Essay On African American Identity

Before delving into the types of identity that black women face on a daily basis, to understand where I am going with this paper it is first necessary to define what exactly identity is for the African American race as a whole. The social identity that is apparent for most people is usually linked to their racial and cultural identities, which give them a sense of purpose in life. African Americans have been the subject of racialized and discursive discourse that has socially constructed them as criminals and amoral human beings, which challenges their humanity and their right to a legitimate social and racial identity. Such racialized discourse has its roots in slavery, which was reproduced during the Jim Crow era, and is maintained today through systemic racism to keep them from having a healthy identity, one that the world can appreciate and respect. During this course we have discussed female characters that have been subjected to “enslavement and the construction of stereotypes” when gathering information for this paper three characters stuck out to me,

I love looking at Shug. But Shug don’t love looking at but one of us. Him. But that the way it spose to be. I know that. But if that so, why my heart hurt me so?” (33.24-26) Although exploited and abused; ignorant and powerless; Celie is not a weak woman. Her strength, unlike that of Sofia or Shug is not physical or artistic, but it is the strength of integrity. She remains honest and compassionate, caring for everyone she comes into contact with. Although she rejects the conventional church teaching, preferring to accept Shug's creed of personal involvement with nature and the idea of God as a spiritual entity, she actually embodies a great deal of true Christian charity and her reward, through the female in her life is to achieve sexual, economic and spiritual liberation. She takes charge of her life and in doing so manages to achieve in middle age a dominant role within