers do not tire and are patient tutors. In addition, computers provide
stimulating environments in which persons with special needs can experience a great deal
of success (Forcier & Descy, 2002). The role of technology in special education has
become more important as the education for individuals with disabilities is being
promoted in education. Over the years technology has provided great advances for
students with disabilities. Many professionals believe that technology in the classroom
has become a necessity and many teachers are using more technology in their
instructional practices when teaching students with special needs (MacArthur, 2001).
Armstrong (1995) has identified several software features that have proven to be
useful to African Americans and other persons with disabilities:
v Easy-to-read screens: Simple, legible text and menu items are presented in
graphics and text.
v Consistency: Consistent placement of menus and objects on the screen make
programs intuitive and predictable.
v Logical labels: Easily understandable names in lists and menus give a
reasonable sense of what will happen when they are selected.
v Graphics: Graphics encourage interaction and support nonreaders and
beginning readers.
v Support for inclusion: Software that appeals to all users promotes inclusion.
v Documentation: Instructions are available in large print, Braille, electronic
text, or recorded form.
v Audio/visual cues: Prompts and feedback provide important support and keep
users on track.
v Built- in access: Alternative access methods allow users to select appropriate
input devices, such as a joystick or touch screen.



1213

ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
For years school districts have placed great emphasis on the importance of
technology in education, however, as with most services, persons with disabilities were
seldom included. The Technology-Related Assistance to Individuals with Disabilities Act
of 1988 (P.L. 100-407), often called the Tech Act, sought to change this practice by
providing federal funds to create statewide programs for delivering assistive technology
and technology services to persons of all ages with disabilities (Bryant & Seay, 1998;
Heward, 2003). Many African Americans naturally reaped the benefits of the Tech Act
and subsequent federal funds.
According to the Tech Act, assistive technology may be defined as follows:
Assistive technology means any item, piece of equipment or product system,
whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used
to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capacities of children with
disabilities. (Federal Register, August 19, 1991, p. 41272)
In the educational setting, assistive technology may be used as a compensatory
tool (e.g., to compensate for visual impairment by providing speech output for important
information on the computer screen); in instructional management (e.g., to write and
revise individualized educational programs); and in instructional delivery (e.g., to
motivate and provide individualized instruction for each student) (Lindsey, 1988).
With the passage of the 1997 Amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA), multidisciplinary teams, whose primary job is to develop an
individualized education program (IEP) for all students who receive special education
services, must now consider if children with special needs require assistive technology
services (Murdick, Gartin, & Crabtree, 2002). Minority students, especially African



1214
Americans are now able to access different school subjects as a result of modifications or
assistive technology as required by law.
Today more than 2,500 companies offer assistive technology devices and services
to a market of an estimated 16 million Americans (Bowe, 2000). Currently, there is a
wide range of technology available that may be as simple as velcro (low-tech device) or
as complex as a computer chip (high-tech device) (Pellegrino, 1997).
Low-tech devices may be as simple as a built- up handle on a spoon and a set of
grab bars in the bathroom area that allows the student to use the restroom independently.
High-tech devices may include specialized computers with adapted switches that allow
the student to control the environment (High, 1999). These devices can perform many
functions (Parette, 1997) and are primarily designed to assist students in accomplishing
their curricular goals.
Assistive technology devices are generally used for personal tasks such as
speaking, eating, doing homework, taking care of a house, and performing paid work.
The devices must be appropriate to meet the unique needs of the individual (Bowe, 2000)
and may be classified as output or input devices. Word processors, devices with enlarge
printed words on a computer screen, specialized mathematics software, electronic
communication aids, speech synthesizers, scanners, computer text readers, Braille
writers, tape recorders, spell check devices, augmentative communication devices,
calculators, and prosthetic devices are all examples of assistive technology output
devices. Examples of input devices are alternate keyboards, minikeyboards, keyguards,
switches, voice recognition systems, joysticks, trackballs, touch pads, head mouse,
infrared pointers, environmental controls and touch windows (MacArthur, 2001).



1215
Additional assistive technology that may be used by African Americans and others with
disabilities include adaptive equipment, augmentative and alternative communication
devices, and medical technology.
Adaptive Equipment
Adaptive equipment has been used for years to increase the mobility of persons
with physical disabilities (Geyer et al., 1998). According to Snell and Brown (2000)
adaptive equipment has two major purposes: the prevention of secondary motor
difficulties, including deformities and enhancement or promotion of functional abilities.
The most common types of equipment for mobility include scooters, walkers,
crutches, bicycles, and wheelchairs; for positioning include bolster/sand bags,
triangle/corner chairs, bean bags, wedges, car seats, and wheelchairs/inserts, prone
boards; for isolated support include braces and splints; and activity-oriented include
mercury switches, battery operated devices, computer aids, toy modifications, radio
controlled devices, and mobility services (Turnbull, et al., 2002).
Augmentative and Alternative Communication
Augmentative and alternative communication refers to all methods of
communication available to an individual including speech, vocalizations, gestures, and
communication behaviors. Augmentative and alternative systems involve the use of aids
that supplement existing vocal communication skills and alternative systems are methods
of communication that are used by a person without vocal ability (Mustonen, Locke,
Reichle, Solbrack, & Lindgren, 1991). Augmentative and alternative systems may be
classified as either gestural or graphic modes of communication and many types of
symbols, methods, techniques, and systems can be used (Westling & Fox, 2000).



1216
Common communication devices may include speech synthesizers, telephone
amplifiers, hearing aids, and communication boards (Hamill & Everington, 2002).
Augmentative and alternative communication can be simple, low-tech or sophisticated
electronic equipment (Lahm & Everington, 2002) and can have either fixed or dynamic
displays (Turnbull, et al., 2002). Communication boards are examples of fixed displays
because pictures or illustrations remain the same. Computer screens are examples of
dynamic displays because displays may be constantly changed in order for students to
make choices.
Medical Technology
Medical technology involves various types of equipment and devices that are
designed to augment or replace vital body functions. Individuals with special needs may
use a variety of mechanical devices. Some of the most common types of devices teachers
in schools may encounter include respiratory technology assistance such as a
tracheostomy, nutritional assistive devices such as a jejunostomy tube, and ostomy care
such as a colostomy.
Respiratory technology assistance is needed in order to help students maintain an
adequate oxygen level in the bloodstream and thus maintain respiration or breathing
(Snell & Brown, 2000). A tracheostomy is a surgically created opening in the trachea, or
wind pipe, to provide medical ventilation and suctioning of oral secretions (Turnbull,
et al., 2002).
Nutritional devices may include a jejunostomy tube or J-tube to provide for
feeding through a tube directly to the intestine. This device may be required since many



1217
students tire of eating before they have consumed enough food to provide the body with
the necessary nutrients.
An ostomy is a surgically created opening in the body for the discharge of body
wastes. A colostomy is an opening created when a portion of the colon or large intestine
is removed and the remaining colon is brought to the surface of the abdomen (Snell &
Brown, 2000).
Over the past several decades, the use of technology has minimized disadvantages
associated with disabilities and has blossomed from a promise that benefited a few
individuals to a reality that has improved many peoples lives. New and emerging
developments in technology and biomedical engineering hold even more exciting
implications for many individuals with physical disabilities. People with paralysis
resulting form spinal cord injury and other causes are already benefiting from
sophisticated microcomputers that can stimulate paralyzed muscles by bypassing nerves
(MacArthur, 2001).
In 1982 Nan Davis became the first human being to walk with permanently
paralyzed muscles; she was able to control a computer with her brain and transmit
impulses to sensors placed on her paralyzed muscles. Such systems have become more
efficient and widespread, helping many people with various physical impairments.
Myoelectic limbs are battery-powered artificial limbs that pick up electrical signals from
the brain and enable the user to perform certain movements and functions. Robotics also
holds promise for increasing the independent functioning of persons with physical
disabilities (MacArthur, 2001).



1218
Since the passage of the 1997 Amendments to IDEA it is now the teachers and
the schools responsibility to provide students with special needs with medical services
necessary to maintain the equipment and devices mentioned above as well as many
others. These services are necessary in order for African Americans and other individuals
with special needs to receive a free appropriate public education as mandated by IDEA.
Assistive technology is also part of Supplementary Aids and Services and
includes aids, services, and other supports that are provided in regular education classes
or other education-related settings to enable children with disabilities to be educated with
nondisabled children to the maximum extent appropriate in accordance with section
612(a)(5) by IDEA.
How can assistive technology help students with learning differences succeed? As
demands within general education increase, alternative interventions to foster student
success must be found. In order to maximize success, an integrated approach involving
instructional practices and applied assistive technology should be considered. The use of
computers, related technologies, instructional modifications and learning strategies, in
both the school and home settings, are major tools in addressing the educational needs of
African Americans and other students with l earning or attention difficulties (Carlson,
2001).

CONCLUSION
African Americans must change. If African Americans are to survive as full
participants in this society, they have to understand and apply what works now and make
maximum use of assistive technology devices and services. Otherwise they will be unable



1219
to cross the next technological threshold that emerges in human civilization. African
Americans have to imagine ways to prepare young people for the technological
mainstream because it is the future (Walton, 1999). In fact, African Americans must
ensure themselves a place at the American table by starting with young children with and
without disabilities.
Most teachers will acknowledge that for all individuals technology can provide
important tools for making the performance of tasks quicker and easier. For individuals
with disabilities, assistive technology devices are necessities that enable them to engage
in and perform many tasks, thus becoming a viable and contributing member of society.




1220
REFERENCES


Armstrong, K. (1995, October). Special software for special kids. Technology &
Learning. 16(2), 56-61.
Bowe, F. (2000). Physical, sensory, and health disabilities: An introduction. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
Bryant, B., & Seay, P.C. (1998). The Technology-Related Assistance to Individuals with
Disabilities Act: Relevance to individuals with learning disabilities and their
advocates. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 31(1), 4-15.
Carlson, B. (2001). Kids included through technology are enriched: A guidebook for
teachers of young children. Minneapolis, MN: Pacer Carter.
Forcier, R.C., & Descy, D.E. (2002). The computer as an educational tool. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Merrill.
Geyer, L.A., Kurtz, L.A., & Byarm, L.E. (1998). Promoting function in daily living skills.
Baltimore: Brookes.
Hamill, L., & Everington, C. (2002). Teaching students with moderate to severe
disabilities. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
Heward, W.L. (2003). Exceptional children (7
th
ed.), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
High, J.L. (1999). Meeting the needs of students with special physical and health care
needs. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
Kangas, K.A., & Lloyd, L.L. (2002). Augmentative and alternative communication. In
G.H. Shames & N.B. Anderson (Eds.), Human communication disorders: An
introduction (6
th
ed.), (pp. 545-593). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Lahm, E.A., & Everington, C. (2002). Communication and technology supports. In L.
Hamill & C. Everington, Teaching students with moderate to severe disabilities:
An applied approach to inclusive environments. (pp. 51-59). Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Merrill.
Lindsey, J.D. (1988). Computers and exceptional individuals. Columbus, OH: Merrill
Publishing Company.
MacArthur, A. (2001). Using technology to enhance the writing processes of students
with learning disabilities. Chicago, IL: Warner.
Malouf, D.B. (1991, Spring). Integrating computer software into effective instruction.
Teaching Exceptional Children, 54-55.



1221
Morrison, G., & Lowther, D. (2002). Integrating computer technology into the
classroom. Columbus, OH: Pearson Education.
Sharp, V. (2002). Computer education for teachers: Integrating technology into
classroom teaching. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Mustonen, T., Locke, P., Reichle, J., Solbrack, M., & Lindgren, A. (1991). An overview
of augmentative and alternative communication systems. In J. Reichle, J. York, &
J. Sigafoos (Eds.), Implementing augmentative and alternative communication:
Strategies for learners with severe disabilities (pp. 1-37). Baltimore: Paul H.
Brookes.
Parette, H. (1997, December). Assistive technology devices and services. Education and
Training in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, pp. 267-280.
Pellegrino, L. (1997). Cerebral palsy. In M. L. Batshaw (Ed.), Children with Disabilities
(4
th
ed.) (pp. 499-528). Baltimore: Brookes.
Snell, M.E. & Brown, F. (2000). Instruction of students with severe disabilities (5
th
ed.),
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
The National Council on Disability. (1993). Study on the financing of assistive
technology devices and services for individuals with disabilities. Washington,
D.C.: Author.
Turnbull, R., Turnbull, A., Shank, M., Smith, S., & Leal, D. (2002). Exceptional lives:
Special education in todays schools (3
rd
ed.), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
Walton, A. (1999). Technology vs. African Americans, The Atlantic Monthly 283(1) pp.
14-18.
Westling, D.L., & Fox, L. (2000). Teaching students with severe disabilities. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.



ON TEACHING AFRICAN AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY











DR. STANLEY M. BROWNE
ALABAMA A&M UNIVERSITY
NORMAL, ALABAMA




1223
On Teaching African American Philosophy


Race as a topic for philosophical discussion is a relatively new subject in the
literature regarding that topic. This does not mean, of course, that we cannot find certain
references to the word race and its other cognates in writings by philosophers. Emmanuel
Chukwudi Eze, for example, has published an outstanding book on Race and the
Enlightenment (1997) in which he cites some insightful references to what some of the
great philosophers of the Enlightenment thought about the different races of man.
David Hume, who is regarded by many people as the greatest of all English philosophers,
wrote in his essay Of National Characters (1754) that he is apt to suspect the
negroes to be naturally inferior to the whites. Humes invalid judgment about the
status of blacks as compared to whites is no less repugnant than Immanuel Kants
judgment about the intellectual ability of blacks. Kant (who is regarded by many of his
peers to be the greatest of all philosophers ever) is on record as stating that a supposedly
clever statement that a black man made about how whites treat their wives had to be
false, because the fellow was quite black from head to foot, a clear proof that what he
said was stupid. And Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegels wrote in his essay
Geographical Basis of World History that Africa proper [the land to the south of the
Sahara desert] has no integral ingredient of culture (124), and that the characteristic
feature of the Negroes is that their consciousness has not yet reached an awareness of any
substantial objectivity of God or the law (127). These repugnant judgments about the
so-called race of people called Negroes certainly deserve to be put in their place, which is



1224
to say deconstructed for the prejudice and wrong-headedness that undergird them. But
exactly how we are to accomplish this task without falling into a barrel of recriminations
is the question that ought to concern us. For one recrimination begets another and so on
ad infinitum. Therefore, in this paper I intend to discuss certain pedagogical strategies
regarding the teaching of race (and its other cognates) that may help us to avoid the
boring trivialisms associated with the kind of recriminations I have in mind. First, I will
briefly explain the difference between racialism and racism, because these two terms play
a pivotal role in any discussion of race though they have different connotations. Second, I
will explain why so many philosophers today believe with some justification that the
concept of race is a social construct rather than a biological construct. Finally, I will
briefly allude to the notions of affirmation action and victimology, since these two
notions are more likely than not to arise in any contemporary discussion about the
ontological status of the concept of race. For race is not only an incendiary topic to
rationally discuss, it is one of those topics that almost everyone has an opinion on even if
he or she has no educated awareness of the literature on the subject of race. As scholars,
we certainly dont want to be counted among those types of people. Do we?
I would like to suggest that it would be advantageous to begin ones teaching on
race and its related cognates by explaining the difference between racialism and racism,
because this distinction will help us to better understand why the concept of race may
have no real scientific purpose. Racialism is a term that denotes ones belief in the
biological reality of races. That is, someone who believes that there are some sort of
chromosomal markers that separates the different races of people. But the proposition
that there are biological markers for race may be false. But there are good reasons for



1225
believing that the concept of race is more analogous to masculine and feminine than male
and female. As Naomi Zack says, male and female are real biological constructs, because
they have the chromosomal markers of XY and XX respectively for male and
female.(Zack 1998: 3). Where as masculine and feminine are social constructs. They are
a result of peoples beliefs, prejudices, and cultural upbringing. Similarly, race unlike
biological sex is not scientifically real. There are no genes or other hereditary factors
shared by very member of any particular race (Zack 3). By contrast with biological sex
where there are the chromosomal markers XY and XX respectively for male and female,
race is biologically empty. Unlike, the concepts of male and female which allow us to
make certain predictions when an individual has the genetic markers of XY or XX. In
other words, given the existence of these markers we can predict whether a person will
have testicles or ovaries. But there is nothing analogous for race. As Zack claims:
neither biologists, nor anthropologists, nor physiologists, nor geneticists, nor any of the
other scientists who have studied physical race have ever identified any general racial
characteristics shared by all members of any particular race. (3). Race, in other words, is
a social construct. It is the result of human interactions that allow us to create aspects of
our culture, objectify them, internalize them, and take these social constructions for
granted. When we, for instance, define one group as inferior to another, the naming does
not make the group inferior, but it may make them to be experienced as inferior.
Moreover, since there are a variety of social, economic, and political forces involved in
the social constructions of race certain undesirable consequences may follow. For
example, when internalization of the social construction of race occurs, a set of rules and
expectations of one group as compared to another group are objectified an regarded as



1226
real certain forms of behavior are expected of different races. If one is black, for example,
then one is supposed to act in a particular manner as compared to someone who is white.
My point, is that as [philosophy teachers] interested in the role that the concept of race
plays in our society, we need to be clear about the social construction of race. If not, then
we will do our students more harm than good, if we do not deconstruct the biological
assumption out of race. If we do not do this, then we may be lead to accept the false
nineteenth-century theory of racial essentialism. According to this theory, the cause of
every humans superior or inferior intellectual, aesthetic, spiritual, and moral qualities are
in each persons blood (Zack 4). The danger here is that when race is regarded as
something real it gives birth to the hierarchical view of inferior and superior people.
Therefore, the fruits of racism are set in motion.
But if race is scientifically problematic, then so is racial victimology. In other
words, when we think about race we seem to be lead to the notion of victimology.
We need no lessons from history to prove that people of color were victimized as
a result of chattel slavery. But if we [blacks] come to regard all of our problems as the
result of racism we may not accept responsibility for behavior within our control. As
Shelby Steele and John H. McWhorter have so succinctly put it: Victimology blinds the
sufferer to any perspective outside the Victimologist box (McWorter, 34). When blacks
always think of themselves as victims, they release themselves from responsibility for
their own behavior. McWhorters claim leads me to believe that it is a bad idea to teach
African American studies in general as a philosophy of victims. Contrary to this view, I
see African American studies as a robust and broad-based program of studies that covers
the whole panoply of a peoples history from the excellent to the not so excellent. There



1227
may be more than a grain of salt in the observation that it is the value system of a
formerly oppressed people that is a more pressing need than racism. Such things as
individual initiative, self- interested hard work, individual responsibility, and delay of
gratification that will do more for the up left of blacks than looking behind every nook
and cranny for a perceived expression of racism. This makes me think about that
despicable incident in Washington, D.C. in January 1999 when David Howard, the white
ombudsman casually said in a budget meeting with two coworkers I will have to be
niggardly with this fund because its not going to be a lot of money. (McWhorter,)
Howards statement caused quite a stir as some of Howards coworkers stormed out of
the room. It seems that many of Howards co-workers would not even listen to Howards
attempt to explain that the word niggardly meant stingy. Shortly thereafter,
Mayor Williams curtly accepted Howards resignation. When I think about this
unfortunate incident I think about how many times Ive used this word teaching about
Aristotles theory of the virtues. From Aristotles point of view, to say that someone is
niggardly is merely to say of he or her suffers from a defect of character in knowing
about the mean between two extremes. Moreover, I would wager my next check that if
there are any white teachers here today that were to change places with me and use the
very same word niggardly with no malice of intent, you may be hard pressed to keep
from being fired for cause. My point to make a long story short is that it may take a
certain amount of courage as Aristotle would put it to teach courses on race and
affirmative action without feeling that you have to talk tongue in cheek each time you
broach the subject.



1228
Finally, when teaching about affirmative action I believe that it would be a good
idea to have students read articles in support of affirmative action and those against it
written by people of color. My reasons for making this claim are predicated on my
suspicion that too many people equate affirmative action with blacks. Or, to put the
matter differently, too many people, I believe, think that if you are black you must be in
favor of affirmative action. But that is a fallacious argument as evidenced by the visible
number of black scholars who oppose affirmative action on intellectual ground(for
example, Tom Sowell James, McWhorter, and Shelby Steele). If we can get our students
to stop thinking that people who oppose affirmative action are mot necessarily bad
people, then we might hope for a more open and spirited discussion on the subject of race
in our classes. Of course, I know that there are some bad apples in any group. When we
discover them we must expose them for what they are worth: an inferior teacher. Finally,
I think that Steele got it right when he said that Racial preferences implicitly mark
whites with an exaggerated superiority just as they mark blacks with an exaggerated
inferiority (Steele, 711).
I have taught about race in both predominately white and predominately black
universities. In my experience there is a lot of work that need to be done to clean up an
area of philosophy that for far to many years has suffered under the influence of some
very bad teachers: from Aristotle to Hegel, and to those still teaching about the biological
reality of race. Racial membership is not the standard by which we judge people, but their
skills and conduct. Therefore, blacks and others must place more emphasis on those
values and attitudes that they need to be successful and to be free and in this society,
rather than seeing every little problem as an expression of racism.



1229
WORKS CITED

Hume, David. (1754). Of National Characters, in Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze (Ed.) Race
and the Enlightenment. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Inc., 33.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1822-8). Lectures on the Philosophy of World History,
in Eze Race and the Enlightenment. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers
Inc., 124-125.
Kant, Immanuel (1775). On the Different Races of Man, in Eze Race and the
Enlightenment. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Inc., 57.
Mc Whorter, John H (2000). Losing the Race. New York, New York: The Free Press,
1-50.
Steele, Shelby (1990). The Content of Our Character, New York, New York: The Free
Press, 66-67.
Zack, Naomi (1998). Thinking about Race. Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing
Company, 2-6, 10-19.



THE RHETORIC OF COLOR-BLINDNESS











DR. DAWN JAKUBOWSKI
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS
CONWAY, ARKANSAS




1231
The Rhetoric of Color-Blindness


In this paper I will critique the rhetoric of color-blindness in regard to the politics
of race and ethnicity. In particular, I am interested in demonstrating the relation between
the desire for a color-blind society and the persistence of systematic and entrenched
patterns of inequality. I shall begin with an account of the primary arguments given in
defense of the color-blindness ideal; I will then turn to a threefold critique of the color-
blindness approach. Under this paradigmatic scheme: 1) The color-blindness strategy
hides and reinforces existing relationships of privilege and subordination; 2) Racism is
defined solely as an individual deficiency or pathology; and 3) Proponents fail to
recognize the sociohistorical reality of race difference. In the name of social justice, I
maintain that we should identify race affirmatively in order to mobilize both a critique of
the connection between race and power and to establish a base of support for changing
the status quo. Recognizing the ways in which ours is a racist society requires that we
examine, elaborate, and question the process through which we come to see or not to
see ourselves as having a racial identity. Through using a phenomenological and
developmental analysis of race I will both critique the color-blindness ideal and suggest
an alternative route toward social justice.

THE COLOR-BLINDNESS IDEAL
One of the primary arguments given in defense of the color-blindness ideal
originates from the fact that the social category of race has no scientific or biological



1232
basis. The concept of race is simply a false construction of phenotype that relies
improperly on ascriptive physical identifiers of blood or ancestry. Hence, the concept
of racial identity is viewed as the equivalent of holding onto unscientific notions of racial
biology. Proponents of the color-blindness ideal maintain that the concept of race merely
reinforces racist ideologies that is to talk of race is to assume fixed categories and to
affirm the ontological reality of race to bolster arguments for white superiority. For
example, racial classification is what enabled a Jim Crow legal system to perpetuate
racist practices and assumptions about biological inferiority. If race is essentially made
up, with no scientific basis, then critics of racial identity argue that treating people
differently based on these made up social categories is unacceptable. By not talking about
race and avoiding valorizations of racial identity, color-blinders believe we are taking
giant steps toward the elimination of the corrupting influence of race. Recognizing race is
equated with the danger of racial enmity, hence the color-blindness ideal is offered as the
best remedy for undercutting racism. This narrow view assumes that the concept of race
is merely a biological holdover from a less enlightened time, where race is all about skin
color.
In On Racism and Sexism, Richard Wasserstrom recognizes a broader notion of
race which stems from the significance of race as a social category.
1
Wasserstroms aim
is twofold: First, he explicates the ways in which our particular social and cultural
context treats race as an important social category. Secondly, he argues that it is
imperative to work toward a society in which race becomes nothing more or less than a

1
Wasserstrom, Richard A. (1995). On Racism and Sexism. In Introduction to Ethics: Personal and
Social Responsibility in a Diverse World, ed. Gary Percesepe. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Henceforth cited
as RS.



1233
fact of superficial physiology. For Wasserstrom, we should eliminate racial identities
because any attempt to maintain race as a social category will inevitably lead to
destructive consequences. Wasserstroms analysis begins with the claim that despite its
lack of ontological status, race functions as an important and meaningful social category.
Race is one of the dominant social categories that affect how one looks at the world and
affects how the world looks at you. According to Wasserstrom, the social reality of race
involves two main components: 1) individuals identify themselves through racial
categories; and 2) individuals are identified by others as members of racial or ethnic
groups. Hence, all of the experiences we have with others are based, in part, on
interactions of being perceived as Asian, Black, Hispanic, White, etc. Part of the awful
truth of our cultural and social history is that the social realities of race situate some of us
in a context that limits our options for the way we are to be treated.
In our culture, the social roles of people of color are generally constructed as
inferior to white social roles; assumptions, attitudes and expectations differ greatly
regarding the distribution of burdens and benefits. Our institutional and social
interactions take place with reference to race, which results in a system that inequitably
distributes important benefits and burdens. As Wasserstrom explains, In our culture to
be nonwhite especially to be black is to be a member of a group that is different
from and inferior to the group of standard, fully developed persons, the adult white
males. To be black is to be a member of what was a despised minority and what is still a
disliked and oppressed one (RS, 341).
Wasserstroms analysis of the social realities of race leads him to conclude that a
just society would attach no political or social meanings to race. According to



1234
Wasserstrom, a nonracist society would be one in which the race of an individual would
be the functional equivalent of the eye color of individuals in our society. In our society
no basic political rights and obligations are determined on the basis of eye color. No
important institutional benefits and burdens are connected with eye color (RS, 348).
This picture of a nonracist society is what Wasserstrom refers to as the assimilationist
ideal. According to the assimilationist ideal, racial identity would be an unimportant,
insignificant characteristic of individuals. In the ideal society individuals would regard
and respond to matters relating to race as having no more significance than eye color. Eye
color is not considered an important social category because it doesnt affect the way we
interact with people at all, whereas race as a social category often affects the way people
look at us and interact with us. For these reasons, Wasserstrom concludes that racial
identity and calling for recognition of ones cultural identity is self-defeating.
Contrary to Wasserstrom, I argue that race as a social category cannot be
transcended or be reduced to an insignificant physical feature such as eye color because
race is a fundamentally valuable aspect of identity. Although some notions of race serve
to reinforce racism, it is important to realize that other notions of race are intended to tear
down racial hierarchy. For example, racially subordinated groups may effectively form
race coalitions, which help mobilize and guide emancipatory projects leading to social
transformation. The destructiveness of racial identity occurs when race as a social
category is used in such a way that it maintains and reinforces inferior social roles. In
order to show that race as a social category is not inevitably destructive we need to
examine the narratives guiding and weaving the social and historical contexts that give
race meaning.



1235
According to Lucius Outlaw, racial categories may sometimes function to limits
ones possibilities and life choices, but they also involve positive sociohistorical,
anthropological communities of meaning which make up the distinctive racial or ethnic
identity of a group of people.
2
Outlaw explains that for many people, myself included,
the continued existence of discernible racial/ethnic communities of meaning is highly
desirable even if, in the very next instant, racism and invidious ethnocentrism in every
form and manifestation were to disappear forever (OD, 98). The truth of the matter is
that racial/ethnic identities can have meanings other than those, which reinforce racism.
Although race discourse was originally used and monopolized in an explicitly hierarchal
sense, there is not anything essentially racist about the concept of raceunless of course
racists are to be the concepts sole interpreters. Those of us striving to reduce or eliminate
racism can find ways to develop or conserve a revised notion of race and invest it with
positive import. There are valuable and positive aspects of racial identity that are lost in
the color blindness ideal. For example, the color-blindness ideal ignores the fact that
being black is a source of pride, not merely an occasion for being oppressed. Ones racial
identity may sometimes be a source of pain, but it also constitutes ones identity, history
and cultural traditions.
Asking individuals to no longer identify themselves as having a racial identity
ignores their uniqueness as embodied selves within a racial community. Each individual
is a person- in-a-body, an embodied subject. This claim appears self-evident because what
else could a person be? Nevertheless, with respect to our nations abstract, formal,

2
Outlaw, Lucius. (1995). On W.E.B. Du Bois s The Conservation of the Races. In Overcoming
Racism and Sexism, ed. Linda A. Bell and David Blumenfeld. Maryland: Roman and Littlefield Publishers,
Inc. Henceforth cited as OD.



1236
universalist conceptions regarding the principles and policies by which justice might be
realized, we are called upon to blind ourselves to racial embodiment, i.e., Our laws
should be color-blind. I argue that the corrective to social injustice is not to posit a
color-blindness or assimilationist ideal, but rather a re-affirmation of embodied
experience. To see the self as a particular embodied self requires embracing the notion
that each person is, in part, defined by his or her race. Embodiment is part and parcel of
the particularity of experience. Different forms of embodiment are connected with
different experiences. We live in racialized bodies and our different experiences as such
affect how we see and are treated by others which in turn shapes our personal narratives,
life prospects and understanding of the world. We cannot transcend racial identities
anymore than we can transcend our personal histories because they are a central element
of our being. Our racial identities constitute part of our historical and cultural specificity.
What must be provided for is recognition of embodied differences and the
integrity of those who see themselves through the prism of race. Along with Marilyn
Frye, I claim that the dynamic creative claiming of racial identitiesidentities that were
first imposed as devices of peoples oppression, has been a politically powerful and life-
enhancing response of oppressed people in modern and contemporary times.
3
Embracing
racial identities can serve to create a sense of unity and preserve ones desire to be true to
ones self. As Frye continues, For members of oppressed groups to suddenly turn around
and decide to abolish races would be, it seems, genocide, not liberation (OD, 130).
Understanding one another entails having concrete knowledge of one anothers embodied
experiences. As Lani Guiner explains, our aim as critical race theorists should be: to

3
Frye, Marilyn. (1995). White Woman Feminist. In Overcoming Racism and Sexism, ed. Linda A.
Bell and David Blumenfeld. Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Henceforth cited as OD.



1237
help people recognize the reality of race while challenging the idea that race is a fixed
category. We also want to show that the boundaries of historically fixed racial categories
can be fundamentally refashioned without discarding race. Can we not articulate, from
our own experience, the ways that race has multiple meanings, including positive ones
that make race an asset, not just a disability?
4

Wasserstroms assimilationist ideal relies on the historically based liberal
assumption that individuals, morally speaking, are basically revealed by their choices.
Individuals can choose whether or not to regard race as morally irrelevant. For color-
blinders the ultimate choice is to transcend racial identification. In the essay, On Race,
Racism, and Ethnicity, Claudia Card challenges the assumption that our embodied
selves are ultimately a product of the choices we make.
5
Card argues that I am a
relational being, and my choices alone are not decisive for all my relations. A heritage
that handed me privileges or liabilities from birth, whether I affirm or reject it, it is
important to who I am and who I can become. Even whether I have a heritage to which to
be loyal or disloyal is not the product of my choices (OD, 148). The reality of different
races and ethnic groups is one of the most obvious features of our social world. The
factors of racial and ethnic differences are real and thus fundamentally constitutive of
different groups such that each member of the group shares them, more or less, and is
substantially identified by them. Race and ethnicity must therefore be taken into account
in important instances when devising social principles and applying them in practice.


4
Guiner, Lani and Gerald Torres. (2002). The Miners Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power,
Transforming Democracy. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Henceforth cited as MC.
5
Card, Claudia. (1995). On Race, Racism and Ethnicity. In Overcoming Racism and Sexism, ed. Linda
A. Bell and David Blumenfeld. Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Henceforth cited as OD.



1238
THREE CRITICISMS OF THE COLORBLINDNESS IDEAL
As stated earlier, my aim is to reflect on three primary defects of the color-
blindness ideal: 1) The color-blindness strategy disguises and normalizes relationships of
privilege and subordination; 2) Racism is reduced to an individual cognitive deficiency or
pathology; and 3) Proponents fail to recognize the sociohistorical reality of racial identity
and difference. My first assertion is that the appeal to color-blindness is not a neutral-
stance; it ignores white privilege and operates to normalize whiteness. The ideal of color-
blindness makes whiteness the norm. Furthermore, it attempts to deny that white is itself
a race, a color or a category, like other racial categories, which has a history intimately
tied to racial differences. For whites to pretend they can transcend their whiteness ignores
the fact that whiteness functions to privilege their dominant position.
The discourse of color-blindness reflects the fact that in our culture only blacks
and other people of color are racially marked. Whenever we talk about culture, we talk
about black culture, Asian culture and Latino culture, but not white culture. This is not
because there is no white culture. Rather, it is because whiteness operates as an unmarked
culture, a culture not marked by race, the norm, the standard, regular culture. All the
other cultures, all the other races, they are different while white culture is the same, the
invisible norm. Whiteness is not considered different or other but normal. This norm
does not operate as a preference but as an institutional standard or natural fact. Norms
work to normalize insofar as they hide the fact that they are preferences. The language of
color-blindness covers over the fact that whiteness is the norm against which everything
else is defined as different; and difference is seen as a threat. The attempt to be color-
blind entails blinding oneself to privileges that this ideology grants to dominant whites,



1239
whose differentness becomes, according to this ideal, normative even as their racialness
becomes hidden. This approach does not involve any fundamental rethinking of how race
has socially and politically constructed privilege. As Claudia Card explains, after five
centuries of Euro-American racializing of Africans, Asians and Native Americans, it
would seem as irresponsible for white people suddenly to act as though races did not
matter as it would be for men to suddenly act as though gender did not matter(RS, 142).
Furthermore, the notion that we should aim toward being color-blind, even though
we arent, reduces racism to an individual rather than social problem. The color-blindness
paradigm rests on the hidden assumption that racism is solely a problem of individuals; it
occurs because people are ignorantly hanging onto biological categories and using them
as norms for interpreting human behavior. Racism is equated with an emotional
disturbance or cognitive error, which distorts a persons thinking about people of a
different racial phenotype. Hence, the solution is that we can best eliminate racism by
using a changing-peoples-thinking approach. In other words, we can eliminate racism by
educating individuals making them aware of their cognitive errors until they
develop color-blind vision.
The major problem with the changing-peoples-thinking-approach is that it not
only locates the problem in the individual but locates the remedy there as well. All that is
necessary to overcome racism is for an individual to become better informed about
different racial groups. Once this supposedly heroic feat is accomplished, individuals will
no longer see different colors or races; theyll only see persons. Under this paradigm,
institutionalized racial discrimination is not viewed as an economic, historical system,
political arrangement or social structure but instead is mis-diagnosed as a residual



1240
individual problem, and masks systemic racial injustice. Racism is equated with a
psychological disease of individuals rather than a social plague. The cause of racism is
not produced by environmental toxins, reinforced by cultural norms or institutional
practices, but is instead simply an irrational defect of an individual who is vulnerable to
prejudice or self- loathing. Racism is seen to lack any necessary tie to power or privilege;
any observed connection is incidental, merely a result of the actions of people with a
mean heart.
Those advocating color-blindness as both means and end fail to recognize patterns
of racial inequality and perceive no need to look more closely at data explaining the
wealth gap between blacks and whites. They fail to see an economy, which compounds
inequality through the generations due to the effects of intergenerational transmission of
wealth. According to Guiner and Torres, stripped of concrete features like race, a black
family earning $50,000 a year, for example, seems financially identical to a white family
with the same income. Yet, the assumption of sameness does not take into account the
structural inequality compounded over time (MC, 44). The rhetoric of color-blindness
completely ignores the reality that nonwhites are still subject to statistically verifiable as
well as more qualitative social inequalities in almost every aspect of life. As Guiner and
Torres point out Data on the generational effects of inequality show that blacks earning
$50,000 a year or more have a median net worth that is barely one- half the median net
worth of their white counterparts.... The median net worth of whites is twelve times that
of blacks. Similarly, the average white household controls $6,999 in net financial assets
while the average black household retains no financial assets whatsoever (MC, 44).



1241
This brings us to the last major problem of the color-blindness ideal, namely, its
failure to recognize the socio-historical reality of race discrimination. The principles of
color-blindness are being used to overlook important differences between people
historical, economic, social and cultural. The color-blindness ideal works to deny unique
facticities and historical differences between racial identities and thereby perpetuates
racism. The principle is employed toward unjust ends whenever obvious real world
inequalities and differences in social position are ignored in the name of abstract formal
principles, such as our laws should be color-blind or equal treatment regardless of
race. The rhetoric of color-blindness has been reappropriated and deployed in such a
way that it denies any connection between past and present. The present is an inheritance
of the past, hence we need to reconcile ourselves to the fact that some current inequalities
are based on past injustices that need rectification.
In the present context, people are not being treated equally; people are being
discriminated against on the basis of race, so the color-blindness approach actually
perpetuates real inequalities because it is employed without consideration of present
injustices and differences in social position. In a nation with a continuing legacy of
racism, justice cannot be realized without giving due regard to race and taking the
particular histories of racial groups into account. Instead of clinging righteously to
principles of equality, we must face the ways in which those principles are being used to
perpetuate real inequalities.
Due to unfair competition imposed by past and present racism there are a number
of cities nationwide that have a majority of black residents, which do not have anything
close to proportional representation in the workforce or higher education. Using the



1242
language of color-blindness, the dream of a nation in which race is irrelevant becomes the
justification for the racial status quo. Denying or forgetting our nations legacy of racism
in which race was (and still is) relevant to success in business and intellectual growth
ignores the present effects of our racist past and renders race irrelevant to the present. The
final result is that the call for color-blind policies affirms the existing imbalance in power
relations and inhibits racialized minorities from struggling against their marginalized
status. The color-blindness prescription is a recipe for ensuring that issues specific to the
condition of black people and other marginalized or racialized minorities will not find a
political voice. In my judgment, working toward anti- racism requires continually
reinterpreting and elaborating our relations to racial difference. Heightening our race
consciousness rather than blinding ourselves to the legacy and current structural affects of
racism is a moral imperative.



IN SEARCH OF A BLACK CIVILITY:
AFRICAN INDEPENDENT CHURCHES AND THE AFRICAN
AMERICAN INFLUENCE






RUNE FLIKKE
NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
TRONDHEIM, NORWAY



1244
In Search of a Black Civility: African Independent Churches and the
African American Influence


This paper seeks to explore the African American influences on segregationist
ideas and practices in the Colony of Natal between 1890 and 1930. My argument is two
fold: First, I will argue that the transatlantic legacy influenced the developments in Natal
despite the fact that Natal implemented the most repressive policies to stamp out
Ethiopianism, a term that evoked an African American connection. Second, I will
suggest that the segregationist sentiments that characterized Natal can best be understood
as a search for a black civility that there was no room for within the Mission Churches
and the larger colonial society.
I will, however, start by briefly outlining some general trends that connects the
African Christian elite, referred to as the kholwa, with the African American Christianity
and the AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church in particular.

KHOLWA AND AFRICAN AMERICAN INFLUENCES
A change in missionary attitudes occurred around the time of the Scramble for
Africa in the 1870s and 80s. The Scramble concurred with the nineteenth centurys Great
Depression (18731894) and created a pessimistic intellectual climate concerned with
degeneration (Hobsbawm 1968:171). This filtered down to the African missions, and
created an environment, that a number of African Christians experienced as racist. The
environment provided a brake with more open-minded pioneer missionaries and their



1245
civilizing mission (Comaroff and Comaroff 1997:104f, Etherington 1983, Ranger
1992). These attitudes ostracized members of the new Christian African elite, which grew
up with the vision of a civility, brotherhood and equality (cf. Campbell 1995:124f).
The first secessions from Mission Churches occurred in Pondoland in 1884 when
Nehemia Tile broke away from the Methodis t Mission and formed his Tembu Church
(Sundkler 1948:47, Walshe 1970:9). Arguably, the most important secession occurred in
1896 when the Rev. James Dwane left the Wesleyan mission. On a subsequent trip to the
USA, Dwane contacted Richard Allen and the AME, which had gained independence
from the Methodists in 1816 (Campbell 1995:10).
During his visit Dwane received financial backing and the AME church promised
further assistance. Back in South Africa Dwane convinced other Ethiopian leaders to join
in a Sout h African branch of the AME church (Walshe 1970:14). When bishop Henry
McNeal Turner, the first American AME representative to South Africa, completed a
five-week tour in 1898, the AME branch in South Africa recorded 10 000 members.
Another African American church organization that sent missionaries to South
Africa was the National Baptist Convention. Their first missionary, Rev. R.A. Jackson,
was sent to South Africa in 1894. By 1898 they reported 414 converts (Chirenje 1987:4).
Though they were not as influential as the AME church, they ought to be mentioned
because they provided the most valued asset from the transatlantic connectionan
American educationfor a number of promising African church leaders.
1


1
The African American laymen working in the mining industry contributed another important factor in
the transatlantic connection. This influence grew with the gradual radicalization of the black labor force on
the Rand, and is significant due to the fact that the AME church in the same period was depoliticized,
striving hard to please the colonial authorities (cf. Cope 1993, Couzens 1982).



1246
The common denominators in all of these secessions were complaints of racism
and paternalism that excluded African Christians from the rights and privileges enjoyed
by their European brethren (cf. Campbell 1995:118). Faced with the late-Victorian
racism, the prosperous and educated African American civility had an obvious appeal.

CIVILITY AND SEGREGATION IN THE COLONY OF NATAL
One of the dominant religious and political leaders in South Africa was John
L. Dube, born into a Zulu kholwa family in Natal in 1871. In 1887, the American Board
missionary, W.C. Wilcox, brought Dube to the USA, where he enrolled at Oberlin
College. He graduated in 1892 as the first American educated black South African. In
1912 Dube became the first president of the South African Native National Congress
(later renamed the African National Congress). Often referred to as the South African
Booker T. Washington, Dube might have had an even more enduring effect on South
African society as an educationalist. Education and the land question were the two
causes that dominated Dubes life, and they are also held to be the most important
factors that shaped Ethiopianism in South Africa (Barrett 1968, Campbell 1995:210f).
This is probably the reason Dube in 1906 was characterized as a pronounced Ethiopian
who ought to be watched (Marks 1986:44).
Though the influence of African American churches is only traceable back to the
early 1890s, this contact was already perceived as a major threat to the colony of Natal
before the turn of the century. Natal had by far the toughest attitude on the issue of
Ethiopianism, which in the view of the colonial government, should be stamped out
(Marks 1970:78). From as early 1892 the Natal Native Trust demanded that a European



1247
missionary should supervise all Christian work, in an effort to stamp out Ethiopianism. In
1903 the former Secretary for Native Affairs in Natal, James Liege Hulett, accused the
Ethiopian movement of causing a wave of unrest in the colony. Expressing his opinion,
he stated: it should be discountenanced in every way. At this stage, Natal was the only
province that had gone to the extreme measure of barring the AME from its territory
(Sundkler 1948:69). Two more provinces followed suit prohibiting African American
AME representatives from all travel outside of the Cape colony. The ban appears to have
been so successful that the American AME Bishop Smith stated: I regard it that our
Church has ceased to exist outside of the Cape (Campbell 1995:242). By the time the
travel ban was lifted in 1909, the AME leadership had transformed themselves into ardent
enforcers of colonial policies (e.g., Campbell 1995:232238).
2
When Garveyism gained a
foothold among miners on the Rand a decade later, travel restrictions on coloured
persons of whatever nationality who are not domiciled in the Union of South Africa
were enforced in an effort to limit the spread of Pan-Africanism (Campbell 1995:305).
The Colony of Natal administrator S.O. Samuelson, the son of a Norwegian
missionary, linked similar sentiments directly to the mission work. The kholwa,
Samuelson wrote:
have by no means improved by having become civilized; they are, as a rule less
truthful, less honest, and less trustworthy; they have as a rule adopted more of the
vices and few of the virtues of the superior race; and are not an element that it
would be desirable to intrude into the midst of loyal native population. (In Marks
1970:81f, note 4)
Taking on patricidal dimensions, this quote blamed the failed Civilizing Mission of his
father for the unrest and political instability at the turn of the century. The reason that

2
This is clearly visible in the history of the Pan African Congress, which was dominated by AME
ministers when it was founded in 18991900. During the Congress in 1919, no AME leaders were present
(Campbell 1995:300).



1248
Natal took this stand is to be found in the Indirect Rule engineered by Theophilus
Shepstone, also a missionary son (Sundkler 1948:68). Under Natals indirect rule, the
Native law became the cornerstone of the colonial governance because, Shepstone
argued, the main object of keeping natives under their own law is to ensure control over
them. You cannot control savages by civilized law (in Costa 2000:18). These quotes
testify of a prevailing fear that educated Africans would resist the uncivilized way they
were treated. These tensions created distrust in all segments of the white population in the
region and were blamed on the African American influence (e.g., Marks 1970:326).
A brief from a Missionary Conference held in South Africa in 1905 stated that the
fear of Ethiopianism and the strict measures applied to control it were actually operating
to produce feelings of unrest and dissatisfaction among the native Christians in the
locations, rather than curtailing already existing rebellious sentiments (Marks 1970:79).
One of these measures was a proposal from the Natal delegate at the Inter-Colonial
Customs Conference in Bloemfontein in March 1903, which proposed that all the regions
in South Africa take concerted actions against Ethiopianism. The proposal recommended
that pastors from African Churches should not be granted licenses as marriage officers, or
in any other way recognized by the authorities, and that continued efforts be made to
suppress the propaganda of dangerous political and reasonable teaching which is
doubtless unsettling the native mind (Marks 1970:76). The proposal did not pass but
surfaced again in the wake of the Bambatha rebellion in 1908. The Natal government
again forwarded a proposal for a common South African policy towards Ethiopianism.
Finally, the proposal stated that:
No official recognition in any form by grants-in-aid of schools, or otherwise, shall
be given to native Churches independent of, and free from, European control or to



1249
any religious movements amongst Natives embodying race cleavage as a
principle; That it be made unlawful for any Native Minister or member of a
religious movement not under European control and not recognized, whether
exempted or otherwise, to address meetings or assemblies of Natives. (In
Sundkler 1948:70)
It is significant that race cleavage as a principle was limited to religious movements,
since it had been at the core of Indirect Rule and already materializing as a demographic
fact. The Ethiopian scare and the black transatlantic connection were at the core of this
policy. That the European practice of civility was based on the exclusion of Africans, was
expressed in the pointed comment made by Dube: The reason that the Christian Native
has a bad name, among the lower classes of European especially, is that he does not
submit to being treated as a dog (Shepperson and Price 1958:92). As we shall see, the
African Christians were to be disappointed with much of the African American civility as
well.
Starting with the arrival of the first American AME bishop, L.J. Coppin in 1901,
Africans grew used to hearing the African American leadership using unilinear
evolutionary rhetoric to explain the wretched living and working conditions of Africans
(e.g., Campbell 1995:227235). Nevertheless, Tuskegee and other African American
self-help programs had clearly shown American educated Africans that they did not need
European help to prosper in the new society that grew from the colonial encounter. The
transatlantic connection provided a flow of Africans into black educational facilities in
the USA, where teaching and practice spread these ideas. Education was thereby a
double-edged sword, which they aimed both at colonialists and the AME leadership.
By 1903, the AME church had provided place for twelve students in the United
States, and the total number for Natal was twenty (Marks 1970:81). This educational



1250
connection was instrumental for the establishment of the South African Native College,
which became Fort Hare University in 1915, as a means to curtail the transatlantic
educational contact. This reveals the most apparent difference between American and
South African authorities on the issue of Black education. South African administrations
embraced the Tuskegee-style industrial training, but their fear of Ethiopianism
prevented them from giving these educational facilities their independence (cf. Campbell
1995:308f).
The fear of Ethiopianism had reached new heights during the Bambatha
rebellion of 19068. Shula Marks (1970) showed how the European community of Natal
was certain that the kholwa were behind the uprising, enflamed by the Ethiopian slogan
Africa for Africans (cf. Sundkler 1948:69).
3
Marks (1970) and Sundkler (2000:373f)
have convincingly argued that this was not the case. Though many traditional chiefs
supported the Bambatha rebellion, placing the kholwa with the colonialists up against
khonza (the non-Christian traditionalist) rebels, is too simplistic. One of the most
prominent supporters of the colonial government was the khonza chief, Sibindi and his
Bomvu people,
4
and the first who rallied to receive help from Sibindi were kholwas from
the Norwegian Mission Society. Sibindi, a khonza, was described as the most loyal chief
in the country (in Marks 1970:318f), but was nevertheless outspoken when it came to
the sufferings of his people under colonial rule. Shula Marks argued that Sibindi was
aware of his political stance and made sure to use it against his long-time rival,

3
This one-sided position is reproduced by the Zulu scholar Vilakazi, who wrote concerning the
rebellion that the Amakholwa deservedly earned the label Amambuka, portraying them as traitors to their
people due to their preference for European governance which was displayed throughout the uprising
(Vilakazi 1965:143).
4
The label signifies members belonging to the Bomvu tribe in the area of Greytown. The Zulu term
bomvu is the red ochre that the traditionalists would use for smearing their bodies.



1251
Bambatha, the leader of the rebellion (1970:319). What is manifest in Markss study is
that the pattern of allegiance in the Bambatha rebellion ran along lines of kinship and
lineage (1970:310), and that the kholwa and the khonza were to be found on both sides
of the struggle. The situation surrounding the rebellion was complex and multifaceted
and founded in resistance to the newly imposed poll-tax, loss of land, epidemics, severe
drought, and the subsequent poverty and starvation.
During the social and political turbulence of the fir st decades of the twentieth
century, the transatlantic connection was influential as a source of inspiration, as well as
frustration. Both aspects helped shape the African self-consciousness and visions of
African self-determination. The tradition of passive activism of the African American
churches was further infused by the passive resistance of Gandhi, which started in Natal
at the time of the Bambatha rebellion. These sources seem to have tempered violent
expressions of resistance that kept growing until the introduction of the Natives Land
Act in 1913. The land policy introduced with the Act was a watershed in the already
tense race-relations in the Union.

LAND AND SEGREGATION
As the first president of the ANC, Rev. John L. Dubes handling of the Natives
Land Act of 1913 is characteristic of the ambivalent and complex race- and class-
relations that existed during the first two decades of the century. The Land Act had
limited Africans access to land to 8% of the national territory. Furthermore, one colonial
committee characterized the African designated land as unsuited for white occupation
[being very] malarial, sandy and badly watered (in Marks 1986:63). Dubes immediate



1252
response opposed the Act root and branch. He went on saying the Natives Land Act
was
saddening proof of the utter failure, the inability of Christianity, in spite of all its
vaunts, to raise even the most enlightened race above the lowest levels of
selfishness and greed and godless persecution. You tell us that might is not
right, that you are children of Christ guided solely by the eternal principles of
blind justice regardless of colour or creed: What contemptible cant! What a
blasphemous fraud. (In Walshe 1970:46)
In response to the Natives Land Act, Dube wrote a petition in 1913:
The Land Act [was] based on principles of segregation which were subversive of
all that is right, just and likely to conserve the peace, prosperity and happiness of
the various races of South Africa. Circumstances and choice had led Natives to
the light of civilisation and Congress rejected this segregation and separation
designed to retard their progress. (In Walshe 1970:47)
Against this backdrop, it is easy to appreciate the African prophet that summed up his
opinion of the white Christian community with the following statement: at first we had
the land and you had the Bible. Now we have the Bible and you have the land (Sundkler
1948:33). The civil liberties, as the Comaroffs so appropriately put it, were preached
rather than practiced, promised but not delivered (Comaroff and Comaroff 1999:16).
The civility Africans endured was a means to create docile Africans in the face of
exploitation.
Through the exposition of the developments given by Walshe (1970), it becomes
apparent that the Congress was divided on the Land Act issue. Though we need to take
into account Dubes ability to adjust his message to his audience for pragmatic political
gain, it appears that one year later, he was tuned more favorably to the idea of
segregation, if only as a way to escape white paternalism. The Congress did, however,
vehemently oppose practical aspects of the Act, such as the amount and quality of land



1253
distributed, and that the Act was passed without consulting representatives from the
African population. In a letter to Botha in February 1914, Dube wrote:
We make no protest against the principle of segregation so far as it can be fairly
and practically carried out. But we do not see how it is possible for this law to
effect any greater separation between the races than obtains now. (Walshe
1970:47)
After having expressed in principle support for Bothas segregationist policy, tensions
broke out within the Congress delegation in 1917. The dispute ended with the forced
resignation of President John L. Dube at the end of the year.
5
The militant Sam Makgatho
from Transvaal replaced Dube as president and broke with Dubes moderate and
conciliatory policy. The shift was followed by a series of strikes and protests all over the
Union.
In a climate with so pronounced racial voids and tensions, the inspiration
provided by the African Americans leaders, such as Booker T. Washington and Marcus
Garvey, and their very different anti- integrationist messages of race purity, race
dignity, and race separatism, could only appeal to Africans frustrated with white
paternalism and racism. The educated kholwa and the predominantly uneducated AIC
leaders (Sundkler 1948:125) took these respective visions of a pigmented civility, to
heart. The conservative policies of the older John Dube and the increasingly radicalized
workforce on the Rand reached for Booker T. Washington and Garvey respectively. The
experiences with racism and exclusion join the divided African political field at the hip: if
an African civility should develop, it needed to do so separate from the racist colonial
control. The relation between land and self-determination was the issue.

5
Sol Plaatje s biography reveals that the ANC delegation sent to Britain in an effort to change the
implementation of the Act, vehemently resisted the Land Act (Plaatje 1916: chapter 3).



1254
In 1929, Pixley Seme started his successful run for the presidency of the ANC
through the columns of Ilanga lase Natal. In an article written to publicize the newly
established Native Land and Trust Company of Africa, Limitedestablished to buy
our country back he described the ambitions of the company and his political agenda
in the following way:
Our main object should be to develop our people and the Native Reserves to the
very best extent of which they may be capable, commercially and industrially, and
to inspire into our people the spirit of co-operation and self- help to form model
modern Townships for the tribal Natives after the style of Mission Reserves in
Natal Then and not until then can we Africans hope to develop a civilization
which shall be our own, a civilization which shall be more spiritual and
humanistic [by implication, than the Europeans]. (In Cope 1993:215)
Not only did Seme redeploy civilization, a term hitherto used to describe European
societies, but he also expressed his disillusionment with the lack of humanism and civility
so apparent in colonial politics. He thus outlined land ownership and separate
development as the way forward. This articulate statement from a lawyer with degrees
from Columbia and Oxford was also reflected in the new developments in the wider
African religious arena.

