The Black Girl Next Door by Jennifer Baszile - Term Paper Example

? Order 518328 Topic: Walking in another’s shoes- THE BLACK GIRL NEXT DOOR; a memoir by Jennifer Baszile. A big ocean of literature exists on the history of African-American experience. Jennifer Baszile’s memoir, “The Black Girl Next Door,” is something special. It doesn’t take up the hard political controversies, tough realities of race relations, political struggles of the vested interests, mutual cruelties inflicted by the marauding racial groups, hard musings about race and gender. She explains the realities related to the black middles class of the 1970s and 1980s and her pen works like an artist’s brush that creates real-life pictures using appropriate colors and strokes. Racial integration in USA is a tough call and everyone is expected to play a positive role to smoothen the outcomes of the reconciliation process. She is not interested in post-segregation conflict-mongers, but achievers. She identifies the meeting points, not the issues of irreversible misunderstandings. The story in short, relates to post-segregation achievers. It weaves around the life of two girls, Natalie and Jennifer and their father, a native of rural Louisiana, turns into a high-pitched ambitious and successful business owner. He charters his way successfully towards the American dream, to the level of prosperity unseen by the black Americans. His wife is a Michigan native and a schoolteacher, and her interaction with children with different economic, social and racial backgrounds must have made her worldly-wise in varied societal situations. Baszile builds up an interesting storyline, not through big events and famous individuals, but through, small but sensitive events and ordinary characters, that are part of the American racial history, without their being actively aware of it. This makes the story interesting. The plot and the author’s handling of the plot, evoke curiosity. The level of detachment seen in the story is exceptional. Without being sentimental, and without giving room for any racial hatred in the most provoking circumstances, a situation builds up, grows and attains new dimensions. The mutual interaction of the characters, reveal in the lucid style, the convictions of the author. This is the greatness of the novel. As the story develops, it becomes poignant, without losing its ground and reality. The author builds up the story composing one incident upon another, as comprehended through the eyes of a girl—perceiving but not realizing its real significance. How a small event like Jennifer winning a footrace and how the classmates and the teacher make a racial issue out of it; the story ably depicts the father’s plight for his daughter’s rights and how he challenges the problems in the new racial landscape. In the changed circumstances and status gained, he is not willing to reveal his past identity notwithstanding repeated questioning about it by the daughter. Baszile writes about his attitude thus: “For as long as I could remember, Dad had always described himself as a “country boy.” Whenever I asked him about his boyhood or what being a country boy meant, he’d sing, perform actually, the chorus of a song he’d learned when he was a boy….He sang about simple food and hard work….The song was never an answer. It was always an evasion.(p.40) How problematic it is to find the balance between the world of black middle class, to that of white middle-class, known for its rigidity, artificiality and social snobbery. The story ends with Jennifer succeeding to establish her distinct identity. I am going to present three aspects of race relations-- history, social status factors and family life process and comment upon the present situation of race relations in USA. My childhood pal and a distinct relative, is totally americanized, having been there for well over 40 years. She has acquired the citizenship of US, and is in touch with me and treats me like her brother. We both take deep interest in literature, current affairs, racial and ethnic issues, and exchange mails often on the subject. This is the summing up of our mutual interaction as recorded by her about the current racial situation. She is married to an American. History: 1. What is theory? Theory is other man’s experience. Similarly, history is the collective experience. It can be oral or written. History is relevant to a particular geographical area and time. Total reliance on oral history is impossibility; even the written history, at times, is not accurate and depends upon the objectives and prejudices of the writer. As for the recorded history, when it relates to two diametrically opposed groups, where interests of territorial gains are involved, when ethnic considerations matter, reliance becomes all the more difficult. “The time period and conditions under which groups immigrated or migrated is significant when we consider that these factors influence their subsequent opportunities. The Irish in the 19th century, for example, entered North America when low-wage jobs were plentiful on farms and in cities.”