All things Black Culture. I do not own any media unless stated.

3 months ago (23 February 2012)
397 notes

"They were always there. Whenever you wanted to do something simple, natural and inoffensive. Like drink some water, sit down, go to the bathroom or a buy a bus ticket to Charlotte, North Carolina. Those classifying signs that told you who you were, what to do. More than those abrupt and discourteous signs one gets used to in this country—-the door that says “Push,” the towel dispenser that says “Press,” the traffic light that says “NO”—these signs were not just arrogant, they were malevolent: “White Only.” “Colored Only,” or perhaps just “Colored” permanently carved into the granite over a drinking fountain. But there was one set of signs that was not malevolent: it was, in fact, rather reassuring in its accuracy and fine distinctions: the pair that said “White Ladies” and “Colored Women.”
The difference between white and black females seemed to me an eminently satisfactory one. White females were ladies, said the sign maker, worthy of respect. And the quality that made ladyhood worthy? Softness, helplessness and modesty—-which I interpreted as a willingness to let others do their labor and their thinking. Colored females, on the other hand were women—unworthy of respect because they were tough, capable, Independent and immodest. Now, it appears, there is a consensus that those anonymous sign makers were right all along, for there is no such thing as Ladies’ Liberation. Even the word “lady” is anathema to feminists. They insist upon the “womans” label as a declaration of their rejection of all that softness, helplessness and modesty, for they see them as characteristics which served to secure their bondage to men."

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Toni Morrison, What the Black Woman Thinks About Women’s Lib. New York Times Magazine (23 August 1971): 4+ Reprinted by permission of International Creative Management, Inc. Copyright 1971 by Toni Morrison. from the book What Moves at the Margin.



(via howtobenoladarling)

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