SECESSIONS, SEGREGATION, AND NATIONALISM
If we turn the attention to the religious dynamics that were shaking the Union, a
parallel discourse on the land issue emerges. A striking theme that runs through these
developments were the ever- increasing references to an African Ziona land of their
own where they could develop their own way of life without the risk of white
interference and exploitation. Though the Zionist movement rapidly spread across Africa
south of the Sahara from 1915 onwards, African Zionism is in significant ways a Zulu



1255
phenomenon that emerged from the sociopolitical situation of Natal (Barrett 1968). These
trends were also manifest in the Natal kholwa community.
John L. Dube had founded his Tuskegee, the Ohlange Institute, in 1901.
6
The
name is an indication of a reaction towards the racial divisions I have outlined. Hlanga
is a reed, which prominently figures in Zulu origin myths collected by the pioneer
missionary Henry Callaway. He writes: We hear it said that Unkulunkulu
7
broke off the
nations from Uthlanga.
8
As regards the bed of reeds, on the day they came into being,
it swelled, and when it had burst they came out. After that there broke of the uthlanga of
cattle and other animals. (Callaway 1868:1f and 47). In a footnote explaining this
passage, he continued: Uthlanga is a reed, strictly speaking, one which is capable of
stooling, throwing out offsets. It thus comes, metaphorically, to mean a source of being.
A father is the uthlanga of his children, from which they broke off. It may be
concluded that originally it was not intended to teach by it, that men sprang from a reed
(ibid.). In this context, the term can best be translated with the English original stem or
stock, ancestry, genealogy (Doke et al. 1990:319), and as such a name that emphasized
the Zulu origins and cultural ancestry as opposed to, in the language of the time, the other
races. It is in other words a name with strong nationalistic overtones. The ethnic
nationalism implicit to the name, broke clearly with the Colonial obsession with and
oppression of the Ethiopian, pan-African visions that had dominated Dubes younger
years. In her essay written to explore these ambiguities in Dubes life, Shula Marks
pointed to the Bambatha rebellion as his first turn towards an ethnic-based nationalism.

6
Ohlange is plural of uhlanga.
7
A term used for the ancient forefathers. It was later incorporated in the churches as a term for God.
8
Uthlanga is an old orthographic form of the contemporary uhlanga.



1256
Though she pointed out earlier indications, Dube started seeking out contact with the
Zulu Royal house after 1908, and even more so after he was ousted from the leadership
of the Congress in 1917 (1986:67). This discussion suggests that his later turn to Zulu
history and mythology also was present in his early educational work.
I do not have any explicit evidence that Dube picked the name Ohlange Institute
because of the political message it carried for Zulu speakers. The name, however,
supports his position as the only known American-educated minister, who broke with the
Pan-African scope of the African American, promoting an ethnic based nationalism for
his religious, educational and political work (Campbell 1995:250). Furthermore, Dube
later came to express the importance of maintaining a sense of Zulu history and
mythology for the future generations (Marks 1986:44). Finally, his message fits into a
larger socioeconomic and religious pattern that distinguishes Natal from the rest of South
Africa. Due to the repressive response to Ethiopianism, references to Ethiopia in church
names decreased significantly after the Bambatha rebellion. Instead, the sentiments were
expressed through metaphors such as uhlanga.
One case in point: the first secessions from the mission churches in Natal
occurred in mid-1880s when Ngidi Mbiyana left the American Zulu Mission in protest
over being sent to Zululand against his will. Immediately after the Bambatha rebellion,
Mbiyana founded the Uhlanga Church. Significantly enough, the church is also referred
to as the Uhlanga or Church of the Race (Sundkler 1948:335). My simple point is that
the numerous references to Uhlanga that emerged after Dube founded the Ohlange
Institute, was a Zulu way of saying Ethiopia!



1257
Similar nationalist sentiments surfaced among Zulus all over the Union, and these
ideas draw on the metonymic relation to the king. In 1919, Gardener Mvuyana split from
the American Mission, and established a church he named the National Zulu Church.
He appealed to king Solomon kaDinuzulu to lay the corner stone of the church. Another
bold move occurred much closer to the kings circles, during the founding meeting of the
Inkatha kaZulu in October 1924. One of three issues the Inkatha executive committee and
Solomon kaDinuzulu discussed was the founding of a national church. The name
proposed was Shaka Zulus Church, which due to kholwa protest was changed to
African National Church, before the project was withdrawn (Cope 1993:111, Marks
1986:70).
As references to Ethiopia seem to have declined with the oppression, the use of
the metaphor Zion increased rapidly with the explosive growth of the Zionist movement
from 1915 onwards (Barrett 1968). With the development of Zionism, African
Christianity was further removed from the Euro-American churches and the Union
government. Sundkler (1948) argued that the Ethiopians largely can be defined by their
wish to be affiliated with American and European mission churches, usually keeping
their liturgy and church structures. The Zionists on the other hand, turned away from the
liturgy and kept a very casual and ephemeral (Sundkler 1948:55) attitude that often was
expressed in a general dislike of European people and places, classifying them as ritually
unclean (cf. Kiernan 1984). This indicates a general rejection of the European colonial
civility, while holding on to the Christian faith. Though these trends proliferated with
the introduction of the Natives Land Act, the apparent erection of barriers between black
and white, believers and non-believers, was visible as early as the Bambatha rebellion.



1258
A number of descriptions from the battlefields report of African preachers who
preached the gospel and prayed to Almighty God on behalf of the rebel troops. The word
of God was thus effectively turned against the colonizers. Needless to say, this infuriated
the colonial society. The most prominent of these African preachers was a black-hatted,
white-chokered preacher who moved about with a prayer book in his hands (Marks
1965:61). Sundkler (2000:374) made the informed guess that this was the prophet
Isaiah Shembe. Shembe was baptized by Rev. W.M. Leshaga of the African Native
Baptist Church. This church was a splinter church from the American Negro Baptist
Church, which had started its work in Natal in 1899, in the midst of the growing
Ethiopian scare. The American Negro Church had reclaimed a sense of African heritage
by referring to themselves from the beginning of their work as the amaKushi, the
Chushites in English (cf. Sundkler 1948:50).
9
Shembe broke away from the African
Native Baptist Church over the Sabbath issue in 1911, and immediately founded his own
church iBandla lamaNazaretha, the Church of the Nazarenes, which today is the second
largest independent church in South Africa. Up until his death in 1935, he was to
dominate the religious field in KwaZulu-Natal and gained fame as a faith healer. His
success as a church leader also brought him notoriety as a leader who successfully made
a stand against white society, breaking with the colonial value system and instead turning
to Zulu traditions as the foundation for Christian faith. Through his successful business
enterprises, Shembe managed to acquire large land-holdings in Inanda, north of Durban,
where the Church created its own Zion free from government interference. This turn
away from white colonialism and spiritual paternalism was at the root of the Ethiopian

9
Cush is a Hebrew term, which means burnt face. In the Septuagint Cush is translated to the Greek
Aithiopa, thus keeping the reference to Ethiopia.



1259
movement, and the more removed Zionist churches. Shembes Church was among the
prominent churches that not only sought a pigment- friendly civility, but also a Black
Christ, an African Messiah (Sundkler 1948:28189). It is hard to find a clearer expression
of an acceptance of the message but rejection of the messenger than the development of
John L. Dube and Zulu Zionism.

CONCLUDING REMARKS
The kholwa had fervently come to ascribe to the pioneer missionaries vision of a
civil society and the Christian ideal of equality before God. The civilized native
continued to dominate the vision of African politicians and religious leaders well into the
apartheid years. A rapidly increasing number of Africans converted to Christianity and
gained a vision of a civilized African community. They did not receive respect and
influence, and contact with African American church leaders was prohibited.
These experiences forced political and religious boundaries to be re-drawn in a
number of constellations. The African Christians withdrew in increasing numbers from
colonizers in a search for human dignity and hope for the future. Some congregations
Sundkler (1948) referred to as church tribes, combined this with land ownership and the
recreation of tribal structures and values. Others retreated to a religious sphere, finding
their Zion in the community of believers, meeting in public parks, intersections of roads
or a secluded Bethesda in the countryside. For Dube, the solution was to reach for
history, mythology, royalty and ethnic pride. Two trends in his time made this a practical
political solution to escape the political oppression that dominated his times. First, he
drew on a long tradition of governance developed in NatalIndirect Rulea form of



1260
colonial governance that relied on traditional social structures as a means to coerce the
colonial subjects to take part in their own oppression. Second, relativist anthropology and
liberalism had a remarkable growth in South Africa from about 1920. Increasingly the
message of distinct, incommensurable cultures dominated not only the Native Affairs
Department (Ashforth 1990, Hoernl 1939, Kuper 1999: xiii), but the popular
imagination. John Dubes political platform appealed increasingly to these sensibilities.
Dube thus managed to shape a large degree of political and cultural independence at the
same time that he transformed himself into a palpable politician for the Union
government.
The ruptures that grew out of the segregationist developments were followed by
reinscriptions, which surfaced as boundary maintenance through political and ethnic
fault- lines, or religious sanctions in the form of pollution and other forms of exclusion.
Through these boundary reconstructions, the politico-spatial arenas of the colonial
conquest were reconstituted as moral discourses focused on the social boundaries of the
black skin. It was a battle over the right to inscribe meaning onto African bodies and
African lives.




1261
BIBLIOGRAPHY


Ashforth, A. 1990. The Politics of Official Discourse in Twentieth-century South Africa.
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Barrett, D.B. 1968. Schism and Renewal in Africa: An Analysis of Six Thousand
Contemporary Religious Movements. Nairobi: Oxford University Press.
Callaway, H. 1868. The Religious System of the Amazulus. Pietermaritzburg: Davis and
Sons.
Campbell, J.T. 1995. Songs of Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the
United States and South Africa. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Chirenje, J.M. 1987. Ethiopianism and Afro-Americans in Southern Africa, 1883-1916.
Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press.
Comaroff, J., and J.L. Comaroff. 1997. Of Revelation and Revolution: The Dialectics of
Modernity on a South African Frontier. Vol. 2. Chicago and London: The
University of Chicago Press.
. 1999. Introduction, in Civil Society and the Political Imagination in Africa:
Critical Perspectives. Edited by J. Comaroff and J. L. Comaroff, pp. 143.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Cope, N. 1993. To Bind the Nation: Solomon kaDinuzulu and Zulu Nationalism 1913
1933. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.
Costa, A.A. 2000. Chieftaincy and civilisation: African structures of government and
colonial administration in South Africa. African Studies Review 59:1343.
Couzens, T. 1982. Moralizing leisure time: the transatlantic connection and black
Johannesburg, 19181936, in Industrialization and Social Change in South
Africa: African Class Formation, Culture and Consciousness 18701930. Edited
by S. Marks and R. Rathbone, pp. 31437. London and New York: Longman.
Doke, C.M., D.M. Malcolm, J.M. Sikakana, and B.W. Vilakazi. 1990. EnglishZulu,
ZuluEnglish Dictionary, First combined edition. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand
University Press.
Etherington, N.A. 1983. Missionaries and the intellectual history of Africa: a historical
survey. Itinerario 7:11643.
Hobsbawm, E.J. 1968. Industry and Empire, 1999 edit ion. London: Penguine Books.



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Hoernl, R.F.A. 1939. South African native Policy and the Liberal Spirit. Cape Town:
University of Cape Town Press.
Kiernan, J.P. 1984. A cesspool of sorcery: how Zionists visualize and respond to the city.
Urban Anthropology 13:219-36.
Kuper, A. 1999. Culture: The Anthropologists Account. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Marks, S. 1965. Christian African participation in the 1906 rebellion. Bulletin of the
Society for African Church History 2.
. 1970. Reluctant Rebellion: The 1906-8 Disturbances in Natal. Oxford Studies in
African Affairs. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
. 1986. John Dube and the ambiguities of nationalism, in The Ambiguities of
Dependence in South Africa: Class, Nationalism, and the State in Twentieth-
Century Natal, Johns Hopkins Studies in Atlantic History, pp. 4273. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press.
Plaatje, S.T. 1916. Native Life in South Africa Before and Since the European War and
the Boer Rebellion, Reprint, 1991 edition. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
Ranger, T.O. 1992. Godly medicine: the ambiguities of medical mission in southeastern
Tanzania 1900-1945, in The Social Basis of Health and Healing in Africa. Edited
by S. Feierman and J.M. Janzen, pp. 256-84. Berkeley and Oxford: University of
California Press.
Shepperson, G.A., and T. Price. 1958. Independent African: John Chilembwe and the
Origins, Setting and Significance of the Nyasaland Native Rising of 1915.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Sundkler, B.G.M. 1948. Bantu Prophets in South Africa. London: Lutterworth Press.
Vilakazi, A. 1965. Zulu Transformations: A study of the Dynamics of Social Change.
Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.
Walshe, P. 1970. The Rise of African Nationalism in South Africa: The African National
Congress, 19121952. Berkeley: University of California Press.



SPANISH CINEMA NOIR AND NOVELA NEGRA:
A CASE STUDY IN RACIAL PROFILING

DAVID-ROSS GERLING
SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY
HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS

This paper was made possible in part by the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at Sam
Houston State University.



1264
Spanish Cinema Noir and Novela Negra: A Case Study in Racial
Profiling


ABSTRACT
Law enforcement had been using stereotypes and statistical probabilities long before the
term racial profiling became part of the legal vocabulary. In the United States, racial
features, especially skin color, rank highest, along with gender, on the profilers check
list, especially as regards Americans of African descent. Spain also uses racial profiling
with persons of African descent, specifically, with the sub-Saharans from some twenty
west and central African countries that enter the European Community through Spain,
The Door to Europe. However, the racial profiling of sub-Saharans in Spain functions
oppositely from the racial profiling of African Americans. A case in point: The
contemporary, award-winning novelist Lorenzo Silva has published to date three best-
sellers of the hard-boiled or detective story sub-genre, known in Spanish as the novela
negra, literally, black novel, which has nothing to do whatsoever with Black people in
particular. Yet, in spite of the fact that hundreds of thousands of undocumented sub-
Saharans enter the European Community through Spain, the sub-Saharan as criminal
appears neither in any of the novels nor in the film noir, literally, black film or crime
flick, based on one of his crime stories. Silva, the crime fiction writer, has not excluded
Blacks from his rogues gallery out of political correctness. If they do not appear in his
novels, it is simply because sub-Saharan Africans by and large do not form part of the
criminal scene in present-day Spain. Conversely, Spanish law enforcement and citizens
view persons from the former Soviet bloc as potential predators. Consequently, the racial
profiling of sub-Saharans becomes an eliminative rather than accusatory device whereby,
in police terminology, black becomes synonymous with benign and, referring to Eastern
Europeans, white becomes synonymous with warning, as in the zoological term warning
coloration, whereby animals associate danger with a certain color or pattern.



(Quantos deue de auer en el mundo, que huyen de otros, porque no se veen a si
mesmos! Lazarillo de Tormes, La Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y
adversidades (1554)



1265
The crime stories by Lorenzo Silva and the film based closely on one of the
novels provide a current portrayal; generally, of crime in Spain today and the
concomitant reverse racial profiling used by Spanish law enforcement. Therefore, it could
be both enriching and useful to situate the novelas negras by Silva within the sometimes
glorious and at other times checkered past of the detective genre (For a very brief
overview of Silvas fiction see: Silva, 2002a). Generally speaking, literary historians in
Europe, especially France, as well as in the United States, mark the year 1841 as the birth
of the detective story with The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe.
Nevertheless, crime fiction, like any established mode or type of literature, came about
through evolution. For example, the literary critic and historian Ricardo L. Landeira
acknowledges that Franois Vidocq published four volumes of Mmoires (1828) about
both his life of crime and his subsequent career as a criminal investigator in Paris, and
goes on to provide compelling arguments for the influence of three nineteenth century
Spanish writers on the development of crime fiction, not just in Spain, but on world
literature: Ramn de Mesonero Romanos, author of the triology Polica madrilea (1832-
1833), Mariano Jos de Larra, whose story La polica appeared in 1835, and the Duque
de Rivas, for whom Landeira reserves the distinction of father of the detective story in
Spain and in whose Una antigualla de Sevilla (1838), although composed in verse, he
finds all the elements that will later constitute the classical crime tale (Landeira, 2002,
p. 776). Notwithstanding, it was Poes singular tale about a razor-wielding, homicidal
gorilla that cut it (no pun intended) so to speak. Later, Arthur Conan Doyle created the
most famous private investigator of all times, Sherlock Holmes, who made his debut in
the story A Study in Scarlet in 1887. In 1920, criminal investigator Hercule Poirot



1266
made his debut in The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. Shortly thereafter,
in 1923, Dorothy Sayers gave birth, literarily, to the aristocratic detective Lord Peter
Wimsey in her first mystery novel, Whose Body. Then, in 1930, Miss Jane Marple,
another venerable sleuth created by Agatha Christie, began her career that spanned
almost half a century. Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, in America, readers were
pleasantly shocked by the appearance of a more gritty and hard-bitten type of private eye.
The unflappable Sam Spade debuted in the 1930 classic The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell
Hammett and about a decade later, in 1939, the private dick Philip Marlowe became a
household name as the protagonist of The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. Throughout
the decades of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, hundreds of crime stories came out in magazines
with a type of paper very similar to newsprint, hence the name pulp crime stories. The
magazines were special for the lurid and mildly erotic art work on their covers and their
unforgettable names such as Dime Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, and Black Mask.
Although one might see only male, blue-collar workers reading these magazines openly
on New York City subways, literary historians now know that pulp crime stories had a
huge following that transcended both gender and class. The almost universal appeal of
pulp crime fiction is not surprising when we consider the wide readership of the comic
strip Dick Tracy, first created in 1931 by Chester Gould and which continues into the new
millennium with Dick Locher and Michael Kilian as cartoonist and writer, respectively.
Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Lord Peter Wimsey, and Miss Jane Marple
were portrayed as people of wealth or, in more British terms, members of the landed
gentry. Consequently, as homicide investigators they maintained a standard of living that
rarely, if ever, the American private eye could afford. The social status of a Lord Peter or



1267
Miss Jane also influenced the whole tone of the novel. Contrarily, in America, life was
not so genteel for sleuths. While Lord Peter Wimsey dined on the finest food and French
wine and lived in comfortable surroundings, Philip Marlowe ate in all- night diners such
as the one portrayed in Edward Hopper=s Nighthawks at the Diner (1942), drank too
much bad whiskey, and slept in seedy residential hotels. As a result, although homicide is
homicide, no matter where it occurs, the way particular authors chose to depict it varied
from refined, in the case of the continentals, to tough or hard-boiled in the case of the
Americans.
Clearly, neither the soft-boiled enigma or mysteries of Agatha Christie and
Dorothy Sayers nor the hard-boiled fiction of Hammett and Raymond could have existed
without the groundwork laid by Poe and Conan Doyle. Similarly, the mystery and crime
fiction writers of today, for the most part, acknowledge their debt to their precursors from
the 1920s and 30s, especially the pulp crime stories that the nonprofit Library of America
(2001, p. 16) refers to as underground classics [that are] disturbing, poetic, and
powerfully evocative of the lost and desperate side alleys of American life. A case in
point is Elvis Cole, the gumshoe created by Robert Crais, who shares both personal traits
and the Los Angeles milieu with Philip Marlowe, not to mention the title of some of the
works he appears in, for example, Indigo Slam, whose title would fit in perfectly with
works by Chandler such as The King in Yellow and Spanish Blood. Much the same
could be said about George P. Pelicanos and his The Big Blowdown (1994) and The Sweet
Forever (1998) as well as Michael Connelly and his LAPD veteran Harry Bosch in City
of Bones. The alphabetical Sue Grafton in her A Is for Alibi (1983), B Is for Burglar
(1985 ), ...Q Is for Quarry (2002), makes her sleuth a hard-boiled Miss Jane Marples,



1268
thus paying double homage to both the women mystery writers of the 1920s and the pulp
fiction heroes of the 30s. Similarly, the numerical Janet Evanovich has her Stephanie
Plum star in a series of murder mysteries such as Hot Six (2001) while another woman
writer, Nevada Barr, places her Anna Pigeon in exotic settings like the Dry Tortugas in
Flashback (2003), more in line with a Miss Jane Marple. Others have begun to point the
crime story in different directions, such as Laurell K. Hamilton whose now famous Anita
Blake is, most recently, the necromancer and executioner of Cerulean Sins (2003). I even
dare suggest that John Grisham (The Pelican Brief-2001) bears traces of the literary DNA
of Poe, Sayers, Hammett, Chandler, and the like.
No less important to this very brief sketch in noir is the question of mode vis--vis
detective fiction in general and as it pertains specifically to Lorenzo Silva. If we take
Poes landmark The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) as our reference point, it is
obvious from a literary historical perspective that it and his other stories such as the Tales
of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840), proceed from the tradition of gothic literature
firmly rooted in a dying Romanticism. Nevertheless, as regards crime fiction in general,
the rancid strains of a moribund Romanticism persisted well after the disappearance of
this once glorious and, perhaps, most important of all literary movements or modes and
did not evaporate completely until the advent of the pulp crime story, firmly rooted
within the parameters of American Realism, only to have the Gothic or, more accurately,
neo-Gothic, reappear in the new millennium in mystery writers such as Laurell K.
Hamilton, mentioned above.
In the case of the Spanish noir written by Lorenzo Silva, it has not swung full
circle back to Poe and the Gothic but rather has traced for itself a new trajectory that



1269
clearly proceeds from a hard-boiled tradition rather than from the English enigma or
mystery stories from the past century. His three crime novels to date are: El lejano pas
de los estanques (1998); El alquimista impaciente (2000); and La niebla y la doncella
(2002). Each one of them, in their own unique and riveting way, reflects the current status
of violent crime in Spain today and, by extension, serves as a critique of contemporary
Spanish society. Likewise, each one, in their own unpolitically correct way, names
names, so to speak, as regards the perpetrators of violent felonies that for the first time in
seven decades, if we except the ongoing terrorist activities, have become part of the
Spanish social landscape. While the principal felons in each is Spanish, other foreign
nationals appear, either as potential or real suspects, thus reflecting the transnational or,
in more modern terms, the globalization of crime in both Spain and the other member
states of the European Union.
In El lejano pas de los estanques the killer and his accomplices were Italian,
Austrian, Swiss, and Spanish, respectively, along with a female Spanish judge who tried
her best to cover up the crime. This particular novel, written in 1997 and published in
1998, preceded by a few years the massive migration of citizens both from former Soviet
bloc and sub-Saharan countries to Spain, nevertheless it foreshadows the serious law-
enforcement issues that were to face Spain shortly when the chief criminal investigator
comments to his colleague that Klaus y Regina escogieron un pas al que despreciaban
lo suficiente como para estar tan convencidos de que no tenan nada que temer de su
polica (Silva, 1998, p. 148): Klaus and Regina chose a country that they looked down
upon to such an extent that they were convinced they had nothing to fear from its police.
(My translation).



1270
By the start of the new millennium, Spanish law enforcement faced a radically
new reality. Spain was under siege, literally, from land, air, and sea. Waves of eastern
Europeans entered the European Community through Austria whose immigration
inspectors had to grant them tourist visas as long as the solicitant had 2000 euros,
approximately $2200. U.S. Once cleared by Austrian immigration inspectors, the tourists
were then free to travel into any one of the Community member states, including, or,
more accurately, especially, Spain. The majority of these erstwhile tourists never returned
to their countries of origin, rather they overstayed their visas and took up a de facto
permanent residence, albeit, clandestine, in virtually every region of Spain, taking
advantage of the fact that the European Community was anxious to foster good public
relations with the countries of the East that they, the western Europeans, looked upon as
potential and enthusiastic recipients of western European exports. Simultaneously,
although it had begun years earlier, migrants from South America entered Spain, almost
exclusively through Madrid, by plane. Once again, upon the verification of $2200. to
defray expenses, the official tourist almost immediately became an unofficial permanent
resident. Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, and, recently, Argentina, sent the most people,
respectively. In fact, Spain provides special visas for Ecuadorians who enter not on
tourist visas but work visas, much like the famous red cards issued to Mexican
agricultural workers by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service,
restructured on 1 March 2003 into two new agencies, Citizenship and Immigration
Services and Border and Transportation Security, within the recently formed Department
of Homeland Security. Finally, by sea, sub-Saharans in unprecedented and uncontrollable
numbers from West and Central Africa, primarily, entered Spain via two of the seven



1271
Spanish islands comprising the Canary Island Archipelago off the northwest coast of
Africa. It was at the time of this sociopolitical phenomenon that Silva=s second crime
novel appeared, El alquimista impaciente in 2000.
While Spanish citizens are the primary villains of El alquimista impaciente, a
story of intrigue involving the criminal use of radioactive material stolen from a nuclear
power plant northwest of Madrid, it also involves eastern Europeans, specifically,
Belorussians. The authors including of former Soviet bloc citizens has nothing to do
with lending a touch of foreign intrigue to the plot but rather is symptomatic of what is
happening right now all over Spain vis--vis terrestrial migrations from the east. First and
foremost, eastern European crime syndicates have become well-established in Spain in
record time. Their operations include, in order of importance, international prostitution
rings which include the concomitant crimes of kidnapping and the sexual exploitation of
young girls, bank robberies, and home invasions with the use of firearms. The Eastern
mafiosos, like the criminal protagonists in El lejano pas de los estanques, think that
Spain is an easy target. Their hubris, in part, has a basis in reality insofar that the Spanish
police prior to the year 2000 had little experience with armed criminals on a daily basis
except for the sporadic and isolated bombings by the paramilitary wing of the Basque
separatist group known by its Basque acronym ETA. Also, the eastern European gangs
have extremely lethal weapons left over from the Cold War years that await anyone who
has the cash to buy them on the clandestine markets of virtually every former Soviet bloc
state.
The third crime novel by Silva, La niebla y la doncella (2002), takes place on
three of the seven Spanish islands that make up the Canary Archipelago. Understandably,



1272
some South Americans, along with more Spaniards and some western Europeans, none of
whom the author demonizes, comprise the novels rogues gallery. Nevertheless, the
South American connection to crime is a reality, in spite of the fact that Spaniards would
rather not have to look upon some of their cultural cousins as criminals. While South
Americans do not bring into Spain the sophisticated firepower of some of their eastern
European counterparts, they have also changed the characteristics of crime in Spain,
especially as regards the use of small firearms for bank robberies and the increasingly
bloody and violent drug wars between rival mafias, oftentimes on crowded city streets,
especially in the southern neighborhoods of metro Madrid.
The challenges posed by sub-Saharan maritime migrations to the lunar-
landscaped Canary islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, only some 65 nautical miles
from the coast of the flagless nation of Western Sahara, receive only cursory mention in
La niebla y la doncella in spite of the fact that this massive clandestine migration
represents one of the most dramatic challenges that the Spanish Immigration Service has
ever had to face. While the smugglers themselves work for Spanish and western
European mafias, primarily Italian, French, English, and Dutch, and constitute a high
priority target for the Spanish Coast Guard and Customs Service, as well as the
Immigration Service, the sub-Saharans that make up their human cargo represent more of
a humanitarian than a law enforcement problem (Unidad Central Operativa de la Guardia
Civil Espaola, 2002). While hundreds of thousands of sub-Saharans see Spain as the
Door to Europe, they do not pose a serious crime problem at present. True, sub-
Saharan males sell pirated versions of CDs in front of major train stations and work in
agriculture without the proper permits, but these activities seldom if ever involve



1273
violence and, as such, rank at the very bottom of Spanish law-enforcement priorities.
Even in the case of prostitution by sub-Saharan females, some 18,000 of whom work in
the sex industry in Spain alone, the Spanish Immigration Service looks upon them as the
victims rather than the perpetrators of crime (Nigeria, 2002).
As a result, it should come as no surprise that sub-Saharans receive little or no
attention by either Silva or the Spanish novela negra and cinema noir in general.
Furthermore, at deviance to what is happening in the United States and Britain, the
Spanish public perceives persons of sub-Saharan descent as friend rather than foe and
increasingly favors allotting the some half million unfilled service-sector jobs in their
country to African citizens rather than to South Americans and eastern Europeans who
receive work permits and easily acquired tourists visas, respectively. Here lies a patent
and empirical example that turns on its head the prevailing negative racial stereotype of
persons of African descent in the United States and to a lesser extent in Britain. As in
nature, the phenomenon known as warning coloration also occurs in the sociology of
crime where in Spain black, referring to sub-Saharans, signifies benign, and white,
referring to non-sub-Saharans, signifies warning. The ten-year-old Lazarillo Gonales
Perez, a.k.a. Lazarillo de Tormes, the protagonist of his own fictitious and anonymous
autobiography, La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades, put it
best almost half a millennium ago, on the occasion of his little mulatto half- brothers
fright upon seeing his mother=s very dark-skinned boyfriend whom the child perceived as
being different from the rest of the people around him: (Quantos deue de auer en el
mundo, que huyen de otros, porque no se veen a si mesmos! or, more or less rendered into
English, [Imagine] how many people in the world run away from others who look



1274
different! Except that now, its not the African whom Spaniards view with fear but rather
their own cultural and racial cousins from Latin America and their European counterparts
from the East.



1275
WORKS CITED

Landeira, R.L. (2002). Primeros pasos del detective en la literatura espaola. Hispania,
85 (4), 773-783.
La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades. (1962). Madrid: Espasa
Calpe. (Original work published 1554).
The Library of America (2003). Advertisement. Crime Fiction. Fall 2003 & Complete
List of Titles. New York, NY.
Nigeria: Los obispos contra la esclavitud sexual. (2002, June). Mundo negro, p. 19.
Silva, L. (1998). El lejano pas de los estanques. Barcelona: Ediciones Destino.
Silva, L. (2000). El alquimista impaciente. Barcelona: Ediciones Destino.
Silva, L (2002a). An Informal Interview with Lorenzo Silva. World Literature Today,
76(2), 92-97.
Silva, L. (2002b). La niebla y la doncella. Barcelona: Ediciones Destino.
Unidad Central Operativa de la Guardia Civil Espaola. (2002, June). Spain Today and
European Integration. Roundtable Discussion. International Faculty
Development Seminar. University of Alcal de Henares, Alcal de Henares,
Spain.



DOUBLE JEOPARDY:
PERCEPTIONS OF RACIST AND SEXIST DISCRIMINATION
IN THE LIVES OF BLACK WOMEN






SAFIYA R. OMARI
JACKSON STATE UNIVERSITY
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI




1277
Double Jeopardy: Perceptions of Racist and Sexist Discrimination in the
Lives of Black Women


The presence of both racist and sexist discrimination as environmental backdrops
in the lives of Black women raises interesting questions about the nature of the
relationship between these factors and the vulnerability of Black women to psychological
distress. Indeed, researchers have acknowledged that race and gender are key variables
that have been overlooked in attempts to understand stress and disease relationships
(Anderson, 1991; Dressler, 1988; Kessler & Neighbors, 1986; Krieger, Rowley, Herman,
Avery, & Phillips 1993). Very little attention has been paid, however, to the possible
psychological effects that may result from an additive or interactive relationship between
these variables (Lykes, 1983; Watts-Jones, 1990).
Although Black women are very diverse in their life circumstances, certain facts
provide a stark picture about the nature and intensity of the stressors that a large number
of Black women face on a daily basis, ranging from poverty, single parenthood and
unemployment, to discrimination. These factors have all been associated with decreased
well-being and Black women are no exception. Several studies have examined how these
life circumstances are related to Black womens well-being. Belle (1982, 1990) found
that poor Black women are more likely to experience frequent threatening and
uncontrollable life events more often than other groups and are more likely to suffer from
chronic depressive symptoms. Redmond (1988) also found that Black women scored
lowest on a measure of general well-being compared to Black men, White men and



1278
White women. Neighbors, Jackson, Bowman, and Gurin (1983) also reported that Black
women reported higher levels of psychological distress than Black men, controlling for
socioeconomic factors such as education, occupation, and income. Watts-Jones (1990)
found that Black women reported chronic conditions such as poverty, unemployment,
racism, relationship satisfaction, and physical illness to be major sources of stress and
found very strong correlations between these chronic stressors and depression.
Intersection of Race and Gender Consciousness
Studies of racial identity have been very mindful of the importance of social and
historical development, but the intersection of racial identity with gender identity has not
been investigated as rigorously, nor has the relationship between double jeopardy (race
and gender oppression) and psychological well-being in Black women been adequately
explored. A notable exception is the work of Essed (1992). Essed conducted impressive
qualitative studies of the everyday racism experienced by Black women and the
mechanisms they develop to understand and cope with racism. Her analysis points out
that the similarities between the manifestation of racist and sexist oppression make it
extremely difficult to separate these 2 types of discrimination when attempting to assess
their role in Black womens everyday experiences. Additionally, Esseds discussion
underscored the necessity for understanding racism and discrimination not only in their
extreme manifestations, but also in their contexts as integral and ordinary parts of
complex systems that significantly influence the life circumstances of their victims. This
study represents an important extension of this work by exploring the relationship
between experiences of discrimination and psychological well-being in Black women as
moderated by group identity and consciousness.



1279
Theoretical Framework
Sexist Discrimination and Racist Discrimination. Sexist and racist discrimination
were operationalized as sexist and racist events utilizing the already well- validated life
events approach to measurement and conceptualizing sexist and racist events as cultural
stressors (Klonoff & Landrine, 1995; Landrine & Klonoff, 1996).
A series of questions were asked about both sexist and racist discrimination and
psychological well-being in a sample of Black women: (1) Are sexist and racist
discrimination present in the lives of Black women? (2) Is this discrimination related to
psychological well-being? (3) How does experiencing both racist and sexist stress affect
Black womens well-being? It was predicted that Black women would report
experiencing substantial discrimination in their lifetimes and that this discrimination
would be negatively related to psychological well-being.
Because Black women are the victims of both sexist and racist discrimination,
another question of interest is whether there is an additive effect of sexist and racist stress
and psychological well-being in this group. It was predicted that racist stress would have
a stronger negative relationship with psychological well-being than sexist stress, based on
an assumption that issues of race would be more salient for these women than issues of
gender.

METHODS
Participants
Participants consisted of 102 self- identified Black women from the faculty, staff,
and student body of a large urban university located in the northeastern region of the



1280
country. Due to considerable missing data in their files, 7 participants were excluded
from data analysis reducing sample size to 95.
Participants were recruited for the study in 3 ways. Students were recruited either
through the Psychology Departments subject pool that consisted of students enrolled in
introductory psychology courses, or by letter from the general student population. Faculty
and staff participants were recruited by letter as well. One hundred twenty-six letters
were mailed. Of the 82 faculty/staff members actually contacted by phone in follow- up to
the letter, 36 agreed to participate, generating a response rate of 44%.
Description of the Sample
Table 1 provides demographic information about the sample. A median split was
performed on the sample to produce two age groups that are referred to as young women
(n = 52) and mature women (n = 41). Groups were not based on recruitment method
because of overlap in the populations. The median age for the sample was 22. Since
undergraduate students are generally in the 18-22 age group, it was felt that a median
split would be an appropriate method for creating groups for this study.
Measures
A questionnaire consisting of several measures designed to assess sexist and racist
experiences, and psychological well-being was utilized.
The Schedule of Sexist Events - Revised (SSE-R) (Landrine & Klonoff, 1997) was
used to measure the frequency of 19 sexist events in the participants entire lifetime. The
appraisal of stress as it related to each sexist event was also assessed. The measure was
modified to assess the participants perception of the existence of sexist discrimination in
their lives by replacing the phrase how many times have you with the phrase how



1281
often have you thought. The internal consistency of this scale was good, alpha = .86.
The mean score was 39.60, SD = 9.57. Possible scores for sexist stress appraisal ranged
from 19 to 95. Actual scores ranged from 19 to 84. Internal consistency of the scale was
alpha = .90. The mean score for sexist stress appraisal was 35.15, SD = 16.83. The mean
score for the difference that being treated in a sexist manner had made in their lifetime
was 2.46, SD= 1.27.
The Schedule of Racist Events (SRE) (Landrine & Klonoff, 1996) was used to
measure the frequency and levels of stress related to racial discrimination. This measure
consisted of 18 racist events that the participant was asked to rate according to the
frequency of occurrence in their lives within their lifetime. The measure was modified to
assess the participants perception of the existence of racist discrimination in their lives
by replacing the phrase how many times have you with the phrase how often have you
thought. Frequency of racist events in participants life was rated using a scale of 1 to 5,
with 1 = the event has never happened and 5 = the event happened almost all of the time.
The intensity of the stress associated with the racist event was also rated on a scale of 1 to
5, with 1= not at all and 5 = extremely. The frequency score and the appraisal scores were
created in exactly the same manner as they were for sexist discrimination. The possible
range of scores for frequency and appraisal was 17 to 85. The actual scores for frequency
ranged from 17 to 81. The mean score for frequency of occurrence was 41.33, SD =
13.57. Internal consistency for the measure was alpha = .91. The actual appraisal scores
ranged from 17 to 85. The mean score for stress appraisal was 46.17, with a SD of 15.98.
Internal consistency was alpha = .92. The mean score for the difference in their lifetime
was 3.20, SD = 1.54.



1282
Sexist and Racist Discrimination. An average stress variable was created in order
to control for the relationship between frequency of sexist and racist events when
assessing the amount of stress appraisal reported by the participants. This average stress
variable is referred to as sexist stress (or racist stress) and was used in all statistical
analyses.
Psychological Well-being
The measures used to assess psychological well-being are as follows:
Anxiety. Anxiety was measured using the Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) (Zung,
1971), a 20 item self-report inventory that assessed anxiety levels based on self-reported
physical and affective symptoms. Response options ranged from 1 = None or a little of
the time to 4 = Most or all of the time, with high scores indicating high anxiety levels.
Internal consistency in this study was acceptable, alpha = .74. The possible range of
scores was 20 to 80. Actual scores ranged from 23 to 55, with high scores indicating high
anxiety levels. The mean score for anxiety was 34.95, SD = 7.00.
Depression. Depression was measured by the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS)
(Zung, 1965), a very widely used measure of depression in both clinical and non-clinical
populations. Response options range from 1 = None or a little of the time to 4 = Most or
all of the time. High scores on this scale indicate that the participant reported
experiencing high levels of depressive symptoms within the past month. Internal
consistency was acceptable, alpha = .79. Possible scores ranged from 20 to 80. Actual
scores ranged from 23 to 57. The mean score for depression was 38.75, SD = 7.84.
Life Satisfaction. Life satisfaction was assessed by a single item. Participants were
asked to rate how satisfied or dissatisfied they are with their life as a whole. Single item



1283
life satisfaction measures have been found to be just as reliable as multiple item measures
(Robinson, Shaver, & Wrightsman, 1991). This item, taken from Campbell, Converse
and Rodgers (1976) Index of Well- Being, read How satisfied or dissatisfied are you
with your life as a whole? The item was rated on a 5 point Likert-type scale with 1 =
completely dissatisfied and 5 = completely satisfied. The mean life satisfaction score was
3.32, SD = 1.06.
Self-esteem. The Rosenberg Self- esteem Scale (RSES) (Rosenberg, 1965) was
used to assess levels of personal self-esteem. This 10-item measure has been used
extensively as a unidimensional measure of self-esteem and is considered to be very
reliable. Response options ranged from 1 = strongly agree to 4 = strongly disagree.
Internal consistency of the scale was very good, alpha = .84. Possible scores on the scale
ranged from 10 to 40. Actual scores for this sample ranged from 18 to 40. The mean
score of the sample for self-esteem was 33.17, SD = 5.16.
Psychological Well-being. Defining psychological well-being involved taking into
account several dimensions of subjective well-being: life satisfaction, self-esteem, and
measures of distress. With this in mind, the SAS, SDS, RSES, PAS, NAS, and the single-
item life satisfaction question were combined into a global measure of psychological
well-being. As the SDS, SAS, and the NAS were scaled in a manner in which high scores
indicated psychological distress, they were reverse-scored so that high scores indicated
low levels of anxiety, depression, and negative affect. The total score for each scale was
then converted into a standardized score and summed. The new score then represented
the dependent variable, psychological well-being. The reliability of the combined scales
was acceptable, alpha = .81.



1284
RESULTS
The research questions were analyzed separately for race and gender, and for the
age of the participants.
Sexist Discrimination
The first research hypothesis addressed the frequency of occurrence of sexist
events in the participants lives. Sexist events were reported as occurring quite frequently
in the lives of the participants of this study. Ninety-nine percent of these participants
reported experiencing at least one of the 19 sexist events within their lifetime. The 5
sexist events reported to have been experienced by the largest percent of the mature
women group were sexist jokes, not being shown respect, wanting to tell someone
off, unwanted sexual advances, and been really angry. Similar to mature women,
the most frequently reported event for young women was also sexist jokes. Unwanted
sexual advances, sexist names, boyfriend or husband, and not being shown
respect were the remaining sexist items reported as having been experienced most
frequently by young women.
We were also interested in whether the frequency of sexist events would differ in
this sample based on age. An examination of group differences in the mean ratings of the
occurrence of sexist events revealed six items that were significantly different. Young
women reported experiencing sexist jokes and being called sexist names significantly
more than mature women. Mature women reported experiencing not being shown
respect, being treated unfairly by employer, boss or supervisor, being treated unfairly
by people in helping jobs, and being denied a promotion or raise significantly more
than young women.



1285
Frequency, Sexist Stress, and Psychological Well-Being
The hypothesis that there would be a significant negative relationship between the
frequency of sexist events and psychological well-being was not supported in this
sample, r (94) = -.13, n.s. However, a significant negative correlation was found between
the frequency ratings of Sexism in Close Relationships subscale and psychological well-
being in younger women. This relationship was moderate in size, r (52) = -.34, p < .01,
compared to virtually no relationship for the mature women in this category (r (41) = .01,
n.s). When examining the relationship between the stress appraisal rating of this subscale
with psychological well-being by the age subsamples, again there was a significant
relationship for young women, r (52) = -.38, p < .01, but practically no relationship for
mature women, r (40) = -.06, n.s.
Racist Discrimination
The first hypothesis addressed the participants perception of the frequency of this
type of discrimination in their lives. Similar to the findings for sexist events, the
participants reported that racist events occurred quite frequently in their lives. Ninety-two
participants (97%) percent of the sample reported experiencing at least one of the 17
racist events within their lifetime. Table 10 presents a description of the frequency of
reporting of racist events by age and mean ratings for each item. The 5 racist events
reported by the largest percentage of the mature women sample as having occurred at
some point in their lifetime were treated unfairly by people in service jobs, been really
angry about something racist, treated unfairly by teachers and professors, wanting to
tell someone off, and being called racist names. For young women, the first three



1286
events are the same as those for mature women, with the fourth and fifth ranked being
treated unfairly by strangers and misunderstood intentions.
An examination of group differences in the mean ratings of the frequency of
occurrence of racist events revealed four items that were significantly different. Mature
women reported that they experienced being treated unfairly by teachers or professors,
being treated unfairly by employers or bosses, been really angry, wanted to tell
someone off significantly more than young women. Being called racist names was
also reported by mature women as occurring more frequently than by young women, and
this difference was marginally significant.
The stress appraisal (racist stress) rating for each item of racist events was also
examined by age group. Mature women rated being treated unfairly by employers,
bosses, being treated unfairly by people in service jobs, being treated unfairly by
teachers or professors, being treated unfairly by strangers, being forced to take
drastic steps, and being called racist names as significantly more stressful than did
young women. There was a trend for mature women to rate wanting to tell someone off
as more stressful than young women.
Frequency, Racist Stress, and Psychological Well-Being
The hypothesis that there would be a significant negative relationship between the
frequency of racist events and psychological well-being was tested by correlation. This
hypothesis was not supported in either group. Of interest, however, is the finding that
when analyzed by age group there is a difference in the direction of the relationship for
the young group (r (52) = .15, n.s.) and the mature group (r (41) = -.13, n.s.).
Examination of the relationship between the appraisal of racist events and psychological



1287
well-being by the age subsamples, revealed a small non-significant negative relationship
for young women, r (52) = -.10, n.s., but a significant negative relationship for mature
women, r (41) = -.32, p < .05.
Racist and Sexist Stress
The prediction that racist stress would have a stronger negative relationship with
psychological well-being than sexist stress was also tested in a regression model. Partial
support for this hypothesis was found. In mature Black women, racist stress had the
stronger negative relationship with psychological well-being. In young Black women,
sexist stress had the stronger negative relationship with psychological well-being.

DISCUSSION
Sexist Discrimination
These findings provide further support for the assertion that sexist discrimination
is a common experience in the lives of women. The overwhelming majority of women
reported experiencing sexist events across many different life situations. The findings in
this study are also very similar to the findings of (Klonoff & Landrine, 1995; Landrine &
Klonoff, 1997) in their studies on the frequency of sexist events. No relationship was
found between the frequency of sexist events and psychological well-being in this group
of Black women. However, an examination of this relationship by category of sexist
events revealed a significant negative correlation for frequency of Sexism in Close
Relationships and psychological well-being in younger women. This finding is
particularly interesting in that it has been theorized that the negative psychological
consequences of sexist discrimination may be related to the fact that it occurs frequently



1288
in the most private and personal areas of womens lives in relationships, in families and
in homes (Burston, 1992).
An examination of the relationship between sexist stress and psychological well-
being revealed that the psychological well-being of young women is negatively related to
sexist stress. No such relationship was found in the mature women group. These findings
suggest that the consequences of sexist discrimination are more significant for young as
opposed to mature Black women. This relationship could be due to the fact that we live in
a society where youth is a prerequisite of beauty, and because of these standards, young
Black women are being subjected to more sexist insults as a result of the objectification
of womens bodies than are mature women. This rationale is supported by findings that
young women reported being subjected to sexist jokes and being called sexist names
significantly more than mature women in this sample. These findings could also be
related to life experience perhaps mature women have learned through experience how
to negotiate the stress of sexist discrimination so that its negative consequences are
minimized. Certainly these are questions to be addressed in future research in this area.
Racist Discrimination
In addition to sexist discrimination, Black women also report experiencing
substantial amounts of racist discrimination in their lives with the overwhelming majority
of the sample indicating that they had experienced at least one of the 17 racist events in
their lifetime and all of the sample evaluated these events as stressful. Landrine and
Klonoff (1996) found strikingly similar frequencies in their study validating the SRE.
Although other studies have not focused on the specific racist events that occur in lives of
Blacks, these findings are consistent with the findings reported in other studies of the



1289
pervasiveness of racism in the lives of Blacks (Feagin & Feagin, 1978; Krieger, 1990;
Sanders Thompson, 1996).
The reporting of the frequency of occurrence for racist events is also very similar
among young and mature Black women. Significant differences in frequency were only
found on 4 of the 17 events. In every instance, mature women reported experiencing the
event more frequently than the young women. Perhaps this difference can be explained
by assertions that the nature of racism has changed and in current times, overt acts of
racism (using racial slurs, racist violence, refusing to seat and serve Blacks, etc.) are less
tolerated and are heavily sanctioned by society (Swim, Aikin, Hall & Hunter, 1995).
Young Blacks may not have experienced the more overtly virulent forms of racism of the
past, when it was not uncommon for Blacks to be subjected to racist name calling and
other demeaning, sometimes even violent, racist acts. Mature women were also higher on
anger and tell someone off, perhaps because of their higher levels of race consciousness.
Similar to findings with regard to sexist discrimination in this sample, the
frequency of racist events was not related to psychological well-being, but the stressful
appraisal of these events was. How often the racist event occurred had no association
with well-being, however, women who appraised these racist events as stressful reported
lower well-being. This finding is again consistent with Lazarus and Folkmans (1984)
transactional model of appraisal which asserts that appraisal is a very important aspect of
the stress process.
Racist and Sexist Stress
Findings also reveal that when psychological well being is regressed on racist
stress and sexist stress simultaneously, the standardized betas for both stressors are small



1290
and negative. In this sample, both types of discrimination are negatively associated with
psychological well being, with no one variable accounting for more of the variance than
the other. Of interest, however, is the finding that this relationship differs between young
and mature Black women. For young women, sexist stress has a stronger negative
relationship with psychological well being than racist stress, and for mature women,
racist stress has the stronger negative relationship. These findings underscore the
difficulty in teasing apart the effects of racist and sexist discrimination in Black womens
lives, providing further support for Esseds (1992) description of gendered racism.
They also further demonstrate the complexity of this relationship and the need for further
research to empirically disentangle the effects of double jeopardy.
Conclusion
One of the goals of this research was to document the existence of widespread
sexist discrimination in womens common everyday experiences. Although the
deleterious consequences of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and other more overt and
blatant forms of sexist discrimination have been researched quite extensively, less
attention has been paid to the effects of the more subtle and insidious forms of sexist
discrimination that women experience daily. The participants, young and mature,
reported experiencing an alarming amount of sexist discrimination across many different
situations in their lives. These findings are consistent with those of Krieger (1990),
Klonoff and Landrine (1995), and Landrine and Klonoff (1997), who found that women
reported experiencing substantial amounts of discriminatory sexist events in their lives.
The prediction that this experience of sexist discrimination would have a negative
relationship with psychological well-being was not supported; there was no relationship



1291
between the frequency of sexist discrimination and their psychological well-being. The
failure of the frequency of sexist events alone to be negatively related to psychological
well-being in Black women may speak to the effects of dual oppression. Perhaps Black
women have come to expect discrimination within society, so much so that the fact that it
occurs is simply not enough to negatively affect their well-being. Thus, the stress for
Black women may indeed lie in their appraisal of whether they can control or change the
situation. This explanation of the findings is purely speculative, because the study
contained no measure of perceived control.
As was the case with sexist stress, Black women, both young and mature, reported
disturbing amounts of racial discrimination in their lives. These findings are also
consistent with other research documenting the prevalence of racist stress in society
despite the accomplishments of the Civil Rights/Black Power movements (Feagin &
Feagin, 1978; Grier & Cobb, 1968; McConahay, 1986; McConahay, Hardee, & Batts,
1981). Similar to the findings for sexist discrimination, the frequency of racist events
alone was not associated with psychological well-being in either group of Black women.
However, the appraisal of these events (operationalized as racist stress) was negatively
related to psychological well-being. Taken together, these findings tell us, unfortunately,
that both sexism and racism are alive and well in todays society, despite the raucous
clamor of politicians and policy makers who claim otherwise. Furthermore, these
findings add to the growing body of literature that asserts that not only are there negative
social consequences that result from the existence of racist and sexist ideology and the
resulting discrimination, but that there are also negative physical and mental outcomes



1292
for the victims of discrimination as well. Further research is needed to identify possible
moderators in this relationship.



1293
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Belle, D. (1982). Lives in stress: Women and depression. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage
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Belle, D. (1990). Poverty and womens mental health. American Psychologist, 45, 385-
389.
Brown, D.R., & Gary, L.E. (1987). Stressful life events, social support networks, and the
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Bryant, F.B., & Veroff, J. (1982). The structure of psychological well-being: A
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Dressler, W.W. (1991). Stress and Adaptation in the Context of Culture: Depression in a
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Essed, P. (1991). Understanding everyday racism. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
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Feagin, J.R., & Feagin, C.B. (1978). Discrimination American style: Institutional racism
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Klonoff, E., & Landrine, H. (1995). The schedule of sexist events: A measure of lifetime
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Krieger, N. (1990). Racial and gender discrimination: Risk factors for high blood
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Landrine, H. & Klonoff, E.A. (1997). Discrimination against women: Prevalence,
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Sanders Thompson, V.L. (1996). Perceived experiences of racism as stressful life events.
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Zung, W.W.K. (1971). A rating instrument for anxiety disorders. Psychosomatics, 12,
371- 379.



GUILLERMO GMEZ-PEA IN PERSPECTIVE











DR. JUAN ORBE
WORCESTER STATE COLLEGE
WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS




1297
Guillermo Gmez-Pea in Perspective


Guillermo Gmez-Pea is perhaps the most visible performance artist across the
Americas today. This border Sisyphus,
1
as he likes to call himself, for the last twenty-
five years has explored a wide spectrum of cultural and socio-political issues pertaining
to race, nationality, and aesthetics, and he has done it for audiences in settings ranging
from shopping malls and community centers all the way to the Whitney Museum and the
Corcoran Gallery. Born in Mexico City forty-nine years ago, Gmez-Pea migrated to
the United States in 1978. Right from his arrival in his country of adoption, and in part
due to considerable artistic training he had already had in Mexico City,
2
he decided to use
virtually all artistic forms of expression. For the last quarter century Gmez-Pea has
moved fluently between performance, multilingual poetry, journalism, video, radio, and
installation art, intermingled with some of the most popular forms of public performance
in Latin American history such as the carpa and the cabaret.
3
At the same time, this
remarkable career as a performance artist has been matched by an illuminating output as
theoretician and critic in subjects as diverse as the politics of digital art, the semiology of
the illegal body, or everyday life and aesthetics in Chicano communities. His goal, both
as performance artist and as writer, has been to explore the labyrinths of identity, the

1
Guillermo Gmez-Pea, The New World Border. Prophecies, Poems & Loqueras for the End of the
Century (San Francisco: City Lights, 1996) 1.
2
For this, and for Mexicos artistic scene in the sixties and seventies, see Josefina Alczar, La
antropologa inversa de un performancero postmexicano, in Guillermo Gmez-Pea, El Mexterminator.
Antropologa inversa de un performancero postmexicano (Mxico, D.F.: Ocano, 2002) 15-32.
3
See Coco Fusco, Introduction: Latin American performance and the reconquista of civil space,
Corpus Delecti. Performance Art of the Americas, ed. Coco Fusco (London: Routledge, 2000) 1-20.



1298
intersections of language, and the precipices of nationality.
4
The fact of being Mexican
and Chicano has provided him with a privileged position from which to explore the
articulations between race and aesthetics on a global scale. La frontera, the border
running from San Diego to the Gulf of Mexico, over two thousand miles dividing the
only superpower in the world and a third world society, has presented Gmez-Pea with
an inexhaustible space for documentation, experimentation, writing, and political
activism.
Significantly, the first public performance Gmez-Pea staged in the United
States, back in 1979, was entitled The Loneliness of the Immigrant.
5
In it, Gmez-Pea
tells us, I spent twenty- four hours in a public elevator, wrapped in Indian fabric and tied
into a bundle with a rope. I was unable to move or to talk back. My total anonymity and
vulnerability seemed to grant people the freedom to confess intimate things to me, to
verbally abuse me, and to kick me. [...] This piece was a metaphor of painful birth into a
new country, a new identity Chicano and a new language intercultural
performance.
6
It is precisely in the new language of intercultural performance where
Gmez-Pea would soon become a polemical practitioner as well as a leading
theoretician. Not coincidentally, already in the early eighties Gmez-Pea started to
attract the attention not only of the theatre community in the border area, but of writers,
artists, scholars, and activists across the Americas who discovered in this Chicano
performance artist exploring questions such as, Is it possible to discuss aesthetics without
discussing race in the Americas? How should we talk about the aesthetic traditions of

4
New World Border 80.
5
A photograph of this performance is included in El Mexterminator 170.
6
New World Border 82.



1299
those Americans who historically were exploited, silenced and subsequently pushed away
from America? How can the Chicano experience help us understand more critically the
overall production of intellectual goods in America today? and How should Chicano
artists position themselves in relation to the U.S. in the era of globalism? In the first half
of the 1980s performance art proved, if anything, that in Gmez-Pea it had
incomparable resources to capture the attention of average women and men, that it could
connect with them and involve them in open dialogues using a language that was
considerably less reified and, at the same time, more interested in privileging the North-
South world axis rather than the East-West connection. At the same time, what made
Gmez-Pea equally attractive was the intelligence he displayed to defeat expectations
and stereotypes about Chicano art. Starting with Latinos themselves, when audiences
expected some sort of minority approach to performance art, they would be confronted
with something radically different. Looking back today, it is true that by 1980 the border
area was ready for artists like Gmez-Pea, but, we should not forget, it was also ripe for
widespread political reaction. It was la frontera of Cherrie Moraga and Michel Foucault
but also of California governor Pete Wilson, the bte noire of the Latino community.
Precisely, in that rich field of contradictions, in the California of growing empowerment
for non-Anglos but also of anti- immigrant feelings, Gmez-Pea organized a now
legendary public performance entitled The Cruci-Fiction Project. In this, the artist has
written, Roberto and I crucified ourselves for three hours on sixteen-foot-high crosses at
Rodeo Beach (in front of San Franciscos Golden Gate Bridge.) The piece was designed
for the media, as a symbolic protest against the xenophobic immigration politics of
Californias governor Pete Wilson [...] Roberto and I decided to dress as two



1300
contemporary public enemies of California: I was an undocumented bandido,
crucified by the INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service], and Roberto was a
generic gang member, crucified by the LAPD [Los Angeles Police Department].

