Category Archives: Blog Post Connecting Mary Church Terrel’s Work to Contemporary Culture and Society

Hyper-sexualization and Violence of Black Women in the Past to Now

11 Replies

Throughout much of history, focusing specifically on American history, black women have been the subject of fetishization, hypersexualization, and objectification in many forms that more often than not leads to various forms of violence. In “Betsy’s Borrowed Baby” we saw direct examples of this experience through Betsy’s assault on the train by the white man who entered the Jim Crow car when no one else was there. Betsy was doing nothing other than making a trip home just like the thousands of other college students at that time of year. However, she was a black woman who happened to be caught in a situation that made her extra physically vulnerable to attack, and a white man saw it as an opportunity to attack her as an object of his fetishization. 

During the attack, the assailant says, “Some of them who have the fear of God in their heart, when they see a white man, aint so sassy as you are, though,” (Terrell Betsy’s Borrowed Baby 48) making it clear he has done this many times before and is very clear of his standing as a white man attacking black female college students on their way home. As well, he calls Betsy “sassy” for resisting his attack, noting his fetishization of her directly. Later when she continues to resist, he threatens to, “…throw you off the train and break your sassy neck,”(Terrell Betsy’s Borrowed Baby 48). Here, the assailant threatens her with murder if she does not comply, a fate that awaits far too many black women. As well, there is no guarantee he wouldn’t have killed her regardless if she complied with him or not, since clearly part of the assailant’s pleasure was in the violence he subjected his victims to. 

(FX’s “Pose” Season 2 Ep 4)

Unfortunately, this violence stemming from fetishization, hypersexualization, and objectification is not a thing of the past that disappeared with slavery or the Jim Crow Era. It is very much alive and well in various ways. One of the most prevalent modern forms of these issues is apparent in the black trans and queer communities, most commonly among black trans sex workers. Documentaries such as “Paris is Burning” and historical fiction works such as “Pose” do an excellent job of demonstrating the lives of people in these communities, and all too often the loss at the hands of violence from them. As discussed in class, many people (most often but not exclusively married white men) still hold the societal standard that they must “act as gentlemen” in their family and marital lives. In the past slave owners would try to uphold the idea of their wives as “ideal” women and brutalize their slaves. Moreover, in the era of Jim Crow, these men would take advantage of the injustices of the law and society for the same purposes. However, in modern society without slaves or Jim Crow laws, many men revert to the treatment of sex workers, often black trans women, to enact their most brutal desires of violence, and project their objectification, fetishization, and hypersexualization of black people. 

The Conspiracy to Silence a Black American Writer

6 Replies

“There is a “Conspiracy of silence” on the part of the American press, so far as presenting the Colored-American’s side of the story is concerned. Anybody who makes him ridiculous or criminal can get a hearing in the press, but his trials and struggles and heartaches are. There is hardly any use, therefore for a Colored woman who wants to make an appeal for justice and equality of opportunity thru the medium of the short story or the movies to make effort. The advice, therefore to writers, therefore, should be “writainly of characters who arouse the spectators sympathy, provided those characters are white. “ 

  • This quote exemplifies a larger problem in the publishing sector, where some story types may be preferred over others based on their alleged business feasibility or reader demand. It is regrettable that stories emphasizing the good qualities of black communities may encounter difficulties getting published or receiving noticed.

Mary Church Terrell: Misogynoir at Work

9 Replies

America is afflicted with a grave illness.

