The Role of Black Characters in Modern Society
With Claudia, a black character from his novel, Yancy demonstrates the need for people with black skin to not only try to accept their lives as they are at any given time but also to exert effort to stifle any thoughts that might be seeking to push them toward better lives. The way he frames it in his literary analysis suggests that black people have a role to perform in modern society, undermining them at all costs. In the text, Claudia receives a correspondence that discourages her and all other women who seem to thrive in the hope that there will be a better life ahead as opposed to the one she was trying to get out of by then. However, she uses her mother's encouragement as stepping stones of hope towards a better future than the one she was living.
Deprivation of Motherly Love in the Slave System
Concurrently, the slave system deprived black children of motherly love as those in charge of the system only cared about the enslaved mother and not what the individual had to say about her situation. In so doing, the children conceived during this particular time were detached from their parents, especially their mothers since they were not given the opportunity to bond with them as it would have been in another setting. The situation that is presented in the book is that of human beings being treated as objects owing to their skin pigmentation is entirely baseless. The women seem to have been reduced to their wombs and other blacks to their genitalia. The whites did not value them as human beings but only kept them around to either serve the purpose of conceiving more children who would then be used as slaves. Also, the other reason they were left to hang around is due to fulfilling the sexual desires of white men and taking care of the children of the white and the needs they would be having.
Society's Perception of Black Lives
The movement finds it quite hard to argue its main point because the society is hell-bent on seeing black lives as pointless and meaningless as opposed to the lives of white people. It is usually simpler to reason out with people who are willing to pay attention to the voice of reason and the direction of the argument that the individual presenting an issue mentions. However, in this case, the whites were engraved on the perception that black were animals rather than human beings who deserve to be treated with utmost respect and dignity. Yancy clearly states that Du Bois did not care whether a black person getting lynched and struggling to salvage their lives by writhing in pain to get through the next day or die trying to fight for what they believed in was innocent or guilty of the claimed offense. People find it an issue when they try to fight for what they believe to be true as those in charge of them do not care how they deal with them even taking their lives means nothing to the white people. It would have been a lot easier if those in authority were willing to pay attention to their lamentations and reason out with them instead of treating them as though they had no brains to reason and animals that have no rights.
Bibliography
Rogers, Melvin L. "Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Significance of Race." Journal Of Speculative Philosophy 24, no. 2 (May 2010): 192-194. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 14, 2017).
YANCY, GEORGE, and MARIA DEL GUADALUPE DAVIDSON. "Thinking About Race, History, and Identity: An Interview with George Yancy." Western Journal Of Black Studies 40, no. 1 (Spring2016 2016): 3-13. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 14, 2017).
