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Human Agency And Structural Forces In The Little White Lie

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Recommended: Analysis of a slave narrative

Human agency is the ability of individuals to have control over their actions and decisions. Structural forces are the larger factors in society that influence and human behavior. Human agency and structural forces can have opposing influences on the formations of identity as we have discussed in class. An example of this opposition was discussed in the film Little White Lie. In this film the main character, Lacey, grew up believing she was a white Jewish girl, only to discover that her biological father was actually a black man. Structural forces had a huge impact on how Lacey understood her racial identity. Being raised in a largely white and Jewish community, being white is what was seen as “normal” or “unmarked.” The fact that Lacey's …show more content…

Jackson challenges conventional accounts of slavery and highlights the value of finding out the accounts and knowledge of descendants. Jackson specifically discusses several descendents of slaves that he talked to, one of whom was Mattie Gaillard. Ms. Gaillard was interviewed as part of a National Park Service grant to learn more about the descendants of enslaved. By participating in this, Ms. Gaillard was using her human agency to impact the story that is told about her ancestors. The story that is told about her ancestors impacts how young descendants of enslaved feel about their identity and race. Sharing her ancestors story and history can also help Ms. Gaillard and other descendants of the enslaved feel more ownership over their history rather than letting it be told by the descendants of wealthy white slave-owners. Structural forces play a large role in our understanding of enslaved peoples past, especially when it comes to life on plantations. Traditional accounts of slavery have often been told from the perspective of slave-owners and other members of the “unmarked” group, rather from enslaved people themselves. These structural forces force members of the “unmarked” group to feel like their ancestors role in history is being altered from what it truly

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