Quiz #5

The book Kindred by Octavia E. Butler centered around two time periods in the United States, the 1970s and the early 1800s. It was interesting to see the difference as to how the main characters Dana who was black and her white husband Keith were treated in the different times. When going back to the 1800s, Dana was seen as a slave and her husband her owner. In the 1970s however, they were more accepted as a couple, but still faced discrimination for trying to mix ethnic groups.

During the time when Dana was involved in the slave life and worked on a white plantation, it was easy to see Johnson’s idea from the chapter Capitalism, Class and the Matrix of Domination. Throughout the book, slaves were scared that if they did not work well enough and produce enough profit for their white owner that they would be sold. Tom Weylin, owner of the plantation and Rufus’s father, only looked out for what was most profitable for him. He would sell slaves and not even consider the fact that he was splitting up families.

The idea of a “mammy” figure from the movie Race I was also present in the novel. Sarah was a larger set black woman who was able to give out tasks to the other black slaves, and in return they would respect her and listen to her. She was seen as a mother and authority figure toward the slaves. There were a couple of times in the book were Dana referred to the term mammy when talking about Sarah, and she could see the similarities.

The clip that was watched in class regarding the Jena 6 could also be applied. It is known that throughout history African Americans have been killed/murder by being hung on a noose. After slavery ended, blacks were still often tortured and hung by angry Southern whites that still thought that blacks were inferior to them. In Jena, Louisiana, three white boys hung nooses on a tree that was located in a school courtyard. Since the noose is directly related to the murders of African Americans, the black students took it as a form of racism. In the book, the slaves were always afraid of making white people mad, which would result in being whipped and possibly even hung. In the end of the book, the noose was used as a sign of freedom for the girl Alice who had been made a slave and who thought her children were sold. By hanging herself, she was no longer able to be tortured and she probably thought her soul would be set free.

Some of the more recent articles and films that we have seen in class can also be linked to Kindred. The movie Eyes on the Prize: Awakenings 1954-1956 focused more on the events that African Americans faced after being legally freed. It could definitely be seen when Dana was telling the story of how her and her Keith met and got engaged. When both of them told their families, never Dana’s or Keith’s family like the idea of an interracial marriage. So even though they were free to make their own choices, they were not always socially accepted. So like Rosa Parks who tried to sit in the front of a public bus and the students who participated in the sit-ins in the diners, Dana and Keith were trying to get a new idea of equality into the public eye and accepted.