The
large audience and numerous journalists who turned up at the event at one point were
asked to free us from our martyrdom as a gesture of political commitment.
7

In the fifteen years from The Loneliness of the Immigrant to The Cruci-Fiction
Project, 1979 to 1994, Gmez-Pea and his associates had ample time and audiences
around the world to develop an art of intercultural performance. A key notion in the
construction of this intercultural approach was what Gmez-Pea described already in
1980 as an aesthetic of the hybrid. As in the case of other Chicano intellectuals (Gloria
Anzaldua, for example), Gmez-Pea made a compelling case in his writings: I wish to
propose a third alternative: the hybrid a cultural, political, aesthetic, and sexual hybrid.
My version of the hybrid is cross-racial, polylinguistic, and multicontextual. From a
disadvantaged position, the hybrid expropiates elements from all sides to create more
open and fluid systems. Hybrid culture is community-based yet experimental, radical but
not static or dogmatic. It fuses low and high art, primitive and high-tech, the
problematic notions of self and other, the liquid entities of North and South, East and
West.
8
As a Chicano living in between languages and cultures, Gmez-Pea captured the
attention not only of numerous audiences but also of intellectuals and scholars in other
regions of the world. Already by the middle 1980s this performance artist and his troupe
had sometimes delighted, sometimes shocked, audiences across barrios, shopping malls,
union meetings, colleges, and cultural institutions of all kinds by challenging both

7
New World Border 102.
8
New World Border 11-12.



1301
conservative and sometimes progressive notions of multiculturalism. For example, some
performances would be entirely in Spanglish, others would seat audiences according to
race and gender, others - for Latino audiences - would deliberately feature an all- Anglo
cast mercilessly satirizing Chicanos on stage, others would render deconstructive
versions of sacred myths of Latinidad by, for instance, representing the Virgen of
Guadalupe as a wetback hooker verbalizing, and staging, the repressed history of Latin
American sexuality, others would invite audiences to call in advance of the show to
suggest, through an anonymous 800 number, their innermost fears and desires about
Mexico, Mexicans, immigrants and the Spanish language
9
to be performed as part of the
show, others would expose well-disguised paternalism in left-wing circles, etc. The
central aim was clearly to use intercultural performance to explore the repressed in the
psychology of identity, race, language and nationality as experienced not just by Latinos
but by all kinds of audiences. A performance entitled The New World Border offers a
prime example of the projects for which Gmez-Pea was responsible by the early
nineties. Building on the contradictions of neo- liberal ideologies of globalism, spectators
in this performance were confronted with a utopian world in which Geopolitical borders
have faded away. Due to the implementation of a Free Raid Agreement, and the creation
of an untranslatable Zona de Libre Cogercio, the nations formerly known as Canada, the
United States, and Mexico have merged painlessly to create the new Federation of U.S.
Republics. [This Federation] is controlled by a Master Chamber of Commerce, a
Department of Transnational Tourism, and a Media Junta. [] The role of the president
is now restricted to public relations, and the role of the military has been reduced to

9
Guillermo Gmez-Pea, Dangerous Border Crossers. The Artist Talks Back (London: Routledge,
2000) 240.



1302
guarding banks. [] The monocultural territories of the disbanded United States,
commonly known as Gringolandia, have become drastically impoverished, leading to
massive migration of unemployed waspbacks to the South. [] The CIA joined forces
with the DEA, and moved to Hollywood to create a studio that specializes in producing
and distributing multicultural utopias.
10

As The New World Border suggests, not surprisingly by 1994 Gmez-Pea had
gained world attention. It is not difficult to imagine why from Helsinky to Buenos Aires
his performances met with resounding success far beyond the confines of the artistic
world. His definition of the Latino artist as social thinker / educator / counter-journalist /
civilian diplomat / human rights observer [...] community organizer, media interventionist
and alternative chronicler
11
would meet with as much interest in the U.S. South West as
across Europe and the Americas. His ability to stage the often unsettling connections
between race, language, collective psychology, aesthetics, and the global economy made
him as much a favorite of international audiences as, at the same time, the object of
criticism, derision, and in some cases open marginalization at home. What frequently
infuriated his critics were not only his ideas but his ability to carry out an ambitious
artistic project without surrendering to corporate sponsorships, as in the case of other
talented Latino artists. Loyal to his philosophy of race and aesthetics, Gmez-Pea kept
an active presence during the nineties in the radio and television industries, but he did it
for non-commercial stations, as in the case of his weekly contributions to Public Radio.
In the nineties, two important issues recurred in the pieces he would write for radio shows

10
New World Border 27 and 37.
11
Guillermo Gmez-Pea, The Multicultural Paradigm: An Open Letter to the National Arts
Community, Negotiating Performance. Gender, Sexuality, and Theatricality in Latin/o America, ed. Diana
Taylor et al. (Durham: Duke University Press, 1994) 22



1303
as well as in his regular performances: one, how to represent the world after the Cold
War from a Chicano perspective and, two, how to deal with the marginal presence of
Chicanos in the art world in the US. As to the first issue, that of the relation between the
industrialized nations and the Third World after the Cold War, a performance entitled
Mexarcane International deserves special attention. Motivated by the exploitation of
Mexican and Chicano labor, particularly in the maquiladora industry at the border,
12
in
collaboration with the Cuban-American performance artist Coco Fusco, Gmez-Pea in
this performance invented a fictional post-NAFTA multinational corporation to market
and distributes ethnic talent worldwide. As part of this performance, Fusco and Gmez-
Pea designed a stage on which a corporate-style backdrop - complete with explanatory
texts in imitation of corporate language, and happy images of exotic primitives from
around the world - was set up behind a desk at which Coco would be seated; across from
her, approximately ten meters away, was my cage. For four to six hours a day I exhibited
myself inside a gilded or bamboo cage as an exotic multicultural specimen (every detail
and motif in my costume came from a different culture in the Americas.) Visitors to the
mall could activate me to experience my incredible ethnic talents. My live
demonstrations included [...] modeling tribal ware; posing in attitudes of martyrdom
[] playing New Age tribal music on toy instruments and demonstrating the use of pre-
Columbian condoms.
13
The numerous stagings of Mexarcane International around the
world confirmed it became a powerful avenue for exploring the complex socio-political

12
For an inspired discussion of this phenomenon see

Juan Gonzlez, Harvest of Empire. A History of
Latinos in America (New York: Penguin, 2000) 233-238.
13
New World Border 99-100.



1304
process of manipulating labor, cultures, and bodies in a decade in which global
corporations were reporting record gains.
If in the last ten years Gmez-Pea has made a significant contribution to our
understanding of globalism as a scenario and an ideology for the exploitation of
Chicanos and similar communities around the world, with equal conviction he has
produced major essays on a Chicano agenda different from that of the mainstream Anglo,
as well as the old Chicano, art establishments. In a crucial essay published in 1994
entitled The Multicultural Paradigm: An Open Letter to the National Arts Community,
Gmez-Pea forcefully argued that in the same way the U.S. government needs and
wants a cheap undocumented labor force to sustain its agricultural complex without
having to suffer Spanish language or unemployed foreigners wandering in their
neighborhoods, the contemporary art world needs and desires the spiritual and aesthetic
models of Latino culture without having to experience our political outrage and cultural
contradictions. What the art world wants is a domesticated Latino who can provide
enlightment without irritation, entertainment without confrontation. [...] They dont want
the real thing. They want [] T-shirts of Frida Kahlo.
14
Thus in a nutshell the drama of
every Chicano artist and intellectual at the mercy of the aesthetic protectionism, as
Gmez-Pea calls it, to which they are subjected by major museums, foundations,
galleries, and art magazines. True, America has finally made some space for Chicanos,
but frequently it has proved to be narrow, essentially tailored to the needs of artistic and
political agendas with very different notions of how art, aesthetics, history, geography,
and languages relate. On the other hand, the old Chicano art establishment hasnt been

14
The Multicultural Paradigm 24.



1305
more welcoming either. With good reason Gmez-Pea has complained that many
veteranos see my generation as too theoretical, eclectic, and experimental - we are
perceived as irreverent, politically confused and ungrateful. For us, nothing is fixed or
sacred.
15
To those demanding typical Chicano art, from the prestigious New York art
gallery betting on the exotic to many Latino audiences still rooted in essentialist notions
of identity, Guillermo Gmez-Pea has provided answers that confront them in creative
ways and that define Chicano aesthetics as a practice of opening the repressed in both
Anglos and Latinos, centering hybridity and undermining the authority of any
metaphysical conception of race and aesthetics in American society.

15
See Turning It Around. A Conversation between Rupert Garcia and Guillermo Gmez-Pea, in
Rupert Garcia, Aspects of Resistance (New York: Alternative Museum, 1993) 17.



THAI-NORTH AMERICAN INTERCULTURAL MARRIAGE IN
THE U.S.:
A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF CONFLICT FROM THAI
WIVES PERSPECTIVE




NARISSARA TAWEEKUAKULKIT
WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY
DETROIT, MICHIGAN




1307
Thai-North American Intercultural Marriage In The U.S.:
A Qualitative Study Of Conflict From Thai Wives Perspective


ABSTRACT
This paper proposes a multi- method qualitative research study that focuses on the
experiences of Thai women involved in intercultural marriages with North American
men. Of particular interest are their reports about conflict issues, conflict management
techniques, and their general reports of relationship maintenance techniques in their
marriage. Three data collection methods will be utilized with participants: an in-depth
interview; diary writing; and participant observation. Results are expected to yield greater
understanding of intercultural and interpersonal relationships.



Intercultural marriage has become more common over the course of this century
in both Eastern and Western countries (Hwang, Saenz, & Aguirre, 1997). In the United
States, intercultural marriage has increased steadily over the course of the twentieth
century and there are predictions that it will continue to do so in the future (Spickard,
1989). The growing incidence of intercultural marriage may be in part related to
increasing globalization (e.g., meeting a partner via internet or newspapers, meeting a
partner during a business trip). Also, the vast scale of immigration caused by work
migration, education, and tourism brings more people than ever before into contact with
each other and thus may lead to an increase in intercultural marriage (Breger & Hill,
1998). Finally, the increasing break down of legal prohibition against interracial marriage
in the U.S. as well as the decrease of social derogation against cross-cultural union helps
draw people from different cultural background together (Eshleman, 2003).



1308
Although there has been substantial research on effective conflict management
strategies and conflict styles across cultures (e.g., Ting- Toomey et al., 1991; Oetzel,
1998), few studies closely examine conflict management techniques and relationship
maintenance techniques between romantic couples from two cultures. Within the United
States, studies of intercultural romantic relationships have considered such issues as
interfaith marriage between Jewish and Christian partners (e.g., Crohn, 1995; Ho, 1984)
and interracial marriage between blacks and whites (e.g., McNamara, Tempenis, &
Walton, 1999; Spickard, 1989; Root, 2001). However, the study of relational conflict
between South East Asian and North American married couples has not received
sufficient attention. Because there are substantial differences between Thais and North
Americans (e.g., cultural worldviews, language), a better understanding of the nature of
communication in handling conflict and maintaining relationships will help advance
research in intercultural and interpersonal communication.
In this paper, I propose to conduct research that serves the majority of Thai-
Western married couples. Because Humphery and Veronnica (1997) note that there have
been more intercultural marriages between Thai women and Western men than between
Thai men and Western women, therefore, relationships between Thai women and North
American men will be emphasized. Thai women living in the United States confront a
number of challenges and difficulties (e.g., learning a new culture and language, a lack of
friends and family) in their spouses country. In addition, Thai women may experience
challenges that are distinct from Thai men related to gender role norms. In short, Thai
womens minority status in their spouses country, the significant differences between
Thai and North-American cultures, and their gender role stance make their relationships



1309
unique from other marriage (e.g., Thai- Thai; North-American- African-American) and,
therefore worth studying. In the current study, data from in-depth interviews, participant
observations, and diaries of Thai women married to North American men and living in
the United States will be collected. Data will be qualitatively analyzed by using domain
and taxonomic analyses (Spradley, 1980) to generate categories and determine themes
related to common conflict issues, conflict management techniques, and relationship
maintenance techniques. In this study, conflict in marriage is viewed as an on- going
process (Hawes and Smith, 1973). Moreover, how couple manages conflict can
distinguish healthy marriage from dysfunctional marriage (Messman and Canary, 1998).
Therefore, I will stress conflict management and relationship maintenance in this study.
Previous research on intercultural communication and conflict in intimate
relationship as well as Berger and Calabreases uncertainty reduction theory (URT, 1975)
and Ting- Toomeys face negotiation theory (1988) will be utilized to guide research
questions. URT is one of the few theories of communication that has been both applied to
romantic relationships (e.g., Parks & Adelman, 1983) and tested across cultures (e.g.,
Gudykunst, Yang, & Nishida, 1985). URT explains how communication strategies can be
used to reduce uncertainty in romantic relationships while FNT explains how culture
differences (e.g., individualism-collectivism, high- low context) may influence behaviors
or techniques used to manage marital conflict.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Communication in intercultural marriages may be more complicated than that
found within marriages between persons of the same culture, since different cultures



1310
often use different communicative styles, languages, and practices. For instance, research
suggests that, in general, a lack of common social networks may predict possible
relationship dissolution in intercultural marriage (Park & Adelman, 1983) and that for
Thai-American cross-cultural marriages, couples who report a lack of good
communication with their spouses also report less satisfactory relationships (Kitivipart,
1987). Here, a culture includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, laws, customs, behaviors,
feelings, attitudes, and any other habits and capabilities learned by human beings as
members of society (Smith, 1996). Thus, an intercultural marriage can refer to any
marriage between members of different cultural or racial groups (Ho, 1984). Gumpez and
Tannen (1979) suggest that the more participants in a conversation know about each
other, the less likelihood there is of miscommunication. Conversely, when participants
have little shared background (cultural, linguistic, or personal) the conversation is likely
to be filled with interruptions for clarification of content or language form. Hence,
misunderstandings between people can occur as the result of cultural differences which
may in turn lead to confusion, bewilderment, anxiety and sometimes despair (Klausner,
2000, p. 11). Here, conflict is conceptually defined as disagreement between two
interdependent people who have incompatible goals, desires, needs, values, beliefs and/or
attitudes (Ting-Toomey, 1985; Cahn, 1992; Hocker & Wilmot, 1998). When people from
two different cultural backgrounds marry, several problems may arise because of
differences in values and norms as well as language. In the following, research regarding
issues that may be linked to conflict in intercultural communication will be reviewed.



1311
Language Differences
It is well known that language barriers can cause misunderstanding, stereotypes,
prejudice, and relationship dissolution. Thus, it is possible that this may be one issue
linked to the development of conflict in intercultural marriages. Varonis and Gass (1985)
suggest that in conversations between two non-native speakers of a language, the degree
to which the interaction proceeds without interruption or uncertainty is dependent on the
amount of shared background, including similarity in language proficiency.
There are five language problems that can become potential barriers in
intercultural communication (Sechrest, Fay, & Zaidi, 1972). The first problem is
vocabulary. For example, American may use many words to refer to a shade of black
(ebony, raven, inky, sable, coal black, jet black), while Thai people only use one word to
refer to the word black. A second barrier is idiomatic equivalence. The English
language is particularly replete with idiomsfor example, the phrase the old man
kicked the bucket. Native-English speakers know that this idiom means the old man
died. If this sentence is translated to Thai, the meaning conveyed would be that the old
man still has energy to have an affair with a young woman, which is certainly different
from the intended meaning. The third problem is grammatical syntactical equivalency. In
English, words can be nouns or verbs or adjectives depending on their position in a
sentence (e.g., book a place and place a book). In Thai, people do not use the same
word as a variously a noun, verb, or adjective. The fourth problem is experiential. If an
object or experience does not exist in one culture, it is difficult to translate words
referring to that object or experience into another language when no word may exist for



1312
them. For example, various kitchen utensils used in Thailand may not be used in the
United States.
In addition, conceptual underpinnings of certain words may cause communication
problems. For example, North American people have a unique meaning of the word
freedom because of the countrys history and culture that differs from that in Thailand.
For North-Americans, word freedom is normally viewed as the power to say, do, think,
and write as one pleases (Longman, 1983) while Thais tend to link the word freedom to
a history of the country that has never been colonized before. In fact, the word
Thailand in Thai means land of the free (Fieg & Mortlock, 1989).
Problems also may arise for many intercultural married couples if partners do not
agree on a shared mutual language for common usage. For instance, a North American
husband may prefer to speak only their own native language with their Thai wives and
may make no effort to learn wives language while his wife may prefer to communicate
in both English and Thai. These different views may lead to conflict between intercultural
married couples.
Cultural Stereotypes
Stereotypes are a type of knowledge structure that creates expectations for others
behavior and character (Jackson, Hansen, Hansen, & Sullivan, 1993). Stereotypes often
arise when individuals have little knowledge of anothers culture. Thus, it is not
surprising that couples in intercultural marriages may be more likely to blame
shortcomings in their marriages on religious, ethnic, or cultural factors, and also to fall
back on stereotypes (Smith, 1996).



1313
The U.S. mass media plays an important role in reinforcing North American held
images of Southeast Asians that are partially true or even distorted. Asian women are
often portrayed as small, quiet, submissive, uncomplaining, and eager to serve. However,
many Asian women, specifically those in younger generations, are not as submissive as
this stereotype would have us believe. As In fact, Asian women living in the U.S. may
appear to be quiet because they are worried about making errors when speaking a second
language (Coupland, Giles, & Wiemann, 1991). Also, European Americans may believe
that Asians want to marry U.S. citizens merely because they wish to obtain status
privileges associated with U.S. citizenship (Spickard, 1989), and such stereotypes might
create undue societal pressure for the intercultural couple.
Different Worldviews
An additional issue is that there are major differences between Thai and North
American worldviews, according to Fieg (1976, 1989) and Mulder (2000); specifically, in
regards to the relationships of land and people; authority and power; religion perspective;
concept of time; and social structure associated with pattern of life. Thais view nature as
a friend. In an earlier era, they immigrated to their present homeland from southern
China, where the weather was warm all year and the land and water is filled with various
kinds of plants and animals. Even when they later settled down in their present homeland,
they still saw their lives as in harmony with nature because Thailand was also full of
natural resources. On the other hand, the early immigrants to North American did not
view nature as friend, but as a force to overcome. North Americans tend to think that a
morally good person is someone who is hardworking, time-saving, and frugal. In living
peacefully with nature, Thais have experienced no such massive drive to development,



1314
but instead privilege a high standard of contentment. Thus, the Thai communication style
values gentleness and politeness.
Thais believe that those who have power and authority in the present have derived
them from their moral and ethical excellence that they have accumulated from the
previous lives. Conversely, for North Americans, authority is something to be challenged,
and power something to be suspected, fragmented, and weakened (Fieg & Renwick,
1980). Buddhism holds that accumulation of merit and demerit from a previous life
determines ones social position in this life. One has to show respect to those higher in
the social order. Moerman (1965) categorizes Thai hierarchical patterns according to
pairs--younger-older, child-parent, layman-priest, and peasant-official. Such hierarchical
bonds between inferior and superior compose the Thai family, village, and nation.
An additional cultural distinction is approach toward time. Being on time is
valued by North Americans, whereas being ten or twenty minutes late is acceptable and
common for Thai appointments. North Americans say, My watch is running fast (or
slow) while Thais say My watch is walking fast (or slow). Time is money for
Americans, but time is not generally equated with wealth for Thais, especially rural
people.
The North American emphasis on democratic equality may result in a horizontal
orientation in American society--a constant attempt to distribute and disperse power and
authority to as many as possible and an accompanying tendency to level off differences
in status by insisting on an informal egalitarianism in social relations (Fieg & Renwick,
1980). The monochronomic North American approach toward time as a straight line
means that even time could be thought of as having a horizontal orientation-a road



1315
stretching outward along which man progresses. Thailand, in contrast, has more of a
vertical orientation characterized by a concentration of power at the top of the social
structure and a hierarchical social order featuring a series of superior/subordinate
relationships (Fieg, 1976). In sum, such culturally different approaches toward time
management and power distribution could well become challenges for intercultural
married Thai and American couples, and this is particularly true if one or both partners
know little about the culture of the other.
Communicative Style Differences
Since Buddhism is the dominant religion of Thailand, Thais stress the principles
of compassion, responsibility, and caring for others (Hoffman, Demo, & Edward, 1994).
Thailand is considered one of many collective countries, which value more conflict
avoidance and promote the importance of harmony in all social relations than do those
from individualist countries as the United States. Thus, Thais may be more likely than
North Americans to avoid conflict or promote harmony over their own needs and desires.
Members of individualistic cultures such as the United States are likely to value self-
actualization, individuals initiatives and achievement, and an I identity. On the other
hand, collectivist attitudes (e.g., Thai, Chinese) play a priority on belonging to the group,
fitting in with the ingroup, and a we identity (Hofstede, 1980). Also, individualists
(North Americans) are more affect oriented (i.e., they base their behavior on their feeling;
Frymier, Klopf, & Ishii, 1990), and thus more prone to talk and communicate
interpersonally during conflict. Collectivists (Thais) pay more attention to others
behavior and status characteristics, and thus value more indirect communication during
conversation (Gudykunst, Gao, Nishida, et al., 1992).



1316
The primary mode of communication in individualistic cultures is low context
(e.g., United States, England) while the predominant mode of communication in
collectivistic cultures (e.g., Thailand, Korea) is high context (Gudykunst & Ting-
Toomey, 1988). In low context cultures, verbal messages tend to be highly detailed and
highly valued, whereas in high context cultures, much of the information is either in the
physical context or internalized in the person (Hofstede, 1984). Consequently, people in a
high-context culture are more sensitive to and more apt to rely on nonverbal messages
(Ting- Toomey, 1985) than are people from lower context cultures. Ting- Toomey and
Oetzel (2001) point out that certain cultural values and norms are major factors in
framing the conflict expectations and behaviors of married couples. In a high context
culture such as Thailand, people are taught from their childhood to avoid emotional
extremes. Therefore, Thais think North Americans overdo feelings in their verbal
discourse--particularly when referring to unpleasant things (Humphery & Veronica,
1995). In pursuing a conflict solution, Thais might believe this is eating it to death
while North American think they are trying to work it out (p. 148). Hence, Thai-North
American couples may disagree about the appropriateness of expressing negative
emotion.
In addition, high context cultures value face-saving to preserve self respect and
avoid guilt and may use more indirect face negotiation to maintain harmony within
interactions (Ma, 1992) while low context cultures tend to use more direct face
negotiation and express more self- face maintenance (Hofstede, 1984). Thus, individuals
from high context cultures are less likely to adopt confrontational responses to conflict
situations than are individuals from low context cultures.



1317
Theories of Intercultural Communication
Two major communication theories address intercultural communication in an
interpersonal context. Ting-Toomey (1988) developed Face-Negotiation Theory (FNT) to
explain the conflict style differences and similarities existing between individualistic and
collectivistic cultures. Ting-Toomey et al. (2000) conceptualize conflict styles along two
dimensions: concerns for self and concern for other. They propose a conflict styles model
that consists of emotional expression, third-party help, neglect, dominating, integrating,
compromising, avoiding, and obliging. FNT also emphasizes the influences of culture on
face-work. Facework is the combination of communication strategies used to uphold,
support, and challenge self- face and others face.
Overall, research by Ting-Toomey and associates (e.g., Cocroft & Ting- Toomey,
1994; Ting-Toomey, 1994; Trubisky, Ting-Toomey & Ling, 1991) indicates that
individualists tend to use more self-oriented face maintenance techniques in conflict,
while collectivists tend to use more other-or mutual-oriented face maintenance strategies.
Furthermore, individualists tend to use more direct, face- threatening conflict styles, and
collectivists tend to use more indirect, mutual face-saving conflict styles.
Since Asians (e.g., Thai, Chinese) are from collectivistic cultures, they may
employ obliging and avoiding conflict styles to maintain other face interests and
relational network interests. Furthermore, Asians tend to use more compromising style in
dealing with conflict than North Americans (Cocroft & Ting- Toomey, 1994; Trubisky,
Ting-Toomey & Ling, 1991). On the other hand, North Americans, who are from
individualistic culture, tend to use dominating and competitive style in managing conflict
(Chua & Gudykunst, 1987; Ting- Toomey et al., 2000; Trubisky, Ting-Toomey, & Lin,



1318
1991). Interestingly, westerners view the obliging and avoiding conflict styles as
negatively disengaged, however, collectivists do not perceive these two styles as negative
(Ting- Toomey, 1988).
Because intercultural marital partners may have a lack of knowledge about each
others cultures, Bergers Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT; 1975) is also useful to
consider potential sources of conflict. Seven axioms were identified which specified the
relationships among uncertainty: amount of information, nonverbal affiliative
expressiveness, information seeking, intimacy, reciprocity, similarity and attraction
(Berger & Calabrease, 1975). In brief, the theory posits that interpersonal relationships
develop as participants gradually reduce uncertainty about each others behaviors and
personalities. Later scholars suggest an extension of URT to explain uncertainty
management in communication between people from different cultures and in both initial
interactions and more developed relationships (e.g., Gudykunst & Nishida, 1986; Park &
Adelman, 1983). Berger and Bradac (1982) propose three different methods that we use
to seek information in order to reduce uncertainty a) the observation of a partner
(passive), b) inquiries made to the third persons such as the partners friends or a family
counselor (active), and c) the direct questioning of a partner (interactive).
In their study, Gudykunst and Nishida (1986) found that gained knowledge about
a spouses culture and language may increase perceptions of predictability, liking, and
similarity. This finding is consistent with URT, which holds that an information-seeking
strategy (i.e., gathering knowledge about the other) can reduce uncertainty. Moreover,
Park and Adelman (1983) applied URT in a study on intercultural marriages. They
examined changes in uncertainty levels in romantic relationships at two different times



1319
over a three- month period. They studied levels of communication between partners as
well as that between one member of a couple and his or her partners network of family
and friends. Park and Adelman (1983) conclude that the increased uncertainty combined
with a decreased sharing of social networks may predict the break ups of early romantic
relationships. Moreover, Berger (1975) states that shared communication networks can
reduce uncertainty, while a lack of shared networks increases uncertainty.
URT also predicts that perceived similarity reduces uncertainty in close
relationship development (Berger & Calabrese, 1975). Research findings provide both
direct and indirect support for this prediction. For instance, perceived similarity may be
negatively related to uncertainty in romant ic relationships (Park & Adelman, 1983). That
is, the greater the degree of perceived similarity shared by partners, the more intimate
they become. For intercultural married couples, there may be uncertainty about the
perceived level of similarity between partners, and ones own relationship with a
partners social network. Perceptions of dissimilarity may also be increased by
stereotypical views of ones partner. There may also be a lack of knowledge about ones
partners cultures and languages (language proficiency), resulting in further uncertainty.
Thus, perceived similarity and uncertainty are both related to areas in which intercultural
married couples may experience more difficulty than do same-culture couples.
Interpersonal Conflict
Additional insights on marital conflict are available from research on relational
conflict between persons of the same culture. Such research (e.g., Cupach & Canary,
1997) suggests that it is not the frequency of conflict that determines whether marital
partners have a satisfying or dissatisfying relationship. Rather, it is the techniques and



1320
competencies that a couple uses to resolve and manage conflict that will move their
relationship along a constructive or destructive path. In fact, dysfunctional conflict
behaviors (e.g., verbal criticism, defensiveness, or suppression) in marital relationships
can even cause hypertension and affect everyday work performancewhich may lead to
additional relational stress (Gottman, 1999; Siegman & Smith, 1994).
According to Fitzpatricks (1988) model for conflict resolution, during conflict,
each party develops a distinct set of ways of pursuing the conflict in order to settle it. A
series of tactics make up a strategy of conflict resolution. These strategies can be
classified along two major dimensions: assertiveness (which satisfies ones own
concerns) and cooperativeness (which satisfies the partners or mutual concerns) (Putnam
& Wilson, 1982). This idea of face concern aligns with the basic idea of face negotiation
theory of Ting-Toomey (1988) mentioned earlier. Hawes and Smith (1973) point out that
effective strategies for conflict resolution model would necessarily stress procedures for
compromise, resolving differences, mediation, and conciliation. The idea of resolving
differences is similar to the sixth axiom of Bergers URT (1975), which posits that
similarities reduce uncertainty. In this sense, knowledge from both interpersonal and
intercultural communication may be used to help understand the unique dynamic existing
within a Thai-North American marriage.
Overview and Research Questions
According to past research (e.g., Smith, 1996; Gumpez & Tannen, 1979; Park&
Adelman, 1983; Jandt, 1995; Fieg, 197; Ting-Toomey and Oetzel, 2001) language
differences, stereotypes, cultural worldview differences, communicative style differences,
and a lack of shared social network were found as the major barriers in intercultural



1321
relationships. In addition, women reporting perceived similarity (e.g., in worldview,
social network, language, conflict interaction styles) with their partners are also expected
to report less marital tension. As Gudykunst and Nishida (1986) found, gaining
knowledge about a spouses culture and language may increase perceptions of
predictability, liking, and similarity and can reduce uncertainty in relationships.
Based on past research (e.g., Berger, 1975; Gudykunst and Nishida, 1986), this
paper proposes that indirect forms of information-seeking (passive versus active or
interactive methods) will be the major technique that Thai wives report using to
effectively promote communicative interaction and relationship development in their
marriages, and that couples experiencing more tension or conflict in their marriage will
report less use of this strategy. In addition, this paper proposes that Thai wives tend to
employ other-face maintenance technique (e.g., avoiding and obliging conflicts styles),
and mutual-face maintenance technique (e.g., compromising conflict style) in managing
conflicts.
In sum, research in interpersonal conflict supports the idea that all couples may
experience conflict, and that the mediation of conflict is important to relational
satisfaction. Consequently, a closer examination of perceived conflict issues, as well as
an examination of ineffective and effective reported conflict management and
relationship maintenance techniques in intercultural marriages would be useful for both
intercultural married couples and researchers in the field of intercultural communication.
To consider these issues this study proposes the following research questions:
RQ 1: What major marital conflict issues do Thai wives report?



1322
RQ 2: What communication techniques or behaviors do Thai wives report using
to manage conflict in their marriage? (i.e., communication techniques used
particularly in conflict situations)
RQ3: What relationship maintenance techniques do Thai wives report using in
their marriages? (i.e., techniques used in everyday basis, not only in conflict
situation)

METHOD
Sample
Approximately 6 to 8 Thai women married to North American men who are
living in the United States will participate. Here, Thai is defined as a group of people who
live or have lived in Southeast Asia and who use Thai as a native language
(Thiengburanathum, 1997). North American is defined here as English-speaking citizens
of the United States of America who has an Anglo, or European cultural heritage
(Triandis, 1994). Posted advertisements in Ann Arbor and Detroit areas in Michigan, and
snowball sampling will be used to recruit Thai women. While this does not represent a
randomized approach, snowball sampling is deemed necessary to build a sample that
represents the population of interest, which may be somewhat difficult to access
otherwise (Van Willigen, 1989). As Campbell (1955) points out, a small number of
specially chosen participants can yield more valid and generalizable information than a
large group of general participants. Age, education, income, and length of marriage of
participants will not be limited in this study since people from different backgrounds may
provide different views of dealing with conflicts.
Data Collection
This study will use qualitative data derived from in-depth interviews, conflict
diaries, and participant observations. Multiple research data collection methods



1323
(triangulation) will be used in this study to check the accuracy of the data by comparing
the data given by the same participants with different methods. Each method is described
more fully below.
Interviews. In-depth interviews will be used as they are thought to be a suitable
technique for soliciting complex relational information from participants perspectives
(Lindlof, 1995). The in-depth interview will run from 1 to 3 hours. To help participants
feel comfortable expressing their feelings without concern about language use, interviews
will be conducted in either English or Thai according to the preference of participants.
Since increasing confidence in the research procedure is likely to make participants report
fully in the interviews (Weiss, 1994), participants will be given some initial information
about the researcher, the research project, and their roles in the research study on their
initial contact with the researcher. Participants will be allowed to ask questions and will
be reassured of the confidentiality of their responses. As is common in such interviews,
both warm- up and cool-down questions will be used to make participants more
comfortable sharing potentially sensitive information. Following this initial informational
contact, the full interview will be scheduled. A second interview will be scheduled by
phone, to be held approximately two months later after the first interview. The purpose of
the second interview will be to ask for clarification of issues arising in the diary and first
interview that were unclear to researcher during the initial coding of the data.
Diaries. A diary writing technique will also be used such that participants will
record their perceptions regarding marital conflict experiences. Participants will be asked
to record their impressions of their marital conflicts for one month beginning with the
date of their first meeting with the researcher or until the participant records her



1324
impressions of up to 5 conflicts. Specifically, participants will be asked to select, explain
and/or describe: 1) their perceptions regarding the issues of the conflict, 2) their
perceptions of their own conflict management techniques, 3) their perceptions about
benefits and pitfalls of each conflict technique, 4) their knowledge about the particular
conflict issue, 5) the importance of the conflict issue to them, 6) the length of time spent
on the conflict issue, and 7) the date and time that each conflict occurs. As accounts can
change as time passes and prior attachments erode (Miller & Parks, 1982), participants
will be encouraged to write in the diary soon after a conflict occurs to avoid inaccuracy
and distortion of the data as much as possible.
These diaries will provide the current and detailed information about conflict
issues and conflict management techniques that participants experienced after a first
interview. These data will make results more accurate and insightful and may alert the
researcher to the overall pattern and frequency of conflict activity (Zimmerman &
Wieder, 1977).
Participant Observation. The major advantage of participant observation is the
development of close relationships between observer and the observed (Treichler &
Kramarae, 1985). In this study, the researcher will observe participants routine activities
in their homes, and interaction between the researcher and participants will increase
intimacy between them and may help participants behave in more natural ways.
Observations will be scheduled during a breakfast or a dinnertime at participants houses
to explore the communicative patterns of the couples. An effort will be made to schedule
all observations to occur during one breakfast and one dinnertime in order to elicit the
greatest range of mealtime interactions.



1325
Because decision-making in a private household is considered complex and is
likely to cause conflict, especially about money issues (Kirchler, Rodler, Holzl, & Meier,
2001), a decision- making task devised by the researcher will be given to couple after the
meal. It is hoped that participant observations will provide fresh and detailed information
not available in other data, such as communicative techniques couples use both during
conflict and normal situations (e.g., direct/indirect communication,
avoidance/confrontation). Also, the researcher can observe the issues of disagreement and
get a sense of couples social interaction.
Data Analysis
All data in will be tape-recorded, transcribed, and the data recorded in Thai will
be translated into English for coding. In coding the data, domain and taxonomic analyses
will be used to formulate categories and create themes. The primary researcher will begin
the domain analysis by using semantic relationships as a guide for generating domains, or
categories (Spradley, 1980). For instance, a means-end semantic relationship might occur
here, which is in the form of X is a way to do Y. Examples of this form are [direct
communication (X)] is a technique wife uses [to manage their marital conflict (Y)], and
[seeking information about spouse (X)] is a technique [wife use to maintain good marital
relationship (Y)]. A strict inclusion semantic relationship seen in the form of X is a kind
of Y (Spradley, 1980), for instance, [miscommunication (X)] is a kind of [conflict issue
(Y)]. Domain analysis worksheets will be used to enter information with regard to these
initial semantic relationships. Next, the researcher will go through the field notes, diaries,
and interview scripts with a single semantic relationship in mind and search for possible



1326
included terms (e.g., apology) that fit semantic relationships (e.g., is a technique wife
uses to manage) and a cover term will be determined (e.g., intercultural married conflict).
For the taxonomic analysis, the researcher will carefully read through the data
again and all work sheets obtained from the domain analysis and search for larger and
more inclusive categories with appropriate subsets. Examples (e.g., direct quotations)
from the interview scripts, diaries, and participant observation notes will be provided in
the written presentation of the results in order to more fully represent the perspectives of
the participants. Participants will be identified by pseudonyms in notes, data, and reports
of findings.
Trustworthiness
The primary researchers fluency in both Thai and English languages as well as
her familiarity with Thai culture will help enhance semantic validity. As Lindlof (1995)
notes, a shared cultural background promotes empathy and leads to better field relations
and higher quality data (p. 140). Thus, the researchers expertise in Thai language and
Thai culture will minimize possible interpretation difficulties due to cultural or language
translation errors. In order to make the data as accurate as possible, the data translated
into English by the primary researcher will also be proof read by an assistant who is an
American born Thai who is fluent in both Thai and English as well as familiar with Thai
culture. In addition, the assistant will help the researcher in the reliability checking
process by looking through the theme and subthemes created by the primary researcher.
Agreement between the researcher and the assistant on these themes will increase the
credibility of the findings, and any sustained disagreements will be noted in the reporting
of research findings. In the reporting of results, certain Thai words of the interviewees



1327
will be presented in square brackets to provide a way to respect the participants language
as well as give other Thai speakers/readers a chance to form their own conclusions about
the research findings.
In addition, the researcher will try to reduce participants anxiety by having
informal conversation with them over the phone before beginning the data collection. The
research purposes, participants role, and other related information about the research
project will be provided to the participant on this initial contact. In addition, participants
will be interviewed and observed in their own houses and at their convenience, so they
will be more likely to feel relaxed and comfortable in sharing personal matters with
researcher (Lindlof, 1995). Lastly, all evidence of the work plan, participant observation
guidelines, reflexive journals, cassette tapes, and diaries will be retained for two years in
a locked file cabinet after completing the whole process of study as proof of the
occurrences of the research procedures.
Conclusions
It is crucial for couples to be aware that to marry an individual from another
culture is to marry that culture as well. Because relational behavior is a product of
culture, the precepts of both cultures must be raised, discussed, and valued by both
parties (Rohrlich, 1988). In addition, culture not only influences the issues people fight
about, but also what is considered appropriate and inappropriate when dealing with
conflict. Thus, in order to maintain good relationships with spouses, intercultural married
couples need to gain more knowledge about spouses cultural, language, and
communicative style differences as well as increased similarity (e.g., sharing social
network)



1328
This research has the potential to shed some new light on the issue of intercultural
and interpersonal communication, by obtaining a better understanding of Thai-North
American communication and conflict. According to a number of scholars (e.g., DeVito,
2002; Ting-Toomey & Oetze, 200l), when handled competently, conflict can bring about
positive outcomes in a relationship such as elucidating misunderstandings, promoting
relationship growth, and strengthening common interests and goals. Thus, the greatest
strength of this study is its potential for helping intercultural married couples to better
understand their relationships and learn how to manage their conflict effectively.
Furthermore, this study will help intercultural couples in general be more aware of
potential conflict issues that may arise in their marriage and how to maintain a good
relationship with their spouses.



1329
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KNOWLEDGE AND MISCONCEPTIONS OF SELECTED
AFRICAN AMERICAN POPULATIONS ON HIV/AIDS
SPREAD AND PREVENTION, FALL 2002






GHYASUDDIN AHMED, PH.D.
VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY
PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA




1335
Knowledge and Misconceptions of Selected African American
Populations on HIV/AIDS Spread and Prevention, Fall 2002


INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUNDS
Human beings are the best and the most precious of all resources in the world. It
makes children and youths as the backbone of any society as they are the future leaders.
Today more and more people especially the children and the youths are vulnerable to
getting the HIV/AIDS. In fact many are already suffering with this incurable disease
unnecessarily. It is unnecessary because it can be very easily prevented, in most cases, if
the affected people are careful with their sex lives. The magnitude of the problem is
clearly evidenced in the current trends of the spread of this epidemic and its statistics.
According to the Communicable Disease Center (CDC, 2002) estimates there are 42
million cases of HIV/AIDS around the world in 2002. Of these 38 million are adults, 19.2
million women and 3.2 million children under the age of 15 (Figure 1 around here).
During the same year there were nearly one million or 816,149 to be exact, HIV/AIDS
cases reported in the USA. Of these 666,026 or 82% are males, 141,048 or 17% females
and 9,074 or one percent children under 13 (Figure 2 around here). Southern Africa is
the most affected region of the world having the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates.
Different estimates state different rates for that region that range from one-fourth to one-
half of the total population that might have been infected with this epidemic.




1336
SHARE OF US POPULATION AND HIV/AIDS AMONG DIFFERENT RACIAL
GROUPS
According to the same source African American community has the highest
proportion of HIV/AIDS in the USA. Percentage-wise there are 42% Whites, 38%
African Americans and 18% Hispanic and eight percent Asian American eight percent
who are the victims of this deadly disease in 2002 (Figure 3 around here). This statistics
is not in proportion to the share of population of each of these racial groups. Population
distribution by race is 13% Hispanic and an almost equal proportion is African
Americans, 62% Whites and the rest is from other racial groups (Figure 4 around here).
In contrast to the population distribution the HIV/AIDS statistics show that a much
higher proportion of the two major minority groups more especially the African
Americans are infected with HIV/AIDS. Some colleagues in the African American
community tend to disbelieve these statistics and consider that the high figures are
manipulated and politically motivated. I am not going into this debate but there are other
plausible reasons for African Americans or other disadvantaged population, including the
poor whites to have a higher prevalence of this disease. It was possible that rate for
whites is under reported because relatively well to do people who seek treatment from
private or affluent clinics do not find its way into the national statistics. Other
explanations for low rate for the whites could be that many of them could afford to buy
the costly medicines to keep them alive without showing any external sign of having the
disease. The affluent would like to keep their identities secret too. Also, the affluent
people are more informed and educated and hence they really may have a low rate. On
the other hand minorities seek treatment in relatively low cost health care facilities.



1337
Therefore, their numbers are more likely to be included in the national statistics. Whether
or not we believe in the CDC statistics is irrelevant because we should be more
concerned of unnecessary suffering of any human beings - whether they are minority or
majority. Therefore, instead of questioning the accuracy of the information, we have to
accept the fact that the HIV/AIDS is affecting people of all backgrounds and it must be
contained. Easy and effective preventive methods for control of HIV/AIDS are available
provided that human beings are willing to accept and adopt those.

CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICAN HIV/AIDS POPULATION
Coming back to US statistics much more males than females (ratio being 82:17)
are infected with HIV/AIDS whereas worldwide male-female ratio is almost 1:1. Of all
the infected population in the USA more than 50% are homosexuals men, having sex
with men in contrast to about 10% males (Figure 5 around here) who are heterosexual
and infected with this deadly but preventable disease. One- fourth HIV/AIDS patients are
drug addicts, most of whom are also males in the USA. Contrary to these, in Africa,
AIDS is mostly prevalent among heterosexual populations. Interestingly the concept of
homosexuality was almost unknown in some Southern African
1
nations.

CAUSES OF HIV/AIDS SPREAD & WAYS TO CONTROL AND PREVENT IT
The single most important cause of HIV/AIDS spread is the unprotected sex,
followed by drug abuse. A very very small fraction of total cases occur due to blood
transfusion. Sexual revolution and HIV/AIDS spread started around the same time -

1
In Setswana a language of Botswana and South Africa there is no word available for
homosexuality. This clearly indicates that homosexuality is almost unknown to their culture.



1338
during the later half of the past century. Sex before and outside of marriage is now wide
spread and considered normal among many adolescents and adult populations in most
societies. So, clearly unprotected sex with more than one partner is the major cause of the
rapid spread of HIV/AIDS around the world. Other factors that are responsible for sexual
revolutions in the society are the changes that have occurred in the institutions of the
marriage and the family that in turn necessitated some people to engage in sex outside
these institutions resulting in the high incidence and prevalence of this disease. The
prevalence of HIV/AIDS among people who are religious is very very negligible as
almost all religions have forbidden sex before marriage and infidelity. Because many of
us today do not adhere to our religious and have fallen pray to our desires, temptations
and lusts that engage us to have sex before or outside of marriage without caring for its
consequences. Not only AIDS the other sexually transmitted diseases also occur in
having sex outside the marriage. Human beings invented penicillin drug that could cure
the early STDs but not AIDS. Between 1930s (when penicillin drug was invented and
introduced) till the coming of AIDS millions of STDs patients were cured by using the
antibiotic medicine. Then came the AIDS and penicillin became helpless. These facts
clearly show us that multiple sex partner relationship is not a way of life that the nature
(or God) expects human being to follow.
The ways and means to prevent HIV/AIDS are known to most people in countries
that have high prevalence of this epidemic. It appears that people do not care to take
precautionary measures either due to lack of commitment or knowledge or non-
availability of the methods at the time of sexual encounter or it is the outcome of peoples
sex behavior and the way they want to enjoy sex without any barrier. It is also known to



1339
most people in those societies that abstinence and / or faithful sex relation is the best
method of protecting one from HIV/AIDS it has succeeded among those who follow
their religious norms as all major religions have forbidden pre- or extra- marital
relationships. The other means of control of HIV/AIDS though known and heavily
propagated did not also contain the disease in most societies.

SIMPLE SOLUTION BUT DIFFICULT TO CHANGE HABITS AND CONTROL
TEMPTATIONS
While teaching at the University of Botswana in Africa in the late eighties this
author remembers the reaction of students when they were told that segregated high
schools for adolescent, close monitoring and supervision prevent most school going
children from having sex at such ages
2
in some countries of North Africa, West and
Southeast Asia. Most students in Botswana however, could not believe that it is possible
for adolescents to abstain from sex! Those North African and Asian countries today have
the least incidence and prevalence of this epidemic in the world. Clearly culture plays a
lot in the occurrence of events that have strong moral codes attached to human behaviors.
Once any temptation becomes a part of the culture it is difficult to change. This is what is
happening for the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in Botswana as well as around the world.
Abstinence from sex outside of marriage has become a cruel proposition among most
youths in countries having the high prevalence of this deadly disease.


2
Als o, programs and efforts by the Government of Uganda helped that country to achieve abstinence
and reduce the very high spread of HIV/AIDS in that country.



1340
MIXED RESULTS OF HIV/AIDS PREVENTIVE AND CONTROL PROGRAM
Since the outbreak of HIV/AIDS in the 1970s many governments, including the
US, took various programs to contain the disease. In many places and countries such
programs have some success while in others it failed miserably. In the USA it seemed to
have some success while in Botswana it failed miserably. In late 1980s this author,
looking at the very frequent change of partners in Botswana, predicted in a paper that was
presented in Senegal, West Africa that AIDS is going to be spread like wild fires in
Botswana. The gist of this paper was published in the International Union for the
Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) News Bulletin in 1988. HIV/AIDS has really
spread like wild fires in Southern Africa, as predicted by this author in 1989. In
Botswana, in the late 1980s there was only a handful (of about 100 HIV and 35 AIDS)
cases (Ahmed, 1989) that has increased to at least 30% of the total population in the
country by 2003. The widespread information and unrestricted distribution of Condoms
could not contain the disease in most Southern Africa and elsewhere. No doubt most
people in Botswana and elsewhere became conscious of the preventive mechanism but
very few really accepted or used condoms in their sexual encounters resulting in the high
incidence of the disease around the world. There are other factors that also prevented the
use of condoms in peoples sex relationship more especially in sugar-daddy
relationship (Ahmed, 2001 and Meekers & Ahmed, 1998).

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Herek et al. (2002) reported the results of three national telephone surveys that his
research group conducted in 1991, 1997 and 1999 to find stigma attached to AIDS in the



1341
USA. They found a number of stigma that AIDS patience deserves to be the sufferers
because it is self inflicted and is highly prevalent among the male homosexuals. In 1991
two- fifths of the respondents believed that HIV/AIDS could be transmitted from toilets
that declined to a one-third in 1999. Fifty percent people in 1991 believed that the disease
could be transmitted from coughs. This belief slightly dropped to 46% in 1999. One-half
of the people still believed that HIV/AIDS is transmitted by sharing a drinking glass with
a HIV/AIDS patient and a third thought that it could be spread by donating blood. All
these three studies are however, stated to have been done only with the White Americans.
Ahmed and Brunburg (1988), Ahmed (1989) and Meekers and Ahmed (1996 and
1998) conducted a few studies on various issues on sex health habits and HIV/AIDS in
Botswana. The first study was done on Knowledge and Attitude on AIDS among
undergraduate students of the University of Botswana, the 2
nd
one was entitled, sex
relationship chain and the prospects of AIDS in Botswana. The other studies explored in-
depth Batswana
3
adolescents health habits, including the use of condoms. In the first
study it was found that in a six months time the university students on an average
changed 5.5 sex partners. Students were found to be quite knowledgeable on the various
means of the spread of HIV/AIDS and the ways it could be contained. In the second
study a model was built to show how a minimum of simultaneous two-person sex
relationship might form a chain of sex relationships that links infinite number of people.
The in-depth studies found similar knowledge and positive attitude towards the use of
condom in every sex relationship. These studies however, found why adolescents cannot
use condoms. It was complained that procuring condoms was not an easy task for the

3
It is plural of Mostwana - means citizens of Botswana.



1342
adolescents because of their age. They suggested that instead of health clinics condoms
should be kept in open public places like bus stations or on buses so that adolescents
could collect them without any embarrassment from elderly nurses. They complained that
at times Nurses refused to give the adolescents Condoms. Also, in a sugar-daddy
relationship the young girls are too shy to ask the elderly men, who are their fathers
ages, to use condoms. If ever someone asks, the elderly men refuse to comply because
they want to have natural sex. However, the ladies were more careful in sugar- mammy
relationships because they did not want to be embarrassed to be pregnant by teenage
boys. So they mostly used condoms.

METHODS
It is the usual practice of this author to give some hand on experience to his
students in the teaching / learning activities in sociology from within their environments.
The students of social research methods are given more exposures in such activities than
the students of other courses. This research is the outcome of that exposure in the spring
of 2003. It takes a lot of efforts on the part of the Instructor to provide the basic
knowledge and experience of all the steps of research within the short span of any
semester. So, it falls in the domain of quick and dirty study. In choosing the subjects it
did not follow any scientific step it was all purposive. Any research that is not funded
and that is used to provide some basic research experiences to sociology students could
not be fully scientific. Also, it is not unusual to have purpose sampling for investigate any
social issue. Today collecting information from human subjects has become most
difficult and at times controversial. Considering the difficulty and the cost involved in



1343
information gathering it was decided that students collect the needed information from
within their known community and family environments, in addition to themselves as one
of the respondents. The data collection work was done during the Spring Break, mostly
from their home towns. Thus, it generated data from population outside the VSU campus
and some from out of Virginia. A lot of our students come from neighboring Carolinas,
DC, Maryland, New Jersey and New York, among other states.
A structured questionnaire on HIV/AIDS was developed and the students of four
courses (one research method and three introductory sociology) collected the information
from adult population who are 18 years of age or older. Each student was also asked to
fill in one questionnaire by self and was required to write a one page experience report on
data collection disposition. A total of 463 successful questionnaires were administered by
100+
4
students of four classes taught by this author.
Each structure question contained a five point scale of strongly agree to
strongly disagree with an undecided category in between. Results are presented in two
ways. First, one-way distribution of all categories is presented in Table 1. Second, the
five categories are lumped into three by combing the strongly agree and agree into
one group called agree. The same way the disagree categories are also labeled. The
item undecided remained unchanged. The data was processed by using the SPSSPC
program. No relational analysis is made in this paper, as the knowledge and stigma on
HIV/AIDS is clearly available from one way presentation of the data. It will however, be
done in another paper later on.

4
A total of 120 students were registered in four classes but some students remained absent during the
data collection period. Hence, the number of students who participated is less than the number of students
registered in these classes.



1344
Because of purposive samples generalizations cannot be made from these data but
provides useful information about selected African Americans knowledge and stigma
about HIV/AIDS. There is another limitation of these data it failed to collect the
vulnerable African American population who live in inner cities or from inside prison
system where a large proportion live and get the HIV/AIDS.

BACKGROUND CHARACTERISTICS OF RESPONDENTS
Of the total population included in this study 56 percent are females and the rest
(44) are males. The survey mostly captured the youthful population, as the median age
fall into the age group of 20-24 years age range being 18 to 70 years. Age-wise there
are 37 percent respondents who are below the age of 20 and 31 percent between 20-24
years of age. The rest are over 25 years of age. Thirteen, ten and nine percent fall in the
age group of 25-34, 35-44 and 45+ years, respectively. Domicile-wise two-thirds (68%)
of the respondents are Virginia residents and the rest are non-Virginians, mostly
representing people of neighboring states like Carolinas, DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey and New York.
Educational attainments of the respondents are: one-third each is either high-
school graduate or below high-school level education. About 14% of the respondents are
either a Bachelor (8.8%) or higher degree (4.8%) holders. Of these 58% are currently
students that means that 42% of the respondents who are not student at the time of this
survey.




1345
KNOWLEDGE AND MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT HIV/AIDS SPREAD
The knowledge that AIDS is a serious world-wide problem is universal in that
most (87%) respondents strongly agreed on the statement while 11% simply agreed. The
rest 2% disagreed or undecided (Table 1).
On the statement that AIDS has no cure one-half of the respondents agreed the
percentage on strongly agree and only agree is almost equality distributed to one in every
four persons (See the Table 1). It may be worth noting here that the other half of the
respondents do not know that AIDS has no cure. This is a serious gap in the knowledge
that AIDS is a serious problem and there is no cure for this disease. All sexually active
population should know that treatments of HIV/AIDS can only delay infection or prolong
life for sometimes and they are very very costly and is beyond the means of the common
people.
Respondents of the survey are quite knowledgeable about the real causes of
HIV/AIDS spread and prevention in the community in that most people know that the
disease could be spread through multiple sex partners, by sharing the same injection
needle, blood transfusion and / or it is transmitted from mother to child. Also, they know
that it could be prevented through abstinence from sexual activities and by using the
condoms at each sexual encounter. If one takes the national HIV/AIDS study of Herek
et al. as representative of the nation, there is a decline of the different stigmas in that
a) HIV/AIDS could be spread by using the same room or toilet or through coughing of
the victims or b) the HIV/AIDS patients needs to be segregated since it is a self inflicted
disease that qualify them to be segregated from the community. However, a substantial
proportion of respondents still have poor knowledge about HIV/AIDS prevention and



1346
spread. Also, a good number have stigma attached with its prevention and spread. The
knowledge on HIV/AIDS spreads is however, almost universal in that: a) it spreads
through blood transfusion, b) sharing the infected injection needles and c) it is transmitted
from mothers to unborn children. The knowledge is however, not universal in case of
having multiple sex partners and use of condoms.
The overall findings are summarized in the following:
(a) Two- fifths of the respondents could not decide whether they would shop in a
Convenient Store if the owner is a HIV/AIDS carrier / patient and more than
ten percent disagreed that they should shop in such a store. This figure
provides a 30% subjects having a negative attitude towards HIV/AIDS
patients.
(b) On the question on HIV/AIDS as a self inflicted disease one in every ten
respondents agreed that they deserve to suffer. Added to this is the other 10%
who remained undecided on this question.
(c) Segregating the HIV/AIDS patients was considered appropriate by 11% of the
respondents with another 14% who are undecided on this statement. This
makes 25% of the people who tend to believe that HIV/AIDS patients should
be segregated.
(d) A fifth of the respondents tend to believe that not many African Americans
are the victims of AIDS. Of these about six percent explicitly said so while a
14% remained undecided on this statement.
(e) Nearly 3/5 of the respondents disagreed that the use of condoms prevents
HIV/AIDS. Specifically 26% disagreed explicitly while 12 % undecided.
(f) Related with condom use a quarter of the respondents do not use it every time
they have sex. This question was in a way incomplete in that it does not reflect
whether the relationship was with single or multiple partners. In a faithful
relationship a condom use is for birth prevention or when in doubt one or the
other partner in a husband-wife relationship could use it for preventive
purpose.
(g) HIV/AIDS is spread by sharing the same room and toilet or it is spread
through coughing is agreed upon by eight to ten percent of the respondents,
respectively.
(h) About half the respondents agreed that HIV/AIDS has no cure.
(i) Multiple sex partner spreads HIV/AIDS was disagreed by 16% of the
respondents of which nine percent stated it explicitly.