In her speeches, Mary Church Terrell makes it abundantly clear that America is afflicted with a grave illness that runs rampant alongside the sickness of racism and slavery. In fact, one could conclude that it is a direct result of both. Misogynoir is defined as the “dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against Black women.” While Marcy Church Terrell is a part of the Talented Tenth, she is nonetheless still limited by her gender as well as her race. Amongst the Black community, there is a great disconnect between herself and the greater community at large due to her class privilege. As a Black clubwoman who subscribes to the “lifting as we climb” ideology, while her intentions are meant to have the best interests of the Black community in mind, they fail to take into account the lived experiences of poor and working-class Black people who will not have had access to privilege in the same way as her, nor is rebuilding a community in this idealized image of gentility as easy to make a reality as is said. The idea that the Talented Tenth subscribes to fails to recognize that rather than allowing formerly enslaved communities to come into themselves by its own means, they instead want to assimilate in a way that is as approximate to whiteness as possible. What I seek to communicate here is that despite these misguided attempts, Terrell still stands as a pillar of progress toward a brighter future for Black America at the time. However, due to misogynoir, women like Terrell and Ida B. Wells are excluded from the greater conversation of what direction should be taken to ensure the success and survival of the Black community. It is unfortunate that Terrell is not placed up on the shelf with the likes of “race men” like Booker T. Washington or W.E.B. Du Bois. Terrell herself remarks in “The Progress of Colored Women” (1898) that “Not only are colored women with ambition and aspiration handicapped on account of their sex, but they are almost everywhere baffled and mocked because of their race.” This inherent hatred and distaste for Black women of color is necessary for the racial hierarchy of America that places white men at its peak, and everything outside of that category beneath them. It prevents Black women from being a part of the “cult of true womanhood” despite being just as qualified to meet the requirements. One could conclude that the cult has a tendency to move the goalpost, depending on whom is deemed desirable enough to enter or not for the sake of racial purity. From within the Black community, misogynoir seeks to subjugate or mold Black women into the “angel of the hearth” role, but it is not conducive to Black womanhood when you take into account what the intersectionality between being Black and a woman entails.

Mary Church Terrell, Transportation & Education

12 Replies

Devoting her life to racial uplift, Mary Church Terrell exemplified what she called being a “black club woman.” The rise of other black clubwomen occurred as middle class African Americans grew tired of the oppression placed upon them by Jim Crow laws. Through education and activism, these women sought to fight for social reform. In “What Role is the Educated Colored Woman to Play” (1902), Terrell dictates the primary focus of black clubwomen. She states:

“Carefully and conscientiously, we shall study the questions, which affect race most deeply directly… we shall protest with such force of logic and intensity of the soul that those who oppress us will either cease to disavow the inalienability and equality of equality of human rights…”

Through Terrell’s writing, we see characters who embody the values that black clubwomen exemplify. In her story “Betsy’s Borrowed Baby,” Betsy travels via the trains Jim Crow car, and is assaulted by a white man during the trip. After rebutting him, the conductor (who would be seen as an authoritative figure, protective) claims that the man was only joking, stating “Why, you’re a regular Mrs. Jack Johnson,” “He just wanted to see what kind of stuff you were made of” (Terrell, 49)  Through this, the conductor not only plays off the man’s remarks but also likens Betsy to the famous boxer Jack Johnson, noted for his interracial relationships and boxing prowess. I found this comparison interesting, as I believe its implications are twofold. On one hand, Betsy’s fending off of her assaulter is alike to the way Jack Johnson fights off his opponents. On the other hand, while Johnson fights for sport, Betsy is fighting for her personal safety and possibly for her life. Also in this comparison, I feel as if the conductor is removing Betsy’s agency in defending herself. Claiming that defending herself is acting like Jack Johnson makes her actions seem less like her own, and more like placing her in the shadow of a man, removing her agency as a black woman.

The writing on transportation made me think of the Freedom Rider attacks in 1961. The attacks came as a result of many things, one of which was the landmark Supreme Court case Plessy V. Ferguson (1896). The Freedom Rides were interracial bus rides through the American south, in the height of racial segregation. The presence of the Ku Klux Klan throughout the south posed as one of the many horrific dangers faced by the riders, as well as non-Klan members who still demonstrated violence against those seeking to challenge segregation.

Freedom Riders beaten by white people in Birmingham.

In the modern day, what Terrell’s work reflected to me was the recent problem posed in Florida regarding the AP African American studies course that was banned from being taught in schools, with the Department of Education citing that the course teaches Critical Race Theory and would introduce students to a political agenda. According to Christopher Tinson, chair of the African American Studies department at SLU, the course includes “nothing particularly ideological about the course except that we value the experiences of African people in the United States.” (https://www.npr.org/2023/01/22/1150259944/florida-rejects-ap-class-african-american-studies)  The rejection of this course directly contradicts the goals of Terrell’s black clubwomen, all these decades later. It is clear that while progress has been made in hopes of challenging the oppression of racial segregation, there is still so much left to be challenged. Learning and understanding the history of African Americans in the United States would be essential in the eyes of Terrell and all of black society.