African American criticism is a lens used to examine historical racial problems dating back to slavery. Often written by African American authors, it tells untold stories about the culture while exploring racial inequities in our current world.
Many students and people in general are unaware of many historical events important to African American culture such as the Middle Passage, the Underground Railroad, and many more. (359)
Despite the progression of wokeness in society, the education system is still unable to inform students of this side of history. (359)
“Given that so much African American literature deals with racism—as a literary record of African American experience, how could it not?” (360)
African American history only began being taught in the 1960s. This was to ensure white power over America. (360)
Racialism vs racism
Racialism is the belief in superiority and inferiority based on race. It also is the idea that different races have different intellectual and moral characteristics. (360)
Racism is the disparity in power based on racialism, the superiority or inferiority of a race. Examples include slavery and segregation. (360)
Institutionalized racism is racism incorporated into societal systems such as law, government, economy, etc.
An example of institutionalized racism is critical race theory, or a lack thereof. As mentioned earlier, critical race theory has failed to be taught in schools all across the nation. The reason why it isn’t taught in schools is because white people remain in power. When you tell the stories of black people and other people who have been historically repressed, you give them power. This maintaining of racial power is a direct parallel to Eurocentrism, which is the belief that western Europe is superior to the rest of the world.
Black history has always been considered its own thing, and not a part of American history. (361)
In the 1960s, some black people in America thought of themselves as inferior because of the rich, rooted history of racialism. Some thought they were less intelligent, less attractive, and less deserving because of centuries of propaganda and institutionalized racism. This can be seen in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morisson where the main character is a
black woman who thinks she can only be loved if she had blue eyes, a trait most common with white people. (362)
Marxist lens
“For Marxism, getting and keeping economic power is the motive behind all social and political activities, including education, philosophy, religion, government, the arts, science, technology, the media, and so on.” (53-54)
Economic Power supersedes all other motivations for humanity, or in other words all human action is ultimately driven by economic power
Economics act as the “base” for all other human social, political, and ideologies
For a Marxist, Socioeconomic differences have greater effect than race, gender, religion, ethnicity, or any other dividing traits. These other differences are a facade created by the rich elites (The Bourgeoisie) to create infighting between the working class (The Proletariat). (54)
America consists of 5 economic classes (55):
Under Class (Homeless)
Lower Class (Poor/Struggling people who live in fear of becoming homeless)
Middle Class (Those who can own a home and send their kids to college)
Upper Class (Those who can comfortably own multiple homes and luxury items)
Aristocracy (Extremely wealthy such as corporation owners who do not ever worry about money)
Literature as well as all other cultural art pieces don't exist simply to be art. There is always a purpose to pursue economic gain, as this is simply human nature and the way of the society we live in.
The fact that literature “reflects real material/historical conditions” means that it reinforces or criticizes the ideologies it represents, and often it does both. (66)
Content: The “what” of a story, literally what is written on the page.
Form: The “how” of the story, or how it is told.
The lens of Marxism analyzes how the content and form of a story presents the disparity between economic classes in a society. (Below questions from page 68)
Does this story reinforce capitalist, imperialist, or classist values? If so, this aspect should be exposed and condemned
Does the story critique capitalism, imperialism, or classism?
Does the work conflict ideologically, supporting Marxist values and supporting capitalism, imperialism, or classism?
How does the work reflect the socioeconomic conditions at the time of its story? What does this reveal about the history of class struggle?
How does religion (or other dividing factors) prevent characters from realizing and resisting socioeconomic oppression?
Post-Colonial lens
The post-colonial lens looks at literature made by both those who colonized and those who were/are colonized. It explores different aspects of society like religion, power, economics, and politics and how that relates to colonization. A famous quote that relates to it is “until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”
Post-colonialism provides framework for other lenses such as queer, feminist, and even critical race theory. The connection is these lenses all deal with people who have been or are being repressed in some way. (417)
The post-colonial lens emerged in the 1990s. It relates to eurocentrism, mentioned in the African American lens. The core of post-colonialism is the domination of Europe over the new world. In the fifteenth century, European countries such as Spain, France, and England were extending their reach all over the globe. Specifically, Britain, which at the start of the twentieth century ruled about one fourth of the Earth's surface. (418)
Post-colonialism is split into two main aspects. A subject matter, and a theoretical framework. (418)
Post-colonialism refers to a subject matter as the analyzation of literature produced from societies that had been colonized. Some of this content was written by the colonizers, but the majority was from who are currently or were colonized.
English majors study, for the most part, literature produced from countries directly colonized by the British.
Post-colonialism as a theoretical framework tends to look more at the ideologies of colonizers, whether that be politically, socially, economically, psychologically, etc.
17% of the world speaks English, which is roughly 1.3 billion people. This is mainly due to Britain’s domination of the new world.
Revolutions in countries dominated by Britain often resulted in Britain's physical presence gone, however, they are more rooted than just personal occupation. The English culture is continuing to colonize some of these countries. Similar to the African American lens, this can lead to self-dehumanization and self-alienation from indigenous cultures and practices. (419)
Questions from page 431
“What does the text reveal about the problematics of postcolonial identity,
including the relationship between personal and cultural identity and such
issues as double consciousness and hybridity?”
How does Western literature undermine ideologies embodied in colonization and its unfair misrepresentation of colonized people?
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