1347
(j) Contrary to this nearly a half (47%) of the respondents disagreed (31%
explicitly), that having a life- long single partner would prevent them from
getting HIV/AIDS.

CONCLUSION
HIV/AIDS is mainly a sexually transmitted deadly disease that could easily be
contained. The country of Uganda in Africa made remarkable success in controlling this
epidemic by propagating and educating its people to choose abstinence than using the
preventive method. It did not however, succeed in the country of Botswana where
condom use remained a stigma and unacceptable to some to have natural sex and other
difficulties faced by youngsters to procure condoms easily. The messages of sticking to
one partner and abstinence failed to convince Batswana to adopt it. Information and
education seems to have some affect on the spread of the AIDS in the USA and some
other countries but the same education is not universal among the African American
Community, as is reported in the above findings. The other population, highly vulnerable
to this deadly disease, is the homosexual population of all races in the USA. In this type
of sexual relationship abstinence is out of question and the only way it could be contained
is by using the condoms. As has been seen in the beginning more than half the US
HIV/AIDS cases are homosexual males. The magnitude of homosexuality among the
minority community is not known but the statistics provided on the prevalence of the
disease by the CDC clearly indicate that it is also very high among them. Therefore,
research is needed to determine the prevalence of homosexuality among the African
American population more especially among the poor or less education population who
live in the inner city or in correctional facilities. More innovative programs need be



1348
introduced to contain the disease from all populations. Going back to the old norm of
fidelity in sexual relationships is the best and simple way to contain this deadly disease
that would not only save our lives but also would save a lot of money and other materials
resources. We should do what nature demands us to do and the spread of the HIV/AIDS
and other STDs demand that we have only sex with our legal spouses of the opposite sex.



1349
BIBLIOGRAPHY


Ahmed, Ghyasuddin and Brunburg, Helge. (1988). Knowledge and Attitude of University
of Botswana Students toward AIDS. Paper presented in the Annual Meeting of
the Population Association of America held in New Orleans.
Ahmed, Ghyasuddin. (1989). A Model of Sex Relationship Chain and the Prospects of
Spreading the AIDS in Botswana and Other Southern African Countries. A paper
presented in the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population IUSSP)
held in Senegal, Dakar.
Ahmed, Ghyasuddin. (2001). Sugar-Daddy and Sugar-Mammy Relationships and the
Spread of AIDS in Botswana. Department of Sociology, Social Work and
Criminal Justice, Virginia State University.
Communicable Disease Center. 2002. Table on HIV/AIDS. From the Website of the
CDC.
Herek, Gregory, John Captanio and Keith Widaman. (2002). HIV-Related Stigma and
Knowledge in the United States: Prevalence and Trends, 1991-1999. American
Journal of Public Health.
Herek, G.M., @ Glunt, E.K. (1988). An epidemic of stigma: Public reactions to AIDS.
American Psychologists. 43 (11), 886-891.
Herek, G.M., @ Glunt, E.K. (1991). AIDS-related attitudes in the United States: A
preliminary conceptualization. The Journal of Sex Research, 28 (1), 99-123.
Herek, G.M. (1990). Illness, stigma, and AIDS. In P. Costa & G. R. vandenBos (Eds.).
Psychological aspects of serious illness (pp. 130-150). American Psychological
Association.
Herek, G.M., & Capitanio, J.P. (1993). Public reactions to AIDS in the United States: A
second decade of stigma. American Journal of Public Health, 83 (4), 574-577.
Herek, G.M., & Capitanio, J.P. (1994). Conspiracies, contagion, and compassion: Trust
and public reactions to AIDS. AIDS Education and Prevention, 6 (4), 367-377.
Herek, G.M., & Capitanio, J.P. (1997). AIDS stigma and contact with persons with
AIDS: Effects of direct and vicarious contact. Journal of Applied Social
Psychology, 27 (1), 1-36.
Herek, G.M., & Capitanio, J.P. (1998). Symbolic prejudice or fear of infection? A
functional analysis of AIDS-related stigma among heterosexual adults. Basic and
Applied Social Psychology, 20 (3), 230-241.



1350
Herek, G.M., Gillis, J. R., Glunt, E. K., Lewis, J., Welton, D., & Capitanio, J. P. (1998).
Culturally sensitive AIDS educational videos for African American audiences:
Effects of source, message, receiver, and context. American Journal of
Community Psychology, 26(5), 705-743.
Herek, G.M., Gonzalez-Rivera, M., Fead, F., & Welton, D. (2001). AIDS educational
videos for gay and bisexual men: A content analysis. Journal of the Gay and
Lesbian Medical Association, 5 (4), 143-153.
Herek, G.M., Capitanio, J.P., & Widaman, K.F. (2002). HIV-related stigma and
knowledge in the United States: Prevalence and trends, 1991-1999. American
Journal of Public Health, 92(3), 371-377.
Meekers, Dominique and Ghyasuddin Ahmed. (1998). Problems of Procuring Condoms
by Adolescents in Botswana. Population Services International Research
Monogram.



1351
FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Distribution of World HIV/AIDS cases by Gender, 2002
Males 19
Millions
Females 19
Millions
Children 3
Millions

Figure 2: US HIV/AIDS Prevalence by Adult Male-Female and Children
Population, 2002

Figure 3: US HIV/AIDS Prevalence by Race, 2002
Whites 42%
Blacks 38%
Hispanic 18%
AsianAm 8%

Male 82%
Female 17%
Children 1%



1352
Figure 4: US Population Distribution / Share by Race, 2004

Whites 62%
Blacks 13%
Hipanic 13%
Others 12%


Figure 5: Prevalence of HIV/AIDS among Homo- and Heterosexual Males, Females
and Drug Addicts, 2002.

HomeMales
50%
HeteroMales 10
DrugAdicts 25%
Females 17%
Children 2%




1353
Table 1
Respondents Knowledge and Misconceptions (in Percentages) on the Spread and Prevention of
HIV/AIDS
Conceptions and Misconceptions about the
Spread / Prevention of AIDS:
Strongly
Agree
(%)
Agree
(%)
Undecided
(%)
Disagree
(%)
Strongly
Disagree
(%)
Valid
Sample
#
1. Is a world wide serious disease* 86.6 11.0 0.9 0.2 1.1 463
2. It has no cure* 26.6 23.8 21.2 17.1 11.3 462
3. Toilet sharing spreads AIDS. (Stigma) 1.5 3.0 6.3 34.3 54.9 461
4. Coughs spreads AIDS (Stigma) 0.6 1.9 7.3 35.0 55.1 463
5. Sharing room spreads AIDS (Stigma) 2.6 2.0 4.1 25.8 65.5 461
6. Spread through blood transfusion* 65.0 29.6 1.5 2.6 1.3 463
7. By sharing an injection needle* 75.4 22.2 1.3 0.4 0.6 463
8. Multiple sex partner spreads AIDS* 47.7 35.9 7.0 7.6 1.5 459
9. Life long one partner prevents AIDS* 22.5 30.9 15.8 19.9 10.9 457
10. Abstinence prevents HIV/AIDS* 62.1 25.3 5.0 4.8 2.8 462
11. Use of Condom prevents AIDS* 21.8 40.4 12.1 16.8 8.9 463
12. Other Contraceptives prevent AIDS 7.8 20.7 13.0 32.2 26.3 460
13. Segregate AIDS patients (Stigma) 5.2 6.1 14.2 33.4 41.0 458
14. Man to man sex spreads AIDS* 24.5 41.3 14.9 11.5 7.8 462
15. Many African Americans AIDS victim* 41.3 38.3 14.1 3.5 2.6 460
16. I use Condoms every time I have sex* 44.0 29.3 8.8 8.1 9.8 457
17. AIDS is not a problem in America. 6.9 5.8 2.6 18.4 66.0 462
18. know at least one AIDS patient* 24.5 29.4 11.0 14.9 20.1 462
19. AIDS patient deserve it (Stigma) 5.2 4.8 9.3 22.6 58.1 463
20. Shop at AIDS patients store (Stigma) 33.0 36.7 19.6 5.4 5.2 460
21. Transmitted from mother to child* 4.7 35.6 7.4 1.1 1.3 461

Table 2
Respondents knowledge on various ways the HIV/AIDS is spread in a three point answer scale
Conceptions and Misconceptions about the
Spread / Prevention of AIDS:
Agree
No. %
Disagree
No. %
Dont Know
No. %
Total
No. %
1. Is a world wide serious disease 402 86.8 51 11.0 4 0.9 457 100.0
2. It has no cure. 233 50.4 151 28.4 98 21.2 462 100.0
3. It spreads by sharing the same toilet 21 4.5 411 89.2 29 6.3 461 100.0
4. Through coughs. 12 2.6 416 89.9 35 7.6 463 100.0
5. By sharing the same room. 21 4.6 421 91.3 19 4.1 461 100.0
6. Through blood transfusion. 438 94.6 18 3.9 7 1.5 463 100.0
7. By sharing an injection needle. 452 97.6 5 1.1 6 1.3 463 100.0
8. Is a sexually transmitted disease. 384 82.9 42 9.1 33 7.1 459 100.0
9. Prevented by sticking to one partner. 244 53.4 141 30.9 72 15.8 463 100.0
10. Abstinence is preventive method. 404 87.4 35 7.6 23 5.0 462 100.0
11. Use of Condom prevents AIDS. 288 62.2 119 25.7 56 12.1 463 100.0
12. Other Contraceptives prevent AIDS. 131 28.5 269 58.5 60 13.0 460 100.0
13. AIDS patients should be segregated. 52 11.4 341 74.5 65 14.2 458 100.0
14. Man to man sex spreads AIDS. 304 65.8 89 19.3 69 14.9 462 100.0
15. Many African Americans AIDS victim. 367 79.8 28 6.0 65 14.0 460 100.0
16. I use Condoms at sexual encounter 335 73.3 82 17.9 40 8.6 457 100.0
17. AIDS is not a problem in America. 60 13.0 390 84.4 12 2.6 462 100.0
18. I know at least one AIDS patient . 249 53.9 162 35.1 51 11.0 462 100.0
19. AIDS patient deserve it 46 10.0 372 80.7 43 9.3 461 100.0
20. I would shop at an AIDS patients store. 321 69.8 49 10.7 90 19.6 460 100.0
21. AIDS transmitted from mother to child. 416 90.2 11 2.4 34 7.4 461 100.0



THE GULLAHS OF SQUIRE POPE ROAD:
A CASE STUDY IN SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT









CHARLES W. JARRETT, PH.D.
OHIO UNIVERSITY SOUTHERN CAMPUS
IRONTON, OHIO




1355
The Gullahs of Squire Pope Road: A Case Study in Social Impact
Assessment


ABSTRACT
Gullahs are descendants of enslaved Africans living in the Sea Islands and coastal areas
of South Carolina. Hilton Head Island was inhabited entirely by Gullahs until 1956, when
entrepreneur Charles E. Frazier developed Sea Pines Plantation and changed the history
of the island. In less than fifty years, the island has become an internationally known
resort destination with gated communities, seashore condominiums, expensive hotel
properties, and elaborate country clubs. Gullah land ownership has dwindled to less than
ten percent of the island. The Incorporated Town of Hilton Head has published a design
to improve the roads, water, sewer, and utility services for populations living in Ward
One of the island. The plan recommends expanding traffic capacity on Highway 278
from the entrance of the island through Squire Pope Road, a two- lane road running
through one of the few remaining communities on the island with significant Gullah
populations. Planned changes may result in the displacement of Gullah families,
businesses, and the historic Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church. Profile data were
collected to determine the perceptions of Gullah residents toward published plans for
structural changes in Ward One. Study findings represent the profiling stage of a social
impact assessment scheduled for completion in 2004.



INTRODUCTION
Jackson, Slaughter, and Blake (1974) recommend researchers be accountable to
indigenous communities by upholding a philosophy of service through their research.
Kenneth Clark (1965) describes the researcher as an involved observer, a person who
actively interacts with the people of a native community. This study represents part of a
long-term research initiative by an involved observer with a sense of accountability to



1356
indigenous populations. Great care has been taken to ensure local knowledge and the
expertise of native people remains an integral part of the investigation.
This manuscript describes a case study conducted in 2003 on Hilton Head Island,
South Carolina. The five-week case study satisfies the required profiling stage of a social
impact assessment scheduled for completion in 2004. The study began with an
ethnographic history of the people residing on Ward One of the island, a district heavily
populated by descendants of enslaved Africans (Gullahs) indigenous to the region.
The Gullahs are a traditional, rural population that has not experienced the
economic rewards enjoyed by property owners on other parts of the island. An
independent report indicated the economic under-development of Ward One may be
attributed to a combination of factors including multiple land ownership with clouded
legal title, inadequate financial resources, rapidly increasing land taxes, substandard
utility services, and multiple failures by the Incorporated Town of Hilton Head to meet its
municipal obligations to the people living in that particular district (R/UDAT 1995).

GULLAHS OF HILTON HEAD ISLAND
Gullahs are descendants of enslaved African Americans living primarily in the
Sea Islands and coastal regions of the southeastern United States. Pollitzer (1999)
suggests the Gullahs were able to maintain a unique and distinctive African American
heritage due to their isolation on islands off the coast. Glanton (2001) and Walcott (2002)
agree Gullah culture evolved in relative obscurity until the 1950s, when the construction
of bridges connecting the mainland with the Sea Islands triggered economic growth along
coastal South Carolina. Siegal (2000) and Rowland (1996) argue a coastal economy



1357
founded on resort tourism has led to expensive hotels, country clubs, gated communities,
and similar land development directed toward Gullah owned properties.
Gullahs are rural, traditional people who use their natural environment for
subsistence, recreation, esthetic pursuits, and social activities. Campbell (6-4-02)
suggests gated communities have limited the freedom of Gullahs to roam traditional
hunting grounds, fish in salt-water rivulets, and visit sacred burial grounds. Walcott
(2002) and Siegal (2000) report coastal development has adversely affected local waters
that no longer produce ample supplies of shrimp, crab, and fish. Gullah artisans struggle
to locate the required materials for a thousand-year-old art formthe making of sweet
grass baskets. Campbell (7-2-01), Goodwine (6-12-01), and Mitchell (6-26-03) argue the
esthetic and cultural character of traditional Gullah communities has been altered by
economic development in the Sea Islands.
Gullahs living on Hilton Head Island have been particularly affected by the socio-
economic changes associated with land development. Inhabited exclusively by Gullahs
after the Civil War, the island was accessible only by ferry until the first two- lane swing
bridge was constructed in 1956. After the four- lane J. Wilton Graves Bridge was built in
1982, dirt roads and pristine timberlands were replaced by resort hotels and world-class
golf courses. Greer (2000) reports Hilton Head has grown from a population of 2,500
Gullahs in 1960 to 36,000 mostly non-Gullah inhabitants today. During the same period
of time, Gullah land ownership has dwindled to less than ten percent of the island.
Approximately 2.3 million tourists visit Hilton Head annually and 60,000 people
inhabit the island during a typical week in the tourist season. Highway 278 encircles the
island providing motorists access to residential areas and businesses. Highway 278 was



1358
widened in the early 1990s to provide better traffic flow and more convenient access for
island residents and tour ists. Traffic levels on the island continued to escalate, so the
Beaufort County Department of Transportation engineered the Cross Island Parkway in
1998 to provide a direct route across the island. Native Islanders report road
improvements on Hilton Head have displaced Gullahs from their land (Interviews 2003).
The Incorporated Town of Hilton Head, responding to problems described by
their local chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), requested a
Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team (R/UDAT) to investigate socio-economic
development on the island. R/UDAT teams are comprised of professionals not
compensated for their services nor provided commissions for work resulting from their
recommendations. R/UDAT teams study a community and its people, engage in an
analysis of community development strategies from an unbiased perspective, and offer
recommendations for planning and governmental policy (R/UDAT 1995).
The 1995 R/UDAT Report of Hilton Head Island specifically targeted the
economic development strategies applied in Ward One, describing this district as an area
whose inhabitants have not experienced the economic rewards enjoyed by property
owners living on other parts of the island. Ward One is a district heavily populated by
Gullahs who have witnessed little, if any, public or private resources allocated to the
long-term economic viability of their communities. R/UDAT (1995:3) stated, The 1983
Incorporation of the Town of Hilton Head led to the establishment of a limited services
government that strictly regulated growth and economic development in Ward One.
R/UDAT recommended the town immediately adopt a governmental policy of
inclusiveness to meet its municipal obligations to the Native Islanders living in Ward



1359
One. R/UDAT further recommended improvement of the roads, water, sewer, utilities,
communication services, and the procurement of tax relief provisions for property owners
to improve the quality of life in that district (R/UDAT 1995:12-24). The NAACP offered
public support of the R/UDAT recommendations calling for a more inclusive government
able to meet its municipal obligations to the Native Islanders of Ward One.
The Incorporated Town of Hilton Head published Ward One Master Land Use
Plan as a partial response to the public recommendations for developing a more inclusive
governmental policy toward the people living in that district. The publication announces
structural changes in roadways, sewer and water facilities, communications services, and
tax relief provisions as methods of stimulating economic growth. The plan involves
expanding traffic capacities on Highway 278 from the entrance of the island through
Squire Pope Road, an area with significant Gullah populations. Whether expanded
capacity takes the form of additional travel lanes, frontage roads, or reconfigured
intersections, planned changes may affect and/or displace Gullah families, businesses and
possibly the historic Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church (R/UDAT 1995).

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH
This study has significance for people concerned with the impact of technical,
social, and economic changes on indigenous populations. The Gullahs are a traditional
population with extensive economic and emotional ties to their land. The loss of land
ownership places a burden on Gullah leadership to implement effective strategies for
preserving Gullah culture and language. Emory Campbell (7-2-01), Executive Emeritus
of Penn Center, Inc., an internationally recognized institution of African American



1360
Studies on St. Helena Island argues, Gullahs are a people tied to their land, and were
losing our land at an alarming rate. To sustain our culture, weve got to protect the land!
The term Gullah literally refers to a language spoken by the ancestors of enslaved
Africans, a language that merges African dialects with English pidgin borrowed from
the speech of Carolina colonists (Jarrett 2003; Pollitzer 1999). Marquetta L. Goodwine
(6-12-01), historian and preservationist, argues, Gullah language is a living, breathing
oral tradition used to preserve the culture of our enslaved ancestors. Gullah culture is in
the midst of transition. Land development in the Sea Islands has triggered social and
economic changes that affect the Diaspora of Gullah culture and language.
This research introduces an important database for an island community targeted
for planned change initiatives. The Native Islanders of Ward One represent the last viable
contiguous Gullah community on Hilton Head Island. Published plans for structural
changes in Ward One (i.e., expanding traffic capacities, sewer and water utilities,
communication services, etc.) could be completed in harmony with standards designed to
protect the historical legacy of Native Islanders. Local knowledge and expertise should
play an important role in the implementation of planned changes.
Previous studies have established a precedent regarding Gullah attitudes and
perceptions about land development in the Sea Islands. Goodwine (1998), Jarrett (2003),
Jarrett and Lucas (2002), and Porcher (2001) report Gullah leadership has expressed
definite preferences regarding highway and road improvements as follows:
v design of walking paths through a community to encourage social interaction
v ample room for roadside businesses, farm markets, and vegetable stands
v the elimination of continuous turn lanes extending from main highways/roads
v road expansion that does not remove historic oak trees and/or landmarks



1361
v improving traffic safety without affecting the rural character of communities
v direct dialogue and face-to- face discussion with agencies responsible for
planned change initiatives
Gullah preferences regarding planned changes stress the need to protect traditional
cultural values, the rural character of surrounding landscapes, and traditional venues for
community based social interaction. Governmental agencies should respect the
preferences of native populations and attempt to mitigate the adverse effects of
development prior to the implementation of planned change initiatives.

RESEARCH THEORY AND METHODOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
Studies of human behavior have emerged from two intellectual traditions, each
with a different perspective on the nature and style of social research. Positivism, the first
intellectual tradition, contends sense perceptions are the only admissible basis of human
knowledge and precise thought (Berg 1998; Giddens 1974; Patton 2002). Positivism
assumes social phenomena exist not only in the minds of individuals, but also as an
objective reality. The fact that a social phenomenon may be viewed differently by
subjects does not negate its existence, or the application of scientific principles as a valid
means of investigation (Berg 1998; Coser 1977; Giddens 1974; Patton 2002). Patton
(2002:69) clarifies the objective nature of positivism saying, A positivist seeks the facts
or causes of social phenomena apart from the subjective states of individuals, using
quantitative and measure-oriented methods to test deductive generalizations.
Phenomenology, a second intellectual tradition, questions the premise that social
reality can be determined using empirical data alone. The phenomenological perspective
views social phenomena as constituting not one, but a set of multiple realities that require



1362
subjective methods of inquiry (Berger and Luckmann 1966; Berg 1998; Patton 2002).
The phenomenologist is committed to understanding social phenomena from the actors
subjective perspective. Thomas and Swaine (1928:572) clarify the subjective nature of
phenomenology with their classic statement, It is not important whether an interpretation
is correctif men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.
Phenomenological sociology assumes the position that reality is a matter of
human perspectives, that people actively construct social reality from a subjective point
of view. Max Weber (1964:29) stated, We can only understand human action by using
methods of investigation requiring Verstehen, or empathetic understanding. Lewis
Coser (1977:220) notes, Webers method of sociological inquiry aimed for an
interpretative understanding of social behavior by penetration into the subjective
meanings that actors attach to their own behavior, as well as to the behavior of others.
Ethnographic methods of investigation have traditionally been used to understand
another way of life from the native point of view. Sociological methods of investigation
that feature Verstehen have traditionally been used to obtain a more empathetic
understanding of human behavior (Weber 1964). The ethnographic and sociological
methods of inquiry applied in this study were chosen to yield a more interpretative and
empathetic understanding of the attitudes and perceptions of a native community toward
planned structural changes in their district. Participant observation, personal interview,
and focus group interviews were selected as appropriate methods of data collection,
methods designed to encourage interactive group communication and empathetic
exchanges among community members and the principal investigator.



1363
A five-week field study provided opportunities for participant observation in the
community under investigation. A systematic random sampling technique was used to
select adult occupants from every other fifth dwelling for one-on-one interviews using a
detailed map of the area. A series of focus group interviews were conducted to provide
residents a forum for direct dialogue on issues pertaining to planned changes in the
community. The University of South Carolina Beaufort at Hilton Head provided access to
archival records and historical data. The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, a local
agency dedicated to the preservation of Gullah culture, served as official liaison between
the principal investigator and the Gullah community during each stage of data collection.

STUDY FINDINGS
Study findings reflect the impact of economic development on traditional island
lifestyles and provide readers an interesting dialogue of the functional and dysfunctional
aspects of rapid social changes. An overwhelming number of respondents commented
that a study of the planned structural changes in their neighborhood was a good idea.
People commented that a study of resident attitudes would greatly serve the community,
for things develop quickly in the county once money becomes available. Focus group
participants reinforced the notion that people in the community would participate in
future studies of resident attitudes toward planned change (Interviews 2003).
Although the published Ward One Master Land Use Plan was not widely
understood by community residents, plans to expand traffic capacities from the entrance
of the island through Squire Pope Road was of great concern for people in the
neighborhood. The Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, an important spiritual and



1364
social institution in the Gullah community, sits in close proximity to Squire Pope Road.
People commented that efforts to provide additional traffic lanes would likely alter the
physical appearance of church property and create increased traffic flow directly in front
of the church. Community concerns regarding road construction included the following:
v safety of neighborhood children due to increased traffic flow
v physical changes to the Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church
v re-location of the Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church
v re-location of Gullah families and/or roadside businesses
v rising taxes associated with highway and roadway expansion
There are several subdivisions of Gullah residents and a gated community of non-Gullahs
(Hilton Head Plantation) at the end of Squire Pope Road. People suggested if (and when)
additional studies are conducted the homeowner associations for those residents should
be included as part of the dialogue.
There seemed to be a comprehensive level of stress felt by community residents
regarding the changes planned for Ward One. The past maltreatment of Gullah cultural
heritage was cited as a major problem. Comments were made about other significant
Gullah institutions on the island being negatively impacted by real estate brokers and
land developers. Comments were directed toward the altering and/or loss of sacred burial
grounds, waterfront properties, traditional hunting grounds, fishing areas, family land use
patterns, sharing of resources, and declining patterns of communal interaction by native
islanders. The need to preserve the historical legacy of Native Islanders figured
prominently in conversations about plans for future development on the island.
R/UDAT (1995) suggests the history of economic development on the island has
not featured a sense of equity for Native Islanders. Gullah residents have witnessed many
plans being passed for outside developers, but not for Native Islanders. Hilton Head has



1365
been transformed from a rural, agricultural island into an urban center and international
resort. Of the 20,000 acres concentrated in large tract ownership, land development was
funded by outside interests who profited from the islands natural beauty (R/UDAT
1995). By contrast, the 3,500 acres of Ward One are small tracts (5 to 10 acres) of
privately owned properties. The under-development associated with Ward One has been
exacerbated by fragmented ownership, clouded legal titles, poor utility services,
inadequate finances, increasing taxes, and the decision of local officials to impose a
limited services government dedicated to the regulation of economic growth (R/UDAT
1995).
Focus group discussions provided ample evidence that members of the Gullah
community have developed a sit back - wait and see attitude with regard to plans for
economic development. There exists an attitude that the limited services government
imposed in 1983 has not been very beneficial for economic development in Ward One.
Study findings indicate community residents would participate in future studies designed
to assess the potential impact (s) of development strategies in the district.
Interview and group comments suggest certain Native Islanders holding
leadership positions do not provide information that might allow ALL community
members to participate in economic empowerment strategies, especially strategies
designed to keep Gullah families on their land. There appears to be a rift among
community members that a handful of Native Islanders are viewed as leaders, and that
these individuals have personally benefited by working with outside developers.
The 1995 R/UDAT Report recommended corridor planning should be expanded
beyond mere traffic engineering and access management issues to include a social impact



1366
assessment of the attitudes of residents toward planned changes. Barrow (2002) reports a
social impact assessment may yield valuable data for mitigating the adverse effects of
governmental policy on human populations. Finsterbusch (1977) argues the primary goal
of a social impact assessment is to facilitate decision making by determining the full
range of costs and benefits associated with planned change initiatives.
Profile data indicates a more comprehensive social impact assessment is required,
a collaborative research effort to include partnerships established during previous field
experiences (www.southern.ohiou.edu/faculty/jarrett). Dr. Ted L. Napier, Professor of
Resources Sociology and Environmental Policy at Ohio State University, has agreed to
Mentor the research project as partial fulfillment of a cooperative plan initiated by the
Ohio University Regional Campus Research Development Program. The University of
South Carolina Beaufort at Hilton Head has agreed to provide access to library and
archival resources. The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition has agreed to serve as a
community liaison during the study. Reverend Ben Williams has agreed to provide a
central location for focus group interviews at the Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church.
The mandates of R/UDAT (1995:11) clearly state the preservation of native island
culture must become a priority for the Incorporated Town of Hilton Head. A social
impact assessment would provide Native Islanders an opportunity to voice their opinions
prior to the implementation of planned change initiatives. The dissemination of study
findings would provide local government an opportunity to prepare appropriate strategies
for mitigating the adverse effects of planned change (s) on Native Islanders.



1367
GLOSSARY
case study the study of the particularity and complexity of a single
case/ an ethnographic case study has one unit of analysis
(i.e., a community)
Diaspora dispersion and/or scattering of a people, culture, and
language
ethnographic method method of cultural description whereby the researcher is
placed in the midst of a particular social group, and from
this vantage point, attempts to describe the attitudes and
perceptions of that particular group
focus group a small group of people engaged in interactive discussion
about topics of research interest under the direction of a
trained facilitator
gated communities restricted communities whereby legal entrance may be
gained only through locked gates and by written permission
Geechee a dialect, or pidgin language derived from the interaction of
Gullah speakers with non-Gullahs
Gullah a Creole language spoken people of African decent living
in the Sea Island region of South Carolina and Georgia/the
term Gullah refers to the people who speak and use this
language
Gullah/Geechees Gullah and Geechee are used synonymously.
Gullah/Geechee people view themselves as one and the
same ethnic group
indigenous native to (or living naturally in) a particular area, or
environment
R/UDAT Regional Urban Design Assistance Team/a team of
professionals not compensated for their services become
acquainted with a community from an unbiased perspective
and offer recommendations for development, planning, and
community action strategies
Sea I slands a series of islands that extend from Charleston, SC
southward to Amelia Island, Floridahomelands of the
Gullah/Geechee people
social impact assessment a study to assess the impact (s) of planned actions on the
socio-economic and cultural aspects of a natural
environment or community
Verstehen a form of sociological inquiry aimed for an interpretative
understanding of attitudes and perceptions from an actors
subjective point of view



1368
REFERENCES


Barrow, C.J. (2000). Social impact assessment: An introduction. New York, New York:
Oxford University Press.
Berg, B. (1998). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences (3
rd
ed.). Boston,
Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.
Berger, P. and Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the
sociology of knowledge. New York: Doubleday Publishers.
Campbell, E. (2000). Gullah cultural legacies. Hilton Head, South Carolina: Gullah
Cultural Heritage Consulting Services.
Campbell, E. (2001-2002). Director Emeritus of Penn Center located on St. Helena
Island, Interviews 7-2-01 and 6-4-02 on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Clark, K. (1965). Dark ghetto. New York: Harper and Row Publishers.
Coser, L. (1977). Masters of sociological thought. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich.
Finsterbusch, K. and Wolf, C.P. (1977). Methodology of social impact assessment,
Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania: Dowden, Hutchinson, @ Ross, Inc.
Goodwine, M.L. (1998). The legacy of ibo landing: Gullah roots of african american
culture. Atlanta, Georgia: Clarity Press, Inc.
Goodwine, M.L. (2001-2002). Interviews with Queen Quet, Chieftess of the
Gullah/Geechee Nation 6-12-01 and 7-6-02 on St. Helena Island, South Carolina.
Giddens, A. (Ed.). (1974). Positivism and sociology. London, England: Heinemann
Educational Books, Ltd.
Glanton, D. (2001, June 8). Gullah culture in danger of fading away. Chicago, Illinois:
Chicago Tribune in People and Culture.
Greer, M. (2000). The sands of time: A history of hilton head island, Hilton Head Island,
South Carolina: South Art, Inc. Publishers
Interviews, (2003). Arranged by the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition for June 10, 17,
24, 26, 2003; and July 4, 5, and 6, 2003, Records on File.
Jarrett, C. (2003). Connecting with the soul of a community: An interactive study of
Gullah culture, Black Praxis, Fall/Winter Edition 2003, Athens, Ohio: Official
Publication of the Department of African American Studies.



1369
Jarrett, C. and Lucas D. (2002). Introducing folknography: A study of gullah culture, a
paper presented at the 2002 National Meeting of the Rural Sociological Society in
Chicago, Illinois (8-16-02), see www.southern.ohiou.edu/folknography.
Jarrett, C. (2001). Website established for Charles Jarrett/Gullah Research Project,
Ironton, Ohio: Ohio University Southern Campus Home Page/faculty directory,
http://www.southern.ohiou.edu/faculty/jarrett.
Jackson, J., Slaughter, S. and Blake, H. (1974). The sea islands as a cultural resource. The
Black Scholar, 5, (6):32-39.
Mitchell, J.P. (2003). Owner of De Gullah Creations located on Hilton Head Island,
Presentation for University of South Carolina Beaufort at Hilton Head (6-26-03).
Patton, M.Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3
rd
ed.). Thousand
Oaks, California: Sage.
Pollitzer, W. (1999). The gullah people and their african heritage. Athens, Georgia:
University of Georgia Press.
Porcher, C. (2001). Exploring the soul of gullah culture: A progress report. National Park
Service Gullah/Geechee Special Resource Study. Volume 1, Number 1, Atlanta,
Georgia: National Park Service.
Rowland, Lawrence S., et al. (1996). The history of beaufort county, south carolina.
Vol. 1. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
R/UDAT, (1995). Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team Report: Number 213,
Hilton Head Island, South Carolina: Incorporated Town of Hilton Head.
Siegal, Robert and Wertheimer, Linda. (2000). How Rapid Resort Development Alters
Life on the Sea Islands of South Carolina, transcript of a program originally
aired August, 8, 2000 on All Things Considered - National Public Radio.
Stoney, (2003). Stoney Initiative Area Plan: Ordinance Number 2003-05, Hilton Head
Island, South Carolina: Incorporated Town of Hilton Head Planning Department.
Thomas, W.I., and Swaine, D. (1928). The child in America. New York, New York:
Knopf Publishers.
Walcott, S. (2002). Unique gullah/geechee culture at risk, CNN Student News, Cable
News Network, AOL Time Warner Company.
Weber, M. (1964). Basic concepts in sociology. New York, New York: The Citadel.



ATYPICAL PNEUMONIA, A TYPICAL CHINESE RESPONSE:
WHY THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT CONCEALED THE
OUTBREAK OF THE SARS EPIDEMIC






XIAOYONG LAI
CORLISS LENTZ

SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY
HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS




1371
Atypical Pneumonia, A Typical Chinese Response: Why the Chinese
Government Concealed the Outbreak of the SARS Epidemic


SARS, which means Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, is a respiratory or
airways infection. It is a new type of Atypical Pneumonia that infects the lungs and is,
caused by a new strain of virus called the coronavirus, which is from the same family of
viruses that causes the common cold. In contrast, Pathogen of Typical Pneumonia,
including lobar pneumonia (involve whole lobe) and bronchopneumonia, is bacteria, the
most common of which is Pneumococcus (Bhatia, 2003).
The first case of SARS appeared in mid-November 2002 in Guangdong Province,
China. Since then, the disease has spread worldwide with astonishing speed. SARS is
the first severe and readily transmissible new disease to emerge in the 21
st
century
(WHO, 20 May 2003), By July 2003, SARS had infected more than 8 thousand people
and resulted in more than 700 deaths worldwide (WHO, 31 July 2003).

INTRODUCTION
Although the toll of the epidemic was substantial, the repercussion of the outbreak
of SARS should resonate well beyond tragic loss of life and economic turmoil. It is no
doubt that governments responses play a critical role in prevention and containment of a
newly emerging infectious disease in a highly mobile and closely interconnected world.
In this respect, Chinese governments evasive and tardy response to the challenge of the
outbreak of SARS deserves a sufficient attention and careful examination.



1372
Many studies recognize the connection between the spread of SARS and the
Chinese governments deliberate concealment of the problem and they intensively blame
Beijings behavior for leaving other countries unable to issue warnings and take
preventive measures. However, few studies address the underlying reason why the
Chinese government is engaging in such a secretive and elusive behavior in the global
tide of interdependence and collaboration.
This study, from a historical and realist perspective, analyzes the complex
interrelationship between Chinas social and security problems and its domestic and
foreign policies, which accounts for the Chinese governments propensity for
concealment of those problems. It demonstrates that what determines Beijings foreign
behavior lies in its well-entrenched Chinese realpolitik worldview with little ingrained
liberal thinking.

ATYPICAL PNEUMONIA, A TYPICAL CHINESE RESPONSE
The outbreak of the epidemic put some governments to the toughest situation.
Some governmental officials have lost their jobs, several governments are drastic
criticized both inward and outside for their slowness and ineffectiveness of responses.
Apparently, Chinese government bears the brunt of criticism and attack for its News of
falsified communications, deliberate misinformation, obstruction of UN assessment
teams and reluctance to reveal the full extent of the epidemic to the World Health
Organization (Gill, November 19, 2003). As the World Health Organization mildly put
it, concealment of SARS cases made further international spread almost inevitable and
carried a very high price-loss of credibility in the eyes of the international community,



1373
escalating negative domestic economic impact, damage to the health and economies of
neighboring countries, and a very real risk that outbreaks within the countrys own
territory can spiral out of control (WHO, 2003).
According to Bates Gill, Beijings reaction to SARS parallels its response to
AIDS: denial, followed by reluctant acknowledgement and hesitant mobilization of
resources to combat the epidemic (Gill, November 30, 2003). In this respect, most studies
agree, there is an undeniable connection between the spread of SARS in China and
Chinese governments deliberate concealment of the problem, following a fairly
consistent pattern of official cover-up of bad news in China. To put simply, Atypical
Pneumonia (SARS) demonstrates Chinese governments a typical response to
unprecedented situation: denial, concealment of the problem, and reluctance to work with
foreign partners.
SARS problem indicates Beijings tactics of suppression and concealment of the
truth, which characterizes a political environment where social stability is protected
above human security and willingness to accept international intervention and assistance
is overly discouraged, now face a serious challenge to prevent a severe infectious disease,
which demands greater openness, transparency and candor, both domestically and
internationally. Chinas realist thinking might be flawed and anachronistic in terms of
national- interest conception and world politics views.
The following two sections examine three driving forces that contribute to
Chinese governments response to the SARS outbreak, highlights some lessons and
implications of the SARS outbreak to Chinese government, and prophets some possibility
of the Chinese leaderships future steps.



1374
WHY THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT TENDS TO HIDE THE PROBLEM
Arguably, since the Chinese foreign policy behavior is riddled with contradictions
and paradoxes, the underlying reason of the Chinese governments typical behavior is
still complicated and even obscure. Some may argue that the compartmentalization for
protecting own profit and interests of the governments all the levels, inherent in Chinese
government system, coped with the Communist ideology concerned more with power and
control than the life and freedom of the citizens, mainly contributes to Chinese
governments propensity to cover up bad news. It is, however, at best, in part a faade.
Obsessed with a simplistic view about the Chinese government that is ruthless
suppressing its citizens, these studies overlook the linkage between Chinas response to
the SARS outbreak and its routine foreign policy behavior driven by its security interests
and other related variables.
Still, with some risk of oversimplification, the study focuses on four interwoven
factors that may account for the Chinese governments propensity to cover-up bad news:
1) realpolitik view and calculative strategy, 2) xenophobia and unilateral security
interest, 3) authority deficiency and unprincipled policy, and 4)economy of central
task, stability first preoccupation and undernourished human rights. The following
analysis, resting principally on realist approach to international relations from a historical
and conceptual perspective, explores these factors and their linkage at large and place
great emphasis upon Chinas internal pressures, which greatly condition, if not determine,
the Beijings response to the SARS outbreak.



1375
Realpolitik View and Calculative Strategy
Some scholars believe that Chinas national interest is still dominated by a
realpolitik view. (See, for instance, Kim, 1994, 3-41; Deng and Wang, 1999, 47-72) As
Fei- Ling Wang puts, Realpolitik perspective will prevail as long as Chinas international
identity is defined in terms of a nationalistic view of modern Chinese history, in which
China was brutally victimized in a hostile and threatening world. (Deng and Wang,
1999, 64). With perceptions of the international world accord with realism or
realpolitik, elites in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) view international political
challenges in terms of power and national interest rather than as an ideological struggle
(Christensen, 1996, 37-52).
As Kim observes, the CCP leaderships security thinking firmly embedded in the
realpolitik track, allows only hyper- nationalist calculus to play a dominant role in
international affairs. Not surprisingly, China has maintained a highly pragmatic but rather
egotistic calculative strategy. Chinas calculative strategy, characterized by an
outward-oriented pragmatism centered on seeking asymmetric advantage, is particularly
designed to rapidly improve its domestic social conditions, enhance its national economic
and technological capabilities, and thereby ultimately strengthen its military prowess and
improve its standing and influence in the international political order (Swaine and Tellis,
2000, p. 112-114).
Thus, despite their cognizance of interdependence and multilateralism, the CCP
leaders have adopted an instrumental attitude aimed at maximizing political, economic,
and image benefits while minimizing any losses or risks in external affairs, that is, to take
advantage of, or to exploit new external environments rather than promote collective



1376
interests and reciprocity (Swaine and Tellis, 2000, P133; Kim, 1996, 22-23). As the
previous Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping said, China cannot afford to care too much
about the affairs in other countries; what China really cares about is how to cultivate a
good international environment to develop itself (Deng Xiaoping, 1993, 360).
Taken together, realpolitik view and calculative strategy, as a central tenet of
the Chinese elites foreign policy thinking, often lead to egotistic and irresponsible
behavior characterized by reactive, partial and ad hoc international responses that lack
any real degree of proactive, long-term planning. The CCP leaders have pursued a wide
range of strategies from full participation to overt or covert-defection, based on a cost-
effective calculation in terms of the benefits and losses of participation and
nonparticipation in international affairs, showing a strong selective and utility-oriented
tendency (Swaine and Tellis, 2000, 133-140; Kim, 1996, 22-23). Arguably, the priority of
seeking asymmetric resources diminishes concerns for Chinas international reputation,
manifests itself in the tendency towards defection and free-ride behavior and thus
weakens mutual trustworthiness with other international regimes.
While realpolitik view and calculative strategy play a central role in the CCPs
foreign policy thinking, xenophobia and unilateral security interests also have a
significant impact on Beijing tendency to hide problems.
Xenophobia and Unilateral Security Interests
Chinas history and todays reality play a great role in the Chinese leaders
security thinking. In Chinese eyes, Chinas history over the past 150 years is a chronicle
of national humiliation. In particular, invasions and a loss of national sovereignty and
independence, and historical disappointments in Chinese diplomacy which are considered



1377
as conspiracy of great powers, have contributed greatly to the existence of an
undercurrent of extreme xenophobia that continues to the present. For instance, the 1840
Sino-British Utopian War and the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 have played a significant
role in Chinese feelings of hostility towards foreign nations. As a more recent example,
the virulent, anti-Western reaction of the Chinese government and society to the
accidental bombing by US- led NATO forces of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade,
Yugoslavia, during the Kosovo conflict of 1998-1999 at least partly attribute to such
xenophobic attitudes (BBC News, Thursday, June 10, 1999).
In addition to historical experience, todays reality also dictates Chinese
sensitivity toward external influence. The collapse of Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe in the
late 1980s and early 1990s leaves China as the last great communist country. Due to
deep differences between CCP regime and the West in the areas of ideology and human
rights, especially political rights, an isolated CCP feels that the threats coming from
peaceful evolution are gradual undermining CCP authority by interactions with the
outside world, especially under the influence of advanced bourgeois capitalism and
democracy (Kim, 1994, 44-46). China is also very uncomfortable with the prospect of a
unipolar world, in which the United States dominates the agenda of world politics (Deng
and Wang, 1999, 92). Furthermore, Chinas increasing dependence on foreign resources,
have contributed to a growing sense of strategic vulnerability in Beijing to external
factors (Swaine and Tellis, 2000, P144-149). This deep-rooted anti- foreign attitudes,
along with the historical economic self-sufficiency, and past cultural preeminence within
East Asia have together created a strong belief that China should rely on own resources



1378
and maintain autonomy and independence from foreign influence (Swaine and Tellis,
2000, 79-82).
Not surprisingly, Chinas security interests, the Chinese elites believe, are best
protected through unilateral security, with a small role for international security
interdependence, and no role for common security (Kim, 1996, 22-24). Moreover, in
Chinas own historical experience, bilateral diplomacy still has a higher priority, and a
meaningful multilateralism can be based only on good bilateral relations (Deng and
Wang, 1999, 92).
The elites in the CCP are suspicious of the worlds great powers and the global
order those are calling for. For example, they believe that the United States has used
global norms as a cover to interfere in Chinese domestic affairs and frustrate Chinas
efforts to improve its international standing and image As a result, the Chinese leaders
are concerned about the reality wherein interdependence and globalization enhance the
leverages of and give excuse to Western powers to exercise power politics in interfering
in other countries domestic affairs (Deng and Wang, 1999, 239-256).
Consequently, despite Chinese elites appreciation of its dependence on the
international system for continued growth and prosperity, increasing and unprecedented
levels of involvement with the outside could arguably heighten their sensitiveness to
cultural contamination, foreign manipulation and subversion, and the ultimate possibility
of imperiling the fortunes of the current leadership (Swaine and Tellis, 2000, 108).
Ironically, perhaps, the more capabilities the Peoples Republic of China (PRC)
develops and the bigger role Beijing plays internationally, the more acute the sense of the
CCPs political insecurity is likely to become, and thus the restraining effect of such a



1379
mentality on Chinas foreign policy will become even stronger (Deng and Wang,
1999, 21).
The strong anti- foreign, pro-autonomy viewpoint manifests itself in Beijings
strong opposition to the so-called internationalization of many domestically generated
issues. Beijing insists those issues are under the jurisdiction of the internal affairs of the
Chinese government in order to ward off external influence and control these issues
within its border. Moreover, the Chinese leaders do not readily embrace the concept of
multilateralism: they see multilateralism would make the situation more complicated, and
are caut ious about the possibility of great powers using collective multilateralism as a
disguise for undue influence on China. Rather, they insist on national sovereignty and
noninterference in internal affairs as the highest principle of international relations,
restraining further openness to international environment and limiting the possibility of
broad international collaboration.
In short, unilateral security interests calculation, coupled with xenophobia has
deeply colored Chinas security thinking in a self-helping or self-fulfilling inclination
characterized by shying away from increasing and unprecedented involvement with the
outside, favoring greater developmental autonomy and limited decadent and corrupt
foreign influence.
Another driving force for Beijings response behavior to the SARS outbreak is an
authority deficiency and unprincipled policy.
Authority Deficiency and Unprincipled Policy
As previously argued, the new Chinese leaders have less authority, legitimacy,
and power resources than Mao or Deng. Because of their authority deficiency, they will



1380
not be able to dominate the political system and foreign policy decision making as Mao
and Deng has done, and will not be able to manage the tension between nationalism and
internationalism or to make the necessary compromises. Thus, on one hand, they cannot
allow outside influence, whether they come from Chinese society or from the outside, to
have direct input into the decision- making system (Kim, 1994, 47-49, and 21-24). On the
other, they will not be in a position to handle unprecedented events with sufficient
flexibility since they lack the power to enforce their will over a variety of interests
entrenched in Chinese bureaucracy system. Given such circumstances, the new leaders
are not in a comfortable position to make pledges and commitments outside that they
have no power or authority to implement at home. As a result, they may be unwilling or
unable to control foreign policy very well. Not surprisingly, they may frequently resort to
risk-aversion strategy and avoiding initiating new international commitments.
On the other hand, the paucity of theory of Chinese international relations makes
Chinese foreign policy appear unprincipled and unguided. Marxism- Leninism does not
provided a pervasive and long- lasting operational guide for seeking a proper role in a
state-centric world, although they no double have great impact on legitimatization of the
CCP regime. The basic theoretic dilemma of post-Mao China lies in inability and
unwillingness either to embrace or to reject socialism as a unifying ideology. The
Chinese international relations scholars are often confronted with the great, even close to
impossible task of formulating an integrated theory that meets the multiple requirements
of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, national identity (Chinese
characteristics) and utility in the analysis of the international situation, formation of
Chinese foreign policy and justification of Chinas international position and practice;



1381
while rejecting socialism, apparently, is synonymous with political suicide (Kim, 1994,
5-9).
The problem of lack of theories result in the impotency, inconsistency and
contradiction of basic Chinese foreign policy principles, which are constantly
reformulated and renumbered: the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, Mao
Zedongs three-worlds theory, Hu Yaobangs eight basic principles of foreign policy,
Zhao Ziyangs ten basic principles of foreign policy, Deng Xiaopings four cardinal
principles and theory of building Chinese-style socialism (Kim, 1994, 5-9).
In the absence of a consonant normative and cognitive guide, the gap between
principles and policies has set a highly unpredicted and variegated course. The greater the
disjuncture, the stronger they need to square the circle of deviant behavior. Apparently,
the scarcity of theoretical works constrains the ability of Chinese government handle
complicated situation and unprecedented events in the changing world situation. As Kim
puts, China desperately needs a new theory of international relations as a guide to
preparing for the twenty- first century (Kim, 1994, 5).
Taken together, coupled with lack of power and authority, the poverty of Chinese
international relations theory has forced the new leaders to engage in satisficing
behavior rather than rational behavior, characterized by shying away from immediate
but unguided action to an unprecedented situation and preferring not to challenge status
quo, because they are keenly aware that bold policy initiatives requiring consensus within
major power centers often boils down to clashes and even disasters.



1382
Last but not the least, economic of central task, stability first preoccupation, and
undernourished human rights have greatly influenced the CCPs security concerns and
foreign policies.
Economy of Central Task, Stability First Preoccupation, and Undernourished Human
Rights
Arguably, the successors have much less power and authority than Mao Zedong
and Deng Xiaoping. The authority deficiency would compel the Chinese leadership to
shift from charismatic and ideological legitimatization to performance-base
legitimatization (especially economy performance). That is, the new leaders must
generate a continued and significant economic growth to gain authority and obedience
rather than purely through fear and coercion (Kim, 1996, 2, and 1994, 47-49). They
clearly recognize that only sustained economic success can assure the domestic order and
well-being, and increase military capability for sustaining Chinese security and restoring
Chinas great power status (Swaine and Tellis, 2000, 98-99).
Under the circumstances, economic security should be the priority of national
security because economic growth and common prosperity are the material bases for
national security. As President Jiang Zemin points out, the CCP must keep economic
development as the central task of the CCP (Jiang Zemin, 2002). Moreover, since
China has faced no immediate military threats since 1949, security interests gradually lost
their priority to economic interest in Chinas national agenda (Deng and Wang,
1999, 83). Given the situation, it is no surprise that the CCP has sought to maintain the
policy orientation since the end of the Cold War: the acquisition of comprehensive
national power deriving from a continued economic growth without the impediments and



1383
distractions of security competition (Swaine and Tellis, 2000, p. 112). Given the priority
of maintaining a rapid economic development, domestic political monopoly or political
stability is highly expected while human rights are much underplayed (Deng and Wang,
1999, 21-46; 97-118).
From the Chinese elites perspective, stability is critical for achieving economic
development as the countrys primary objective. More importantly, the twin security of
preserving domestic order and well-being and defense of outside threats are closed
interrelated; the former is viewed as the sine qua non for the latter (Swaine and Tellis,
2000, 16-17). Thus for the Chinese elites, the struggle for domestic order becomes a
struggle for national discipline and political survival (Swaine and Tellis, 2000, 144-149).
The former leader Deng Xiaoping insisted that maintaining a long-term peace
and stability is of vital importance (Deng Xiaoping, 1992). To more specific extent,
Chinese President Jiang Zemin, have launched a campaign labeled stability first, in his
report at the 16
th
Party Congress on Nov 8, 2000:
Ensure stability as a principle of overriding importance and balance reform,
development and stability. Stability is a prerequisite for reform and development.
We should take into full consideration the momentum of reform, the speed of
development and the sustainability of the general public. Continued improvement
of peoples lives must be regarded as an important link in balancing reform,
development and stability. We should press ahead with reform and development
amidst social stability and promote social stability through reform and
development (Jiang Zemin, 2002, 10).
The authoritarian ideology of stability first is reinforced by historical and new
emerged fears of social disorder and political collapse. Historically, the combination of
extreme geographic vulnerability to attacks from the periphery, state society volatility,
and a deep rooted great power mentality have produced an intense fear of social chaos
and political fragmentation or collapse(Swaine and Tellis , 2000, 16).



1384
Furthermore, in light of the collapse of communism in Europe and the Soviet
Union, the Chinese leaders believe the CCP regime is no doubt under a serious threat of
peaceful evolution, which insidiously undermines Chinas security and stability,
especially under the influence of advanced bourgeois capitalism and democracy.
Finally, Chinas increasing dependence on foreign resources, which have
contributed to a growing sense of strategic vulnerability in Beijing to external factors,
combined with a variety of social and economic ills resulted from the increasing wealth
and the general liberation of society, have contributed to growing fears of domestic
disorder within China, and resulted in increased pressures for expanding Chinas ability
to control events with its borders.
With the rising attractiveness of an authoritarian ideology of stability- first, the
elites in the CCP underline the importance of stability, making it as the countrys primary
objective. The majority of Chinese now also prefer social order and stability to human
rights and freedom. They are generally cautious toward political an economic change and
worried about possible turmoil. Such views are reinforced by general satisfaction among
Chinese with their rising living standards, the countrys rising power, and their wish to
see a powerful and prosperous China (Deng and Wang, 1999, 97-118).In short, Chinese
elites and ordinary citizens espouse an authoritarian ideology of stability- first, sharing a
broad consensus emphasizing stability as a precondition for economic development.
While the importance of stability is highly dramatized by Chinese leaders and
common people, human rights are considerably undervalued. Chinas emphasis has been
on group rights or national rights rather than individual rights and happiness. When it
comes to human rights issue, the Chinese leaders focus on the national interest-the



1385
safety and well-being of the nation as a whole, viewing national interests as the highest
principle, and thus putting human rights and individual happiness to the secondary or
subordinate place. In the words of the previous Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, national
sovereignty and national security should be the top priority. National rights are more
important than human rights, the latter should by no means be allowed to undermine the
former (Deng Xiaoping, 1993, 331; 347-348). His successor, Jiang Zemin, in his speech
at the United Nations summit on September 7, 2000 in New York, insisted sovereignty
is the only premise and guarantee of human rights within each nation, and took a strong
position against the notion that human rights rank higher than sovereignty(Jiang Zemin,
2000).
Taken together, Chinas concerns for stability and economic growth condition its
cautious, even suspicious views on human rights and democracy (Deng and Wang, 1999,
97-118). Human rights have become largely a foreign policy issue for the Chinese
leaders, who fear that international human rights pressure compromises its legitimacy.
Chinese leadership views universal norms pertaining to human rights and political
freedoms either as interference in Chinas domestic affairs or as an insidious effort to
undermine the stability of the Chinese state (Swaine and Tellis, 136). Not surprisingly,
considerations of economic growth and domestic stability have overridden other
considerations, especially human rights and individual happiness. In this respect,
autonomy of the state takes precedence over the autonomy of the individual, and security
overarches human security.



