African American Childhood: Part One

I found the chapter in the book "American Childhoods" by Joseph E. Illick that talked about African American childhoods interesting for a number of reasons, one of which being that he said come things that were politically incorrect but factually deducible. I love that kind of bravery. Now understandably any view of history is not without its bias so you can say what you will about that. I also feel that I learned some things about the slave experience and the children who suffered through it. I want to present my thoughts on the chapter of African American childhood in two sections. One will be primarily quotes from the chapter that I found very informative, and would like to pass on. I may toss in a few ideas, but most of my ideas will be given in part two, which I am still refining.



pg. 41 "The grim picture shows that the slave family, extended or nuclear, was always vulnerable and that most fathers did not live with their children." This strikes me as eerily similar to the make-up of many African American households, today.

pg. 41 " Certainly slave children saw their parents (but not their white peers) beaten, and their parents in turn beat them - whether because this was traditional practice or to prepare them for their adult lives." This trend is common in families who experience domestic violence. A child who is abused often becomes the abuser in the next generation. How much more must this be the case when a whole race inflicts such treatment on a whole other race.

pg. 43 "This was not a world parents could explain to children , much less justify except as the will of the Lord"

pg. 44 " Richard Wright (author of 'Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth' (New York, 1945)) described his boyhood in a household filled with acrimony and violence; he was alternately preached to and beaten."

pg. 44 " Illegitimate births were common before first marriages; mother and child almost always remained in the grandparental household, which served as a secure social setting for the child or children until the mother made a stable marriage. The first child was the most fondled and stimulated and often became the most self-confident and capable, illegitimate or not."

pg. 46 " African American childhood in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was profoundly affected by the social context of slavery and its aftermath."

pg. 46 "It was enunciated by George Wallace, a segregationist when he began his four terms (elected in 1962, 1970, 1974, 1982) as Governor of Alabama, who reportedly gave barracks lectures during World War II defending his white supremacy position: ' I don't hate them., The coloreds are fine in their place, but they're just like children and it's not something that's going to change. It's written in stone,' It did change, and Wallace recanted. Nevertheless, the idea of African Americans as children has had a history in America dating from the mid-nineteenth century."

pg. 46 " Historian Thomas Webber argues that the planter class aimed to have slaved internalize values which would make them conscious of their own inferiority, 'overflowing with awe, respect and childlike affection for the planter and his family.' happily aware of the rules of slave behavior and convinced that slavery was not only right, but the best of all possible worlds. Slaves were kept ignorant of the outside world and the written word, denied privacy, forbidden to recall their African past, and refused the very privileges that defined their white counterparts as adults.
While Webber argues that most of the values attitudes, and understandings taught by white masters were not accepted by black slaves, he concedes that one must look deep into the slave literature to reach this conclusion. In other words, even if slaves were not convinced by their masters, they had to disguise their true beliefs. How long this masquerade persisted, whether it still goes on, is a matter of debate. But whichever side of the issue is taken, it seems that African American's eventually fulfilled the expectations of the European Americans who wanted to perceive them as perpetual children."

pg. 49 " A turning point in the understanding of black male character came in 1941 when anthropologist Melville Herskovits published "The Myth of the Negro Past". Herskovitz accused scholars and policy makers of basing their work on myths that supported racial prejudice, the first one of which was 'Negroes are naturally of a childlike character,' Pointing to the sophistication of an African worldview, he concluded that' such maladjustments to the American scene as characterize Negro life are to be ascribed largely to the social and economic handicaps these folks have suffered, rather than to any inability to cope with the realities of life.'"

pg.49 "The courage demonstrated by African Americans during the ensuing civil rights struggle surprised most white Americans, as indeed it should have. The long and concerted effort to marginalize blacks and rationalize such treatment on the basis of their being essentially simple , weak, and vulnerable was confounded by their willingness to confront their enemies at lunch counters, schools and courthouses, to create public demonstration where sometimes their very lives were at stake."

pg. 50 "This was not the first generation of African Americans to want freedom, nor the first generation of European Americans to resist granting it. But encouraged by federal action in the armed services and in the courts, not to mention the attention showered on these steps forward and their consequences on television, these black youths were able to act on beliefs long and deeply held."

One of the things I was most reminded of is that the steps that African Americans have taken in fighting for equality were begun not long ago. The last quote was referring to school desegregation that occurred in the 1960's: only 50 years ago. I keep thinking that we are very distanced from the time of blatant segregation, just because I don't remember it being blatant in my lifetime, but that is not actually the case. There will be more about African American culture and me in part two so stay tuned.