1386
They May Be Able to Cover Up Bad News and Figures, but They Can Never Cover Up
Viruses
In summary, the Chinese governments response to SARS outbreak was
predictable. First and most important, it reflects the nature of Chinas realpolitik view and
characteristics of its calculative strategy. Not surprisingly, obsessed with narrow-
minded state-centric paradigm, the leaders are often largely cut off from the panorama of
interdependence and reciprocity, and susceptible to shortsighted and provincial planning,
and acquisitive and unaccountable intension. The need for a stable and peaceful image for
attracting foreign investment often result in the Chinese governments concealment of the
problem, which made further international spread almost inevitable and left other
countries unable to issue warnings and take preventive measures.
Second, Beijings strong anti- foreign, pro-autonomy viewpoint leads to reluctance
to work with foreign partners so as to avoid so-called internationalization of a
domestically generated event. For instance, only after a two-week wait were inspectors
form the World Health Organization permitted to travel in Guangdong, the SARS
outbreak epicenter. Other examples are obstruction of UN assessment teams and
reluctance to reveal the full extent of the epidemic to the World Health Organization
(WHO, Geneva, 20 May 2003).
Third, the leaders are inclined to engage in satisficing behavior, since they lack
authority and guidance to handle an unprecedented disease. They have intended to avoid
social turmoil and minimize social conflicts that might arise from the epidemic, through
news of falsified communications and deliberate misinformation. However, they did not
recognize the severity of the epidemic until it became a crisis.



1387
Finally, in order to implement economic growth and social progress, China needs
a peaceful international environment and domestic social stability. Beij ings domestic
factors, especially economic development and stability first, have exerted a critical and
sometimes irrational influence. The overarching focus on domestic economic
development and stability, which has lead to a denial of human security and human
rights, manifests itself in employing various tactics to deceive people, negating the
individuals rights to be informed of threats or menaces to their safety or lives.
Taken together, the four factors, which the study has discussed in detail
previously, contribute to the Chinese governments bad habit of covering up bad news, as
well as reluctance to work with foreign partners.

LESSONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND FUTURE STEPS
The SARS experience may bring about some leverage to account for the
possibility of change of the CCP leaderships foreign policy thinking and behavior. The
continued engagement in the international affairs will help socialize China into the
prevailing norms, values, and rules through constructive approach as China has gradually
integrated itself into the international community.
Building and Consolidating Credibility and Public Trust
The SARS experience might help alter Chinas definition of what it means to be a
prestigious great power and thereby influence the thinking of Chinese decision- makers.
To convince the world that China wants to join rather than disrupt the existing
international system, China must promote the transparency of policies, and increase
reputation with regard to upholding international commitments. No state is an island;



1388
every state is part of a larger world environment that provides opportunities as well as
constrains on its behavior (Kim, 1994, p. 25).
The SARS experience highlights the necessity for building and consolidating
credibility and public trust for a government, through ensuring that clear lines of
communication between the state and population at large. A lack of information
transparency not only promotes the idea that governments are trying to hide something,
but also make it extremely difficult for political leaders to convince their citizens that
their actions are required and in the peoples best interest (Chalk, 2000, 14). SARS has
cried for more information transparency and thus more standardization and coordination
of international affairs in terms of regional and international security.
Moreover, in response to an unprecedented situation, response measures,
however, should be formulated according to clear, precise and consistent rules rather than
highly shifting and unpredictable leaders personalities.
Gray Area Phenomena (GAP) vs. State-Centric Paradigm
Although faced with an unprecedented peace and stability, the Chinese elites
should be aware that growing threats have emanated from non-traditional area- grey area
phenomena (GAP), which can be loosely defined as threats to national and international
security and stability by non-state actors and non- governmental processes and
organizations. Given their transnational nature, purely nationally based responses are
insufficient to counter GAP threats. Policy-makers should begin to recognize the
magnitude of responding to GAP influences and be prepared to undertake concerted
action at the international level (Chalk, 2000, 2).



1389
The threats emanating from gray area influences are far more ambitious in their
patterns, processes, and effects, obfuscating the perceived need for rapid policy
responses. Action is typically initiated only after the extent to which a major crisis occurs
has been reached within the states concern (Brower and Chalk, 2003, 3).
The SARS experience underscores the importance of a coordinated global
response characterized by close collaboration and open sharing of data and experience
(WHO, 20 May 2003). SARS took advantage of conditions in a globalized society to
spread rapidly and cause wide-ranging disruption. As for the spread of diseases that
originate within sovereign borders but transcend international boundaries and affect the
security of people worldwide, state-centric models of coping with issues have been
proven ineffective. States must also be prepared to undertake concerted action at the
international level, which attack, disable or at least contain the spread of the disease
(Brower and Chalk, 2003, 1-12; Chalk, 2000, 135-148).
To fight against GAP threats, security thinking and approaches of the CCP leaders
must be broadened to a more comprehensive scope. New levels of understanding of
collective security and multilateralism must be developed. SARS experiences highlight
the perceived necessity of collective security in international conflict and crisis
resolution, especially when traditional unilateral security and state-centric model are not
sufficient to handle issues which beyond the capabilities of individual states to control or
manage.
Arguably, multilateralism and collective security will ultimately increase in
legitimacy and weight in Chinas post-Mao foreign policy thinking and behavior. All of
these new thinking and understanding, in turn, will require modifying Chinas internal



1390
institutions to comply with basic universal norms and international trade, economic, and
legal requirements. Such reforms could challenge deep-rooted bureaucratic and political
interests, and thus incite significant debates over the pace and depth of future openness to
outside and extent of Chinese involvement in the world politics.
Human Security vs. National Security
After the Cold War, the concept of human security has shift from being primarily
military to non- military in nature, with the focus on the individual as the primary object
of security rather than exclusively on the security of territory or government, thanks the
globalist school of thought. The concept of human security recognizes that individual
security is not solely a reflection of an individual as part of a secure state, but also
encompasses consideration of welfare and quality of life (Brower and Chalk, 2003).
So far, however, China has not formally embraced the concept of human security.
The Chinese government, as well as intellectuals, has thought little about secur ity beyond
the national level. Their understanding of security has always attached primary
importance to national security-national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the
individual level is concerned with safety, not security, and personal safety is equated with
freedom from criminal attacks only (Chu, 2002).
Nonetheless, the outbreak of SARS, underscores the limits of a security paradigm
emphasizing national interests. The spread of SARS in China dramatically illustrated the
need for transparency, openness and better governance in government. Human security,
in this context, means allowing and enabling individuals to be informed of threats or
menaces to their safety or lives.



1391
A cooperative China, would accept the prevailing international order that respects
the rights of persons would be in Chinas interests. Human security can be promoted by
improving citizens access to information, legislating human security and creating the
necessary enforcement mechanisms, and by balancing spending between national and
human security (The Human Security Bulletin, 2003).
On the other hand, the plausibility of the Chinese liberal thinking will remain
significantly limited as long as China is still committed to its narrow national interests
and obsessed with its own realpolitik thought. The SARS experience, however, has opens
a window of opportunities for liberal thought to gain ascendancy. The growing
legitimacy of transnational issues in the age of globalization has greatly undermined the
validity of Chinese realpolitik view. It will make China more cooperative in the
international affairs and less apt to engage elusive and retard behavior. A cooperative
China would accept international order which would be in Chinas interests and seek
joint gains rather than unilateral advantages so long as the new leaders recognize
interdependence and collective security contribute to enhancing the utility and welfare of
both Chinese citizens and the Chinese state.

CONCLUSION
SARS dramatically illustrated how a severe infectious disease can wreak a heavy
havoc at all levels, from an individual country to regional and even to the global level. It
have posed a major threat to public health, catalyzed social stability, undermined
economy, and weakened public confidence in their governments ability to respond.



1392
Many causes played a role in the development of the crisis. However, the Chinese
governments cover- up the problem and reluctance to work with foreign partners had a
major impact on the debacle of containing the epidemic. Four intertwined factors account
for the Chinese governments propensity to concealment of the problem.
First, Guided by Realpolitik view and calculative strategy, Beijing intends to
engage defection and free-ride behavior whenever possible. Second, xenophobia and
unilateral security interests, leads to self-helping or self-fulfilling inclination
characterized by shying away from increasing and unprecedented involvement with the
outside. Third, an authority deficiency and unprincipled policy force the new leaders to
engage in satisficing behavior rather than rational behavior. Finally, the priority of
economy development and stability first has put human rights and individual happiness
in a secondary position.
In the future, the SARS experience will help change the CCP leaderships foreign
policy thinking and behavior, as long as the new leaders would recognize the magnitude
of building and consolidating credibility and public trust, the limits of state-centric
models, and the legitimacy of the prevailing human security norms.
Beijings current openness and responsiveness to SARS after pro- modernization
Hu Jintao became Chinese president, might prognosticate a new and more positive
direction for the leadership; though it remains without certainty whether the new attitude
will be broadened to a new reform of Chinese domestic and foreign policy (Garrett,
Newsday-May 18, 2003). But on a brighter side, a matter of enlightened self- interest
might encourage Chinese elites to rethink the situation encompassing domestic and



1393
international environment and thereby reshape the structure and the process of domestic
and international affairs.




1394
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Brower, Jennifer and Peter Chalk, the Global Threat of New and Reemerging Infectious
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HUMAN AMBIVALENCE AND CIVIL RIGHTS:
A PARADOX









FRED MEDINGER
COPPIN STATE COLLEGE
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND




1397
Human Ambivalence and Civil Rights: A Paradox


INTRODUCTION
This paper considers how innate cognitive and interpersonal processes in human
service providers can produce manifest racial and ethnic prejudice and discrimination.
For the purpose of this paper, manifest prejudice refers to prejudicial thoughts that are
unchallenged and considered to be the truth. Manifest discrimination refers to prejudicial
action that follows unfounded negative stereotypes or other false assumptions about a
group of people, based upon their race or ethnicity. On the other hand, the author defines
the concept of latent prejudice as prejudicial thoughts that are challenged by the thinker
him/herself and thus are subject to objective reality testing. Defined this way, latent
prejudice does not lead to manifest discrimination.
The authors thesis is a paradox. If human services practitioners are to provide
service to people from different ethnic and racial groups in a manner that is fair and
unbiased, they must be in touch with their own prejudicial thoughts and ambivalence with
respect to the ethnic and racial differences that may exist between themselves and their
clients. Ambivalence refers to the simultaneous acceptance of and rejection of an idea or
person, or the simultaneous attraction toward and repudiation of a person or group of
people. A common example of ambivalence is that found among quarreling couples who
profess to love one another in spite of their bitter attacks upon one another.
Ambivalence that is repressed, allowing only the positive or negative pole to be
experienced, can result in biased human service practice. This is because the repress-ed



1398
thoughts and feelings may be projected onto others, or acted upon subconsciously in
ways that are antithetical to a good helping relationship. This problem will be discussed
in further detail in a later section.
Therefore, natural human limitations with respect to cognition and interpersonal
ambivalence must be acknowledged and accepted if manifest prejudice and
discrimination are to be eliminated in human service practice.
Manifest racial prejudice is one outcome of certain cognitive tendencies that are
universal among humans. These patterns of cognition can have both negative and
positive outcomes. To eliminate manifest prejudice and discrimination, one cannot
eliminate latent prejudicial thinking altogether, but instead one must continue to remain
aware of ones own latent prejudicial thinking in order to keep it from leading to manifest
prejudice and discrimination.
Manifest racial prejudice is also the outcome of a failure to recognize and resolve
interpersonal ambivalence regarding the racial group in question. Again, to eliminate
manifest prejudice and discrimination, one cannot eliminate human ambivalence
altogether, but instead must maintain awareness of its presence within oneself so that its
potentially negative consequences can be avoided.
These claims will be discussed in further detail in this paper. The authors
position is that the limitations of the human mind must be acknowledged and understood
if manifest prejudice and discrimination are to be reduced and eliminated in American
society. Giving up latent prejudicial thoughts is not possible, given the nature of the
human mind in this stage of human evolution, nor is giving up ambivalent feelings
toward others. Instead, the way out of prejudice and discrimination is through it in the



1399
sense that individuals, with fair and just intentions, learn to recognize their own inner
tendencies toward latent prejudicial thinking and ambivalent feelings toward others,
including other racial groups.

UNIVERSAL COGNITIVE PROCESSES
Human cognition includes a series of universal processes that can result in both
latent prejudice as well as manifest prejudice and discrimination. These include the
following:
A. The human tendency to discriminate and classify objects and people into
separate groups;
B. The common human tendency to distrust strangers and to avoid those who do
not mirror the individuals own values, attitudes, and lifestyle;
C. The human tendency to form immediate initial impressions of people based on
outward appearances;
D. The human tendency to seek predictability in relation to the external world;
E. The human capacity to think logically, but at the same time the tendency to
think illogically, and to engage in both reductionism and the ecological
fallacy.
The following sections will discuss each of these principles in further detail.

CLASSIFICATION OF OBJECTS AND PEOPLE
Humans have a natural cognitive tendency to classify and categorize objects by
whatever variable is of interest, be it size, color, function, etc. (Kobrynowicz, 2000). This
tendency first appears in earnest in toddlerhood when young children learn how to sort
objects by color, shape, etc. (Flavell, 1999). This behavior is considered adaptive in that
it brings order and meaning to an otherwise complex and chaotic environment.



1400
This same capacity to classify and categorize extends to people as well. Humans
possess an innate tendency to classify people by variables such as gender, age, weight,
annual income, religion, and so forth. Of interest to the discussion at hand is the human
capacity to classify people into different racial/ethnic groupings (Hehir, 2002;
Kobrynowicz, 2000; Oliver & Fonash, 2002). This can lead to stereotyping, based upon
the tendency of humans to employ the ecological fallacy in their thinking (i.e., assuming
that what characterizes the total group applies equally to each of its members), along with
reductionism (i.e., assuming that what is true for a few members of a group applies
equally to all of its members)(Carpenter & Radhakrisknan, 2002; Neuman, 2000; Rubin,
Hewstone & Voci, 2001).
Classification and discrimination go hand in hand. To classify is to discriminate
between different categories. Successful discrimination can be an attribute when it is
justified. For example, one must discriminate between edible and poisonous mushrooms
if one is to stay well. On the other hand, discrimination based on false beliefs can be a
major social problem, as has been the case with racial discrimination in America since
colonial times.

HUMAN NARCISSISM AND STRANGER ANXIETY
Having classified people into different racial groups, there is the natural
narcissistic human tendency to view ones own group (the ingroup) as being more
desirable than outgroups (Aboud, 2003; Guimond & Dambrum, 2002). This applies to
racial groupings as well (Hilton & Von Hippel, 1996; Kobrynowicz, 2000; Rubin,
Hewstone, & Voci, 2001). These discriminations may have been adaptive in precivilized



1401
societies in that they helped preserve the cohesion of the family or village unit, and
enabled the village to adopt a vigilant, distrustful stance toward potentially threatening
outsiders. However, making these discriminations is not compatible with maintaining
civilized social relations in the modern world.
This human tendency to affiliate with familiar persons like oneself first appears in
infancy. By sixth months of age it is natural for infants to form a close social bond with
their primary caregiver, and to prefer the caregivers presence over the presence of
strangers (Ainsworth, 1979). This innate behavior has adaptive value in that the infants
survival depends upon the mothers commitment to the care of her infant.

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS OF PERSONS
Research in social psychology has repeatedly demonstrated that people
reflexively form initial impressions of others that are often inaccurate and based upon
incomplete data (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 1999; Funder & Colvin, 1988). These
impressions are often based upon nonverbal, visual cues such as facial expression, body
posture, dress, etc. Much of this initial impression formation is automatic and not under
the immediate control of the person (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 1999), although these
initial impressions are subject to later revision based upon further contact with the other
person (or group). It follows that if someone is racially different from ourselves, we are
predisposed to respond differently to that person in an initial encounter than if s/he was of
the same race.

SEEKING ORDER AND PREDICTABILITY



1402
All of the cognitive tendencies just described relate to the cognitive need to bring
order and predictability to the material and interpersonal world, and to reduce chaos and
uncertainty (Flavell, 1999; Ryan, 2000). Being uncertain about one or more aspects of the
environment is more stressful for humans than being certain, even if ones certainty is
false. This is especially so the more authoritarian one is (Adorno, 1950; Simpson &
Yinger, 1965). Discrepancies between what one believes and what one is actually
experiencing produces cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957), which is stressful.
Research indicates that humans do not always reduce cognitive dissonance by processing
information in an unbiased manner. Rather, information can be distorted in a way that fits
preconceived notions, thus lowering cognitive dissonance and producing the illusion of
knowing and understanding the environment (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 1999; Biek,
Wood, & Chaiken, 1996; Edwards & Smith, 1996).

LOGIC AND ILLOGIC IN HUMAN THOUGHT
All of the above leads to the conclusion that humans are capable of both logical
and illogical thought in relation to their environment. Nearly one hundred years ago
Freud (1964) first identified the concept of the ego, which operates on the reality
principle, and the id, which operates on the pleasure principle. The aggressive and sexual
instincts of the id conflict with the mental processes of the ego, resulting in tendency of
humans to process information accurately some of the time, and inaccurately at other
times.
The human brain is not a homogenous entity. Higher order thinking that employs
reason and logic, and is based upon reality, is organized in the cortical areas of the brain



1403
(Huffman, 2004). The limbic system, especially the amygdala, is associated with
emotions and impulses (e.g., aggression, fear, etc.) that can overrule the logic and reason
of the cerebral cortex. One important implication is that humans are predisposed to make
false conclusions about the environment some of the time, especially when their emotions
are involved.
This relates to the fact that human cognition is both automatic and controlled,
depending upon the circumstances (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 1999; Devine, 1989;
Fiske, 1989). Some thoughts occur automatically and are not subject to immediate
conscious control. For example, the directive Dont be prejudiced forces the listener to
automatically consider prejudice itself directly, and to experience prejudice, before
rejecting prejudice as a legitimate mode of thought. Logically speaking, something
cannot be consciously rejected if it has never entered conscious thought.
In summary, human cognition is such that people are predisposed to have
prejudicial thoughts regarding people from different racial groups. However, people also
have the vital human capacity for self reflection, or thinking about their thoughts. This
empowers individuals to keep this prejudice latent, and thus subject to reality testing.

TENDENCIES IN HUMAN PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL RELATIONS
As with cognition, there are universal tendencies in human personality and social
relations that can lead to manifest racial prejudice and discrimination. These tendencies
include the following:
A. The tendency to feel ambivalent (e.g., to seek out yet repudiate) toward those
with whom we have social relationships, whether these relationships are
formal and distant, or informal and intimate;



1404
B. The tendency to feel tension and conflict between the risk of intimacy and the
safety of isolation.
The following sections will discuss each of these principles in further detail.

AMBIVALENCE IN HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
There is a universal human tendency to experience varying degrees of
ambivalence in most human relationships (Beavers, 1985; Nichols & Schwartz, 1991).
This is because all humans are finite and limited, and no one individual can completely
satisfy all of another persons needs. Thus, human relation-ships can be fulfilling, but
they are also inevitably frustrating to some degree. A parent cannot satisfy her childs
every need all of the time, nor can a spouse fulfill every wish of her partner every minute
of every day. Thus, all children have mixed feelings toward their parents, as do spouses
toward each other, even though the mix of feelings may not be consciously
acknowledged (Framo, 1982; Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 1985; Nichols & Schwartz,
1991). Ideally, the positive feelings outweigh negative feelings that arise out of
frustration.
The same is true for less intimate relationships, such as with supervisors,
coworkers, neighbors, etc. As with ties to family and friends, these other relationships
cannot be completely satisfying all of the time and some tensions arising out of
frustration are almost inevitable from time to time.
A later section will discuss the role of human ambivalence in relation to
eliminating prejudice and discrimination.

INTIMACY VS. ISOLATION



1405
Erikson (1982) and other developmental psychologists have identified the
psychosocial conflict between intimacy and isolation as one of the key developmental
issues in adulthood. This refers to the human need for openness, honesty and acceptance
in a relationship with another person, in spite of the risks this entails, versus retreating to
the safety of isolation from others, in spite of the loneliness this entails. (Intimacy
refers to interpersonal closeness that may or may not also be sexual.)
Human intimacy is problematic in the sense that one must allow oneself to
become vulnerable in order to achieve intimacy with another person. One cannot achieve
intimacy by displaying a false front, and by withholding thoughts and feelings that may
be embarrassing or socially undesirable, just to save face (Beavers, 1985). All human
beings are limited and less than perfect. Intimacy is achieved when one is accepted by the
other in spite of ones flaws and imperfections. (Acceptance of ones limitations does not
imply endorsement of these limitations.)
The implications of this with respect to eliminating prejudice and discrimination
will be discussed in a later section.

SUMMARY
In conclusion, human cognition and personality are complex and sometimes self-
contradictory. Rational thinking coexists with irrational emotion. The full gamut of
emotions, from love to anger to anxiety to sadness, and infinite combinations of these
emotions, all reside within the same person. Fulfilling relationships are at the same time
frustrating to some degree. Altruism and human love coexist with the capacity for hatred
and cruelty, all in the same person.



1406

AN IMPERATIVE
It is imperative that these tensions and contradictions be acknowledged,
understood and accepted if we are to address the problem of manifest racial prejudice and
discrimination. (Again, acceptance does not imply approval.) The way out of
discrimination is not through repression and the demand that people think only correct
thoughts and experience only positive emotions toward other groups. Doing this can lead
to repressed ambivalence, given that people do not want to ostracized because of their
inner thoughts and feelings. Human beings are biologically unable to think only
empirically correct thoughts all of the time, and to feel only positive emotions all of the
time.

THE PROBLEM OF REPRESSED AMBIVALENCE
Repressed ambivalence can have tragic consequences. Several examples will
illustrate this point.
An historical example of repressed ambivalence can be found in the treatment of
Jewish people under the Third Reich. The Jews were blamed for the economic woes of
Germany after the First World War. They were castigated for being allegedly mercenary
and selfish, to the detriment of others. Nonetheless top Nazi officials, such as Herman
Goering and others, when given the opportunity, hoarded gold, jewelry, and valuable
paintings seized from the Jews, moved into mansions that had been expropriated from the
Jews, and thus exhibited the same character traits that they had proclaimed as being an
evil characteristic of Jewish people.



1407
An equally abhorrent outcome of repressed ambivalence can be found in the many
lynchings of Black men during Reconstruction in the South. Many of these lynchings
were motivated by the prevailing myth that Black men were hypersexual and represented
a threat to White women. The relationship of White men to Black men was indicative of
repressed ambivalence. On the surface White men denigrated the sexuality of Black men,
yet beneath the surface there was envy of the Black mans supposed sexual prowess. It is
not a coincidence that in many of these lynchings the genitals of the Black men were
mutilated (Brundage, 1993; Pinar, 2001). A repudiation of Black sexuality coexisted with
an attraction to (i.e., envy of, and therefore the wish to destroy) Black sexuality. This
ambivalence was never acknowledged, and as was the case with Jews under the Third
Reich, it was avoided through the use of brutality with the target group.
Perhaps on a more mundane level, a third example of repressed ambivalence can
be found in the many unhappy couples who claim to love one another and have nothing
but the best intentions for their partner, yet whose marriages are beset with unending
quarreling and conflict. Each partner attacks the other while each adamant ly denies the
existence of any ill will in him/herself. Instead, the anger and resentment of each person
(i.e., the negative pole of that persons ambivalence) is denied and then projected onto the
partner and is experienced as coming from the partner, not oneself (Beavers, 1985).
When couples can acknowledge their own limitations and imperfections, instead of
projecting them onto the partner, positive change can then occur in their relationship.
An example of repressed ambivalence where the positive pole is denied can be
found in White Americans who denigrate the physical characteristics of African



1408
Americans, and then spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars each year in tanning
and hair salons that move them closer to an African appearance.

IMPLICATIONS FOR ADDRESSING THE PROBLEM OF PREJUDICE AND
DISCRIMINATION
To review, human cognition functions in ways that bring perceived order and
stability to the environment, but with the risk of incurring unfounded prejudice and
discrimination. The human personality is such that interpersonal relations are complex
and usually involve ambivalent feelings.
The paradox is that when undesirable thoughts and feelings are repressed for the
sake of fairness and humanity, they are more likely to be acted upon than if they are
openly acknowledged. An exhausted mother, for example, who is allowed to experience
and communicate her weariness and irritation with the demands made upon her by a very
active toddler whom she loves, is less likely to act out of anger than if she is told she
must think only positive thoughts about her child, even when she is awakened at 3:00 am.
Given these strengths and limitations of the human mind, what are the
implications for reducing prejudice and discrimination in American society? First, the
fact that human beings are less than perfect and will continue to think latent prejudicial
thoughts must be accepted. Ironically, thinking a prejudiced thought alone does not make
one prejudiced. It is only when these thoughts are unquestioned and accepted as true that
one becomes prejudiced. While humans are susceptible to prejudicial thinking and
manifest discrimination, they are also capable of self-reflection and can thereby exercise



1409
control and personal choice with respect to this thinking. In other words, this thinking can
be held up to the light of reality, and dismissed.
One important implication is that degree programs in the human services
professions must nurture a campus culture that allows for students to be honest with
themselves and others, without fear of social or academic reprisal. This can be easier said
than done, given the axiom that we must respect the dignity and worth of all peoples.
However, simply having a biased thought does not mean that one must act upon it. It is
not biased thoughts themselves that are the real problem. Rather, it is how one handles
these thoughts that can create a problem.
Diversity training programs in the classroom and the workplace must establish a
safe milieu where well- intentioned people can be honest with one another about inner
thoughts and feelings that may be prejudicial, but are there nonetheless. Repressing these
thoughts and feelings, or consciously withholding them to avoid disapproval and
ostracism, increases the likelihood that they will be acted upon subconsciously. Again,
the paradox is that when people of good will allow themselves to consciously experience
latent prejudicial thoughts and then hold these beliefs up to the light of reality, these
thoughts will not be expressed in the form of manifest prejudice and discrimination.
Given the charged atmosphere and defensiveness that characterizes many
discussions of race and ethnicity, however, doing this is easier said than done (Young,
2003). Diversity initiatives must be entered into with tolerance and the best intentions,
and with an acceptance of the limitations and imperfections of others, including oneself.
This is how true intimacy between individuals and different groups can be achieved.



1410
However, it must be understood that achieving this intimacy requires that one experience
personal vulnerability.

CASE STUDY: ONE STRATEGY FOR REDUCING PREJUDICE AND
DISCRIMINATION
In his classes on human diversity the author tries to establish an open, safe,
inviting environment for intimate discussion of racial matters by first stating openly that
all humans, himself included, have limitations and imperfections, one of which is the
human tendency to classify and categorize people in ways that are not always objective
and true.
Next the author reminds students that course grades are based solely on their
academic achievement in the course, and not on the basis of their character and any
personal limitations and imperfections that they may communicate in class. (Being
subject to course grading can inhibit an open class discussion of sensitive issues such as
this.) The students are asked to commit themselves publicly to class confidentiality,
meaning that the content of the class discussion is not to be shared with anyone outside of
class.
Next the author informs students that it is understandable if they were predisposed
to think a certain way about the author when they first met him, simply because he is a
White man. This means they are human. It does not in itself mean they are prejudiced. It
is only if they wholly believe and act upon stereotypes of white males, without subjecting
these stereotypes to objective analysis, that they commit the error of manifest prejudice
and discrimination. A person can experience prejudicial thoughts at the same time that



1411
s/he tries to perceive another person in a fair and objective manner. This is a both-and
phenomenon, not an either-or choice.
Then the author models risk-taking by sharing one of the prejudicial thoughts he
has experienced. This example occurred during a visit with his young grandchildren.
Everyone was watching Sesame Street on television. During one segment a tall, athletic
African American man came onto the set, dressed in jeans and a muscle shirt. His hair
was fashioned in dread locks. The author experienced an inner jolt of initial surprise
when this man then sat down at the piano and beautifully began to play a Chopin etude.
The author would have been less surprised if this man had come out to play Chopin
dressed in white tie and tails, not surprised if this man had begun to play jazz or rhythm
and blues, and not surprised if he had been a White man in formal dress coming out to
play Chopin.
The author is not proud of this experience, obviously, but he would be less than
honest if he denied experiencing surprise when a Black man in casual dress began to play
Chopin. The point of sharing this story with students is, among other things, to illustrate
the concept of ambivalence, or thinking two contradictory ways about one thing at the
same time. The authors know that African American men can play classical music, and
there are a number of such in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in the authors home
town. On the other hand his reaction to the man on Sesame Street revels that he also does
not know this because of a preconceived stereotype regarding the musical interests of
African American men dressed in casual clothing. The second reason to share this story is
for the author to take the lead in sharing with others inner thoughts and feelings that are
prejudicial, and are in need of conscious dismissal.



1412
If dialogue such as this is entered into in a spirit of good will and with the desire
to remove the barriers of prejudice and discrimination that often divide different racial
and ethnic groups from one another, it can reduce interracial tensions over time, and
lower the level of manifest prejudice and discrimination that persists in American society.
In conclusion, given the realities of human cognition and emotion, it is a mistake
to insist that everyone eliminate prejudicial thoughts from their inner mind. This would
be desirable but for the fact that it is not feasible. Everyone who pursues the dream of
social justice and racial harmony must come to terms with the reality of human limitation
and imperfection. What is feasible, however, is for people to become aware of their inner
prejudices, and through the use of objective, logical reflection, subject these prejudices to
the light of reality. Doing this will not eliminate prejudicial thinking, but it will prevent
prejudicial thinking from becoming manifest prejudice and discrimination.




1413
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1416
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THE INFLUENCE OF RACE, GENDER, AND
SOCIOECONOMICS FACTORS ON THE INCIDENCE AND
PREVALENCE OF DIABETES AMONG CHILDREN AND
ADOLESCENTS:
NORTH CAROLINA CASE


SUNDAY NDOH, PH.D.
JOHNSON C. SMITH UNIVERSITY
CHARLOTTE NORTH CAROLINA
AND
JOSIE SCALES, PH.D.
TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE




1418
The Influence of Race, Gender, and Socioeconomics Factors on the
Incidence and Prevalence of Diabetes among Children and Adolescents:
North Carolina Case


INTRODUCTION
Diabetes is recognized as one of the most serious chronic diseases in the United
States today. The incidence and prevalence of this disease has received a lot of attention.
This is partially due to the fact that diabetes affects over 16 million American children
and adults each year (American Diabetes Association (ADA), 2003).
According to the National Institutes of Health (2003) diabetes is the fifth leading
causes of death in the in U.S. and has contributed directly or indirectly to approximately
one million deaths each year. People with this type of disease are at higher risk for heart
disease, stroke, blindness, kidney failure, amputations and other chronic complications.
The total direct and indirect economic cost of diabetes in 2002 was estimated to be $132
billion dollars, about one out of every 10 health care dollars spent in U.S. (ADA, 2003).
Type 2 diabetes among young people is a newly recognized disease in the United
States (Fagot-Campagna et al. (1999). Clinical-based reports and regional studies
indicated that Type 2 diabetes is becoming more common and growing at rapid rate
among children and adolescents, particularly in American Indian, African American and
Hispanic/Latinos populations. According to the National Institute Health (2003), this
disease affects approximately 150,000 young people under the age of eighteen (about one
in every 400). The report also reveals that each year, more than 13,000 young people are
diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and the peak incidence of Type 1 diabetes occurs during



1419
puberty, around 10-12 years of age in girls and 12-14 years of age in boys (American
Diabetes Association, 2003).
Lawrence et al. (2003) maintains that until recently, children suffering from this
chronic disease were considered to have Type 1 diabetes and only 1-2 percent of the
children had Type 2 diabetes. However, recent reports indicate that 8 to 45 percent of
Children with new cases of diabetes have Type 2 diabetes. The variation on the
percentages is believed to depend on racial /ethnicity and other socioeconomic factors.
Current studies revealed that children who suffer from Type 2 diabetes are typically
overweight/obese or have a family history of the disease. According to the National
Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease (2003), the prevalence of obesity
among adolescents has nearly tripled in the last 20 years. This increase in obesity is
believed to be due to lack of physical activity and unhealthy eating patterns by young
people (Kandath (2002).
Diabetes affects all races. The impact of the disease, however, differs among
races. Several studies have shown evidence of a high prevalence of the disease in the
American Indians, African American and Hispanic populations (Taylor 2001; Egede and
Zheng 2003). American Indians are 2.2 times more likely to have the diabetes than white,
African American is 1.6 times more likely to have the disease than white and the
Hispanics are 1.5 more likely to have diabetes than white (ADA, 2003). It was pointed
out that the incidence of this chronic condition for African American is 50% to 100%
higher than for Caucasians (Misra, 2003). According to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (1999), Social Economic Status (SES) and Unequal access to quality
health care may contribute to the disparities in the diabetic rates.



1420
Previous studies have shown that there is a correlation between gender and
diabetes. Taylor (2001) revealed that about 3.5 million women in the United States have
been diagnosed with this disease, and an equal number have diabetes and dont know that
they have it. African American women and men have higher rates of diabetes than
European Americans women and men. According to Taylor (2001) approximately 8
percent of African American Men and Women have diabetes. The author believes that
this chronic disease has reached epidemic proportions for African American Women as
he noted that approximately one in four African American Women 55 and over have been
diagnosed with the disease.
Numerous studies have shown that income, education and occupation are
significantly related to incidence of diabetes (Hjelm et al. 2002).Robin and Vaccarino
(2001) report that socioeconomic status inequalities in Health may contribute to the high
prevalent rates of diabetes due to unhealthy Lifestyles, inadequate access to health care,
nutritional inadequacies and Psychological stress. Everson and Maty (2002) suggested
that the least well off suffer a disproportionate share of the burden of disease; including
depression, obesity and diabetes. The study suggests that the adverse effects of economic
hardship on both mental and physical health and functioning are evident in young ages
and persist across the life course.
Epidemiological studies maintain that the role of Psychological characteristics,
social factors and behaviors in Health and disease risk is indescribable, thus highlighting
the Striking association between socioeconomic factors and Diabetes and other chronic
diseases.




1421
THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to analyze data on the prevalence of diabetes in North
Carolina, especially diabetes related death among adolescents. The aim is to investigate
whether the prevalence of diabetes in North Carolina exhibit the same pattern discussed
in literature (Sex, Ethnicity and Level of Activity/Obesity) and also to tract the trend line
for diabetes related death rate among the adolescents.
Data will be obtained from North Carolina center for health statistics, department
of diabetes control and Department of Health and Human Services.

ANALYSIS OF DATA
Table 1
Prevalence of Diabetes in NC 1994-2000

YEARS %With diabetes
1994 4.2
1995 4.5
1996 4.7
1997 5
1998 6.1
1999 6.3
2000 6.4
Fig. 1
Prevalence Of Diabetes in NC 1994-2000
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002
YEARS
%

w
i
t
h

i
n

N
C
%with diabetes

From: NC Diabetes Prevention and Control



1422
It is estimated that there were about 584,000 people with diabetes in North
Carolina in 2000. This represents 6.4 percent of the population compared to 6.3 percent
for U.S. Table 1 and Figure 1 indicate that the prevalence of diabetes has been increasing.
In 1994, 4.2 percent of North Carolinians had diabetes, but in 2000 the rate increased by
about 50 percent to 6.4 percent. Not only has the incidence of diabetes increased in North
Carolina, but diabetes related death rate has also increased. In 1994, diabetes was
responsible for 1597 death in North Carolina, by 2000 the number of death increased to
2078; about 30 percent rise in mortality rate. (Valeriano et al. 2002)

Fig. 2
Age- Specific Mortality For Diabetes
For Children and Adolescents
12
15
20
29
33
35
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
# of deaths

From: NC Vital Statistics.

Diabetes related mortality rate has seen even more significant increase among the
adolescent and children in recent years. Figure 2 above shows that there were 12
Adolescent deaths attributable to diabetes in 1997. In 2002 the number of death increased
to 35, about 192 percent increase for the period between 1997-2002.
It is generally believed that being overweight and being from certain racial group
increase the risk of diabetes. In North Carolina (Figure 3), 60 percent of



1423
Fig. 3
Prevalence of Overweight People with
Diabetes in relation to the General
Population (2000)
80
60
20
40
0
20
40
60
80
100
with General
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

Overweight
Norweight


weight. Figure 3 above shows that 80 percent of the population that were the population
were overweight in the year 2000 and 40 percent had normal overweight had diabetes but
only 20 percent of the people with normal weight had diabetes.

Table 2
Race/Ethnicity And Diabetes

Race/Ethnicity Percentages
Overall 6.4
White 5.9
African-American 9
Latin-American 3.7
Native-American 10.2

From: NC Prevention and Control.

Numerous studies have shown evidence that there is a correlation between
prevalence of diabetes and ethnicity. Data on the Prevalence of diabetes and Race for
North Carolina for 2000 is presented on table 2 above and figure 4 below. The figure
shows that Native Americans and African American had the highest incidence of diabetes
in 2000, with rates of 10.2 and 9 percent respectively. The Latino and White Americans
had lower incidence rates than the overall population in North Carolina. In U.S. and most



1424
other States, the Latinos population tends to have higher incidence of diabetes than the
data observed in North Carolina, about 8.2 percent( Voleriano et al., 2002).




















SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Diabetes is one of the most serious health problem facing North Carolina . This
chronic disease is the fifth deadly illness and responsible for 2087 death in 2000. Both the
prevalence and mortality rate due to diabetes have been increasing in North Carolina.
Diabetes related death among children and adolescents actually increased by 192 percent
in the state between 1997-2002.
According to Taylor(2001) and Egede and Zherg (2003), ethnic minorities tend to
have higher prevalence of the disease than the white Americans. Except for the Latino
population, data for North Carolina support this common observation. The prevalence of
diabetes among Native and African Americans were respectively 4.3 and 3.1 percent
higher than White American.



1425
The rapid increase in the incidence and death rate due to diabetes among children
and adolescent has been documented in various studies. Callahan (2000),Cara (2000) and
Hathout et al. (2001) have all reported recent increase in type 2 diabetes in children and
adolescents, especially African, Hispanic and Native American children. Most of these
studies attribute the surge on the incidence of this disease among this age group to
obesit y, sedentary lifestyle, high fat diet and family history.
The 192 percent increase in diabetes related death among children and
adolescents in North Carolina should be of major concern to public officials. Diabetes
presents unique problems for children. Frequent urination and medication which might
include insulin could present special issues for children and school administrators.
Programs targeting changes in diet and increase physical activities to control the disease
needs to be part of the educational program for these children. It is not certain how this
could be achieved given the current budgetary constraints imposed on school districts
across the state.




1426
BIBLIOGRAPHY

American Diabetes Association. Diabetes Statistics, 1/30/04.
American Diabetes Association. Economic Cost of diabetes in U.S. in 2002: Diabetes
Care, 2003,26: 917-932.
Callahan S.T. Type 2 diabetes mellitus in children . Journal of Pediatrics 2000,
12(4):310-315.
Cara J.F. Type 2 diabetes in children. Journal of Pediatrics 2000; 136(3) 365-369.
Everson, S.A. and Maty, E. Epidemiological evidence relation between socioeconomic
status and depression , obesity, and diabetes. Journal of Psychosomatic research,
2002. vol. 53, p 891(5).
Fagot-Campagna A. Emergence of Type 2 diabetes mellitus in children. Epidemiological
evidence . Journal of pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism. 2000;13(6):1395-
1402.
Hathout E.H et al. Diabetic autoimmune makers in children and adolescents with type 2
diabetes. Pediatrics 2001; 107(6):E102.
Hjeln, K. et al. The influence of socioeconomic status and lifestyle on self-reported health
in diabetes and non-diabetes. Primary Health Care Research & Development
2002. vol. 3,p249(11).
Kandath, R. Diabetes among on the rise. Asia, Africa intelligence wire Nov. 14, 2002.
Andrew J. Karter. Race and Ethnicity: Vital constructs for diabetes research. Diabetes
Care 2003; V26i7 2189(5).
Lawrence, J.M. at el. An epidemiological study of diabetes in youth. Department of
Research and Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente, Pasadena, CA 2000.
Misra R. Race, Ethnicity ca have mortal consequences for diabetes in U.S. Biotech week
2003, P386.
Taylor, S. and Braithwarte. Health issues in the black community. Jossey-Bass
Publishers, 2001.
Zheng, D and Egede. Racial/Ethnic differences in adult vaccination among individuals
with diabetes. The American Journal of Public Health 2003; vol. 93, p. 324.



AFRICAN AMERICAN GRANDFATHERS:
A NEGLECTED RESOURCE IN CHILD WELFARE AND
KINSHIP CARE






DR. OLGA OSBY
JACKSON STATE UNIVERSITY
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI




1428
African American Grandfathers: A Neglected Resource in Child
Welfare and Kinship Care


ABSTRACT
This paper explores the historic and current roles of grandfathers in the African
American community. In child welfare, and especially now with so much emphasis on
children being raised by grandmothers, grandfathers are often forgotten or overlooked for
their role in rearing children, as well as the contribution they make to the healthy growth
and development of children. For a good number of African American children, living
with a grandmother and grandfather in the same household is as close as these children
will come to having a traditional nuclear family structure. Furthermore, compared to the
increasing number of children living in single mother households, children living with a
grandfather in the household may well be the only way in which these children can
witness traditional gender roles in a household and the ways in which men and women
interact.
This paper explores the ways in which fathers and grandfathers contribute to the
rearing of children. Two ethnographic interviews were conducted with grandfathers who
are actively participating in parenting for a second time around. The grandfathers
discussed their perceptions parenting. African American males as care givers have been
neglected in social welfare agencies, overlooked by society for their contributions in
rearing children, and for too long viewed with suspicion and mistrust by child welfare
workers and advocates because of their gender. This paper highlights the invaluable role
that fathers and grandfathers in the successful rearing of children.



INTRODUCTION
Grandparents rearing their grandchildren is not a new phenomena, but is it
certainly a growing issue within families across the country (Kleiner & Hertzog, 1998).
In child welfare, and especially now with so much emphasis on children being raised by
grandmothers, grandfathers are often forgotten or overlooked for their role in rearing
children, as well as the contribution they make to the healthy growth and development of



1429
children. What is now termed as kinship care, or relative care, has been a traditional
informal practice in the African American community since slavery (Fuller-Thomson &
Minkler, 2000). Grandparents have always held a special role in the rearing of their
grandchildren.
Historically, African American grandparents assumed primary or sole care of a
grandchild or grandchildren due such issues as poverty, oppression, racism and the lack
of economic opportunities that forced a migration pattern of African Americans from the
South to Northern industrial towns in search for work (Fuller-Thomson & Minkler,
2000). Grandparents became the primary caretakers of the children, or assumed
temporary care during summers when their grandchildren returned to stay with
grandparents (Fuller-Thomson & Minkler, 2000). Grandparents have also had to assume
informal caretaker duties in cases of teen pregnancy or due to incarceration of one or both
parents (Musil, 1998). Today, the reasons why children are in the care of a grandparent
may vary, but most often the reasons for the child being left with a grandparent is due to
negative social ills that has placed the child at risk. Such issues as child abuse or neglect,
substance abuse, the incarceration of one or both parents, death and HIV/AIDS, has
forced grandparents in every racial and socioeconomic level to accept partial or full
custody of their grandchildren (Johnson & Waldfogel, 2002; Fuller-Thomson & Minkler,
2000).

KINSHIP CARE IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY
Kinship care, or relative care, has become the placement of choice for child
welfare agencies around the country whenever a child is in need of foster care (Fuller-



1430
Thomson & Minkler, 2000; Green, 2000). Kinship care has most often occurred on an
informal bases, such as an arrangement agreed upon between the child=s parent and the
grandparent, without putting the child and family through the formal state foster care
system. Todays kinship care system tends to be more formal in nature, meaning that
relatives, most often grandparents, and most often still one of the child=s grandmothers,
will become the primary care taker, through an arrangement with a child welfare agency,
for a child who is under state custody (Green, 2000).
The research shows that this issue has hit African American families heavily.
Being single, poor, living in an urban inner-city setting and being African American
substantially increases the likelihood that a grandparent will become a primary caretaker
of one or more grandchildren (Fuller-Thomson & Minkler, 2000; Cimmarusti, 1999).
African American children are nearly four to five times more likely than their white
counterparts, to live in a kinship-care arrangement with a grandparent (Fuller-Thomson &
Minkler, 2000). These children tend to enter kinship care arrangements at a younger age,
and tend to stay longer in these types of care arrangements than Latino and White
children.
The numbers of grandparents who are now assuming care of their grandchildren is
both astounding and growing. Since 1970, grandparent-headed households have grown
105 percent. Between the 1990 and 2000 census surveys there was a 30 percent increase
in the number of children who were reportedly being reared by a grandparent (Hudnall,
2001). This 30 percent increase represents an additional one million children living with
one or both grandparents. According to the 2000 census report, 2,350,477 grandparents
were responsible for rearing their grandchildren who were under the age of 18 (Hudnall,



1431
2001). According to the same census data, there were 889,415 grandfathers who had
assumed care of their grandchildren. The census data also notes that 60 percent of the
children being reared by grandparents are more likely to be living in poverty (Hudnall,
2001). These numbers have serious implications for children and the grandparents who
have assumed care of a child at a later stage of their lives.
What can be deducted from the above statistics, is that children living with both
grandparents in the household, may have an economic and social advantage. For a good
number of African American children, living with a grandmother and grandfather in the
same household is as close as these children will come to having a traditional nuclear
family structure. Furthermore, compared to the increasing number of children living in
single mother households, children living with a grandfather in the household may well
the only way in which these children can witness traditional gender roles in a household
and the ways in which men and women interact.
What has received scant attention in the social service literature is how males,
especially African American males have been neglected as resources as care takers by
social welfare and child welfare agencies, as well as their traditional contributions in
rearing children. Males have been viewed with suspicion and mistrust by child welfare
workers and advocates because of their gender, or have been overlooked or ignored as
potential care givers. This paper will examine this issue, and highlight, through two
qualitative interviews with grandfather care givers, their invaluable roles in rearing
children, and the problems they experience in working through the child welfare system.




1432
GRANDPARENTS AS PRIMARY CAREGIVERS
Most of the research into kinship or relative care has focused on grandmothers
(Musil, 1998; Gibson, 1999; Fuller-Thomson & Minkler, 2000). Research has confirmed
that those providing kinship care for children tend to be older, single, females who have
less education and lower incomes than non-kin foster care parents (Green, 2000). Due to
the age of most of these grandmothers, the state of their health becomes a major issue of
concern (Green, 2000; Kleiner & Hertzog, 1998; Musil, 1998). Other issues that are
typically faced by these grandmothers are economic difficulties, lack of government
support in helping to take care of the grandchild, isolation of the grandmother from her
social network, isolation from other family members, and the health and mental health
needs of the child who may have been abused or suffers from developmental delays or
other challenges (Kleiner & Hertog, 1998; Musil, 1998).
Although the literature on the benefits of having a grandfather present in the home
is limited, some studies have emerged that suggest that children do in fact benefit from
having a grandfather in the household (Kleiner & Hertzog, 1998). Grandfathers tend to
offer two very important methods of support for grandmothers. The primary method of
support to grandmothers and the children is in the form additional financial support.
Grandfather- headed household tend to have more money available to them. A report
issued by the U.S. Census Bureau (1999) found that of the households headed by a
grandfather, 72 percent of them were still employed. In these households, 56 percent of
the grandmothers were still employed. This is an activity that single headed grandmother
households have difficulty maintaining. Secondly, grandfathers provide that traditional
authoritarian male gender role that the child may not receive from a single- mother or



1433
single grandmother headed household (Kleiner & Hertzog, 1998). Having a grandfather
in the household obviously addresses two other fundamental stress factors found with
single grandmother headed households, which are the isolation from social networks and
isolation from other family members. Given this research, it is clear that children who
have the advantage of having a grandfather in the household, have a distinct social and
economic advantage over their counterparts being reared by either single mother or single
grandmother headed households. Therefore, it is interesting to note the lack of research
and discussion in the social service literature about the benefits and the role of these
grandfathers in the lives of their grandchildren. Some of this is an extension of the
seemingly prejudice in child welfare community around involving men in the decisions
made about the placement and rearing of children.

MALES AS CARE GIVERS
In the popular media, as well as in the social science literature, males are seldom
seen as central to the rearing of children (Coles, 2001). In fact, for African American
males, the general stereotype is that males are generally absent or non-involved in the
rearing of children. So much of the social science literature relate to the rearing of
children by Black women. Society has socialized men and women to believe child care
and care giving are the sole domain of women. While times have changed, and more men
are now integral in the direct care giving of their families, society still has a long way to
go. How men are viewed who take on the role of providing child care can be seen in a
recent study conducted by the group Daycare Trust, which revealed that 56 percent of
those surveyed believed that they would be suspicious of the motives of a man who



1434
elected to work in a day care center. Their primary fear is the risk of paedephilla. This
fear and the suspicious of the motives of males taking care of children is held despite the
fact that eight in ten of those surveyed stated that they were in favor of more men
working in child care fields.
A social work student once related in a class that in her internship placement, she
witnessed social workers in her child welfare agency discussing and questioning the
motives of a African American man who wanted to his three nephews out of foster care,
placed in his care and to adopt them. The objection of the primary case worker was that
they wondered why a single man would want to assume care and adopt the children.
Other social welfare agencies working with families often actively recruit and engage the
mothers and grandmothers, but seldom seek input from male members of the family.
Coles (2001) studied the roles and goals of single African American fathers, who
were responsible for the full- time care of their children. She found that the literature
tends to focus on non-resident fathers, or fathers who did not live full- time or assume
full-time care of their children. She noted that the literature also favored studies on teen
fathers or white fathers, while labeling African American fathers in the category of
absent fathers. She states that while admittedly, while the number of single-father
households is small across all racial groups, the proportion of African American single-
fathers is as high as the number of White single- father households. In fact, more men are
now taking legal means to challenge the notion that only mothers should have custody of
children, and fighting for full custody of their children (Smith, 2003; Hamer &
Marchioro, 2002).



1435
Coles study asked ten single African American fathers how they viewed their
roles as fathers. The fathers identified the following as their primary roles, in rank order:
1) nurturer; 2) provider; 3) teacher; 4) authority figure; and 5) disciplinarian. Coles study
also allowed fathers to identify the behavioral goals of the fathers for their children. In
rank order, fathers identified the following: 1) to try new things; 2) to get along with
others and to be creative; 3) to have compassion and to be polite; 4) to be obedient, to
succeed in school, to be independent; and to have high self-esteem. The goals of these
fathers were no different from what mothers and grandmothers would attempt to instill in
their children. Coles (2002) also found that three issues stood out about the men who
assumed care of children: 1) they stated that they had a desire to be the kind of father they
did not have; 2) the fathers saw themselves as primarily provider and nurturer, although
this somewhat depended on the gender of the child being cared for; and 3) the men all
displayed a high level of satisfaction and self-assessment.
The issue of the involvement of men in the daily care of children are very similar
between fathers and grandfathers. In essence, the group of fathers most affected by social,
economic and legal barriers to rearing children are all basically low- income or working-
class African American males. For too long, their role in the care taking of their children,
and the benefits gained by children that exist when these men are involved, have been
overlooked. When grandmothers are asked why they decided to take on the care of their
grandchildren, the vast majority of these grandmothers will state that they do not want to
lose these children into the welfare system, and to keep these children connected to the
family (Osby, 1999). Fathers who have fought to gain custody of their children, and
grandfathers who have sought for their grandchildren to live with them, will most often



1436
site a similar sentiment (Hamer & Marchioro, 2002). Recent studies also cite father=s
reasons for seeking custody of children, because: 1) the mother is unable to financially
care for the child; 2) because the mother is physically or psychologically unfit to parent;
3) because the child wanted to live with the father (Hamer & Marchioro, 2002).
As can be seen in the interviews with the two grandfather care givers discussed
below, males have the same aspirations for their children as mothers and grandmothers
have. The primary difference is that their roles as care takers are over looked, neglected
or made marginal by the larger society and unfortunately it seems, the child welfare
community and the social science literature.

INTERVIEWS WITH GRANDFATHERS
The two grandfathers interviewed where part of a study of 10 African American
grandparents who had assumed care of their grandchildren due to the absence of their
children. In both of these cases, the parents of the grandchildren were absent due to the
children=s entrance into the child welfare system in Chicago, due to the abuse, neglect and
substance abuse of the parents. Of the ten grandparents, only two grandfathers consented
to be interviewed. Of the eight grandmothers interviewed, only two of them were married
at the time of the interviews. The grandfathers interviewed during this study were both
married and living in the same households with their wives at the time of the study. Also,
both grandfathers were assisting in the care of more than one grandchild who was
removed for their homes by the child welfare system.
The first of the grandfathers interviewed from this study as a 58 year old Haitian
American, caring for his daughters three children, age 7, and 6 year old twins. At the



1437
time of the interview, this grandfather was also taking care of his wife and mother- in- law,
both of whom were recovering from strokes. He was employed full- time, owned his own
home and licensed by the state of Illinois as a foster care giver. This care giver assumed
care of the three grandchildren when they were infants and toddlers, because his daughter
abandoned the children.
This care giver was a loving and devoted grandfather to the children. His
philosophy of rearing his grandchildren was that he was going to raise them in the
Haitian way. He stated:
I watch them closely, and I do not want them to pick up bad habits from other
children. If they are outside playing, I am outside with them.
As a caretaker, some would describe his style as strict and very traditional, but he
was also loving and respectful of the children. He was extremely involved in the lives of
these children, and was very proud of their accomplishments. During the course of the
interview, he would repeatedly leap from his seat to show pictures of the children, to
show their report cards, and to show off awards the children had received. One of the
educational goals that the grandfather talked about for the grandchildren was that once
the children reached about 12 years of age, that he would be able to send the children to
Paris to attend school there, because:
France=s educational system is the best, and it would prepare them to do whatever
they want in the future. I have a dream for the children, and I want them to have
the best education I can provide.
Given all the care taking duties and other responsibilities on this grandfather, he
had to obtain both formal and informal support systems. There was a live-in home care
assistant, who only spoke French, who assisted with the mother and mother- in- law. His



1438
wife=s sister also assisted with her mother, sister and for the children. She was the only
family member assisting the family, but that seemed to be at the desire of the grandfather.
We do not have friends who are available to help. We are a close family, and I
would not have anyone else coming in over the children.
The grandfather had a very strong sense of only wanting only the formal and
informal social support services that he needed. But he did have some criticism of the
Department of Child and Family Services who oversaw the welfare of his grandchildren.
Their rules, according to this care taker, were too strict, and he felt almost prevented him
from his ability to take in his grandchildren.
Well, the one thing I would tell them is not to push me to do this, to do that. They
require that each child has their own room. We are not rich people, each child has
their own bed. That is the important thing. I told the judge, I have done the best I
can since they were two weeks old. They eat better than me. I eat at Burger King,
but they don=t. I make sure they eat good, sleep good. I wash out their clothes and
make sure they have clean underwear. I make sure they are taken care of better
than any other children. They are my grandchildren. I get them toys, tapes, and
anything they need.
This grandfather had assumed a monumental task of caring not only for his
grandchildren, but his wife and mother- in- law as well. But grandfathers like this one are
too often overlooked in their efforts to provide for their families.
This second grandfather interviewed was also living with this wife and their three
grandchildren. The grandparents also owned their own home, and both grandparents were
working. They had assumed custody of the children due to the substance abuse of their
daughter, but the children had always lived and were cared for by the grandparents.
We all the family they know. Cuz even when they were born, they were born right
here, and they brought em right here. From the hospital to here.
Unlike the Haitian American grandfather, this grandfather reported that they had
lots of family support in their efforts to rear their grandchildren. Their other children and
extended family members all assist with the children.



1439
Theyll come and ask if they can spend the weekend with them, or theyll come
and get em and say okay theyll take them to the show. Ball games, and I have
my son, hell come pick them up or theyll come out, each birthday, theyll come
out, they have a birthday party. Each one. Every year. The whole family will be
here for each one of em. And that show love, you know, that hey, youre not
counted out. Youre not catching them sad or nothing, see, we are together.
This grandfather clearly saw his role in the lives of his grandchildren as a nurturer
and teacher, and he expressed an understanding that with what the children were dealing
with, in terms of the absence of their mother, that his and his wife=s role was to be there
when the children faced difficulty.
All I can do is show them. Each day, its a battle. Each day, you know, step by
step. And with these kids, it is. It=s step by step because you never know that
tomorrows gonna bring, or what my walk through the door. In here its fine, but
once you walk out the door, it=s a different story. You don=t know what is gonna
happen.
This grandfather was also looking toward the future. When asked about the future
in rearing his grandchildren, he stated:
Well, I hope that they will always be with us. I pray that theyre always safe. That
we live long enough to see them get 21 years old. That way I know I and my wife
did our best.
Like most grandparents who assumed care due to abuse or neglect of their
children because of substance abuse, this grandfather talked about how hard it has been
taking his grandchildren to and from court. For most of these grandparents, the fact that
their children are not living up to their responsibility of being the type of parents that
these grandparents would like to see for their grandchildren, if painful for them. But they
also see this pain on the faces of their grandchildren, especially when they are involved in
the child welfare and family court systems.
I dont think they should drag the kids into the courtroom. I don=t think they
should be confronted with that. Because, it too much for them to try to
understand. Its too big of a load. Because there everybody talking. They know,
they smart enough to know, that they=re talking about them. But they don=t know
why.



1440
Interesting enough, this grandfather did not have much criticism for the child welfare
system. But he had some concerns about how well resources are distributed to
grandparents rearing their grandchildren. His other major concern was that he felt that for
the most part, the power over the children is held by the neglectful parents, and that
grandparents were provided little consideration in the social service system for any rights
that grandparents should have as they take on the parenting role for the second time
around.

SUMMARY
The vast majority of the literature on kinship or relative care concerns the
problems and issues of grandmothers in taking care of their grandchildren, and rightly so.
Statistically, this is a critical issue for grandmothers across racial and socioeconomic
levels. However, the role and importance of grandfathers in the lives of these children
must be explored. Part of the issue of concern is that African American fathers, and
grandfathers, are so often neglected by the child welfare system, even when they want to
be included in the decision- making and rearing of their children and grandchildren. For
the sake of children, millions of whom know how valuable having that male presence is
in their households, child welfare advocates must give this population greater priority.




1441
REFERENCES

Bryson, K. & Casper, L. (1999). Nearly 5.5. million children live with grandparents. U.S.
Department of Commerce, Census Bureau.
Cimmarusti, R.A. (1999). Caregiver burden in kinship foster care. Kinship Care:
Improving Practice Through Research. In J.P. Gleeson and C.F. Hairston (Eds.)
pp. 257-278. Child Welfare League of America: Washington, DC.
Coles, R. (2001). The parenting roles and goals of single Black full- time fathers.
The Western Journal of Black Studies. 25(2), pp. 101-116.
Community Care (2003). Public Anxiety Over Men in Child Care. #1476.
Fuller-Thomson, E & Minkler, M. (2000). African American grandparents raising
grandchildren: A National profile of demographics and health characteristics.
Health and Social Work. 25(2).p.109.
Gibson, P.A. (1999). African American grandmothers: New mothers again. Affilia:
Journal of Women and Social Work. 14(3). P.329.
Hamer, J. & Marchioro, K. ((2002). Becoming custodial dads: Exploring parenting
among low- income and working-class African American fathers. Journal of
Marriage and the Family. 64(1). p.116.
Hudnall, C.E. (2001). >Grand=parents get help. AARP Bulletin Online.
Johnson, E.I. & Waldfogel, J. (2002). Parental incarceration: Recent trends and
implications for child welfare. Social Service Review. pp. 460-479.
Musil, C.M. (1998). Health stress, coping, and social support in grandmother caregivers.
Health Care for Women International. 19(5).
Osby, O. (1999). Child-rearing perspectives of grandparent caregivers. Kinship Care:
Improving Practice Through Research. In J.P. Gleeson and C.F. Hairston (Eds.)
pp. 215-232. Child Welfare League of America: Washington, DC.
Roe, K.M. & Minkler, M. (1999). Grandparents raising grandchildren: Challenges and
responses. Generations. 22(4).p. 25.
Smith, W.C. (2003). Dads want their day. ABA Journal. 89(2).



THE MEXICAN LABOR MARKET ON THE 2000-2020
HORIZON:
A REAL CHALLENGEONLY FOR MEXICO?






ERNESTO F. PERALTA
EL COLEGIO DE LA FRONTERA NORTE
MONTERREY, MXICO




1443
The Mexican Labor Market on the 2000-2020 Horizon: A Real
ChallengeOnly for Mexico?


INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this paper is double, i) to visualize the Mexican labor market
perspective on the horizon between years 2000 and 2020, and ii) how this trend might
impact both demographic structures and labor markets in Mexico and the United States.
This note has six sections. The first is an historical introduction describing demographic
trends in Mexico and the United States; the second explains the theoretical frame; thirdly,
labor supply is measured by revising historical information to have homogeneous
definitions and numerical estimates comparable from 1950 to 2020; in the fourth, labor
demand is estimated in terms of formal jobs; in the fifth, supply and demand are matched
to visualize possible unemployment levels; finally, some suggestions are formulated to
diminish the resultant unemployment rates in the fifth section.
Why does the Mexican labor market imply a real challenge?
Because people who will look for a job within the next twenty years are alive
now, and the challenge is to provide them of good jobs; otherwise, we will face more
severe problems like those of illegal migration and borderline conflicts.

HISTORY AS A PROLOGUE
Historical records of population trends in Mexico and the United States (U.S.) are
depicted in Chart 1, where it can be seen that Mexican share has grown vigorously in the



1444
last century, above all since 1950, when it was 14.6% and shifted upward to 25.7% by
year 2000; demographic forecasts, elaborated by the United States Census Bureau (the
Bureau) and the United Nations Organization for the U.S. and Mexico respectively, tell
us that such a share would be 26.6% by year 2050, when the sum of both population
figures would be 550 million inhabitants.
Chart 1 U.S.A. and Mexico total population (millions inhabitants)
0
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Mexico
U.S.A.

So, in year 2000, there were 36.3 million of Hispanics in the U.S., say, 13.0 % of
its population; the Bureau estimates that Hispanics would become 24.3 % in year 2050.
Chart 2. %s of Hispanic Population in the U. S., 2000
Cubans
3.5%
Others
28.4%
Mexicans
58.5%
Puerto Ricans
10%




1445
The same source reflects that 58.5 60% of Hispanics are Mexicans, as shown in
Chart 2, representing 20.6 million people, of which 8.5 million have come from Mexico,
whose migration flows to the U.S. has been each time more intensive during the last 30
years, as it can be inferred from figures in Table 1.
Table 1. Foreign born population in year 2000 (thousands)
Year of entry Total Latin Americans Mexicans* Mx-EAP % Ratio
(1) (2) (3)=(2) x.585 (4) (5)= (3)/(4)
1990 and after 11,206 6,039 3,533 37,630 9.4
1980-1989 8,022 4,393 2,570 26,320 9.8
1970-1979 4,605 2,383 1,394 18,440 7.6
before 1970 4,547 1,663 973 13,037 7.5
Total 28,379 14,477 8,470
Source: Foreign born from the U.S. Census Bureau; Mx-EAP: Mexican Economically active Population
from Wharton Econometric Forecast Associates. *58.5% from the Bureau

Such an intensity shifted upward could be explained by the plausible hypothesis
that the majority of Mexican immigrants came to the U.S. looking for a job due to both
demographic and economic trends in Mexico that make them not get a job there.
Therefore, it is convenient to visualize the Mexican labor market perspective due to
possible impacts on the relationships between Mexico and the United States.
So, during the seventies and eighties, researchers paid a lot of attention on the
future labor market of Mexico (Urquidi 1974, Mndez 1975 and Trejo 1988) running
from the eighties until the early XXI Century, this because baby boom and first neo
Malthusian policies would have built the basis of future and increasing labor supply vis-
-vis difficulties visualized to create enough employment opportunities for kids and
teenagers of those times, since the industrialization via the import substitution economic
model showed signals of weakening then. That future became reality and proved those
fears were well sounded, so Mexico faces a serious unemployment problem now since



1446
more than half of its economically active population (EAP) does not have permanent or
formal jobs, as it is shown in Chart 3.

Chart 3. Labor supply vs labor demand in Mexico, 1980-2003.
workers
0
5,000,000
10,000,000
15,000,000
20,000,000
25,000,000
30,000,000
35,000,000
40,000,000
45,000,000
1
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Labor supply
Labor demand: formal employment (IMSS)
Informal sector area

Term unemployment implies many forms here, from open unemployment, 2% or
3% of Economically Active Population (EAP), up to that composed by workers that get a
job for forty hours a week at most, representing 40%; paradoxically, the Mexican open
unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the world, which is due to workers having to
create their own job to survive since they are not supported by any type of unemployment
insurance, like those in the U.S. or Europe; Mexican disguised (un)employment includes
marginal jobs like shoe shiners, ambulant salesmen and even prostitutes disguised as
waitresses. This employment problem produces others like a large informal sector
promoting poverty, criminality and a strong emigration to the U.S. The previous
panorama could be repeated again within the horizon 2000-2020 because labor supply is
a practical parameter since people that will compose it are alive today, and problems like
the described above would be enlarged and could be out of control considering future



1447
demographic dimensions, so it is advisable to accelerate the pace of job creation,
otherwise the future looks conflictive not only for Mexico but also for the U.S., mainly
due to a more intense migration of illegal workers.
So, an aim of this note is to measure and visualize the Mexican labor market on
the horizon 2000-2020, in number of workers, by forecasting supply and demand and
suggesting policies against future unemployment levels that look inevitable. The supply
side is represented by the EAP and the demand, by workers with formal or permanent
jobs; the hypothesis is that labor supply is given until year 2020 but it is practically
impossible to create the jobs required, so we will suggest policies to delete or at least
reduce unemployment within the next twenty years.

THEORETICAL FRAME
The labor market concept is as old as economic theory. David Ricardo wrote in
1817 that equilibrium existed when market and subsistence salaries coincide, the former
given by supply and demand of labor, and the latter being enough to keep a certain
minimum level of subsistence for a worker and family; if population grew rapidly, it
would produce a labor surplus, thus market salary would be depressed lowering standards
of living, producing higher mortality that would reduce labor supply, promoting salary
levels; in the long run market and subsistence salaries would advance toward the same
level and salary mass would remain, profits would decline and land rents increase; this
was Ricardos distribution scheme. But at the same time, early XIX century, the Classic
School of economics presented Says Law, which establishes a necessary equilibrium in
markets under a plain flexibility of prices and salaries; but Malthus did not accept Says



1448
Law because he visualized deficiencies in demand impeding automatic market
equilibrium, as Keynes ratified in the 1930s, so he proposed to increase public
expenditures with special emphasis on public works creating jobs as well as a strength
aggregate demand, under the catastrophic experiences of the Great Depression; however
the Classic viewpoint of automatic equilibrium has been updated by contemporaneous
authors guided by Milton Friedman (Friedman 1978 and Lucas & Rapping 1969), who
promoted labor flexibility to get full employment, against monopoly-type trade unions;
this approach has exerted a strong influence on the economic policies followed in less
developed countries like Mexico, under the so called Neo Liberal economic model;
Friedman et al. recognize full employment exists when numbers of vacancies and
workers unemployed coincide, say, the natural rate of unemployment, whose most recent
version is called the non accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU),
registering around 6% in the U.S. in our days (Samuelson 2001: 698-699). Between old
an new Classic schools, radical economists argue that unemployment is conditioned
sinequanon for capitalism because labor surplus reduces salaries and thus enlarges
profits; this approach was originally presented by Marx, and revisited by Baran &
Sweezy (1968) and Braverman (1984).
In the early fifties emerged a new version of Classical economic theory that
assumes unlimited labor supply generated by four sources: i) population growth,
ii) female labor force, iii) informal sector, and iv) technological unemployment; this new
version was thought for less developed countries and presented by the 1979 Nobel Prize
winner Arthur Lewis (1963)
*
, who was born in the Caribbean island of Jamaica, and

*
The original article was published by The Manchester School in May, 1954.



1449
followed by Ranis & Fei (1961), Todaro (1984) and Sen (1966); Lewiss model is
depicted in Chart 4, where horizontal straight line w-w is the level of subsistence salary,
parallel line to labor axis, the vertical axis measuring marginal productivity and salaries,
and curve AC is marginal productivity of labor; x-x line also represents unlimited labor
supply, whose intersection with AC, point B, gives formal employment at level OB,
implying informal employment as distance BC; area AwD is a surplus that partially will
be invested an this shifts upward to the right production curve, from AC to A
o
C
o
and
increases employment from OB to OBo; this process keeps the pace thanks to unlimited
labor supply that maintains salary at a subsistence level as well as higher expected
profits.
Chart 4. Lewis Model



A
A

w
D w





O B B C C

But unlimited labor supply seems to exist in many other countries, so
unemployment has become a serious problem even in the US and Europe; ILO
*
estimates
a world labor force of 3 billion people, half of the world population, and one billion
suffers the impact of unemployment in one form or another.

*
(Organizacin Internacional del Trabajo (OIT):
http://www.oit.org.pe/spanish/260ameri/publ/panorama/2000/anexos.html#cuadro6a



1450

ECONOMICALLY ACTIVE POPULATION (EAP), THE LABOR SUPPLY SIDE
To get to know a reliable dimension of Mexican EAP has been the job of various
researchers in Mexico since the sixties (Morelos 1968, Altimir 1974, Rendon & Salas
1986 and Jusidman & Eternod 1995); the sources have been population censuses
principally, but implying conceptual modifications, changes of real circumstances and
mistakes that make it difficult to compare historical data; censuses have used different
definitions, they were taken under different phases of the economic cycle or month of a
year forgetting the impact of seasonal intensity of economic activities, different periods
of reference to register economic activity; or impacts of real phenomena like a more
intensive women economic participation, elderly aging population, an accelerated
urbanization combined with a higher service sector, higher levels of migration to the
U.S., or even errors like that of higher figures of workers than those of people living in
certain age groups (Morelos, 1968: 31-32). But to project labor force, it is necessary to
have a reliable basis given by historical trends, so we reviewed and eventually modified
figures of both total population and EAP, from 1950 to 2000 according with disposable
statistical information; for this, we consulted Mexican and foreign agencies, like the U.S.
Census Bureau or the Latin American Demographic Center (Ladece)
*
, the latter in the
United Nations Organization (UN) system. The steps followed were the following ones:
v The censuses data and projections of total Mexican population by sex and age
from year 1950 to 2050 were presented by Ladece, but we took from them
only until 1990 since Ladeces publication was in 1998, so the year 2000 data
were projected rather than historically registered, but 1950-1990 Mexican

*
Centro Latinoamericano de Demografa (CELADE):
http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/Poblacion/2/LCg2152p/lcg2152_ParteA.pdf



1451
population censuses figures were corrected of underestimation by Ladece,
principally for groups younger than ten.
v Mexican data for year 2000 were adjusted by underestimation of infant groups
applying probabilities of life (given by the Mexican public agencies Instituto
Mexicano de Geografa, Estadstica e Informtica and Consejo Nacional de
Poblacin: National Institute of Geography, Statistics and Informatics and
National Council of Population, Inegi & Conapo 1985), to births registered
during the nineties to estimate population groups of children under the age of
ten by year 2000; since population of active ages 20-35 looks overestimated
by Ladece in the year 2000, we subtracted from them the Mexican population
emigrated to the U.S. during the nineties, according to figures in the Bureau
(year 2000 Census) where they appeared like immigrants from Latin America
(where Mexicans were included) by using the Mexican proportion (58.5%)
obtained from this source; resultant figures are closer to those of Mexican year
2000 census. So, we propose new figures for year 2000 with increased groups
of children and reducing those of active ages (between 20 and 35).
v Revisions and adjustments described above are necessary if we want to
dispose of reliable figures to be taken as a starting point for population
projections, since revised and projected figures included EAP; demographic
figures were presented by sex and 5-year age groups primarily and, secondly,
because the ratio of economically active population of age x to respective
population x age group, (EAPx / TPx), is an economic active rate, a
x
, we read
carefully historical trends of this type of rates, finding stable trends for men
but not for women, so we had to adjust them to have the other reference point
to project EAP from the 2000 to 2020 period, say, the future labor supply.
Male rates keep a stable trend in central ages, 20-54, declining only for the
youngest and oldest groups by effect of school attendance and retirement
respectively. But women rate trends show sui generis trends by effect of
accelerated both economic and demographic evolution in countries like
Mexico. By visualizing original rates we constructed historical trends and
apply them to sex and age population figures from 1950 to 2000 resulting new
estimates of Mexican EAP for this period, which were compared in respect to
estimations elaborated by other researchers from 1950 to 1990, and then we
built new series including EAP figures revised for year 2000. So, we adopt
our EAP proposal because it kept an historical stable trend and offers an
adjusted figure for the year 2000 (Chart 5).




1452
Chart 5. Ecnomically Active Population by sources (workers)
0
5,000,000
10,000,000
15,000,000
20,000,000
25,000,000
30,000,000
35,000,000
40,000,000
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Censues
Adjusted by researchers
Proposal

v To make an EAP forecast, we applied projected rates to respective
demographic projections by sex and 5-age groups. Rates were estimated
assuming Mexican economic active rates would be similar in the year 2020 to
those of developed countries now, principally for women since the men ones
would not present strong changes. Population by sex and age was projected
following trends given by Ladece but taking off from our year 2000 estimate.
EAP projections were compared with projections elaborated by Conapo,
showing strong differences in the year 2000 but converging in the year 2020
as shown in Table 2. We prefer our estimates because Inegi-Conapo (1985)
projections differ strongly in respect to data from both National Employment
Survey (Inegi 2001) and the Mexican Population Census.

Table 2. Forecast of Economically Active Population
Year 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020
Male
Conapo 28,377,443 31,831,587 35,128,917 38,050,178 40,455,955
Proposal 25,101,883 28,435,177 31,861,536 35,307,171 38,593,837
Female
Conapo 14,921,203 17,317,664 19,476,911 21,421,659 23,073,407
Proposal 10,957,738 13,689,972 16,826,165 20,344,133 23,940,494
Total
Conapo 43,298.646 49,149,251 54,605,828 59,471,837 63,529,362
Proposal 36,059,621 42,125,149 48,687,701 55,651,304 62,534,031
Source: Conapo 2000, p. 26; our proposa al explained in the text.

THE DEMAND SIDE: FORMAL AND INFORMAL EMPLOYMENT



1453
In this paper unemployment is measured as the difference of EAP minus formal
employment, the latter according to statistical information published by the Mexican
Social Security Institute (IMSS) principally, plus estimates of permanent jobs in
government institutions, Armed Forces and petroleum public enterprise Petrleos
Mexicanos (Pemex); IMSS figures were adjusted eliminating housewives and students
from its item other groups. But the main source is IMSS because this source reports data
of permanent employment by economic sector and is stated monthly, while government
social security institutions (Instituto de Seguridad Social de los Trabajadores al Servicio
del Estado: ISSSTEs), both federal and by states, Pemex and Armed Forces do not
publish employment statistics periodically, so we had to consult population censuses of
years 2000 and 1990 as follows:
v For the year 2000 IMSS permanent employment report presents, gross
numbers, 12 (million of workers); while EAP employed figures were 34, 39
and 43 according to Population Census, National Employment Survey and
Conapo respectively; we can find strong differences under a concept in the
same year, due to differences in population targets or methods for statistical
information gathering; also, strange trends were observed from the Survey,
since EAP remains unchanged and occupation declines between 1998 and
2000. So we prefer to keep our EAP estimate obtained as described above,
whose level for year 2000 was 36 million workers, and maintains a stable
historical trend from 1950 to 2000 as shown in Chart 5.
v To dispose of reliable figures of employment by economic sector for year
2000 we subtracted 96.5% of other groups from the IMSSs permanent
employment data, remaining only workers; the 3.5% difference was added to
item social and community services figure. The IMSS report includes two
types of services: i) financial services and support to enterprises, and ii)
social and community services, but Population Census classifies such
subgroups in a different way within each type, so departing from Census
figures we translated cultural and enjoyment services and those of hotels and
restaurants from the second to the first type, and kept educational, health and
social support and governmental activities in the second one. Both new totals
substitute those of IMSS because we assumed that all these types of services
are registered in social security institutions, IMSS and ISSSTEs, workers in
private and public sectors respectively. Our new estimate for total permanent



1454
employment raises from 12 to 15 millions, a poor figure of formal
employment when compared in respect to that of EAP estimate from any
source.
v We found a classification problem between Census and Survey figures, since
in the latter appeared a global number for mining, manufacturing and
construction, so we decided to apply sector weights from Census to Survey
global indicator to have a nine sector list under a more reliable employment
figure than that of Census; additionally, unspecified item in Survey was
divided into nine sectors according to their employment levels, thus producing
indirectly new employment economic sector weights, that pondered our EAP
36 estimate described above. In such a way we could compare formal against
informal employment levels by sector, as it is shown in Table 3, so facilitating
to construct labor productivity ratios by sector that were tools in forecasting
labor demand through forecast of GDP under three different rates of growth
scenarios (2.6%, 5% and 7%) which in turn, were divided by labor
productivity rations to produce labor demand estimates.
Table 3. EAP from Population Census, formal EAP and EAP proposed, by
economic sector in year 2000
Sector Census Formal Proposal
Agriculture 5,338,299 453,500 6,546,567
Mining 144,421 278,671 339,493
Manufacturing 6,418,391 4,374,667 6,984,458
Construction 2,669,751 516,827 2,109,583
Electricity, gas & water 151,546 170,800 226,236
Commerce 5,597,992 2,180,500 6,343,949
Transport, storage &
Communications. 1,701,920 625,333 1,604,539
Business services 6,422,364 2,324,500 7,111,054
Communal & social services 4,272,947 4,356,090 4,731,148
Others 1,012,579
Total 33,730,210 15,280,888 35,997,026
Source: XII Population Census and formal EPA estimated like explained in text.
v Looking for historical sequence we followed a similar adjustment procedure
for 1990 statistics, but considering differences of classification. First, we
adopted the EAP figure estimated by Jusidman & Eternod (1991: 16, table
1.9), and secondly, IMSS figures of formal employment were adjusted as
follows: a) 96.5% of IMSS other groups was deleted because housewives and
students stay there, and the 3.5% remaining was added to social and
community services; b) from 1990 Population Census were taken workers
from petroleum & gas extraction sector the following occupations:
professionals, technicians, inspectors & supervisors, laborers, fixed machine
operators, helpers and transportation operators, all these added to number of
workers in mining number reported by IMSS; c) a 1.2 factor was applied to
number of workers in electricity IMSS figure trying to improve the 1989
estimate presented by the Public Bank (Nacional Financiera, Nafinsa 1990:



1455
635), because the major part of those workers were in the state energy firms
Comisin Federal de Electricidad (Federal Commission of Electricity, CFE)
and Compaa de Luz y Fuerza del Centro (the other Energy Public enterprise,
CLFC); d) the IMSS figure for transportation and communication was
summed to that of people working for government in such a sector; e) finally,
we added figure of public administration and defense from Census to social
and community services IMSS figure. Final estimates are in Table 4.

Table 4. EAP from Population Census, formal EAP and EAP proposed, by
economic sector in year 1990
Sector Census Formal Proposal
Agriculture 5,300,114 471,917 7,898,558
Mining 260,515 226,562 260,515
Manufacturing 4,493,279 2,982,583 4,493,279
Construction 1,594,961 391,536 1,594,961
Electricity, gas & water 154,469 111,900 154,469
Commerce 3,108,128 1,517,167 3,727,267
Transport, storage &
Communications. 1,045,392 459,000 1,045,392
Business services 3,696,740 1,460,417 3,862,712
Communal & social services 2,945,943 1,679,108 2,945,943
Others 803,872 803,872
Total 23,403,413 9,300,189 26,786,968
Source: XII Population Census and formal EPA estimated like explained in t ext.

v According to the procedures described in the previous paragraphs, formal
employment represented 35.4% and 42.7% of total EAP in years 1990 and
2000 respectively. Formal IMSSs employment figures were raised by 17.5%
and 22.6% by adjustments described for years 1990 and 2000. The lowest
formality sector shares are in agriculture and construction, more than 60
percent in mining, manufacturing, electricity, transportation & communication
and public services, this enlarged by bureaucracy; declining shares were
observed in commerce, transportation & communications and private services,
which might be explained by the fact that these sectors include a high
disguised unemployment that grew during the nineties. Shares of formality by
sector can be seen in Chart 6.




1456
Chart 6. Formal employment by sectors, %s
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
A
g
r
ic
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e
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a
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&

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s
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s T
o
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l
Year 1990
Year 2000


Although the adjustment procedures described above are useful to estimate labor
demand, they could be taken only for census years, but an historical trend is required to
facilitate the forecast work; trying to advance in this way, we run labor demand function
by econometric methods, dependent variable being formal employment according to
IMSS figures and both independent variables real GDP, in 1993 Mexican pesos, and
salaries; GDP data from Inegi - National Accounts System, and salary indexes by Wefa.
Three types of equations were adjusted: i) a simple one by using original data; ii) a Cobb
Douglas type function, and iii) first differences of employment and GDP, but not for
salaries. Results appear in Table 5.




1457
Table 5. Ec onometrical adjustment for formal employment, 1980-2002
Coefficiente of: Function Constant
GDP Salary
R2
Adjusted
Colinearity Durbin
Watson
i) AP= C+Agdp+ bSal 2,780125 0.00723 -2,239,761 0.79 -0.62 .66
t values 5.7 -2.4 20 degrees of freedom
ii) AP = A(gdp)
a
(Sal)
b
-5.56 1,032 -0.3487 0.81 -0.67 0.7
Valores t (Nat logaritms) 5.6 -2.5 20 degrees of freedom
iii) AP = C+agdp+bSal 749,458 0.0089 -579,385 0.59 -0.05 1.9
t values 1.9 5.4 -1.6 19 degrees of freedom
Source: constructed with GDP data from Natinonal Accounts System, formal employment data from
National Institute of Social Security (IMSS) and salary indexes from Wharton Econometric Forecast
Associates (Wefa) historical series.

From the numbers in this table we could infer that:
v Plus and minus signs are as expected for GDP and salaries since their
employment relations are positive and negative respectively.
v The key variable for job creation would be GDP, say, economic growth
(t values are higher than 2, which imply 95% confidence levels at least); we
reject the Null Hypothesis that GDP does not matter (regression coefficient is
zero, Ho: = 0).
v Salary would have a lesser impact on employment (since t values are lower
than 2), in statistical words, we accept the Null Hypothesis that salary
regression coefficients are zero (Ho: = 0). In economic terms we would
accept salaries are not so relevant to create employments as economic growth
is.
v There is a weak relationship between GDP and salaries in the third equation (r
= 0.05), which is good since their impacts do not intersect; each one
contributes to employment independently.
v The third equation looks to be free of serial correlation, it saves assumption of
independent observations, this is measured by the Durbin Watson index of
1.9, against 2 level for theoretical acceptance.
v Although the third equation reports the lowest explanation power, R
2
= 0.59
against total explanation given by R
2
= 1, the obtained R
2
is higher than 0.5,
say, it explains more than half of the total relationship between three
phenomena in equations.
v The equations above could be used as forecasting tools taking in account
previous inferences, but we decided only to use the third one.
v However, we face an irregular variance (heteroscedasticity) that might
produce a poor forecast. By this reason, we decide to use two additional
methods to forecast labor demand: i) by using the so called input-output
matrix, and ii) assuming labor productivity fixed ratios applied to three GDP
rates of growth as described above.



1458
Now, it is useful to remember that economic growth in Mexico has shown a poor
evolution during the last 22 years, since average rates for GDP and population were 2.4%
and 1.8 % respectively, which means an annual rate of 0.6 % in terms of per capita GDP;
and this poor economic growth can explain the increasing unemployment level in
Mexico, since the former is the most important cause of the latter.

THE FUTURE MARKET: SUPPLY AND DEMAND OF LABOR
According to IMSS data, the annual average of new formal employment between
years 1980 and 2002 was 390,000, below required average, 800,000, this estimate from
our revised EAP figures; this conflictive relation is explained by a weak economic
growth that did not help enough to employment creation, so we face more than half of
Mexican EAP without permanent jobs today. But a future labor market looks very
conflictive since according to our forecast, the required annual average is 1,324,000,
excluding the informal sector now. To satisfy that job requirement it would be necessary
that GDP grew at higher rates than those historically registered; so, by using a) formula
iii), b) the input-output matrix, and c) fixed labor productivity ratios applied to GDP
scenarios for the horizon 2000-2020, we constructed forecasts that appear in Table 6.

Table 6. Forecast Economically Active Population (supply) vs formal employment (demand) on the
horizon 2000-2020. Thousands of workers
2000 2005 2010 2015 2020
EAP 36,059 42,125 48,688 55,651 62,534
GDP annual rate Regression*
2.6% 15,281 17,382 20,351 23,584 27,110
5.0% 15,281 18,109 23,405 29,876 37,834
7.0% 15,281 18,681 26,084 36,028 49,522
Input - output
2.6% 15,281 18,691 21,039 23,680 26,649
5.0% 15,281 20,982 26,512 33,497 42,318
7.0% 15,281 23,058 32,018 44,456 61,718



1459
2.6% 15,281 18,669 21,220 24,099 27,319
5.0% 15,281 20,957 26,741 34,090 43,382
7.0% 15,281 23,030 32,294 45,243 63,270
By fixed labor productivity
2.6% 15,281 18,455 20,946 23,772 26,979
5.0% 15,281 20,717 26,394 33,627 42,842
7.0% 15,281 22,767 31,875 44,628 62,482
2.6% 15,281 18,303 20,738 23,480 26,543
5.0% 15,281 20,607 26,335 33,640 42,927
7.0% 15,281 22,645 31,804 44,645 62,607
Note. Bold type for GDP restructured scenario, in favor to labor intensive sectors.
* by first differences equation iii) in Table 2.

These figures imply a difficult panorama from today until the year 2020 as it can
be seen in Chart 7. And we emphasize two points: a) the 2000-2020 labor supply is a
practical parameter since people under it just live now, so we need to be more creative in
order to cope with that challenge; b) our job creation forecast implies formal employment
rather a simple creation of any type of job, because this implies a high disguised
employment as it has been seen for the last 22 years.

Chart 7. EAP vs Formal employment, 2000-2020
0
10,000,000
20,000,000
30,000,000
40,000,000
50,000,000
60,000,000
70,000,000
2000 2005 2010 2015 2020
Extrapolative

2.6%
GDP restructured, 5%
GDP restructured, 7%
EAP




1460
Once again, the annual average forecast of new jobs seems to be inferior to
requirements even if GDP grew at a 7% annual rate for the next 20 years
*
, what per se
looks difficult according to our historical experience; however, history shows partial
solutions to unemployment like emigration to the US and an enlarged informal sector in
Mexico, but both would have a lesser potential to absorb employment in the next 20
years. Another possible and future partial solution could be restructuring sector economy
composition in favor of labor intensive activities; to visualize this, we simulated to
subtract 6% of GDP from trade or services sectors, with a strong labor informal
component (see Chart 6), and distributed it to construction, manufacturing and agriculture
principally, as it is shown in Table 7 (and implicit in figures of Table 6).

Table 7. GDP sectorial restructuration impact on formal employement in year 2000
Sector Empleo 2000 % 2000 a b c d
Agriculture 453.500 5.3 1 2 1 1
Mining 67.417 1.3
Manufacturing 4.374.667 20.9 2 2 3 3
Construction 906.167 4.2 3 2 2 2
Electricity, gas &
water
170.800 1.6
Commerce 2.180.500 21.3 -3 -3 -3 -2
Transport, storage
&
Communications.
1.006.672 11.0
Business services 2.324.500 15.1 -1
Communal &
social services
3.821.053 19.4 -3 -3 -3 -3
Total 15.305.275 100.0
Increase in employment levels 256,110 124,615 248,579 197,234
Source: elaborated by simulation in GDO compositons, assuming fixed labor productivity by sector i:
(GDPi /Employment
i
), where i is the sector.


*
7% figure is suggested by the World Bank, See The World Bank, 2001: 8.



1461
These policies enlarging employment could be implemented by pushing demand
of labor intensive sectors, like construction, but taking into account that the engine of
employment is economic growth, supported by public expenditure, training programs and
investments, among others items, whose analysis is beyond this paper.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
We return to theory and historical experiences for job creation. So, Lewis and
followers advised to promote primary sector in a country with rich natural resource
endowments, and Mexico does have them, say, in mining ores, ten thousand kilometers
of sea coasts with fishing and tourist development opportunities, and disposable land for
livestock, principally. Keynes proposed successfully to increase public expenditure with
special emphasis in public works, and Mexico needs physical infrastructure and housing
which would promote construction, a labor intensive industry. Recent publications have
shown investment opportunities in activities with strong backward & forward linkages, a
la Hirschman (Hirschman 1973), like those in food or textile industries, and on this
respect Tec de Monterrey (ITESM) has published regional reports for investment, some
of them already implemented. On the other hand, we see obstacles as expensive credit,
poor infrastructure, excessive paperwork in government agencies, corruption, criminality,
distorted exchange rate and a lack of entrepreneurial abilities, principally. But, as Lewis
emphasized, the key for development is to dispose of a capitalist sector, that uses
reproducible capital and pays for it (Lewis, 1963: 339) ; such role can be developed only
for two types of sectors, entrepreneurs or government; perhaps the government must pay
more attention to economic and labor phenomena, as well as participate more actively



1462
under current global circumstances. Otherwise the labor market panorama, historically
and prospectively, would look conflictive as shown in Chart 7.
Here we can see a future increased difference between supply (EAP) and demand
for labor if the historical trend is kept, the former a practical parameter. Now, the
Mexican government proposes a set of reforms and one of them is on Federal Law of
Labor, looking for flexibility in labor negotiations between enterprises and workers,
implying a trade union weakening, but there are doubts about such reform being
successful considering reluctance by the Mexican Congress.
On the American side, President Bush and Senators Thomas Daschle and Chuck
Hagel have proposed some policies in order to have a better information of illegal
workers in the U.S., where Mexicans have a high share; we think that the latter implies
more viability since they give opportunities to many immigrants to obtain residence in
the U.S. and it seems they looked at this as an opportunity to remain living in the U.S.

President Bushs Proposal Senators Daschle & Hagels Proposal
Immigrants would have:

A visa to freely come in and out of the U. S.,
with the possibility to take their families.
A renewable 3 year work permit.
General labor rights which include
minimum wage and social benefits.
The possibility to change jobs.
The security of not being deported even
when undocumented.
The possibility to get legal residence after 3
years, as long as they are working and
renew their permits.
Immigrants would have:

Legal residence if they :
o do not have a criminal record
o have lived for 5 years in the U. S.
o have worked for 4 years
o pay taxes (plus a $1000 fine)
The opportunity to change jobs without the fear of
being deported.
The opportunity to be hired if there are no
American workers available.

Now we have to follow up these proposals that in one way or another have put
interest in these migration & labor market problems, which implies a higher immigration



1463
component with stable proportion of immigrants like the Bureau has visualized from
today until year 2050 as depicted in Chart 8.
Chart 8. Percentages of Hispanics in the U.S.
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
N
Foreign Born
Natives

So, finally, this paper tries to forecast supply and demand of labor in Mexico for
the next 20 years and sends a new warning message, avoiding the possibility of
neglecting warning papers written from the seventies to the eighties, because the future
implies a big challenge.



1464
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1950-1970. Revista Demografa y Economa, Vol. VIII, Nmero 1, pp. 50-83. El
Colegio de Mxico: Mxico.
Baran, Paul y Paul Swezzy, 1968. El capital monopolista. Siglo XX1: Mxico.
Braverman, Harry, 1984. Trabajo y capital monopolista. Nuestro Tiempo: Mxico.
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CIENES: Santiago de Chile.
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macroeconmica, en Lecturas del Trimestre Econmico, 95. Fondo de Cultura
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Amrica del Norte (ACLAN). Los mercados de trabajo en Amrica del Norte.
Secretariat of the Commission for Labor Cooperation: Dallas, Texas.
Conapo (Consejo Nacional de Poblacin), 2000. Proyecciones de la poblacin
econmicamente activa, de la matrcula educativa, de los hogares y las viviendas
y de la poblacin por tamao de la localidad. CONAPO: Mxico, D.F.
Direccin General de Estadstica, 1972. Secretaria de Industria y Comercio. IX Censo
General de Poblacin , 1970. Resumen General. Mxico, D.F.
Elizaga, Juan Carlos y Roger Mellon, 1971. Aspectos demogrficos de la mano de obra
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Santiago.
Friedman, Milton, 1978. Inflacin y desempleo. En los Premios Nobel de Economa
1969-1977. Fondo de Cultura Econmica (FCE): Mxico.
Hirschman, Albert, 1973. La estrategia del desarrollo econmico. FCE: Mxico.
Instituto Nacional de Estadstica, Geografa e Informtica (Inegi) y Consejo Nacional de
Poblacin (Conapo), 1985. Proyecciones de la Poblacin de Mxico y de las
entidades federativas: 1980-2010. Inegi: Mxico, D.F.
Inegi, 1986. X Censo General de Poblacin y Vivienda, 1980. Mxico, D.F.



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Inegi, 1992. Estados Unidos Mexicanos.Resumen General XI CENSO GENERAL DE
POBLACION Y VIVIENDA, 1990. Inegi: Mxico, D.F.
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Mxico, D.F.
Inegi, 2001. Estados Unidos Mexicanos. XII Censo General de Poblacin y Vivienda
2000. Inegi: Aguscalientes, Ags.
Inegi y Secretara del Trabajo y Previsin Social (STPS), 1997. Encuesta Nacional de
Empleo, edicin 1996. Inegi: Aguascalientes.
Inegi y STPS, 1999. Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, edicin 1998. Inegi: Aguascalientes.
Inegi y STPS, 2001. Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, edicin 2000. Inegi: Aguascalientes.
Inegi y STPS, 2003. Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, edicin 2002. Inegi: Aguascalientes.
Inegi, Sistema de Cuentas Nacionales de Mxico, various reports.
Jusidman, Clara y Marcela Eternod, 1995. La participacin de la poblacin en la
actividad econmica de Mxico. Inegi-UNAM: Mxico.
ITESM (Instituto Tecnolgico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey) y Caintra de
Monterrey, NUEVO LEN ante el Reto del futuro. Centro de Estudios
Estratgicos del ITESM: Monterrey, Nuevo Len.
Lewis, Arthur, 1963. Desarrollo econmico con oferta ilimitada de mano de obra. En
Agarwala y Singh, La economa del subdesarrollo. Tecnos: Madrid.
Lucas, Robert y L.Rapping, 1969 (June). Price expectations and the Phillips curve.
American Economic Review.
Marx, Karl y F. Engels, 1979. El Capital (tomo I). FCE: Mxico
Matriz insumo producto de la economa mexicana 1990. Diskette conseguido en forma
particular.
Morelos, Jos B., 1968 entradas a la actividad, salida y vida media activa en Mxico,
1960-1965 en Demografa y Economa, Vol II. Num 1. El Colegio de Mxico:
Mxico.
Nacional Financiera, 1990. La economa mexicana en cifras 1990, 11 edicin.
NAFINSA: Mxico.
Organizacin Internacional del Trabajo (OIT), 2001. 89 Reunin de junio del 2001.
Pgina Internet.



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Organizacin de Naciones Unidas, 1978. Factores determinantes y consecuencias de las
tendencias demogrficas. Volumen I. Nueva York.
Ranis, Gustav and J. Fei, 1961. A theory of economic development. American
Economic Review, September 1961.
Rendn, Teresa y Carlos Salas, 1986. La poblacin econmicamente activa en el Censo
de 1980. Comentarios crticos y una propuesta de ajuste. En Revista Estudios
Demogrficos y Urbanos 2. El Colegio de Mxico: Mxico, mayo-agosto, 1986.
Ricardo, David, 1973. Principios de Economa poltica y tributacin. FCE: Mxico,
1973.
Samuelson, Paul y W. Nordhaus, 2001. Economics, 17
th
edition. McGrawHill: New
York.
Sen, Amartya, 1966. Peasants and dualism with or without surplus labor. The journal
of political economy, October.
The World Bank, Mexico, A Comprehensive Development Agenda for the New Era, The
World Bank: Washngton, D.C., 2001.
Todaro, Michael, 1984. A model of rural- urban migration. En Leading issues in
economic development , compiled by Gerald Meier. Oxford University Press:
New Yor, USA.
Trejo Reyes, Sal, 1988. Empleo para todos. El reto y los caminos. FCE: Mxico, D.F.,
1988.
Urquidi, Vctor, 1974. Empleo y explosin demogrfica. Revista Demografa y
Economa. El Colegio de Mxico: Mxico.
Wharton Econometic Forecast Associates (Wefa), marzo-2001. Cifras Histricas del
reporte del servicio macroeconmico de Ciemex-Wefa, marzo del 2001.

Newspaper notes
Garca, Samuel, 2002. Empleo. Artculo en El Norte del 11 de junio del 2002 en
Monterrey, N.L.P. 4-A.
Mndez, Villarreal Sofa, 12 de mayo, 1975. Urgen 800 mil nuevos empleos. Revista
Siempre, 12 de mayo de 1975, p. 19;
Mndez, Villarreal Sofa, 19 de mayo de 1975 Medio, no fin crear empleos. Siempre,
19 de mayo de 1975, p. 19;



1467
Mndez, Villarreal Sofa, noviembre de 1975 Inflacin y desempleo. La recuperacin.
Siempre, 5 de noviembre de 1975, p. 14.

References from Internet:
Bureau of the Census: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/demoprofiles.html
Centro Latinoamericano de Demografa (CELADE):
http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/Poblacion/2/LCg2152p/lcg2152_ParteA.pdf
Organizacin Internacional del Trabajo (OIT):
http://www.oit.org.pe/spanish/260ameri/publ/panorama/2000/anexos.html#cuadro6a
Instituto Nacional de Estadstica, Geografa e Informtica (INEGI):
http://www.inegi.gob.mx



AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR CHICAGOS PUERTO RICAN
AND OTHER LATINO COMMUNITIES









NOEMY QUIONES, M.S.
THE COALITION OF LATIN AMERICAN MINISTERS
WEST TOWN, NEW HAMPSHIRE



1469
Affordable Housing for Chicagos Puerto Rican and Other Latino
Communities


HISTORY
Under the guidance of Southern New Hampshire New University - School of
Community Economic Development (CED), I researched data for the creation of a
project proposal for the Coalition of Latin American Ministers (CLAM). The project,
an ambitious undertaking, was a work- in-progress proposal. It was also written in lieu of
the thesis and a criterion to receive my Master of Science degree in 2001. I incorporated
the philosophy and principles of the CED world such as the bottom- up strategy, capacity
building, etc., as well as, my professional and community experiences. You will find in
this paper, that since the delivery of the project proposal, the worlds 911 tragedy and the
wars have caused many uncertainties and cutbacks, e.g., affordable housing programs.
Also, the 2000 census generated positive and adverse changes for the community I
surveyed - West Town.
The CLAM was established as a suggestion by the Latino/Hispanic religious
community to form an umbrella coalition that would work with city officials on
community matters. The CLAM serves as an umbrella organization to more than 300
Chicago churches of an average of 200 members in attendance, weekly, per congregation
of various denominations. Parishes are located in low to moderate income communities.
The CLAM supports these churches in areas of advocacy, networking, community
organizing, technical assistance, leadership and management. Two of their main issues



1470
have been the lack of homeownership among its members and preserving the Latino
cultural. Many of their members will be facing the ill-side of gentrification, that is, being
uprooted from their communities. Part of my background has been volunteering in the
Latino communities through the political process for over fifteen years. Therefore, I felt
this was a perfect partnership in attacking their issues those of which I am very
familiar, given that I too experienced uprooting.

BACKGROUND
At the embryonic phase of the project, I developed the problem statement and
project purpose from which to begin my proposal after CLAM suggested the location to
begin my research, a cluster located within West Town community centering around
Lafayette School, 2714 W. Augusta. Whereas, I met with Miguel Palacios from the
Association House, a CBO located in West Town on February 16, 2000. He provided me
with useful data from their organization, so I could begin ascertaining the projects
environment. Their clientele was largely from West Town and its ethnic data breakdown
indicated Puerto Ricans were the largest subgroup type followed by African Americans.
The following is a similar format I used in my original proposal that had crystallized the
issues of gentrification for the Puerto Rican community.
Problem Statement
Carving out areas in Chicagos poor to marginalized Puerto Rican, and other
Latino communities to build affordable housing before gentrification paralyzes their
ability to ever own property within Chicagos city boundaries.



1471
Project Purpose Statement
To develop mechanisms whereby funding can be raised to provide affordable
housing, leadership development, job creation, personal financial development, and other
social developments that would have a long- lasting effect on peoples livelihoods.
Goal
My original goal was to develop a marketing package, such as a sponsorship
package. The strategy was to connect with corporations; that is, socially conscious
corporations within Latino impoverished communities. At that time, we had a strong
economy. Therefore, I felt this was an opportunity to further reduce the costs associated
with construction costs . I formerly worked for the Mayors Office of Special Events
during the late Mayor Harold Washingtons administration. During that period, I learned
and understood corporate Americas interest in the community and being recognized for
their support by using the companys name/logo, etc. Later, I met with corporations back
in 1988-1992 soliciting sponsorship dollars to fund city festivals, predominately the
Citys first Latino festival, Viva Chicago! Therefore, I suggested using a similar
marketing tool, such as a sponsorship package and using modern visual presentations at
corporate meetings. Actor Paul Newman sees a connection. According to him, only 6%
of corporations nationwide give to charity. He was disappointed with this number and
was supposed to launched an awareness program for better business practices (2000.
Philanthropy Chronicles). Data emphasis in the sponsorship package would be on
demonstrating the Latinos spending power, one of the important factors corporations
consider.



1472
My long-term strategy was to develop a Community Development Corporation,
and a Community Building Division that implements updated long- lasting societal
programs. CLAMs Executive Director, Rick Caban, agreed with the idea. The overall
project was to address the communitys need for home ownership while preserving
culture.
According to Mr. Caban, owning property was expressed by parents of students
attending Lafayette elementary School and Wells high school, both located on the
northwest side of Chicago within the West Town community. I had asked for the raw
data of these parents requests. However, after CLAM restructuring phase, I learned that
the raw data did not exit. Consequently, the sponsorship package had to be postponed.
From my experience, I felt that in order for the package to be credible and believable, two
surveys were needed: affordable housing and expenditure habits (spending patterns/habits
of area residents).

COMMUNITY TARGETED (TARGET MARKET)
Chicago consists of 77 communities, and West Town is one of them. There are 50
wards and West Town is part of the first ward. The community targeted was a cluster
located within West Town where I hired people and provided them with t-shirts and hats
for identity and safety purposes. One assistant inventory (mapped-out) 6,470 community
assets, and four, included myself, surveyed the area for affordable housing. Overlooked
pockets (belts) like this one exist throughout Chicago. The social programs of the 60s and
70s were probably suitable for that time period, but the residents living in this cluster



1473
stayed stuck in that time period. As you will discover in the survey section of this paper,
the traditional methods of addressing social issues of this cluster stopped working.

PUERTO RICANS (Boricuas)
While we were drafting the affordable housing survey, I researched Puerto Ricos
pre-history (Rouse, 1992), to its cultural diaspora from Chicago-Ricans to Puerto Ricos
Vieques (Nemcik, 2000 and Deya 2001), and its environment caused by U.S. military
exercises (after 60 years, U.S. military left Vieques, 2003). I looked at the polarity
differences of their political sphere (especially independent v colonialism) and the
imperialism of the past and present economic dependency phenomenon on the
government. Mr. Palacios said of one social interpretation when addressing the lack of
homeownership, the acceptance of exclusionary appears to be psychological, more to
the effects of colonization. That as a group we have internalized colonialism, so in many
cases where other groups may be more assertive in their economic efforts, we tend to,
because of the colonial mentality, not take the opportunities that are available. He
believes that not being an independent country means you have never been an owner of
your own place. So you feel that youll never own anything, nor have the right to own
your own place. This hinders our ability to claim a place called home. How can
someone repair this situation when one of the culprits (U.S.) wont admit their
connection, nor the affects of colonialism as many scholars and reporters have written
such as Dyson (p. 87-90) and Wills (p. 9). I also looked at their entrepreneur abilities or
lack thereof. Additionally, I looked at their resistance not to drop their first language,
Spanish, a requirement from the Unites States if the island becomes a state. Although



1474
Puerto Ricans are American citizens, many of them believe that when the native tongue is
no longer allowed as the first language - culture is lost. They have used Hawaii as an
example of their lost culture. *Coining Charlotte Black Elk (great-granddaughter of
Black Elk from South Dakota) concerning cultural connection: it is so central to our
existence, this is true of Puerto Ricans as well. According to her, Black Elk was being
forced/manipulated in accepting that in order to be intelligent, you have to speak
English, but history proved otherwise [sic] (C-SPAN, 7-14-01). [*The late Black Elk is
also known for his theological, physics, and scientific teachings].
Puerto Ricans origins are descended from three races: Taino Indian, African, and
Spaniard. Spain conquered the island and renamed it Puerto Rico (formerly called
Borinquen). The Taino Indians and African survivors then were forced into slavery and
servants (other countries integrated further). Later, United States took ownership of the
island. During the war of 1898, United States gained control of Puerto Rico from the
Spaniards (Lopez, R. p. 113). For over 100 years, Puerto Rico is still a commonwealth
society governed by United States laws. Puerto Ricans are American citizens by virtue,
thus given the right to vote. They are nationalistic/patriotic people - very proud of who
they are, that is, its rich culture while enjoying their American status - no passport. They
are caring, giving, passionate, vocal people, and not a stranger to gentrification in
Chicago. Many native Puerto Ricans came to United States to obtain a better standard of
living. Some are known to have or had a militant mentality approach to social issues
which in many aspects have helped their struggles in years past, e.g., Chicago Puerto
Ricans rebelled twice, 1966 and 1977 in Humboldt Park (arteries include Division, North
Avenue and California). Rivera explained, the first mutiny lasted three days and three



1475
nights. The rebellion occurred during the first Puerto Rican festivities caused by living
conditions and police brutality. Thus, the Young Lords, a political gang organization rose
from Lincoln Park (North side). While they were addressing the social issues, Puerto
Ricans were losing the North Side community. In the Humboldt Park community
approximately 2,446 houses and buildings were mysteriously blown up and/or burnt.
Many men, women, and children died during this period. The residents most impacted by
the fires were Latinos and African Americans. Approximately, 271,000 people were
displaced between 1960-1969 (p. 9). A number of Puerto Ricans both here and aboard
are distrustful of Unites States because of how they handle political affairs. That is, if you
do not believe in Unites States government policies you will be dealt with in a espionage-
like manner or worst (Perez and Morera 1997). Documentation exists of past atrocities of
Unites States government involvement of massacres in Puerto Rico for voicing or
protesting dissension on policies. Others, on the other hand, prefer Unites Stated
intervention and their government subsidies. These Puerto Ricans are grateful of the
Unites States for their government programs and public policies because it helped in the
development of the island. Others believe since Puerto Rico has been a dependent island
that if left unattended would not survive on its own. It would be only a matter of time
before another country forcibly controls Puerto Rico, once again. This group has
institutionalized itself from years of oppression. According to Gabriel Nagy of Latinos
United, 121,000 live in Chicago (U.S. Census 1990).




1476
COMMUNITY PULSE
After meeting with Marva E. Williams, Vice President of the Woodstock Institute,
I met with her research analysts, Marti Wyles, who said, in order to get a true pulse on
whats going on, you need to go into the community. This approach added substance to
my paper. The following are some brief anecdotal community stories from interviews
conducted:
My first interview was with Dr. Pastor Bishop Arthur Brasier from the Apostolic
Church of God. He informed me of the earlier days of revitalization - the successes and
the failures of the past projects and learning from them. One community failed due to
residents not factoring or maintaining added expanses - that as renters these payments
were not an issue. This area is in recovering using an 80/20 plan. Eighty percent of the
new housing will be built for upper income families and 20% set aside for lower income
families.
On February 21, 2000, Reverend David Matos-Real newly appointed CEO and
former Board Member (Ex. Dir. had resigned) explained his concerns of the churches
multiplicative problem. Being uprooted for churches may mean impacting more than one
congregation at once. It is a normal practice to lease space to other pastors who do not
have a building of their own to hold services.
Eliud Medina, Executive Director from the Near Northwest Neighborhood
Network (NNNN) and Executive Director of Humboldt Park Empowering Partners
(HPEP), provided information on the Latino migration movement in Chicago and his
definition on gentrification. Capital is behind gentrification. Also, growth tax, growth
dollars, the investors, the big developers, and people who are taking advantage of these



1477
tremendous opportunities that have been created before the 1960s when there was a
tremendous real estate boom as its witnessed today. Theres also an issue of tax base.
Many families owning their homes are the poor working class who work very hard to
purchase a home. To keep their homes, two people would have to work (usually is the
mother and father). These people basically have full-time jobs, or combined incomes of
$29,000 or better. Gentrification brings forth the possibility of these families not staying
and a mechanism for displacement. These families can afford their mortgages, but the
taxes become their biggest concern, since its more than they can afford in many cases.
State Senator Miguel Del-Valle on April 12, 2000 had introduced a referendum to
the longtime homeowners if they want tax relief, either exempt and/or deferral to reduce
their property tax burden. He is also concerned of the Latino community lagging behind
on education and has been outspoken on the subject during speeches conveyed to
students in schools citywide, encouraging them to stay in school and reach higher goals.
Mr. Betlejewski from the 18
th
Street Development Corporation (18SDC) in Pilsen
has a different perspective regarding the out migration of Pilsen. The Pilsen community is
one of the two well known Mexican communities in Chicago. Mr. Betlejewski believes
if people have good paying jobs, a lot of other things take care of themselves. If you
pay people $10-$20/hour, the affordable housing issue will be solved. You wouldnt need
to build any affordable housing. This is the center of 18SDCs work. Also, paying people
well improves schools, infrastructures, etc. He highly recommended the use of the
Tax Increment Finance (TIF) program and felt there is still a lot of ignorance on the
program. I questioned if there was any community representation on the TIF Board
and he said, I could tell you that the TIF isnt representative of the community a lot



1478
of people go bellyache, but they dont do anything about it. Whether you like it or not, we
live in a capitalist society and thats just the way it is. I dont necessarily like it either, but
competition brings lower prices for people. Some people are so rooted in utopian
ideals, and those utopian ideas have nothing to do with reality, theres no connection at
all. And thats what holds us back.
Enrique Salgado, Jr. Executive Director for the Division Street Business
Development Association (DSBDA) discussed the Paseo Boricua project (Puerto Rican
town). His office is located on Division Street. Humboldt Park is home to many Puerto
Ricans and adjacent to the West Town community. There are sketches of facade
depicting Old San Juans aesthetic flavor displayed throughout the office. These sketches
are samples of what is planned for Division Streets revitalization. There are two huge
architecturally designed Puerto Rican flags erected between Division and California
DSBDA does not discriminate against businesses interested in investing on Division
Street; however, he envisions using the paradigm of Chinatown for Humboldt - not a
Greek Town where there are no Greek residents living in the area surrounding the
business strip. Perhaps someday Humboldt will experience a greater resurgence of
Chicagos Puerto Rican people who will then enjoy the fruits of the past struggles as
African Americans are experiencing in the south, according to Gates, Jr. (p. 139-150).
Rivera described Humboldt as as a space of hope, filled with symbolic memories of the
past [sic] struggles to present (p. 9). Chicago is unique and very well known for its
ethnic communities. I believe in years past, ethnic concentration brought about
discriminatory practices - as it was elsewhere in the nation, but its considered trendy and



1479
a way of life in Chicago especially the restaurant districts, but not in blighted
neighborhoods.
On March 30, 2000, I met with Alderman Billie Ocasio from the 26
th
Ward. He
explained how the Redevelopment Plan surfaced. It came out of the HPEP proposal, a
scaled down version. He said of the HPEP proposal, Vice President Gore and Andrew
Coumo, Jr. made the final decision as to who gets the Enterprise Empowerment Zone
monies in the Unites States, but the HPEP proposal was not selected as one of the
recipients. Approximately eighty institutions and professionals worked on the proposal.
Many insiders at HUD said the proposal was excellent. There was community
involvement (the only one with this component), but it lacked a plan for bringing in
companies that would generate thousands of jobs. Those approved had this component.
He continued, a community assessment was developed of what the people wanted in
their community and from there came, the Redevelopment Plan. The Plans purpose is to
stabilize the community by addressing how to stay in the community, gentrifying areas
like Division Street and Humboldt Park area, how to make Division Street more viable
for the Puerto Rican businesses, and why dont Puerto Ricans have economic power and
how do we get that? We need housing, jobs, good education and keeping people in
school.
On March 28, 2000, I met with Jose Lopez, professor at Columbia College,
Northeastern University and Director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center (a.k.a. Division
Streets Mayor). Mr. Lopez has been living in Chicago since the 50s. He gave a polemic
and intrinsic explanation on gentrification from its historical perspective to Chicagos
migration movement beginning with the 1940s. He explained the corridors that were



1480
created as a result and the Puerto Rican women arriving to work for the hotel industry
which was a government program. He spoke of the Chicago Plan 21 of the 60s (an urban
renewal program) and of its relations to gentrification , the Suburbanization that
created the urban ghettoized communities while the wealthier and middle class
population moved to the suburbs. He continued speaking on the Civil Rights movement,
the race riots occurring closer to downtown including the 1968 Kerner Commission
report that President Johnson convened. Mr. Lopez said, the Commission studied the
causes of violence/riots in American cities. Among other things, it pointed out a very
serious problem in American cities. Nowhere else in the world are there cities in which
the wealthy live outside the financial district (downtown). Their question was on how to
bring back the White population. By creating corridors, like what the University of
Chicago did in Hyde Park. Gentrification process takes place around major institutions.
Through the corridors you move people outside of the city, people of color. People of
color will not represent a majority anywhere. They will be a small island of Blacks in a
sea of Whites. Puerto Ricans, Blacks and Mexicans experiencing upward mobility
staying in the city will not be present in bulk numbers. By the year 2015 plus, Chicago
will no longer have a black Mayor elected again. Additionally, theres a technological
divide between whites and people of color. These jobs are not going to blacks or people
of color. High tech jobs are going to whites - high paid ones that is. This is about power!
The only power we have is in numbers. But, if you can dilute those numbers then you
dont have power. (Today, lots of high tech jobs considered white collar jobs are going
oversees, according to Jeff Smith). He believes, of the rejected HPEP proposal,
government cannot allow programs that would try and stay off this process. It is against



1481
the very idea of what they want to do with the city. The future of the city is high tech
centers and people who would have access to that technology are able to build a lot of
power. And from this city, is where youre going to be able to carry out your global
economy and the plans are really to control much of the wealth. Homogenize the city
to get rid of the undesirables. I asked what can be done to change the trend? He said,
Its going be an uphill battle moving forward. Our goal is hope that in the process
something happens that could change this. Its going to be very difficult. Were working
against the most important members of the elite in this country who happens to be the
real estate industry, and I think its going to be quite hard. I dont think its impossible. I
think its going to take a lot of unity on the part of the community.
The following are two success stories involving effective community
empowerment:
v A community located near Little Italy back in the 40s-50s had a lot of Spanish
influence, according to Chuck Parillo and Carmin Carlucci. The Americanos, as
they termed them, always assumed their community was known as part of Little
Italy, but its not true. The gentrification issue of their community has become a
politically heated-debate. They defeated the TIF due to the city omitting
community residents from the overall plan. Since the elderly residents were being
harassed by city inspectors, they fought to put a stop to it - a move which kept the
elderly from losing their properties. Residents were extremely upset to find out
that Mayor Daleys Office was behind many of the developments in their
community which was not targeted to them. They learned that Oscar DAngelo, a
developer and two other top Mayor aides were involved. Both are no longer
working for the city. Hector Santiago, the only Puerto Rican family still living in
this community fought alongside and on behalf of his father to keep his fathers
building. This controversy received a lot of media attention, consequently,
allowing further negotiations.
v On April 12, 2000 in Pilsen, Oscar R. Iracheta, President and Efrain Galicia-
Rincon, Executive Director both from the 18
th
Street Business Association located
in Pilsen fought and won on eminent domain policies that had been affecting its
community adversely. They were fighting the TIF program because it causes
property tax increases and recommended tax deferment as one solution.




1482
SURVEY RESEARCH RESULTS (Encuesta)
According to the survey research, most of the residents are employed and live in a
distress community. During canvassing, residents asked for better housing conditions,
cleaner and safer streets, better schools, and community asset building. They asked for
the very same standards of living any citizen fundamentally has the right to possess.
Community members are disappointed and have been distrustful with the surge of new
housing development not targeted to them. They are not opposed to redevelopment.
Theyre against exclusionary development. As one resident stated, Who is the
development for - not for the residents of this area? Patricia Wright, Associated Director
from University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), Nathelle P. Voohees Center for Neighborhood
and Community Improvement, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, said on
April 11, 2001, affordable housing initiatives should be inclusionary. Initially, I was
advised by my project adviser to leave out the word gentrification from my project
statement because of the negative connotation, but I didnt. This word may imply positive
development for some people, but quite contrary to others. For the Puerto Rican
community, it means being uprooted, again. The Puerto Rican people have been moving
for decades from various Chicago communities, e.g., Southside of Chicago to Old Town,
to Northside, to Buck Town, to Wicker Town, East side of Humboldt because of
gentrification, i.e., exclusionary development.
The following is a brief summary of the survey responses (coefficient variables
were not used): One- hundred and two surveys were completed: 70% of the residents are
Latinos, 14% are Caucasians. Of the Latino subgroups listed, 66% percent are Puerto
Ricans, and 27% percent are Mexicans. More than half asked for affordable housing



1483
(65%) and the remainder said no to affordable housing (35%). Seventy percent of the
residents are renters while 30% are home owners. According to Armas (p. 36) article,
Puerto Ricans are more likely to rent. Thirty-three percent paid $400-$499 on rent, 19%
paid $500-$599 followed by 11% at $600-$699. The rents remaining are at single digit
percentages. I met with Executive Director Juanita Irizarry from Latinos United on
February 2, 2004. She said their data indicated the average Latino is spending 74% of
their income on rent (see exhibit 2). Ms. Irizarry said, This is the 10
th
year anniversary,
since the filing of the Latino Consent Decree - a law suit filed against the Chicago
Housing Authority (CHA) for not including Latinos in their public housing and voucher
programs. The plan for transformation, that is, the CHAs Project Housing restructuring
plan caused their victory to go wrong. Currently, theyre dealing with a myriad of issues,
such as, the CHA meeting only the bare minimum of the consent decree and lacking
effective marketing tools, e.g., target outreach programs, bilingual communication tools
(includes CHA website translation), bilingual staff, etc. Also, they are addressing CHAs
remaking of their image to serve all under represented groups, e.g., First Nations, Asians,
etc. because traditional methods had excluded Latinos. Because of the social issues
resulting from the survey, I advised the CLAM to consider using First Nations Human
Development Graph as a way to chart progress.

MARKET ANALYSIS
A market analysis was also conducted that compounded the issues when
compared to the affordable housing survey. We compared the low wages v housing
affordability. For example, the area medium income earning $32,830 can afford to pay a



1484
$766.03 mortgage payment. However, according to Internet figures, medium housing
prices in that area averaged approximately $368,130. After subtracting the citys deep
subsidy program and expenses from this figure, prospective homeowners would pay a
$2,055.79 monthly mortgage - hardly attainable to area residents.

HOUSING STRATEGY ALTERED
The initial housing strategy (connecting with corporations ) had to be altered
because we were dealing with the poorest of the working poor. The suggestion was to
1) move to a neighboring community such as Humboldt Park; or, 2) consider Community
Land Trust (CLT) which addresses the core of the CLAMs problem: gentrification and
cultural preservation. If the CLT had been considered, then the sponsorship scheme could
have been resurrected. Also, organizers can purchase city owned lots, as suggested by
Charles Daas, Director of Chicago Mutual Network specializing in affordable condos and
coops. According to Mr. Medina on February 4, 2004, HPEP has considered it and is
now looking at the covenant for explicitness in the written language. Since Mayor Daley
has been known to be a proponent of mixed income communities, then CLT is one
strategy he should consider. It needs to be made part of the mix or Chicago will face what
Highland Park, Illinois is now experiencing: lack of affordable housing for the working
poor. The lack of this type of housing stock had impacted Highland Parks city
employees too. (Highland Park is a Chicago suburb and where the former Bulls
basketball player Michael Jordan lives). The UIC completed an affordable housing plan
for Highland Park. Because property taxes skyrocketed, their feasibility study could only
address moderate income earners and has recommended adding a community land trust.



1485
Ms. Wright suggested examining a model from Santa Fe. A land trust must have
political support. The land doesnt appreciate in value which is how you keep costs down.
Areas of land in Highland Park will be used to house city service workers, teachers,
fireman, etc. who live in the area, but the jobs dont pay well. Even though land has been
taken out of the equation, there are still high construction costs, so in Highland Park you
may pay anywhere between $50,000-$80,000. This would not be considered a low
income program, but a moderate income program. In other words, you have to table the
program depending on the situation.

CONCLUSION
At this point, I saw so many red flags that I revisited the CLAM organizations
financial condition in terms of manpower and housing experiences. I looked at their
strengths, weaknesses, and lessons learned. I analyzed data we created/collected, e.g., a
stakeholder analysis report, a sample of a construction budget, an affordability mortgage
report, the affordable housing sampling survey, anecdotal stores, etc.: The CLAM
continues resolving many of their congregations issues and has been handling them very
well. However, they have some shortcomings in size and scope in the field of affordable
housing. The CLAMs strength, the hands-on person, is Reverend David Matos-Real. He
is an excellent leader, speaker, and organizer among many other traits, but he is only one
person running the show. My role initially was to consult for the CLAM and perhaps run
their housing and financial programs, but the organization was young and unable to
tackle such a project at that time. The undertaking of this project can only be successful if
its made an artery to the CLAM and by partnering with experts in the field. But, some



1486
things have to be in place first, e.g., resources to pay for additional staffing, construction,
and political blessings. Then, my project proposal can be resurrected. Nevertheless, brick
and mortar alone wouldnt have solved the issue on affordability - there are serious social
issues as well. It is unfortunate that the residents potential demise, i.e., property
ownership appeared remote was caused by not having CED principles in place. It lacked
leadership and sustainable social programs. Even Cornel West had written on having a
new spirit and vision for communities. (p. 11-13). I agree with Michael Swack,
Director of the School of Community Economic Development in Southern New
Hampshire University in Manchester, how important it is connecting with people. He
said, to include residents in redevelopment - [sic] it is critical in order to have a more
meaningful and long-lasting effect on the community. Other experts such as, Boston &
Ross, (p. 187-189); Joseph, (p. 33); and Kromer (p. 115) also agree with Swack on
community involvement that residents must be made part of community revitalization.
You have read in this paper at least two success stories that have gone against the
almighty powerful current. People need to understand, however, that successes come with
a price. A commitment is needed in order to change the direction of that current. So, Mr.
Betlejewskis statement is not entirely correct that people wont commit for the long
term. I do understand his statement; however, through my experiences many people
have difficulty finding time to commit. Others just give up, and others have language
barriers.




1487
UPDATES
Due to budget cuts, the CLAM has lost its major funder. They operate on a
smaller scale, and is able to keep its Crises Intervention program. The latest proposed
budget under the Housing Voucher Program will hurt the lowest income earners [see
survey results] (Crowley, p. 38). Locally, Chicago has a new affordable housing plan
which consist of set asides and development funding - of course it did not pass without
dissensions (Strausberg, p. 3). Census 2000 has changed Americas viewpoint on Latinos
and may change the landscape of West Town (Spielman, p. 56). Because of the ward re-
mapping resulting from the new census (Hanney, p. 3), the lack of affordable housing,
and Zelchenkos book on corruption of the first ward , a new alderman was elected
with progressive beliefs. This was not a surprise to me. When we surveyed the cluster
area, residents either didnt know the alderman or hated him because residents werent
included in the redevelopment. At a West Town meeting last year, Juan Alias said,
Bickerdikes approach to affordable housing displaces current residents, and the people
resented it, therefore, Bickerdike agreed to hold higher preferences to area residents
seeking affordable housing. According to my survey, completing higher education is
almost impossible for various reasons, but eliminating affirmative action altogether
would have been detrimental (Quiones p. 40). Even standardized testing methods should
be reevaluated. I agree with Suarez-Orozco & Paez (p. 380) that using standardized
testing alone to determine a persons ability can disenfranchise minorities. According to
my survey, Mexicans are the second largest ethnic subgroup type living in West Town.
The proposed immigration policy brings many uncertainties for them. On February 7,
2004, Mr. Diego Ponesati from the Illinois Coalition For Immigrants & Refugee Rights



1488
spoke at Mujeres Latinas En Accion (MLEA). He informed us of the issues concerning
the proposed Bush Guest Worker Plan and their families [sic] businesses taking
advantage of the workers by threatening to have them deported. Also, Luz Rocha,
Supervisor of the Domestic Violence (DV) program at MLEA, went over the proposal as
it relates to DV and the Bracero atrocities done to them after World War II and how
horrid it would be returning to those days. A Bracero was an immigrant farm worker that
picked fruit, cotton, vegetables, etc. They were treated inhumane and now, at their
retirement age, were denied the right to their pension promised to them by the U.S.
Federal government (see Internet: Bracero, or www.http:/farmworker.org/bracerop.html).
The gentrification issue for the Mexicans have changed. For now, immigration is a
priority issue and not affordability. However, issues, such as, displacement and lacking
housing affordability for the Chicago Puerto Rican people remain the same. Its
important that one understands the issues of each community globally, and how it
impacts locally, so one can address the issues more effectively because as Mills wrote,
We want to know what went wrong in the past, is going wrong now, and is likely to
continue to go wrong in the future if we do not guard against it (p. 92).



1489
REFERRALS


Armas, Genaro, (2002, April 24) Homeowners soars among U.S. Hispanics. Chicago
Sun-Times. p. 38 News.
Boston, Thomas D. and Ross, Catherine L.., (2002) The Inner City: Urban Poverty and
Economic Development in the Next Century. New Jersey.
Crowley, Sheila, (2004, Feb. 9) Housing voucher changes hurt poor. Chicago Sun-Times.
p. 9 - Featured Letter.
Dyson, Michael Eric (2003) Open Mike. New York. Chapter 5.
Gates, Henry Louis Jr.., (2004) America Behind The Color Line. New York.
Hanney, Suzanne (2001, Dec. 3) Ward Remapping Satisfies Citys Black Alderman.
StreetWise. p. 3.
Kromer, John., (2000) Neighborhood Recovery: Reinvestment Policy for the New
Hometown.
Lawrence. (2004) 1 in 3 renters in Illinois lack affordable housing. Chicago Sun-Times.
p. 20 Metro.
Lopez, Roman. (2000) Puerto Rico. USA: Historia de un pais imaginario y otros
ensayos. Puerto Rico.
Mills, Charles. (1997) The Racial Contract. p. 92. New York.
Mondragon, Hector A Colombian view of Venezuela. Peoples Weekly World. p. 6
International.
Nemcik, William, (2000) Video Tape: Vieques un largometraje. Puerto Rico.
Newbart, Dave, (2002, Dec. 23) Immigrants college dilemma. Chicago Sun-Times. p. 7 -
Metro.
Orozco-Suarez, Marcelo M. and Paez, Mariela M., (2002) Latinos: Remaking America.
p. 380. California.
Quiones, Noemy. (2003, June 26) On affirmative action. Redeye (Chicago Tribune).
p. 40 Reader feedback.
Rivera, Juan Carlos. (2004, Jan.) Esperanza En El Chicago Boricua. Contratiempo. p. 9.



1490
Rouse, Irving., (1992) The Tainos: Rise & Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus.
New York.
Spielman, Fran, (2003, April 10) Tension upstages council housing vote. Chicago Sun-
Times. p. 56 Business.
Strausberg, Chinta. (2003, April 10) Tillman, Preckwinkle irate over deferring housing
set-aside. Chicago Defender. p.3 News.
West, Cornel (1993) Race Matters. p. 11-13. New York.
Wills, Thomas Jay. (2000, January 9) The residual effects of domestic colonialism on
Blacks. Chicago Defender. p. 9.
Zelchenko, Peter., (2003) It happened four years ago. Chicago.



HIV/AIDS IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA:
THE IMPACT ON THE ORPHANS









ROGERIO J. ZAPATA
CORLISS LENTZ

SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY
HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS




1492
HIV/AIDS in Central and South America: The Impact on the Orphans


HIV/AIDS AND ORPHANED CHILDREN IN AFRICA
HIV/AIDS has caused havoc with the economic and social structure of the family
in Africa. Millions of children have been orphaned because of this terrible disease. Many
of these orphans live in poverty and have few adults to care for them. They have no role
models and many have no knowledge of what a family unit is or how it is supposed to
function. Their society and culture are in danger of coming to an end because there are
few adults that have the social, cultural, economic, and agricultural knowledge to hand
down to the orphaned children. Many farms are not producing their full potential because
farming skills have not been passed on to children whose parents have succumbed to the
HIV/AIDS epidemic. In some regions where HIV/AIDS prevalence rates are as high as
30%, adults who are taking care of family relatives with HIV/AIDS are themselves
getting sick and dying off.
Are South and Central America Countries in Danger of Repeating Africas Orphanage
Rates?
There is concern that a HIV/AIDS caused orphan situation may happen in South
and Central American countries as has happened in Sub-Saharan African countries
because some of the South and Central American countries also have high incidences of
HIV/AIDS infection rates. Should countries with high HIV/AIDS infection rates be
addressing this potential problem with educational and medical help for their infected
population? Is there a chance HIV/AIDS orphaned children will lose their social and



1493
cultural heritage as well as skills that will earn them a living as is happing in Sub-Saharan
Africa?
HIV/AIDS Infection Methods in Africa Compared to Infection Methods in South and
Central America.
In Africa, HIV/AIDS is spread most commonly among heterosexuals having sex
with members of the opposite sex. The social and cultural mores of the African Sub-
Saharan nations have in some ways kept the population ignorant of the causes of
HIV/AIDS and may even have helped spread the disease.
Africa: Heterosexual Transmission of HIV/AIDS
Many folk remedies, uninformed beliefs, and myths have contributed to the
spread of HIV/AIDS. There are at least four ways in which HIV/AIDS is spread. First,
most Black Africans refuse to use condoms because there is a strong belief among them
that Caucasians want them to use condoms so as to reduce their birth rate and eventually
eradicate the Black race. Second, HIV/AIDS is spread because of sex workers that
accommodate long distance truck drivers throughout Africa. The truck drivers have
unprotected sex with the prostitutes and than spread HIV/AIDS to their wives back home.
Third, there is an belief among young African females that if their sex partners look
healthy they do not have HIV/AIDS, and fourth, HIV/AIDS infected African men believe
that if they have sex with a virgin they will be cured (Brower and Chalk, 2003).
The low status of women in Black African patriarchy society is a major
contributory factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. Women are
commonly regarded as inferior and treated as property, replacing a wife is easily done
when they die. They are expected to provide sex whenever it is demanded, and the duty
of providing sex is entrenched in tribal traditions and is rarely, if ever, questioned. This



1494
ingrained gender system undermines female options of refusing to have sex or of
insisting on the use of condoms for safe sex (Brower and Chalk, 2003).
There is also the attitude, a belief that life is cheap, the expectation that death
may occur at any moment, that encourages a live for today lifestyle. There is no value
placed on the future, so why should they practice safe sex when their life may be
terminated at any time. This fatalistic attitude may have come from past racial abuses
under the apartheid system, plus the incredible high level of violence in South Africa that
has produced one of the highest murder rates of any place in the world (Brower and
Chalk, 2003).
The Americas: Homosexual Transmission of HIV/AIDS
In South and Central America the spread of HIV/AIDS is spread in different
ways, but most often through men having sex with men, and injecting drug users who
have heterosexual sex (PAHO, 2001). Brazil and Argentina seem to have most of their
new HIV/AIDS cases coming from injecting drug users and from men having sex with
men. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Latin America shows great heterogeneity among and
within countries in Central and South America and a system to scrutinize the diverse
epidemics is useful. Definitions used regarding the spread of HIV/AIDS among the
general population include:
1. Low transmission epidemics are characterized by HIV prevalence rates below
5% in population groups with high-risk behavior, but with HIV prevalence
rates among the general population at near zero (measured through women
attending prenatal care in urban areas).
2. Concentrated epidemics having HIV prevalence rates greater than 5% in one
or more high-risk groups, but the general population is still less than 5% (as
assessed among pregnant women).



1495
3. Generalized epidemics that have spread from high-risk groups to the general
population and the prevalence among pregnant women are greater than 5%.
(PAHO, HIV and AIDS in the Americas, 1998).
Most epidemics in Latin American countries can still be classified as
concentrated, affecting high-risk population groups where infection rates exceed 5%, but
where the prevalence among the general population is less than 5%. The epidemic is
taking the greatest toll among men having unprotected sex with men and among injecting
drug users and their sexual partners. There are some countries in Latin America that are
classified as having low transmission epidemics, among them are Bolivia, Nicaragua, and
Paraguay. Countries with generalized epidemics include Brazil and the Atlantic coast of
Honduras. For the most part, the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Latin America has not spread to
the general population. There are pockets in urban areas where injecting drug users, and
certain groups, mainly women and young adults, where the HIV/AIDS prevalence rates
are raising. Some segments of Latin American society that are impoverished, illiterate
and without access to health services have also seen a rise in HIV/AIDS prevalence rates
(PAHO, 1998).
Methods of Preventing HIV/AIDS Infections in the Americas
Governments in Central and South America are aggressively educating their
people on methods of preventing HIV/AIDS infections. The use of condoms for sexually
active people is encouraged through health clinics. Health workers and clinics provide
information on how the HIV/AIDS virus spreads through the use of infected needles
among injecting drug users.
HIV/AIDS and Sexuality Education Methods



1496
The Pan American Health Organization believes that comprehensive school-based
sexuality education acts as a building block for sexual health across the lifespan on an
individual. Schools are the single institution that most people come in contact with at
some stage of their lives, and they are the ideal setting for providing sexuality education.
Sexuality education should be provided for people with mental and physical disabilities,
the institutionalized, illegal immigrants, the homeless, refugees, and minority language
groups (PAHO and WHO, 2000).
Governments need to provide education and training in sexual health for health
workers and health professionals. Schoolteachers should receive, as part of their training,
the knowledge and skills to teach effective sexuality education. Because schools are
proposed to be part of the universal sexuality education, such training should be a
compulsory part of teacher-training curriculum (PAHO and WHO, 2000).
In Africa the education of the general public on issues pertaining to HIV/AIDS
has been hampered by many of its social and cultural mores. Some of the national leaders
have interfered with the dissemination of HIV/AIDS education by publicly questioning
the relationship between HIV and AIDS. The fact that the relationship was even
questioned provided a window of doubt about the seriousness of HIV/AIDS for many
Black Africans. This window of doubt can only help the spread of the HIV/AIDS
epidemic (Brower and Chalk, 2003).
Promoting the Female Condom
In another form of HIV/AIDS education, tried as a social marketing campaign in
Campinas, the Brazilian government started a program to inform the women on a new
productthe female condom. In 1997 the relative new product was introduced to the



1497
women as a duel purpose condom that would help protect them against unwanted
pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Recent research has
found moderate to high levels of initial trial and acceptance of the female condom. The
product has been available commercially through DKT, a social marketing organization,
and the Brazilian Ministry of Health which also gives female condoms to public health
clinics and community organizations to distribute free as part of targeted activities to
vulnerable groups of women (Frontiers, 2001).
Community Activism: Providing Antiretrovirals
Brazil has been a regional and global leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Despite political and economic instability, response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic was
positive and fast. Community activists encouraged public response to government
programs in the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in the early 1980s. Brazils
National AIDS Program, Coordenao Nacional was created in 1985, which initially
focused on producing and disseminating information about HIV/AIDS to the population
and on preparing treatment guidelines for the health profession. Medicines for infectious
diseases associated with HIV/AIDS began to be distributed in 1988, and AZT was
offered in 1991. In 1996 the government instituted a policy of distributing antiretroviral
medication at no cost to people living with HIV/AIDS. By 2001 Brazil was spending
$232 million on antiretroviral medication to treat more than 100,000 patients. About 80%
of Brazils HIV/AIDS budget goes to the treatment of the disease and about 10% goes to
the prevention of HIV/AIDS (USAID, Country Profile, 2003).
Brazils National AIDS Program and various state and municipal AIDS programs
are committed to the following principles:



1498
Guaranteeing the citizenship and human rights of people living with
HIV/AIDS;
Guaranteeing access to prevention and care for the entire population;
Guaranteeing access to diagnosis of HIV and AIDS;
Guaranteeing universal and free access to HIV/AIDS treatment, including
antiretrovirals; and
Working in partnership with civil society (USAID, Country Profile, 2003).
Brazils success in providing antiretroviral medication for its population is partly
due to the fact that it manufactures generic versions of many antiretroviral drugs. Brazil
has also been successful in negotiating the best possible prices for other antiretroviral
drugs with international pharmaceutical companies. An important part of Brazils
National AIDS Program is the participation of non-governmental organizations,
especially organizations that are involved with people living with HIV/AIDS. The World
Bank has also provided significant resources to Brazils HIV/AIDS programs since 1994
and AIDS III, a World Bank project covering the period from 2003 to 2005, is expected
to contribute about $200 million. In this case the World Bank would contribute $100
million and the Brazilian government would match it with $100 million (USAID,
Country Profile, 2003).
Treatment: Access to Antiretroviral Medication in the Americas
From Reuters Health a report by Matas A. Loewy and Jimena Castro Bravo
(Loewy and Bravo, 2003) states that universal free access to triple antiretroviral treatment
since 1996 has achieved a dramatic improvement in survival among adult AIDS
patients in Brazil, according to the results of the first large, national study evaluating the
impact of the free access to HIV/AIDS medication policy. Median survival was five
months for cases diagnosed in the 1980s, eighteen months for cases diagnosed in 1995,
and fifty-eight months for cases diagnosed in 1996, reported the lead author of the study,



1499
Dr. Pio Marins of the University of Campinas, Sorocaba, Brazil. According to him, it
was the first time a study had demonstrated that free universal access to triple
antiretroviral treatment in a developing country can produce benefits on the same scale as
in richer countries (Loewy and Bravo, 2003).
The authors of the study randomly selected 3,930 adult AIDS patients diagnosed
in 1995 and 1996. The patients, from several states in Brazil, were followed for a median
of five years. Predictor of longer survival in univariate analysis included antiretroviral
treatment, year of diagnosis, higher education, sexual exposure category, female sex, and
Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia prophylaxis. But the predictive value of most of these
factors was attenuated or disappeared in a multivariate analysis, leaving antiretroviral
treatment as the main predictor of survival (Loewy and Bravo 2003, 1).
Dr. Pio Marins says that the disease is a long way from being controlled, because
only 40% of the 600,000 HIV positive patients in Brazil are aware of their disease. Most
of the affected population live in fear of the social and physical consequences of
HIV/AIDS and do not undergo diagnostic testing (Loewy and Bravo, 2003).
Negotiations between the Ministry of Health and some international
pharmaceuticals companies that hold licenses to three of the antiretroviral medications
that account for almost two thirds of Brazils drug budget were schedule to start August
1, 2003. Health Minister Humberto Costa said at a press conference If we dont reach a
deal, we will use the licenses in a compulsory way. Dr. Pio Marins commented that,
The world community must realize that we need to have a low-cost drug policy for
developing countries if we want to defeat AIDS (Loewy and Bravo 2003, 1).



1500
Central America faces a growing AIDS epidemic caused by unequal social and
economic development and a high population compelled to migrate in search of work. At
the same time, most countries are determined to restrict and limit the impact of
HIV/AIDS. This is evident in their efforts to provide antiretroviral drugs to patients, who
number over 107,000 patients in 2001. Argentina, Costa Rica, Cuba, and Uruguay now
guarantee free and universal access to antiretroviral drugs through the public sector and
Honduras and Panama have instituted sharp reduction in prices for those drugs. In 2002
the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS signed agreements with pharmaceutical
companies to improve access to cheaper antiretroviral drugs (USAIDS, AIDS epidemic,
2003).
Access to Retroviral Medications in Africa
In the Americas antiretroviral treatment for HIV/AIDS has been a method of
controlling or slowing the effects of HIV/AID, however, in Sub-Saharan Africa and other
regions they have found the cost of antiretroviral drugs to be expensive and their people
cannot afford them. Brazil and other South and Central countries have found ways to
provide the antiretroviral drugs to a substantial number of their people who need them.
Central and South America have shown that middle and low income countries where HIV
prevalence is still relatively low can provide treatment and care through the public sector.
Several countries in this region have polices and laws that guarantee antiretroviral
therapy for their HIV-positive citizens. This does not mean that all HIV-positive people
in need of Antiretroviral therapy are receiving treatment at this time. However, by the end
of 2002, an estimated 53% of people with HIV/AIDS were receiving antiretroviral



1501
treatment in Latin America and the Caribbean, with more than half of the recipients
living in Brazil (PAHO, Antiretrovirals, n.d.).

Table 6
Antiretroviral Therapy Coverage in the Developing Countries
December 2002 (Adults by region)
Region Number of
People in
Treatment
Estimated
Need
Treatment
Coverage
Sub-Saharan Africa 50,000 4,100,000 1%
Asia 43,000 1,000,000 4%
North Africa and Middle East 3,000 7,000 29%
Eastern Europe and Central Asia 7,000 80,000 9%
Latin America and the Caribbean 196,000 370,000 53%
All Regions 300,000 5,500,000 5%
Source: WHO; (PAHO, Antiretrovirals, n.d.)
As can be readily ascertained from Table 6, governments of the region comprising
Latin America and the Caribbean provide up to 53% coverage of antiretroviral therapy to
its people. Sub-Saharan coverage of 1% for its people is dismal and indicative of the slow
response of those governments to the needs of African people. Because medication such
as antiretroviral therapy is not as readily available to Sub-Saharan people, the number of
deaths is extremely high as is seen in Table 3, which shows a total number of deaths in
2001 as being 2,200,000 and a total of all deaths due to HIV/AIDS in Africa as an
estimated 14,800,000.
Methods of HIV/AIDS Transmission in South and Central America
Most countries in South and Central America have HIV/AIDS prevention
programs orientated towards men who have sex with men. Over the past decade, the ratio
of men with HIV infections to women with HIV infections has narrowed to about 3 to 1.
Men who have sex with men figure prominently in the decreasing HIV/AIDS ratio



1502
between men and women, because recent research has shown that a large proportion of
men who have sex with men also have sex with women (UNAIDS and WHO, AIDS
epidemic, 2002).
Unsafe Sexual Practices
Unsafe sex among men who have sex with men is common in South and Central
America. A recent study of two Honduran cities where men have sex with men revealed
an HIV prevalence level of 13%, a very low usage of condoms, a high number of sexual
partners, and a low risk perception of getting HIV/AIDS. The countries that offer
HIV/AIDS prevention programs orientated towards men who have sex with men offer
them in various degrees of quality. The quality depends on the countries legal contexts
and a wide range of social factors. Brazil offers a particularly good program with
prevention efforts directed at countering the vulnerability, stigma and discrimination
experienced by men who have sex with men. However, many initiatives of this type are
hindered by discrimination against homosexuality (USAID, AIDS epidemic, 2003).
Injecting Drug Users
Injecting drug users are a growing concern in several countries in South and
Central America, they account for an estimated 40% of new HIV/AIDS infections in
Argentina and up to 28% in Uruguay. Women are increasingly the injecting drug users or
they are the sex partners of injecting drug users. Brazil, like Argentina, has adopted a less
punitive approach to dealing with the dual challenge of injecting drug users and HIV
infections. Prevention programs aimed at injecting drug users have contributed to a
substantial decline in HIV prevalence in this segment of the population in several cities.
Additionally, national surveys have shown an increasing use of condoms, a rise from



1503
42% in 1999 to 65% in 2000, a sign that sustained education and prevention efforts are
working (USAIDS, AIDS epidemic, 2003).

ORPHANED CHILDREN: THE SURVIVORS
The children left by behind by parents who have died from HIV/AIDS are left in a
world where most of them have to fend for themselves. In Africa, so many of the parents
have died that there is danger of these children losing their culture, social mores, and the
ability to learn skills needed for them to make a living. However, there are some
organizations valiantly trying to help.

Helping Children Affected by HIV/AIDS
South Africa and other African countries have similar projects that are aimed at
making orphans productive citizens. Most of these projects are funded by USAID and
some national and/or local agency that target specific geographical areas and populations,
the amounts of the funds vary, although many are in the two to five million-dollar range.
Most projects, even projects from different countries have similar objectives, strategies,
and accomplishments or goals, which shows that there is an overall, systematic plan
provided by international agencies to help the orphaned children.
Nigeria
In the Sub-Saharan country of Nigeria the Rivers State Enhanced Care of
Orphans project was funded by USAID/CEDPA (Center for the Development and
Population Activities) for the period from October 1999 to July 2003 (USAID, Children,
2003). Their contribution to this project was $899,968 and the goal of the project was to



1504
improve the quality of life for children aged 0 to 15 who have lost one or both parents to
AIDS. To avoid stigmatizing these children, all orphaned children are the targeted
population. The project proposes to improve the quality of life of orphans in targeted
communities through the mobilization and capacity building of community based
organizations. The support of community initiative includes the betterment of primary
caregivers of orphans through agriculture and other means of income augmentation.
Some of the objectives of the Rivers State Enhanced Care Of Orphans include:
Provide access to basic education and health care to orphans due to AIDS in
project communities;
Identify existing community support structures and strengthen their ability to
care for orphans due to AIDS;
Promote positive attitudes, beliefs, and practices of community members
toward orphans due to AIDS and people living with AIDS.
Some of the strategies developed to achieve these objectives include:
o Educational support to orphans through the provision of schoolbooks,
uniforms, sandals, and fees/levies;
o Vocational training for older orphans to receive life skills education and a
micro- finance plan to provide grants to establish their own businesses after
training
o Access to health care and establishment of a fund to pay for treatment;
o Counseling services to address the needs of orphans with regard to the control
of HIV/AIDS.
Key accomplishments:
v Provided educational support to 920 orphans;
v Provided vocational training to 69 orphans;
v Provided business management training and micro-credit grants to 800
caregivers of orphans;
v Provided education on HIV/AIDS prevention and control to community
stakeholders (USAID, Children, 2003).



1505
USAID Projects in the Americas
In Brazil, USAID has funded a ten- year program from 1994 through 2004 in the
amount of $11,473,627 (USAID, Children, 2003). This project, POMMAR At-Risk
Youth Project, is being implemented by Partners of the Americas. POMMARs stated
purpose is to: assist children and young people aged 0 to 21, in northeastern Brazil, the
capital city of Braslia, and several other municipalities, to promote the protection and
holistic development of at-risk children and youth to become healthy and productive
citizens by:
Increasing the educational and vocational preparation of children and youth;
Engaging society in decreasing violence, especially sexual, against children
and youth and in combating trafficking in people;
Preventing and eradicating child labor in urban areas;
Strengthening HIV/AIDS prevention in youth (aged 13-21) and community-
based care for children.
Some of the key objectives in this community-based project include:
o Supporting entities that assist children living with HIV/AIDS to provide
services consistent with current legislation and standards for public health and
childrens rights;
o Improving the quality of services in community care facilities;
o Strengthening indicators for monitoring and evaluation
o Promoting debate and exchange of information about successful practices
among local service providers and public policy makers and with those in
other regions of the country.
Key accomplishments and key quantitative results linked to POMMAR performance
indicators during 2002:
v 16,578 children and youth were reached by POMMAR-supported
organizations (56% female, 44% male);
v 6,507 children and youth were reached directly by 27 POMMAR-supported
projects (54% female, 46% male);



1506
v 322 public schools are participating in program activities, reaching a total of
21,265 students and teachers;
v Approximately 135 organizations are engaged in networks, reaching 7,215
children and youth.
v 92% school enrollment rate was achieved among children/youth served by the
program;
v 923 children either reentered school or remained in school, preventing their
entry or return to illegal, harmful, or exploitive labor activities;
v Most of these children were placed on scholarship programs ensuring their
return to school on a regular basis.
v 343 children living with HIV/AIDS are being reached in day programs,
shelters, and hospital settings; and
v 296 families of assisted children living with HIV/AIDS are receiving care and
orientation in the prevention of HIV/AIDS (USAID, Children, 2003).

CONCLUSION
The orphaned children in Africa seem to have the worst of everything at this time.
Their parents are part of an estimated 14,800,000 Africans that have died from the effects
of HIV/AIDS. Their society is devastated, their economy is in ruins, there are few grown
people able to keep their society going and to hand down cultural traditions, and
agricultural knowledge. The orphans in Africa will have a hard time growing up, and if
they survive the HIV/AIDS epidemic, of knowing what a family is and how to keep it
together.
Brazilian children also have their share of problems caused by HIV/AIDS and its
effects. One of the bigger problems in Brazil that orphaned children have been facing has
been death squads. Street children in Brazil are forced to fight for their lives, freedom,
and for their future on a daily basis. An estimated 7-8 million children live in poverty and
on the streets of the cities and many Brazilians see these children as threats to their
belongings and personal safety. As a result, different citizen groups, drug gangs, and



1507
corrupt police have formed death squads with the goal of eliminating the streets of these
threatening youths. Between 1989 and 1990, 4,611 street children were murdered
(Bodack et al., n.d.).
Barring an encounter with one of the Brazilian death squads, orphans there have a
better chance of surviving to adulthood. Brazil and other South and Central American
countries are infusing money into programs that are associated with HIV/AIDS. Brazils
response has been to educate its population as much as possible on how the HIV/AIDS
epidemic is spread.
Per capita HIV/AIDS deaths in some Sub-Saharan countries are high. Some
examples include Botswana, with per capita HIV/AIDS deaths of 15.08 per 1,000 people,
Zimbabwes 14.06 and South Africas at 6.87. In contrast, the highest per capita death
rate in South America is 1.29, and Brazils per capita HIV/AIDS death rate is 0.1. The
United States HIV/AIDS per capita death rate is 0.07 per 1,000 (nationmaster.com,
deaths per capita).
These statistics show the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has devastated the Sub-
Saharan region of Africa is many times worst than it is in South and Central America.
The governments of this region have been slow to act on behalf of the African people
stricken with HIV/AIDS. Those governments may not have the best interest of the people
whom they govern, they may not have the resources to be able to help their people, and
people have not been fully educated in the dangers of HIV/AIDS and how it is spread.
Only recently have some of these Sub-Saharan governments become involved in assisting
African people who have contracted the disease. Meanwhile the people of Africa,
especially Sub-Saharan Africa, still continue the cultural and social mores that seem to



1508
help the epidemic spread faster than in other areas of the world. The HIV/AIDS epidemic
in Africa is spread primarily through heterosexual sex, which encompasses almost the
entire adult population. The epidemic has almost wiped out these peoples culture,
society, and means of earning a living. The African population orphaned is approximately
11 million children, which is about 32.2% of the total world orphan population
(UNAIDS, and UNICEF, 2002). They have few resources, and with adult HIV/AIDS
prevalence rates as high as 30-40% in some countries, there is little hope of adults rearing
them to become productive members of society.
South and Central America governments have responded faster and more
positively than governments in Africa to HIV/AIDS. The spread of the epidemic has not
been as severe as in Sub-Saharan Africa primarily because of different transmission
methods, which in Central and South America has been primarily by men having sex
with men and the use of contaminated needles in injection drug use. The prevalence rates
of HIV/AIDS among the Central and South American population has been only a fraction
of that of Sub-Saharan Africa. The social and cultural framework is still in place and the
family unit has not been decimated as has happened in Africa. The HIV/AIDS epidemic
has left behind orphans in the Americas but they are only 12.4% of the total orphan.
While these children may suffer because of their immediate condition, there is hope that
they can be absorbed into mainstream society, where they can become productive
citizens. Their social and culture are still intact, and the family unit is still there for them
to inherit.
Identifying Susceptible Populations



1509
For comparison purposes the following tables have been made because there are
considerable differences in the statistical numbers between African countries and the
countries that are in the Americas. The only reason the statistics for the United States
were put in was to make the ordinary reader in the United States better comprehend the
statistics from Africa and South America in relation to the United States.
Table 1
AIDS Cases in the Americas Reported as of June 2002

Adults 1,179,480
Children 22,667
Total 1,202,147

Total Number of Deaths 653,825
Source: World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization, AIDS Surveillance in The
Americas: Biannual Report June 2002.

In Table 1, Aids Cases in the Americas, the number of Aids cases are compared
among adults and children. The numbers indicate that adults are by far the predominant
infected group. At this time the number of deaths are more than half of those infected.
Table 2
Rates of HIV/AIDS Cases in the Americas
Cases in 2001 Annual Prevalence Rate
(2002)
Brazil 215,810 0.65%
Argentina 19,959 0.65%
United States 793,026 0.61% (1999)
Source: World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization, Aids Surveillance in The
Americas: Biannual Report June 2002. Nationmaster.com, Map and Graph: Health: HIV/AIDS-adult
prevalence, 2002.

The rates of HIV/AIDS cases in the Americas run at an annual prevalence rate of
less than 1%. Brazil and Argentinas annual prevalence rates are considered high for the
Americas, but they are just slightly higher than the rate for United States.




1510
Table 3
HIV/AIDS Cases in Africa

Adults 26,000,000
Children 2,600,000
Total 28,600,000

Total Number of Deaths in 2001 2,200,000
Total Number of Deaths 14,800,000 (Estimated)
Source: UNAIDS: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, Report on the global HIV/AIDS
Epidemic: July 2002. Avert.org, Aids Statistics: Deaths of Adults and Children in Africa.

African HIV/AIDS cases are more than twenty times as much as in the Americas.
The estimated 14,800,000 deaths are slightly less than 50% of the total HIV/AIDS cases
reported.
Table 4
Rates of HIV/AIDS Cases in Two Sub-Saharan African Countries
Cases Annual Prevalence Rate (2001)
Nigeria 3,500,000 5.8%
South Africa 5,000,000 20.1%
Source: UNAIDS: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, National Response to HIV/AIDS,
National Response Brief.

The rates of these two Sub-Saharan countries show annual prevalence rates of
almost 6% and 20%. Compared to the Americas rates in Table 2, these rates are up to 30
times higher.
Table 5
Countries in Africa and the Americas With the Highest HIV/AIDS Prevalence Rates Among Young
People 15-24.
Young Females High Estimates
Africa South America
Lesotho 51.4% Guyana 5.4%
Swaziland 47.38 Surinam 2.05%
Source: UNAIDS, Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic: 2002.
A comparison between countries in Africa and South America with the highest
HIV/AIDS prevalence rates which are usually among young females. Lesotho in Africa
has a rate almost 10 times Guyanas rate, while Swazilands rate is 23 times Surinams.



1511
WORKS CITED


AVERT.ORG. Aids Statistics: Deaths of Adults and Children in Africa
http://www.avert.org/subadeaths.htm November 16, 2003.
Bodack, Lindsay, Stephanie Hunter, Tom Kaufman, and Caitlin Kelly. n.d. Discovering
the Truth Behind Children in Brazil. Children in Brazil. Death Squads.
http://homeport.tcs.tulane.edu/~rouxbee/kids99/brazil9.html November 13, 2003.
Brower, Jennifer, and Peter Chalk. The Global Threat of New and Reemerging Infectious
Diseases: Reconciling U.S. National Security and Public Health Policy. Santa
Monica, Ca: RAND, 2003.
Frontiers in Reproductive Health. Population Council 2001. RESEARCH SUMMARY.
Acceptability of the Female Condom After a Social Marketing Campaign in
Campinas, Brazil. http://www.popcouncil.org/horizons/ressum/fcbrazil/fcbrazil.html
November 14, 2003.
Loewy, Matas A., and Jimena A. Castro Bravo. August 13, 2003. Universal Access to
HIV Drugs Dramatically Improves Survival In Brazilian Patients. CBCF Health,
Part of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
http://www.cbcfhealth.org/content/eontentID/2085 September 25, 2003.
Nationmaster.com. Map & Graph: North America: Health: HIV/AIDS-adult prevalence,
2002. http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/hea_hiv_adu_pre_rat&id=NAM October
30, 2003.
. Map & Graph: North America: Health: HIV/AIDS-deaths (per capita).
. Map & Graph: South America: Health: HIV/AIDS-deaths (per capita).
. Map & Graph: Africa: Health: HIV/AIDS-deaths (per capita).
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/hea_hiv-adu November 15, 2003.
Pan American Health Organization, Executive committee of the directing council, and
working group of the regional committee, World Health Organization. Acquired
Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in the Americas. 1998.
http://www.paho.org/common/Display.asp?Lang=E&ReclD=76 October 21, 2003.
Pan American Health Organization, Pan American Sanitary Bureau, Regional office of
the World Health Organization, and UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme
on HIV/AIDS. HIV and AIDS in the Americas: an epidemic with many faces.
2001. http://www.paho.org/common/Display.asp?Lang=E&ReclD=1492 October 21,
2003.



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Pan American Health Organization, and World Health Organization. n.d. Antiretrovirals:
Efforts of Latin America and the Caribbean toward the universal access. Access
to ARV Treatment in Latin America and the Caribbean vs. Other Developing
Regions. http://www.paho.org/english/ad/fch/ai/antiretrovirals_HP.htm November 15,
2003.
Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization. Promotion of Sexual
Health: Recommendations for Action. Proceedings of a Regional Consultation
Convened by PAHO, WHO, In collaboration with World Association For
Sexology. 2000. http://www.paho.org/common/Display.asp?lang=E&ReclD=2230
October 25, 2003.
UNAIDS. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. National Response to
HIV/AIDS. National Response Brief.
http://www.unaids.org/nationalresponse.result.asp November 6, 2003.
UNAIDS. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Report on the global
HIV/AIDS epidemic: July 2002.
UNAIDS, and UNICEF, 2002. Children on the Brink 2002: A Joint Report on Orphan
Estimates and Program Strategies. http://www.dec.org/pdf_docs/PNACP860.pdf
November 16, 2003.
UNAIDS, U.S. Agency for International Development, Bureau for Global Health.
Country Profile. Brazil. http://www.usaid.gov/ September 28, 2003.
UNAIDS and World Health Organization. AIDS epidemic update: December 2002.
USAID. USAID Project Profiles: Children Affected by HIV/AIDS. Third Edition.
September 2003. The Synergy Project. HIV/AIDS Technical and Programming
Resources. http://www.synergyaids.com/ November 11, 2003.
World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization. AIDS Surveillance in
the Americas: Biannual Report June 2002.
http://www.paho.org/common/Display.asp?Lang=E&Recld=4906 September 21, 2003.



FINDING COMMON GROUND:
ESTABLISHING COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIPS TO
MEET THE CHALLENGE OF PROVIDING REALISTIC AND
ACCEPTABLE SOLUTIONS IN COMBATING HIV/AIDS
INFECTION AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS


RENA G. BOSS-VICTORIA, RN, DRPH, ANP
MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND




1514
Finding Common Ground: Establishing Collaborative Partnerships to
Meet the Challenge of Providing Realistic and Acceptable Solutions in
Combating HIV/AIDS Infection among African Americans.


ABSTRACT
This paper describes a pilot descriptive study project of collaborative partnerships
established between faith-based organizations, community-based organizations, primary
medical care providers and agencies, and a historical black university to increase the
identification of unduplicated African-American women who are post-test HIV positive.
Supported by the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), the Morgan State University
Public Health Programs Center for HIV Prevention, Evaluation, Policy and Research
began the development of an integrated HIV Community Care Network Model to address
this urgent need in Baltimore City, Maryland State.
To meet the overall purpose of the Community Care Network Model this
project was designed to change the face of the HIV epidemic in this African-American
community and to impact the trend of utilization of HIV primary care among women of
child-bearing age residing in defined Hot Spot zip code areas. By connecting faith-
based institutions, community-based organizations, public and medical health care and
the HBCU closer to the African-American community, the Network is specifically
designed to overcome anticipated challenges.



This paper describes a pilot descriptive study project of collaborative partnerships
established between faith-based organizations, community-based organizations, primary
medical care providers and agencies, and a historical black university to increase the
identification of unduplicated African-American women who are post-test HIV positive,
residing in selected zip code areas in Baltimore City, MD. The motivation for this study
project was to increase the numbers of African-American women that are eligible to
receive treatment for HIV infection and neoplastic complications. This is fundamental to



1515
delaying disease progression to AIDS and to curbing the continuing transmission of the
HIV virus, especially among women residing in urban African American communities.
The AIDS/HIV crisis in the black community is a public health emergency. By
any yardstick, the epidemic is engulfing us. However, as the face of HIV has increasingly
changed from that of gay white males to poor blacks, the government agencies, higher
education institutions, primary health centers, faith institutions and communities have
failed in their past attempts to find a common ground for connecting to provide realistic
and acceptable solutions (Krieger, 1996). The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) in
1999 requested, one more time, proof and evidence that there are effective ways to
combat and curb this crisis in the African American community. Illicit drug use,
commercial sex, personal abuse and violent crime, and sexually transmitted diseases
contribute heavily to the toll of disease and HIV transmission in poor and urban
communities. Other issues and challenges include the forces of racism, sexism,
homophobia, and most surely, poverty, fear and stigma (Estrada. 2002).
A much-needed sense of urgency will be the driver of efforts to connect
organizations in finding common ground in providing realistic and acceptable solutions
(Krieger, 1996). Knowing where the target areas is not the challenge; the challenge is
concern more with how to connect the people with unmet primary medical care needs and
available resources for positive outcomes in health status. Supported by the
Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), the Morgan State University Public Health
Programs Center for HIV Prevention, Evaluation, Policy and Research (the Center)
began the development of an integrated HIV Community Care Network Model to address
this urgent need in Baltimore City, Maryland State.



1516
Morgan State University is a historically black university located in Baltimore.
The School for Graduate Studies and Research MPH/DrPH Public Health Programs
Center for HIV Prevention, Evaluation, Policy and Research primary and most basic
mission is dedicated to curbing, stopping and eliminating the spread of HIV infection in
our African American communities by assisting special populations, with the creation of
new and culturally responsive HIV programs, promoting HIV outreach, health service
utilization, and coalition development in high risk communities in the region.
In 1999, the first African American AIDS Update Conference was held on the
campus of Morgan State University. During this conference, many issues surrounding
HIV prevention and treatment were discussed and participants expressed their desire to
do more to ensure the success of HIV prevention education and medical service outreach
to the African American communities in the State of Maryland, and the District of
Columbia. Hence, the Regional HIV Prevention Council and Steering Advisory
Committees were formed. The council organizers initiated a series of tasks designed to
establish an infrastructure designed to support a collaborative community action agenda
for the empowerment of African American special populations and communities at risk
for HIV infection. Three key members were part of this infrastructure: the center director,
the council elected steering chairperson, and the Baltimore council elected steering
chairperson - District of Columbia. For the council organizational development, we
conceptualized the term infrastructure as human service capacity and capital to strengthen
and integrate HIV prevention and community health coalition formation for empowering
African American citizens in a systematic way. The councils outcome goal is to ensure
that African Americans who reside in higher risk communities are able to make informed



1517
decisions regarding HIV prevention education, primary medical, mental and dental
services, and new HIV infection care resource and research technologies.
The Center has accepted the challenge of establishing partnerships and
collaborative working relationships with other organizations to address areas of mutual
concern and interest. These include advancing public health and prevention science
related to HIV/AIDS; educational and behavioral training and research in community-
based settings; technical assistance and evaluation protocols; financial, programmatic and
organizational capacity-building; and continuous quality improvement and evaluative
practices. To this end, the Center has actively engaged in the process of partnership
building to advance HIV prevention education, community mobilization and community
organization for health improvement of African-Americans.
The Center does not provide primary care services. Rather, as the Centers goals
suggests, all current services involve the coordination and establishment of collaborative
partnerships with and between existing HIV service providers and community
stakeholders in Baltimore, or the empowerment of persons infected with HIV/AIDS
through their education about and access to HIV/AIDS information, services, primary
care and HIV prevention clinical trials. Despite the fact that the Center does not provide
primary care services, it has an established relationship with a number of key Ryan White
primary care providers in Baltimore City who have signed a Memorandum of Agreement
(MOA) to provide primary care services to HIV post-test positive women of child-
bearing age referred by the Center and the Network organizations. The Center is keenly
aware of the gaps in services and support in Baltimores service delivery continuum,
particularly for African American women, and the points along that continuum when



1518
those living with HIV and AIDS are most likely to encounter difficulties negotiating the
system and drop out of care. More importantly, the Center understands that those
difficulties may arise because of individual personal problems, or as a result of broader
systemic problems; and most likely, both are at play when an woman fails to follow her
care schedule or to adhere to her treatment regimen.
Long considered a mans disease, HIV/AIDS is a rapidly growing public health
problem among women, particularly minority women. Since 1985, the proportion of
AIDS cases among adolescent and adult women has more than tripled, from 7% in 1985
to 25% in 1999. One- fourth of all American women are African American and
Hispanic/Latino, but more than three- fourths of all AIDS cases in the United States occur
in African American and Hispanic/Latino women. In 2000, 80% of new AIDS cases in
women occurred among African American and Hispanic/Latino females. Many women
report that they did not know they were at risk for HIV/AIDS when they contracted the
disease. African American women accounted for 58 percent of all AIDS cases among
women reported through December 2000, although African American women make up
only 13.1 percent of the U.S. female population (CDC, 2000). In addition, African
American women have the highest death rate due to HIV of any racial/ethnic group of
women. While the full explanation for the differences is not known, inadequate health
care, delayed diagnosis, and high poverty rates contribute to the overt disparity.
In Baltimore City and the State of Maryland, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has hit the
African American community the hardest. Baltimore accounted for 52% of the
cumulative cases of HIV and AIDS reported in Maryland from 1994 to 2000. Nearly 90%
of these cases within the last two years were among African Americans. African



1519
Americans comprise 90% of the population with forty-three percent (71,463 persons) of
the residents being between 20 and 50 years of age. Females were the heads of 28% of all
households and twenty-six percent of the residents aged 25 years or older in this region
did not complete high school. Unemployment is high (12% of the labor force was
unemployed in 1990), and 31% of the population had incomes below the poverty level.
More than half (56.4%) of the living cases of HIV and AIDS in Baltimore on December
31, 2000 as reported September 30, 2001, were attributable to intravenous drug use, with
heroin being the drug of choice. The second highest exposure category (21%) was
heterosexual intercourse (Maryland State AIDS Administration, 2000). In an era where
both prevention and treatment programs have been operating for more than a decade, this
rise in cases, especially among African Americans men and women, must be addressed
with a sense of urgency for the survival of a people.
Advancing a structure and a philosophy of good medicine for African American
communities means going beyond the walls of emergency room and the examination
room to help them to change their lives in a way that will foster their health and prevent
HIV infection. The real differential in access to health care services in urban communities
for African American women may not be due to eligibility for care as much as it may be
a lack of trust in the available health care organized system. This is felt to be driven in
part by the legacy of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study as well as the concerns within the
African American community that HIV may have originated from a conspiracy to
eliminate the Black race (Corbie, Smith, Thomas and St. George, 2002).
The HIV Community-based Prevention and Care Network is specifically designed
to overcome anticipated problems related to trust and acceptability in health care services



1520
and providers. Increasing the number of African-American women who receive HIV
counseling, screening and testing, and if found to be HIV post-test positive, the ability to
rapidly access primary medical services and case- management services for responsive co-
morbidity treatment and effective referrals. This requires relationship building to support
therapeutic communication and relevant of meanings for care, both self-care and system-
care. The unique features of successful HIV prevention efforts are behavioral and social
integrated interventions. These efforts include one-on-one, couple, or group counseling
for increasing condom use; street outreach efforts to reduce drug-use related risk; social
marketing of condoms and targeted prevention messages that are age- gender-culture-
appropriate; biomedical technologies (e.g., sexually transmitted disease (STD)
treatments, sterile needles and syringes, topical microbicides, anti-addiction
medications); and prevention vaccines, integrated where appropriate.
The purpose of the Model is to increase responsive HIV prevention education,
treatment, referral and health maintenance services to African Americans women of
childbearing age currently residing in four specific zip code areas in urban Baltimore
City. The goals of the Model addressed the connection of faith institutions as
gatekeepers, HIV community-based screening and testing centers as outreach partners,
primary medical and dental care as health service providers, and selected Historically
Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as capacity-builders and evaluators. Designed
to meet the overall purpose of the Community Care Network Model this project was
designed to change the face of the HIV epidemic in this African-American community
and to impact the trend of utilization of HIV primary care among women of child-bearing
age residing defined Hot Spot zip code areas.



1521
Selection of these specific areas in Baltimore is based on analysis of HIV
infection reports by unique identifier (UI) at the zip code level revealing these cited areas
as the only ones in the entire state of Maryland that reported increasing incidence during
the period of 1994 to 1999. Specifically, Baltimore City was reported to be the only
region in Maryland State to exhibit a significant change in incidence over a six year time
period, from 132 cases per 100,000 in 1994 to 186 cases per 100,000 in 1999, a 42%
overall increase (Maryland AIDS Administration, 2002). By connecting faith-based
institutions, community-based organizations, public and medical health care and the
HBCU closer to the African-American community, particularly regions defined as the
HIV Hot Spots, the Network is specifically designed to overcome anticipated
challenges. These challenges are how to increase the number of African-American
women who receive HIV counseling, screening and testing, and how to provide
individuals who are posttest HIV-positive with rapid access to primary medical and case-
management services. The roles and activities of each of the following entities are
described in detail: churches, community organizations, government agencies and
HBCUs.
HIV testing and counseling should always be linked to applicable health
information and, if the test results are positive, to health care (Douglas and Bennett,
1990). For the African-American female with a positive test result, creating and linking
availability to culturally congruent care in support of pre- post-test counseling and long-
term treatment will result in subsequent prolonged survival for increased quality in life.
Culturally congruent care involves decisions and actions that are acceptable and
reasonable to the client (Kavanagh, 1991; Giger and Davidhizer, 1992). Within this



1522
conceptual framework, community-based HIV prevention and care seeks to preserve or
maintain the clients original cultural perspective and explanatory model, accommodate
or negotiate some change while preserving other parts of the original view, or results in
restructuring or re-patterning of beliefs or behaviors. The latter, re-patterning of beliefs or
behaviors will result in accepting the possibility of higher risk for HIV and resultant
willingness to participate in HIV testing and primary medical care treatment.
Furthermore, a key element to provision of culturally congruent care by the faith-base
and community-based HIV counselors is the establishment of rapport, or trust with the
pre-test HIV client for development of effective communication to elicit needed
information regarding risks for HIV.
For many African-American women the disadvantage of HIV testing is primarily
the fear of discovering that they have a dreaded disease that is widely believed to be fatal.
Counseling before HIV testing was provided in a frank, non-judgmental and non-
discriminatory manner that is acceptable and reasonable to client. The confidentiality of
the encouraged conversations was assured. Within this framework, the faith-based and
community-based counselor and outreach workers provided information on the purpose
and limitations of testing, prevention of HIV transmission, and the consequences of the
test result, along with emphasis on the value of appropriate early primary medical care if
the test is positive. The application of cultural congruence care helps to mitigate the sense
of hopelessness that many women believe go hand- in-hand with the diagnosis of HIV
infection (Douglas & Benneth, 1990).
The HIV Community-based Prevention and Care Network is committed to
developing and implementing behavioral community-based research including culturally



1523
congruence communication messages and intervention strategies targeting ethnically
diverse groups at greater risk of developing HIV/AIDS. The first component of model
refers to the faith-based institutions as gatekeepers. Historically in the HIV/AIDS
epidemic, a great deal of attention was paid to factors operating at the individual level,
recent focus has broadened to include more social and cultural factors. Not the least of
these are stigma and discrimination, sociocultural beliefs and practices that often attend
to the spiritual needs of the community.
Within the proposed model, self- selected churches served as gatekeeper
organizations, highlighting their commitment to combating HIV through routine and
scheduled prevention education seminars, workshops, community forums, revivals,
conferences tailored to increase awareness. Initially, five (5) churches of varying size
were to be included throughout the designated zip code areas. Currently three churches
are active in the Network, with other churches providing support in educative endeavors.
Churches were selected based on pre-determined criteria that related to specified location,
capacity for HIV prevention education programming and commitment to a 100% access
objective for Ryan White CARE Act programs. Represented as a non-traditional setting
for engaging potential clients in conversations about risk factors for HIV, the changing
face of HIV and the co- morbidity consequences of HIV, the church is then lifted to a
position of legitimacy as a public health resource referral agency in the community.
Based on need, the church as agency is able to request HIV site based screening, testing
and counseling services from the network. Meaning that initial services (such as
counseling, screening, and testing) are provided as requested within the selected setting
(that is FBO, CBO, health service agency) as determined by need of the client and



1524
church. A community client can trust in the church for confidentiality and meaningful
support. In addition, the church provides the environment for establishment of self- help
groups specific to African-American contemporary HIV issues of concern within the
community. The self- help group memberships changed frequently due to the capacity of
the group to manage its issues. Therefore, the changing issues and voluntary membership
of HIV self- help groups is a more natural process within the church environment. A HIV
prevention counselor was available to the self- help groups for culturally responsive
advisement and support, as well as to facilitate needs for professional assistant if
required. The message delivered to and from the faith-based gatekeepers was clear,
targeted, and specifically stated, as long as one is at risk, we are all at risk.
To meet the Projects strategic objectives of 1) increasing the number of African-
American women with HIV post-test positive results with referral access to mental health
and substance abuse counseling services, 2) increasing referrals for case management,
and 3) improving female client retention into primary medical care HIV/AIDS,
Community-based Organizations (CBOs) provided leadership for street and placed-based
outreach, mobile unit screening, testing and counseling to gender-culture-age-sexual
orientation specific populations. Baseline data describing opportunities for HIV
interventions indicated that the primary goals of community-based organization health
care management of clients with HIV infection were:
1. risk assessment,
2. antibody testing,
3. transmission prevention and therapy monitoring (Redfield and Burke, 1988).
However because of the CBOs profile as a HIV/AIDS organization, clients often
in urgent need of their services, avoided their use due to fear and stigmatization. The



1525
need was for increased opportunity to expand their capacity to maintain connections with
their post-test HIV-positive clients for advancement of the continuum of care to access to
primary medical care. The HIV post-test period, although short, frequently represents the
most challenging point for the clients cognitive and/or emotional appraisal for help-
seeking decision- making for care. HIV outreach workers were put in position to provide
support and counseling on demand to hard-to-reach higher risk African-American
individuals. Tracking hard-to-reach clients during the post-test period to the time that the
results are available assisted in providing continuity to the supportive services of public
health. This expanded scope of outreach activities increased the outreach worker
responsibilities to include establishing therapeutic rapport with clients to encourage and
strengthen the clients felt need for self-responsibility and health protective behaviors. It
is believed that the client must identify with a particular events consequence and the
significance of self will in the ability to change behavior. In addition, the assessment of
needs in other areas of health disparities (medical assistance eligibility, housing, mental
health, substance abuse, prevention case management) was promoted and enhanced.
The outreach workers added value to current HIV prevention services assisted
the primary medical care provider agency (health service) in the measurement of the
clients denial, fatalism and self-efficiency which is expected to affect HIV help-seeking
and treatment adherence health outcomes. Therefore community-based organizations in
the network expanded the role of HIV outreach workers to that of HIV outreach
counselors which included tracking hard-to-reach higher risk female clients during the
post-test HIV period (case- management) to the time that the results are available for
advancing the continuum of care to primary medical care.



1526
The expanded responsibilities of the outreach counselors included establishing
rapport with clients to dispel common misperceptions related by African-American
women, such as not being tested because they are married or in a monogamous
relationship or because they are not sexually active or that they could see no reason to
suspect a problem. These misconceptions that support denial of the HIV epidemic are
addressed with attention to cultural sensitivities. Many African-American women have
never talked with a health provider about the risks of being infected with HIV, however
were able to engage in conversations within the comfort of their community.
We worked with our partners, especially with the HIV Prevention Regional
Council and Steering Committee, to find suitable CBO placements within the designated
zip code communities to house four outreach counselors who were hired by the Centers
HIV Community-based Prevention and Care Network project. To help in the selection of
these community-based organizations, we looked for the following requirements: 1) prior
history of participation in HIV/AIDS communities in the designated zip code areas;
2) have at least one experienced outreach staff member who will dedicate time to work
with the expanded scope outreach activities; 3) have established relationships with local
health and social services; 4) demonstrated community health organizing experience in
the African American community; 5) possess resources such as access to facilities to hold
meetings, office equipment to record operations of project, and; 6)willingness to provide
some assigned space to store educational activities and other paper work generated from
the outreach approach.
The selected community-based organizations already had highly targeted services,
however the challenge was to modify existing services to strategically start looking for



1527
women who are HIV positive and those who are truly at high risk for HIV. The outreach
activities were well defined and highly targeted to address each very specific situation
that a potential client posed. Three community-based organizations participated in this
project. One organization offered testing and the other two decided against offering
testing services.
Placing emphasis on establishing strong relationships with existing HIV primary
care service providers within and between the Network partners, referral sites were
established with local emergency rooms, urgent care clinics and federally qualified
community health centers. The OASIS III Directory of Community- Based Resources was
established by the Baltimore City Health Department. This inventory of Community-
Based Service Providers throughout Baltimore City with community-based
intervention/prevention programs was geared toward decreasing the rates of HIV,
Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and Tuberculosis (TB) and other social issues that
are often associated with these infections. Thus, it included addiction recovery service
providers, churches, mental health providers, and health and social service providers to
encourage communication between organizations to enhance appropriate referrals. The
aim of the community-based organizations in the Network was to create new models for
diagnosing HIV infection outside of medical settings and to prevent new infections by
working with women diagnosed with HIV and their partners in tailored management
interventions.
Although Baltimore has a concentration of advanced medical technology
available in the region, it does not always have appropriate primary medical care easily
accessible in the communities where needed. Primary and preventive care can be quite



1528
difficult to obtain in certain population areas. There remains heavy use of the emergency
room, which is still not the most appropriate place to receive HIV primary medical care.
So much of health care is culturally driven: ones attitude about healing and caring,
openness to have strangers touch, and attitudes about alternative medicine may often be
in direct conflict with our current technically driven medical model. The goal to achieve
100% access and zero HIV health disparity for post-test HIV positive African-Americans
requires primary medical care providers to take many of their services into the
community. Technology has enabled medicine to do many things in noninstitutionalized
settings. The mobile capabilities in medicine are now astounding, and we must maximize
all the technology and system supports to deliver needed HIV primary medical care in the
African American community currently with higher health risk.
To meet the strategic objective of increasing the number of culturally sensitive
primary medical care team providers of health and social services who have the capacity
to provide responsive outreach to African American females who are HIV positive ,
communityspecific private physicians and dentists were called to action. Community
specific private physicians and dentists, community health centers, hospitals, and
traditional HIV service delivery sites were included in the proposed community-based
integrated network. Private and public medical and dental care service facilities are
available in sufficient number in the area. However, the availability of care does not
always equate to accessibility or acceptability of care. The validation of the HIV positive
test for accurate diagnosis and, at minimum, routine primary medical care during initial
entry into the organized health care system must occur in a variety of settings for African
Americans at higher risk for HIV infection. Primary medical care services within existing



1529
organized health systems which provide emergency room services, mental health, lab and
x-ray, substance abuse, preventive STD/HIV/TB/HCV testing and diagnosis, ambulatory
HIV/AIDS Ryan White eligibility care serve as the lead medical health service providers.
In addition for added-value health care resources, an emphasis was placed on
identifying African American dentists in the community-specific areas for establishment
of relationships to increase HIV volunteer screening and testing during routine and
emergency dental care visits. Many low-income individuals and African-Americans do
not use dental care services until there is an overt reason or pain. However, it also known
that oral candidiasis is commonly found in HIV infected clients (NIDCR, 2000).
Frequently oral manifestations of a HIV positive status client are the initial symptoms of
need for care. Many African Americans, whether they have dental insurance or not, will
choose to visit the community placed dentist for immediate or episodic care. The
community-based dental care African American provider can represent the first- line
primary provider, in that, an expanded service contract includes the capacity for HIV
screening, testing and counseling to advance the continuum of care to primary medical
care. Integrating primary medical, dental and behavioral health care interventions into the
scope of dental care service as a non-traditional health facility was expected to increase
capacity for HIV early detection and prevention education to African Americans that
traditionally avoid or defer medical treatment due to variety of personal, socio-cultural
and environmental reasons.
A HIV case- managed integrated referral network service was established to
connect FBOs, CBOs and primary medical services for new and existing community
social services, mental health, substance abuse, lab and x-ray, specialty care, hospital



1530
services and information systems. The post-test HIV tracking for higher risk African
American until results are available represented enhanced supportive public health
services in the integrated care network and an added value to HIV primary medical and
dental care services in the designated zip code areas.
To help in the selection of these primary medical and dental providers we utilized
the following databases: United Way of Central Maryland s First Call for Help database
of 3700 service providers; minority non-profits compiled by the Marylands Association
of Non-Profit Organizations (MANO) for the metropolitan area. The state of Marylands
AIDS Administration was solicited for potential providers, as well as the Medical Society
and the Associated Black Charities (ABC) for minority HIV service provider listings.
Contractual HIV service providers included hospitals, ambulatory care facilities,
community health centers, and licensed community based physicians, dentists, advanced
nurse practitioners, and physician assistants.
In the project, the MSU Center for HIV Prevention, Evaluation, Policy and
Research integrated complementary roles in the HIV Community-based Prevention and
Care Network model project. Acting as lead agency, the Center provided oversight to
capacity-building and evaluative activities. The capacity building activities were
implemented through partnership with Colleges Educating, Communicating and
Achieving (CECA) which is a training program that teaches staff from non-traditional
points of entry for HIV services and places emphasis on effective referral practices for
post-test positive clients to primary medical care in traditional HIV care settings.
Techniques used in carrying out the capacity-building trainings included: facilitation of
peer-to-peer education programs; implementation of train-the-trainer process; mentoring



1531
process for staff development and conducting face-to- face interviews with pre-test
females of child-bearing age that are at higher risk for HIV infection. Collaborationnot
competition was a priority in the building of human capital for the fight to prevent the
spread of HIV.
The human system in the health care system was placed at the forefront to
improve quality of services for increased help-seeking and acceptance of the need for
early primary medical care and treatment among African-American women in the target
areas. CECAs health educators conducted small group and one-on-one education
sessions monthly for each contact host-site. These sessions were for 1-2 hours, four times
per month and included Safe-Sex initiatives modeled after the Tupperware party idea.
The sessions included HIV prevention, STD/CTS referrals, parenting skills and peer
interaction and counseling. This was done in a confidential, informative, educationally
and comfortable environment.
Health educators trained peer educators on HIV/AIDS as follows: What is the
Virus? How the virus is transmitted; What to do if you are pregnant and HIV- infected;
Why get tested; How can you protect yourself and your baby from HIV, and the
importance of getting regular pap tests and checks for STDs. Training was for two days
each month. Small group interventions, which will include health education are
conducted two times per month as needed.
An evaluation plan for the HIV Integrated Care Network Model project included
formative, process and outcome methodology for the purpose of gathering required
outcome measures. The strategic objective of increasing the knowledge and skills of HIV
outreach workers, counselors and health providers about the system of primary medical



1532
care for PLWAs Ryan White network of services to enhance access to the system for
African-Americans women of child-bearing age was met. The Network project facilitated
the addressing of both the individual and systemic problems in tandem by implementing
a rational approach to demonstrate development of a comprehensive care delivery system
based in the targeted community. This strategic dual attack placed emphasis on closing
the gap in services and support during the transition and entry into care to allow the
women clients to develop an acceptance of the therapeutic regime. It is during these
periods when women are most emotionally fragile and in the greatest need of socially and
culturally sensitive, and individualized care and support. The Center developed a network
of providers who were ready, willing and able to support post-test HIV positive women
and PLWAs through their first primary care appointments; sustain them through their
second primary care appointment, and promote their adherence through the
recommended therapeutic regime schedule and beyond until they became comfortable
and confident in their ability to take personal responsibility for their recommended health
management plan.



1533
REFERENCES


Estrada, A.L. (2002). Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and
tuberculosis among minority injection users. Public Health Reports, 117, S126-
8134.
2000). Maryland State AIDS Administration. Douglas, & Benneth (1990).



IMPLICATIONS OF THE WIDENING GENDER GAP
BETWEEN AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN AND MEN









EDRENE FRAZIER
GRAMBLING STATE UNIVERSITY
GRAMBLING, LOUISIANA




1535
Implications of the Widening Gender Gap between African American
Women and Men


ABSTRACT
African American women and men are attaining new heights educationally and
professionally, yet the women are advancing at a pace unmatched by the men. The
widening gender gap is also evident among all racial groups. This phenomenon can be
attributed to several factors, the most powerful of which appear to be education, social
relationships and the professional workplace. The trend raises some concern about the
socio-cultural and economic foundations of the African American race and society.



INTRODUCTION
The widening gender gap between African American women and men is creating
a growing concern as women continue to attain career heights in the corporate and
professional world. These women can be found across this country in various positions,
either as top advisors to government leaders or as doctors, lawyers, accountants,
entrepreneurs, presidents and CEOs. According to Crockett (2003), African American
women hold approximately eleven percent of executive and managerial jobs in this
country compared to nine percent of African American men in similar positions. Their
accomplishment is edging even closer to the fifteen percent of Caucasian women in
similar jobs (2003). It seems obvious that if this trend continues, not only will African
American women and men be faced with new socio-cultural challenges, but so will
society and our culture as we know it. Consequently, this discourse is important for



1536
purposes of public education and creating an awareness of the potential implications that
the widening gender gap may have on women and men in our society.
Pearson, West and Turner (1995) define gender as the learned behaviors that a
culture associates with being male or female. For example, masculinity is associated with
males and femininity with females. We live in a culture that generally views gender as an
integral element to understanding human behavior. In an environment where women and
men achieve different educational, professional, and social levels, their accomplishments
often result in a gender gap. According to Feeney (2001), the gender gap seems to be a
result of several factors such as the initiation of affirmative action in 1964, the
proliferation of gender-specific scholarships, and the increasing number of women
entering the work force. Historically women, especially African American women, were
on the lower end of the spectrum, an indication that a gender gap has existed between
males and females struggling to gain equality with the males.
The gender gap between women and men is not a matter of race or nationality
because it spans across all races and nationalities. Women and men, especially African
American women and men in this country, have a tendency to follow different
educational and professional paths that lead to different levels of achievement. That, in
part is what fuels the widening gender gap.

THE CONTINUED WIDENING OF THE GENDER GAP
Educational Contributions
Education is a key factor that contributes to ones professional success. There
seems to be a direct relationship between the career and professional attainments of



1537
African American women and their educational accomplishments. For example, the
number of African American women attending colleges across the country is increasing
at a comparatively faster pace than that of men. If the number of African American
females earning college degrees and obtaining jobs is disproportionately higher than that
of the men, it follows to reason that the trend will only continue to widen the gender gap.
The gender gap between African American women and men is not a new phenomenon. It
has existed for decades. The difference now is that the gap favors women more than men.
Initially the gender gap or higher-education gap, as it was once referred to, was
reflective of an environment where more young men were attending colleges, and
graduate and professional schools than young women (Poe, 2004). According to Poe
(2004), some educators believe that this was due to a lack of encouragement and
educational opportunities for women. Records from the United States Department of
Education indicate that in 1947, only 39 percent of college students were women
(Feeney, 2001). The trend continued into the 1970s when the population of Americas
colleges and universities was predominately male. Consequently, advocates for equality
between the sexes began putting a great deal of pressure on the authorities to create
gender-specific education programs, fair admissions policies, and professional societies
for women (Poe, 2004, p. 1). Their efforts were successful, culminating in a rise in the
number of women attending college, and creating a movement designed to equalize the
gender gap at that time.
By the late 1970s, more women than men were enrolling in college and the trend
has continued. From the 1970s-2000, the number of women enrolled in undergraduate
college programs rose by 136 percent, by 168 percent in graduate school and 853 percent



1538
in professional schools (2004). In 2000, women were 57% of the students entering
college. Today, women undergraduate students outnumber men by almost 1.7 million.
The gap also continues in graduate school attendance, with approximately 300,000 more
women than men entering each year. Poe (2004) further explains that even though
women outnumber men in undergraduate and graduate schools, the numbers are almost
equal in professional schools. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics
(2001), the percentage of women entering college is expected to rise to 61 percent by
2009.
Although the total number of women attending college was less than men in 1970,
the number of African American women was almost equal with the men with African
American women having a slight edge - only six percent more (Cose, 2003). From 1990
to 1999, the number of African American women in college increased from 10 percent to
12.5 percent. Statistics also indicate that in 2000, there was a 10-percentage-point gap
among African American women and men attending colleges in the United States, with
women having the edge (Crockett, 2003).
Cose (2003) indicates that among African American women and men who are
attending college, the women continue to outnumber the men. Approximately 35 percent
of African American women enter college as opposed to only 25 percent of African
American males who do so. It appears that the womens liberation movement was a
stimulant that encouraged more and more African American women to attend colleges
and universities. What began years ago as a womens struggle for gender equality seems
to have shifted the curve. Billingham believes that colleges need to place more emphasis



1539
on recruiting non athletic black males to reduce the problematic discrepancy between
college-educated black men and women (Scott, 2002).
In general, women are not only attending colleges at a greater rate than the men,
but are also graduating from college in greater numbers. Between 1977 and 1997,
bachelor degrees awarded to African American men increased 30 percent, however, the
numbers for African American women increased by 77 percent. The number of masters
degrees awarded increased by 8 percent for African American men and 39 percent for the
women (Amid better times, 2000). According to Conlin (2003), women earn an
average of 57 percent of all bachelor degrees and 58 percent of all masters degrees from
American colleges and universities. This seems to indicate a greater tendency among
African American women to continue their education and attain advanced degrees more
than African American men.
The educational gap between men and women is not restricted just to the United
States. According to Poe (2004), women are outperforming men throughout the
developed world. The potential stagnation of males educationally, irrespective of race or
nationality, has long-term implications, socially, culturally and economically. If men
continue in this trend, this nation and the world could face a shortage of highly skilled
workers in the future. Realizing this problem, various countries (such as the United
Kingdom and Austria) are experimenting with programs to make education more male-
friendly, such as single-sex schools and classes, and gender-specific curriculums to help
males catch up with the females (Poe, 2004). Just as concern looms about the stagnation
of males, there are equal concerns from womens advocates arguing that the new



1540
emphasis on males could possibly result in a reversal of the gains women have made
(2004).
According to Conlin (2003, p. 2), the female lock on power in educational settings
is emblematic of a stunning gender reversal in American education, and one that
females are not willing to relinquish any time soon. She further contends that from
kindergarten to graduate school, boys are fast becoming the second sex. Mortenson
(2003; Conlin, 2003, p. 2), a senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of
Opportunity in Higher Education in Washington, claims Girls are on a tear through the
educational system. In the past 30 years, nearly every inch of educational progress has
gone to the girls. Although men for almost 350 years, outnumbered women on college
campuses, currently in every state, every income bracket, every racial and ethnic group,
and in most industrialized Western nations, women reign (Conlin, 2003, p. 3). Bowler
(2003) also explains that on college campuses, African American women outnumber their
male counterparts two to one. As stated by Conlin (2003, p. 4) the educational grab
by girls is amazing news, which could make the 21
st
century the first female century.
Seemingly the patterns of higher education attainment between African American
women and men are consistent with those of women and men in general. In recent years,
the trend indicates that African American women are much more likely than the men to
continue their education on through colleges and universities. In an age that increasingly
demands advanced education, the plight of African American men is precarious. A study
conducted by researchers at Northeastern University shows a wide disparity between
African American women and men at the college level with wide gaps occurring at the
bachelors, masters and doctoral degree levels (Rice, 2003). The study compared data in



1541
the year 2000 and found that for every 100 bachelors degrees received by African
American men, almost double that number (192) were received by African American
women (2003).
The continuing advance of women in education and professional areas is causing
considerable concern about the apparent stagnation of men. Some scholars, and social
workers (such as Poe, 2004; Mortenson; 2003; Crocket2003; 2003; Miller, 2003; etc.)
contend that many of the factors contributing to the widening gender gap begin long
before college with some actually beginning to take shape in elementary and secondary
schools. For example, two Cleveland, Ohio high school guidance counselors from
predominately black high schools, Margaret Board and Jeff Powers, concur that African
American girls are excelling and graduating at higher rates than the African American
boys. Board stated that the girls outnumbered the boys by about 12 percent in East Highs
2002 graduating class, while Powers (Warrensville Heights High) said that their senior
class top-ten students list and the National Honors Society was 70 percent female (Rice,
2002). David Miller, a professor of social work at Case Western Reserve University,
suggests that theres cause for concern about underachievement among black men. And,
he says the problems start well before college age (Rice, 2003, p. 2). Miller further
concurs with many educators, that boys of all races tend to find it harder to pay attention
in classpartly due to the psychological makeup of boys (p. 2).
Of the 70 percent of boys who completed high school during the 1990s, only 40
percent entered college and about eight percent continued to graduate school (Poe, 2004).
The educational system tends to reward self-control, obedience and concentration as early
as kindergarten. Many teachers agree that these are qualities more common among young



1542
girls than boys. Where somewhat restless, overly active boys once would have received
special attention from the teachers, now they are considered problem children and/or
categorized as misbehaving, having learning disabilities, needing special education
classes, or needing medication. Boys comprise three quarters of all children categorized
as learning disabled (2004). As boys are singled out and labeled (for example, as slow
learners, or ADD-Attention Deficient Disorder, etc.), many become discouraged, less
interested in school, and/or drop out. According to Close (2003), statistics indicate that
currently 17 percent of young black men are high-school dropouts as opposed to only
13.5 percent of young black women. When boys fall behind during elementary and high
school years, it becomes more difficult for them to catch up and compete. One of the key
factors attributed to the success of African American women in the job force and
business, in general, is education.
Workplace Progress
A study conducted by the advocacy group called Catalyst (2003) indicates that
women hold almost one half of all supervisory and management positions in companies
in the United States. They also make up approximately 16 percent of Fortune 500
companies corporate officers, an 8.7 percent increase from 1995 (2003).
African American women are also climbing the corporate and professional
ladders, despite significant barriers. They can be found in all areas and levels of the job
force, from blue collar workers to executive positions in corporations, educational
institutions, government and professional fields (Frazier, 2003). According to Crockett
(2003), African American women seem to be driven by a kind of ambition toward
success. This coupled with their education, talent, and determination to succeed in life



1543
and be independent, have led them to be appointed to top corporate and government
positions, owners of businesses, presidents of elite companies, doctors, lawyers and
accountants.
African American women seem to be setting a new standard of excellence and
changing the face of business in the United States. They are no longer content to just be
employed. Within the last ten years, the number of women- led and women-owned
businesses has increased considerably. African American women also made great strides
in business leadership and ownership. Black Enterprise Magazines 2003 list of this
nations top one hundred black industrial and service companies in the United States,
shows eight are women owned with three of them listed in the top ten (Holmes, 2003).
Women-owned and women- led, especially African American women, companies are
steadily increasing. According to Holmes (2003), industry analysts are indicating that
women-run companies are gradually becoming the fastest growing segments of
entrepreneurships in this country.
A report in Turning Point magazine (2002, July/August) also indicates that
between 1997 and 2002, the estimated number of privately held, minority/women-
owned firms has grown by 31.5 percent, compared to 14.3 percent among all women-
owned firms, 29.7 percent among all minority-owned firms and 6.8 percent among all
U.S. firms (Morgan, 2002, p. 11). Morgan further explains that as of 2002, an estimated
1.2 million businesses in this country were owned by women of color. The number of
majority-owned, privately-held businesses owned by Black women in this country was
estimated at 365,110, and employed approximately 200,000 people, generating almost
$14.5 billion in sales annually (2002). In 1987 African American male-owned businesses



1544
were 21.9 percent but had dropped in 1992 to 17.5 percent of all minority-owned
businesses, whereas the statistics for women-owned businesses were 13 percent in 1987
and 14.1 percent in 1992. (U.S. Census, 2000). In 1997, approximately 4 of 10 or 38
percent of African American owned businesses were owned by women (Stats on
minority, 2003)
Despite the career and professional accomplishments of women, Conlin (2003,
p. 4) claims its hardly as if the world has been equalized. She further states that
ninety percent of the worlds billionaires are men and that men continue to dominate in
the highest-paying jobs in such leading-edge industries as engineering, investment
banking, and high-tech the sectors that still power the economy and build the biggest
fortunes. Despite womens accomplishments, they continue to face sizeable obstacles
with regard to penetrating the glass ceiling, unequal pay gap, and the still Sisyphean
struggle to juggle work and child rearing (p. 4).

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS
The concern about the widening gender gap between African American women
and men is reflective of the significant sociological and psychological changes associated
with it. The roles of women and men are changing and the changes could result in other
social adjustments. For example, successful African American women are finding it more
difficult to develop meaningful social relationships. The term social relationships refers
specifically to the traditional concept of marriage between a male and a female. The
concept of marriage is the bedrock of our culture. The traditional view of marriage has



1545
changed considerably as women continue to make career gains. However, the gains have
not erased all of the bottlenecks often faced by women.
African American women face many challenges such as job related inequalities,
stereotypical casting, the glass ceiling and lack of professional mentors, despite their
success in their chosen professions. The flip side of their accomplishment is a growing,
even more challenging issue in light of the widening gender gap. It is the difficulty of
finding a decent, desirable African American male mate. According to a 2000 United
States Census report (2001; Cose, 2003), 47 percent of African American women aged
30-34 had never married as opposed to 10 percent of white women.
It seems that the attainment of African American womens career aspirations is
increasing becoming a major hindrance to their opportunities for marriage, particularly
same race marriages. As goal-oriented as some women may be, they would prefer to have
both- a career and marriage. Cose (2003, p. 50) cited Lana Coleman, an attorney in
Pasadena, California, as saying I figured that as I made more money and got the
education thats required to get a good job, that would automatically make it easier for
me to find someone. But its really been the opposite. This type of response is becoming
more and more common among African American women. For many women, finding a
same race male mate is challenging, yet they continue to seek the traditional marriage
dream.
In addition to educational and job skills preparation African American women are
also developing skills that would allow them to balance their careers with responsibilities
as wives and mothers. Although they continue to desire marriage and family, their
professional accomplishments may be creating situations that could hamper their cultural



1546
views of the so-called American dream. Their careers and professional strides appear to
impose severe limitations on the number of African American men they can possibly
accept as desirable partners in marriage. In previous eras when male students
outnumbered females on college campuses, the females had a greater number of males
from which to select a mate, but things have changed. The Department of Education
statistics indicate that there are 133 women obtaining baccalaureate degrees for every 100
men (Conlin, 2003). That number is projected to grow to 142 women per 100 men by
2010. Conlin (2003), adds that the percentage of men entering college, or masters and
doctoral degree programs has mostly stalled out, while the percentage of women
continues to rise.
The emerging gender gap between African American women and men, coupled
with the professional progress the women are making is causing some of them to rethink
the traditional notions of race, class and romance. According to Cose (2003), some
African American mothers, particularly divorced mothers, have begun preparing their
daughters for the possibility of being alone and warning them to not get caught up in
what they see mainstream white girls do. For the mainstream white girls, same race
marriage remains a viable possibility because the gender gap between white women and
men is not as large as it is for minorities, especially African American women and men.
Some African American professional women are deciding to marry men who are below
their class in terms of education and jobs, to stay loyal to the race or just remain single.
These trends are an enigma that the future has to cope with. It makes some wonder
whether these trends represent a new promise of racial integrationor a threat of lost
racial identity (Cose, 2003, p. 51).



1547
The widening gender gap, if allowed to continue unattended, has serious
implications. One of the implications is the acceleration of a marriage disconnect. The
term marriage disconnect refers to the inability of African American women to find
qualified husbands and the tendency for them to develop alternative lifestyles which may
contradict traditional marriage values. Many women may elect to remain single, while
some will chose to partner with men who are not at the same educational or professional
level, and others may engage in interracial marriages or same sex relationships.
Traditionally, African American women have been slow to seek interracial partners,
although it seems that African American men have been comfortable with interracial
dating and marriage. In an interview with Cose (2003, p. 50), Connie Rice, a Civil Rights
attorney in Los Angeles, CA, claims that interracial black-white unions, while relatively
few, have been more common between black men and white women. The United States
Census (2000; Cose, 2003) indicates that then number of interracial marriages between
black women and white men was approximately 122,000 in 1995, but dropped slightly in
1998 to 120,000. African American women have generally remained loyal to the race, but
the difficulty of finding qualified mates is forcing some of them to begin considering
alternative patterns such as interracial and same sex relationships. These alternative
lifestyles are a contradiction from traditional values passed on to children and therefore
the new development will become a form of disloyalty not just to the race but also to the
traditional concepts taught from the cradle. This is consistent with research findings of
some scholars (Cose, 2003; Miller, 2003; Mortenson, 2003).
Thomas Mortenson, senior Pell Institute scholar, explained in an interview with
Conlin (2003, p. 1) that todays education system isnt preparing boys for what he refers



1548
to as the New Economy, and that hurts women, too. He further claims that the New
Economy revolves around the pervasiveness of computers and other technological
advances that have shifted the course of the industrial world. The shift is resulting in a
movement away from a goods-producing economy to a New Economy thats more
technologically based and is destroying what was traditionally considered mens jobs. For
example, manufacturing has shrunk from 35 percent of GDP after World War II to 14
percent today and is expected to drop to 10 percent within the next decade (Conlin,
2003, p. 2). Jobs evolving with the New Economy tend to require more communication
and interpersonal skills, which is usually more suited toward women than men. Because
the economy of the 21
st
century is becoming more knowledge-based, this could mean
hard times ahead for men, especially African American men, and consequently for the
women (Rice, 2002).
Kings (2000), report, Gender Equity in Higher Education: Are Male Students at
a Disadvantage? examined reasons why women are outnumbering men on college
campuses and claims that despite the disproportionate numbers between women and men,
there does not exist an educational crisis among men. She acknowledged that there are
some real areas of problems, but it does not constitute a crisis. According to Kings study,
male college enrollment figures have not dropped. They have remained relatively stable
since 1975, but the difference is that the female numbers rose from five million in 1975
to eight million in 1997. She claims that one of the reasons for it is family income, where
males from low-income families tend to be able to obtain a job and make a decent living
with just a high school diploma. One of the reasons females are eagerly pursuing higher
education is because the typical jobs for females with only a high school diploma are



1549
pink collar, or service jobs such as retail sales, and waitresses, that seldom pay above
minimum wages (King, 2000, Feeney, 2001).

CONCLUSION
There are conflicting views among educators and social scientists as to the causes,
seriousness, and possible solutions to the widening gender gap between women and men,
however they agree that it does exist. Evidence from the literature suggests that the two
major factors causing the gender gap to widen between women and men are education
and the emerging new economy that is changing the face of the workplace. Society
must recognize the impact of the phenomenon, especially between African American
women and men, and take appropriate action to address the issue. If unattended, the
problem may create an unhealthy society with very serious problems.
The success of African American women continues to accelerate the uncertainty
about finding a male mate with whom to share their lives. The failure of African
American men to keep pace with the women may result in a marriage disconnect that
could result in significant social consequences in our society and culture. Successful
African American women who try to maintain racial loyalty and marry within their race
may also experience difficulty in their relationship when their mate does not fit into their
career and professional world. According to Franklin (2001), the high divorce rate among
highly educated, professional African American women is due, at least in part, to the fact
that the women generally made more money than their mates. Page (2003, p. 2) contends
that with their continued success in educational pursuits, the gender gap between women



1550
and men will continue to grow. This phenomenon has serious social and cultural
ramifications and could be an ominous sign for society.
According to Bowler (2003), experts dont seem to know exactly why African
American women are thriving on college campuses in the United States, while the men
are struggling. The same doors and the same scholarships are open to both African
American women and men, but the women are winning the race to higher education
(Bowler, 2003). It is apparent that there is a widening gender gap between African
American women and men and between all races of women and men. The fact that there
are no easy solutions makes a public discussion of the issue important. It is only through
such discussion that the issue can gain attention and force authorities to take a closer look
at it.




1551
REFERENCES

Amid better times for blacks, report finds a college gender gap (2000, July 25). CNN
News. Available on line: http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/07/2225/black.america.
Bowler, M. (2003, December, 21). Black students gender gap. The Baltimore Sun.
Available on- line: http://ww.baltimoresun.com/news/readingby9.
Catalyst 2003 census of women board directors. (2003). Catalyst.
http://www.catalystwomen.org/research/censuses.htm.
Census 2000 Briefs and Special Reports (2001). United States Census. Available on line:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/women02.html.
Conlin, M.. (2003, May 26). The new gender gap. Business Week. Available on- line:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_21/b3834001_mz001.htm.
Cose, E. (2003; March 3). The black gender gap. Newsweek, CXLI(9), 46.
Crockett, R. O. (2003, July 14). Online extra: Why black women keep rising. Business
Week. Available on- line: http://www. businessweek.com:print/magazine/content.
Feeney, M.A. (2001). Women in college: The gender gap grows. Available on line:
http://www.virtuallyadvising.com/content/wic/11gendergap.shtml
Franklin, D. (2001). Whats love got to do with it? Westport, CT: Touchstone Publishers.
Frazier, E. (2003). The African American woman in the 21
st
century: Media portrayals
vs. reality. NAAAS 2003 Women Monograph Series. Biddeford, ME: NAAAS &
Affiliates.
Holmes, T. E. (2003, August). Shes the boss. Black Enterprise, 34(1), 94.
King, J. (2000, October). Gender equity in higher education: Are male students at a
disadvantage?. American Council on Education. Available on line:
http://www.acenet.edu/news/press_release/2000/October/males.html.
Miller, D. (2003). The gender gap, part 3. Available on- line:
http://www.wcpn.org/news/2002/04-06/0619gender_gap_3.html.
Morgan, S. (2002, July/August). Young black women entrepreneurs. Turning Point,
10(4), 11.
Mortenson, T. (2003, May 26). Online extra: This is a world made for women. Business
Week. Available on- line: http://www.businessweek.com:print/magazine/content.



1552
National Center for Educational Statistics (2001). U.S. Department of Education.
Available on line: http://nces.ed.gov//programs/projections.
Page, S. (2003, December 17). Til politics do us part: Gender gap widens. USA Today.
Available on- line: http://usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-12-17-gendergap-cover.htm.
Pearson, J.C., West, Richard L., & Turner, Lynn H. (1995). Gender & communication.
Dubuque, IA: Brown & Benchmark Publishers, Inc.
Poe, M. (2004, January/February). The other gender gap. The Atlantic Monthly. Available
on- line: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2004/poe.htm.
Rice, B. (2002, June 19). The gender gap, part 3. Cleveland 90.3 WCPN News. Available
on- line: http://www.wcpn.org/news/2002/04-06/0619gender_gap_3.html.
Report sees widening of college gender gap. (2003, June 27). The Chronicle of Higher
Education, 49(42), A30.
Scott, M. (2002). Black women bemoan shortage of black men in college. Available on-
line: http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/033102/LOCBlackMenShowtage.shtml.
Stats on minority business owners. (2003). Score. Available on line:
http://www.score.org/minority_stats.html.



THE WAKE ROBIN GOLF CLUB:
OVER 65 YEARS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMENS
GOLF






DR. SERENA REESE
VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY
PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA




1554
The Wake Robin Golf Club: Over 65 Years of African American
Womens Golf


ABSTRACT
When one thinks of who plays golf, African American women probably are not
the players who come to mind. During the 1930s, many African American women had
the desire to play golf, but were not allowed to participate due to racism. African
American women managed to persevere, learn the skills necessary to play golf and find
places to practice the game. Many African American men were caddies for Caucasian
golfers and learned the game by playing golf on caddie days. African American women
did not have the opportunity to be caddies. They worked together to form groups that
practiced together and supported each other in a competitive environment that enabled
them to learn the game of golf from a mental and physical standpoint. Their supportive
environment allowed them to overcome barriers that they encountered.
The Wake Robin Golf Club was established in 1937. It still exists today, after
sixty- five years. The stories of how the founding women of this club had to endure
unwarranted racism, sexism and numerous other barriers to the game of golf from
Caucasians and African American men are astounding. Their ability to persevere in their
quests to play golf qualifies as nothing less than true acts of heroism. Many of the current
members have been actively involved in the club for decades. They continue to play golf
regularly even though many of them are sixty, seventy and eighty years old. This paper is
an historical journey of how the pioneering women of the Wake Robin Golf Club began
playing the game of golf and how the current members continue to carry on their mission.



HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
In the early part of the 20
th
century in the United States, golf was a mostly a
White male dominated sport that was later enjoyed by White females (Basic Golf, 2000).
Segregation at that time did not permit African Americans to play golf. They were not
allowed on the golf course unless they were caddies or serving food. Many of the African
American men learned the game of golf from being caddies. Some of the courses had



1555
caddie days that allowed African American men to play golf on the course. This was how
many of the African American men gained knowledge of the sport of golf. Caddying and
playing on caddie days allowed many African American men to play golf and pass their
knowledge on to others. It was during these early years that some of the most prestigious
African American male golfers emerged. Although many African American men excelled
at the game of golf, their talents are not well known because they were not allowed to
play in mainstream golf tournaments.
In the 1930s when the Wake Robin Golf Club women began to have an interest in
the game of golf, there were not any caddie days for them to play on the courses. They
had to find their own way to play and learn the game of golf. The discrimination against
members of the Wake Robin Golf Club playing golf was not only from Caucasians, but
from many of their husbands who initially did not support their efforts. It is not known if
the founders of the Wake Robin Golf Club were aware of the many intricacies that are
required to play golf, or if they were aware of the history of golf. What is known is that
these women wanted to play golf and were not going to allow any obstacles to prevent
them from carrying out their goal.

ACT OF INDEPENDENCE
Prior to the founding of the Wake Robin Golf Club, there had been some
womens auxiliaries associated with African American mens golf clubs in Baltimore and
Philadelphia (Minority Golf Magazine, 1997). The founders of the Wake Robin Golf
Club did not have the opportunity to become an auxiliary club because initially the local
African American mens Royal Golf Club did not want to affiliate with them.



1556
Many of the husbands of the founders of the Wake Robin Golf Club were avid
golfers. The husbands had previously come together to form their own golf club called
the Royal Golf Club for men only. The husbands of the Wake Robin Golf Club members
would play golf as much as they could, leaving the wives at home. Some of the Royal
Golf Club members did not want any women to play golf.
The wives became curious about this sport that their husbands loved so much.
Mrs. Helen Webb Harris, an educator and wife of a prominent Washington physician has
been credited with originally having the idea of starting the Wake Robin Golf Club
(Washington Post, 1997). Her efforts began in 1937 when she attended a party in honor
of one of the Royal Golf Club members. After attending the party Mrs. Harris decided to
call a meeting at her home for all women who were interested in playing golf. Thirteen
women attended the interest meeting held by Mrs. Harris (The Washington Afro
American, 1997). Many of the thirteen original members of the Wake Robin Golf Club
were educators and housewives whose husbands were members of the Royal Golf Club.
These women decided to independently start their own golf club.
On April 22, 1937, the women decided to call their group the Wake Robin Golf
Club (The Washington Afro American, 1997). This name and their club colors emerged
from the purple and gold wildflower that grows in the mid-Atlantic area (Minority Golf
Magazine, 1997). These women were determined to play golf and did not allow the
barriers of racism and sexism to prevent them from fulfilling their destiny. Today, the
Wake Robin Golf Club is the self-proclaimed oldest African American womens golf
club in the country (Washington Post, 1997).




1557
PURPOSE OF THE WAKE ROBIN GOLF CLUB
The mission of the founders of the Wake Robin Golf Club was to introduce
African American women to golf, to be a vehicle for competitive participation in golf and
to make a place for African American women in golf. Many of the Wake Robin Golf
Club members have been golf champions. One of the pioneers of the Wake Robin Golf
Club was Mrs. Paris B. Brown, who was called the first lady of golf. Mrs. Brown began
playing golf in 1930 (Minority Golf Magazine, 1997). She played golf with her husband,
Edgar G. Brown who was the National Tennis Champion at the time (Minority Golf
Magazine, 1997). Mrs. Brown was elected president of the Wake Robin Golf Club. In
1941, while still the president of the Wake Robin Golf Club, Mrs. Brown was elected
vice president of the United Golfers Association at a meeting in Boston. She was the
first woman to hold such an office (Minority Golf Magazine, 1997). In 1954, at a meeting
in Dallas, Texas, Mrs. Brown was elected National Tournament Director (Minority Golf
Magazine, 1997).
A memorable incident occurred at Langston Golf Course in Washington, D.C.
that involved Sarah Smith, a member of the Wake Robin Golf Club and Timothy
Thomas, a member of the African American mens Royal Golf Club. He had also been
the former tournament director for the Eastern and United Golfers Association. Timothy
Thomas was against the Wake Robin Golf Club women playing golf. He stated that
whenever he saw those ladies (members of the Wake Robin Golf Club) come out onto the
golf course, he just hated it (Washington Post, 1987). Timothy Thomas and his golf
partner had been victorious over a two-some the previous day. The two-some did not
show up the following day to play, so the men agreed to allow Sarah Smith to play a



1558
four-ball match golf game with them. The two-some that Sarah Smith played in was
victorious over Timothy Thomas, the male golfer who did not want the Wake Robin Golf
Club members to play golf (Washington Post, 1987). Thomas later stated that he was
embarrassed after his loss. This incident established respectability for one of the missions
of the Wake Robin Golf Club which is to help women play competitive golf.

ACT OF SUPPORT
After the Wake Robin Golf Clubs inception, it was quite evident to the husbands
that their wives were serious about playing golf. Many of the husbands, who had also
been encountering the barriers of racism in golf decided to support the enthusiasm of
their wives to play golf. Some of the husbands went so far as to attend many of the
meetings of the founders of the Wake Robin Golf Club and offer personal advice. This
led to a union of advocacy between both clubs.
When the Wake Robin Golf Club pioneer members began to play golf in 1937,
there was only one course in the area that would allow them to play golf. This course was
called the Lincoln Memorial which is now West Potomac Park (Washington Post, 1997).
The design of the Lincoln Memorial Golf Course was not exactly the most inviting. The
first four holes were located on one side of the street. After playing the first four holes,
golfers had to cross over the street and play a few more holes. After those holes were
played, they would have to cross back over the street to play the remaining holes. This
was an inconvenience because the golf players would actually end up walking twice as
far as the course itself (Minority Golf Magazine, 1997).



1559
The Wake Robin Golf Club members would play at the Lincoln Memorial Golf
Course and be subjected to taunts and rocks being thrown at them by Caucasians who did
not want them to play golf. There were incidents when the Wake Robin Golf Club
members would hit their golf balls, only to see a child or a dog run onto the course and
take them away. Many times, the Wake Robin Golf Club Members would travel to golf
clubs in Baltimore and Philadelphia in order to play without so much unwarranted
interruption (Golf Magazine, 2000).

DESEGREGATION EFFORTS
Both the Wake Robin Golf Club and the Royal Golf Club acted together to help
desegregate many of the courses in their area. In 1938, one year after its inception, the
Wake Robin Golf Club along with the Royal Golf Club drafted a petition advocating for
the desegregation of the District of Columbias public golf courses (Washington Post,
1997). The Wake Robin Golf Club members advocated for a golf course that would allow
them to play in their area without so much interruption. Their efforts, along with the
Royal Golf Club members led to then-Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes pushing for
legislation to build a nine-hole golf course nearby. Legislation was passed and the
Langston Golf Course for Colored was built in 1939. Langston Golf Course became the
home course for the Wake Robin Golf Club and the Royal Golf Club.
Langston Golf Course is located near Spingarn High School in Northeast
Washington near RFK Stadium. This course was built at the city dump (Golf World,
1994). It was not the most scenic place to play, but the Wake Robin Golf Club members
saw it as a place to play in which they could concentrate on beating the course without



1560
human and canine interference. There was a sewage ditch that ran along the side of holes
three and five at Langston Golf Course (Golf World, 1994). The sparse grass that grew on
the course was called Ickes grass, named after then-Secretary of the Interior Harold
Ickes who pushed for legislation to build the course (Washington Post, 1987).
Many of the members of the Wake Robin Golf Club stated that they would always
make a point to try to find their golf balls if they landed among the old tires or rusty tin
cans that were thrown on the course. The women had a special reason for trying to find
their golf balls. Each golf ball cost 75 cents which was a substantial amount of money at
that time (Washington Post, 1997). Today, Langston is an 18-hole public golf facility
(Washington Post, 1997). After the opening of the Langston Golf Course, members of the
Wake Robin Golf Club and the Royal Golf Club continued to advocate then-Secretary of
the Interior Harold Ickes to desegregate other public golf facilities. In 1941, Ickes issued
an order that desegregated East Potomac and Rock Creek (Washington Post, 1997).
The women of the Wake Robin Golf Club were among many other clubs
instrumental in advocating and successfully succeeding in forcing the PGA to drop its
Caucasianonly rule for eligibility in 1961 (Washington Post, 1997). Another historical
effort by the Wake Robin Golf Club members and other clubs was the ability to jointly
work together with the United Golfers Association to hold tournaments around the
country for the best African American golf professionals (Washington Post, 1997). These
tournaments highlighted golfing pioneers such as Ted Rhodes, Charlie Sifford and Lee
Elder (Washington Post, 1997). Many times, this was the only way that these prominent
African American male golfers could earn a living playing golf during that time
(Washington Post, 1997). The women of Wake Robin Golf Club continued to endure



1561
amid all of the humiliation and strife that they encountered to petition to have the courses
opened for them to be able to play golf. The Wake Robin Golf Club members strength
and ability to face their adversaries led them to want to pass on the legacy of playing golf
to keep the idea of their mission alive.

YOUTH GOLF PROGRAMS
The vitality of the Wake Robin Golf Club members to face undue resistance has
led them to become actively involved with youth golf programs. The Robinettes was one
of the first junior golf programs established by the Wake Robin Golf Club members
(Washington Post, 1987). The Wake Robin Golf Club is also affiliated with the
Washington-based Inter-Federation of Golfers. The Inter-Federation of Golfers has a
youth golf program that had 188 young men and women in their program, some as young
as age 7 in 1987 (Washington Post, 1987). The Wake Robin Golf Club members continue
to mentor young golf players.

CONCLUSION
The present members the Wake Robin Golf Club continue to strive for their
personal best when attending the clubs golf outings. Many of these womens golf scores
are impressive to say the least. One purpose of the original pioneers of the Wake Robin
Golf Club was to produce women champions. They have managed to continue that
tradition with the many outstanding women golf players currently in the group. The
Wake Robin Golf Club has produced more champions than any other African American
womens golf club (Washington Post, 1987). Many of their members are in the Black



1562
Golfers Hall of Fame. The original mission of the founders of the Wake Robin Golf
Club was to provide an opportunity for African American women to play golf. Since,
desegregation, Mrs. Winifred Stanford, a member of the Wake Robin Golf Club stated
that their club plays golf with everyone. The golf outings held by the Wake Robin Golf
Club are open to all women golfers, regardless of race/ethnicity.
Despite the seemingly overpowering odds against the pioneers of the Wake Robin
Golf Club, the group is still active and continues to host golf tournaments. This group of
women golfers has a proud history of opening up the sport of golf for other players. Their
involvement in the integration of the PGA has led to the ability of Tiger Woods to make a
living from playing golf. Many of the women who are current members did not have to
endure the hatred and oppressive humiliation of the founding women of the Wake Robin
Golf Club. The current members are aware of what the founders endured and they
continue to proudly carry on the traditions of the club. Many of the current club members
have mentioned that they still encounter discrimination, mostly in the form of sexism
(Washington Post, 1997). Some of the current members have been active in the Wake
Robin Golf Club for decades and continue to play golf on a regular basis competitively.
Many of these women belong to country clubs around the Washington, D.C. area. As a
testimonial to the longevity of the women and the ability to play golf as a lifetime sport,
the current members of the Wake Robin Golf Club range in age from under thirty years
old to close to ninety years old (Washington Post, 1997). Their membership has grown
from thirteen original members to sixty.
Mrs. Winifred Stanford continues the tradition as the historian of the Wake Robin
Golf Club. She inherited this position from Mrs. Ethel Williams (The Washington Afro-



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American, 1997). Mrs. Stanford provided much of the historical data presented in this
research. Many thanks to her for her continuous effort in preserving the rich history of the
Wake Robin Golf Club. Also, thank you to Howard Universitys Moorland-Spingarn
Research Center (the largest collection of African American sports memorabilia in the
United States) for their help in providing historical data for this research project. Lastly,
thank you to all of the members of the Wake Robin Golf Club who have been
instrumental in keeping the mission of the club alive through their civic efforts and
charitable donations, thus, ensuring that African American women have the right to enjoy
playing golf.



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REFERENCES


Fahey, T.D. (2000). Basic Golf. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co.
Horad, E. (1997, June 21). Golf 60 Years Ago-Black Women of D.C. The Washington
Afro-American. p. B2.
McDaniel, E. (1994). Wake Robins Forever. Golf World. p. V23.
Milloy, C. (1987, April 26). For Black Women, Golf Wasnt Easy. The Washington Post.
p. B3.
Shapiro, L. (1997, May 28). For 60 Years, Club Has Helped Black Golfers.
The Washington Post. p. A9.
Taking Root. (2000, August). Golf Magazine. p.102.
Wake Robin. (1997, February). Minority Golf Magazine. p.18.