( 02_hogan.rtf p.19)The power groups of the era would like to have the history recorded as per their interpretations of the situations. No power group would like to have adverse comments against their rule and performance in historical documents. For example, historical events recorded by the white writers of the 19th and 20th century, would have missed so many of them which were inconvenient from the view point of the aggressors(colonial powers) and the atrocities of the worst order committed by them against the American Indians. Incidents of genocide were swept under the carpet by recording the happenings with motivated leanings in favor of a particular community. I recall my experiences during a fifteen day’s seminar held in a Five-Star Hotel, in New Delhi, in which many intellectuals from different European, Latin American Countries and from USA had participated. Though the subject matter dealt with in the seminar was environment, the informal discussions centered round economic, cultural and other issues. The Americans dominated the discussions, stoutly defended the free-enterprise policy, and thought that the practice of racism in USA was the historical necessity. They opined that the white race was directly and indirectly responsible for the economic prosperity of the black race. The delegate from Italy was proud about his Roman culture, which according to him was the oldest culture. When I mentioned about the glory of the Sanskrit language and the great spiritual texts of India, the delegate from Great Britain, hastened to add that Sanskrit was a dead language. According to him, Only English language is the uniting factor in the world. The above examples are given to show how prejudices, superiority/inferiority complexes still dominate the thinking process of the various communities/ethnic groups. It is very easy for the leaders of the white community to address the black community to forget the past—forget history! The black community should never forget the past and the inhuman treatment meted out to them by the whites. But at the same time, let me assert that the present generation of whites is not responsible for such atrocities. The black community should not cultivate the trait of vendetta—they need to forgive, but let me repeat, never forget the history and be alert at all times to defend the rights of the black race. Wise people say—Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty! Social Status Factors: Social status broadly refers to the class. Normally social hierarchy is based on education, occupation and income, but this is not true of all the countries. For example in US, the most discussed aspect of social class is meritocracy based on the assumption that USA is a free and fair society and color and gender are of no consequence to judge the class of an individual. In theory such thinking is fine. But what are the ground realities in USA? Racism is overly practiced, though as per the US constitution its all citizens enjoy equal rights. Many types of inequalities are accepted as a matter of fact, by both the white and black races. The white see nothing wrong in their approach; blacks have accepted the ground realities and see no other option. They silently thank the Nation for whatever it has given to them. “Social Group Interaction Patterns are the social relations within and between groups, although group boundaries are in reality fuzzy and changing as a result of political-economic factors.” (p.20)While considering the social status factors, intergroup relations are also equally important. In the context of unending ethnic conflicts between the white and blacks, one assumes that relations between the same races are normal. This is contrary to the existing ground realities. Many factors influence such relations. Age, color, religion, education, gender, sexual orientation, background and mastery over the language create intergenerational conflicts. The attitudes of the first generation migrants of Indians to USA is bound to be entirely different to that of the third generation Indians, most of whom are born and brought up in USA. The relevant factors in this area are economic and political power. Many barriers exist between the relationships and economic and political exploitation dominate in the evolution of the relations. Institutional discrimination also rules the roost. This is broadly true of all the Nations. Family Life Process: Family is the unit of the social group. The total picture of the social groups is the sum total of what is happening in families. Gender and occupational roles form part of the family life processes. Unwritten manual of instructions that have been transmitted for generations over, unspoken and implied rules for gender-wise and age-wise behavior are also part of this process. All these vary among the different cultures of the world. These differences in the important aspects like education, marriage and divorce customs, inheritance of property, parenting beliefs, the method of bringing up children and providing them educational facilities, etc. The concept of joint family, nuclear family and extended families has special effect on the children. Nuclear family, though it caught the imagination of the younger generation, has given rise to various important problems; as the children are introduced to the creche culture, the parents being gainfully employed remain outside the house, for major part of the day. A college-going student from USA came to stay with one of our relatives in India for one month on a student-exchange program. She was greatly surprised that the Indian women spend so much time in the kitchen working on the food items. “I do not know cooking at all….even my Mom doesn’t know cooking.” My grandparents, businessmen of good standing, mostly preferred restaurants and my parents also did the same. Nevertheless, she greatly relished the food items. She was much impressed, how the senior citizens/old parents are taken care of by the younger members of the family, and observed with great interest the hectic and affectionate personal contacts maintained in the joint family. She was also overawed by the frequent family get-togethers, and how intimately the members of the family love each other. When she said, “My elder sister did not celebrate Christmas with the family last December; she said she would celebrate it with her living-in partner/boyfriend,” all were taken aback. These types of incidents never happen in Indian families! Conclusion: Any section of the society must have a clear vision of its past history. Discrimination of the worst order was practiced against the blacks in America and some other European countries. Blacks should not forget the history but to maintain social harmony they need to forgive the community that humiliated them, with a big heart. The same approach holds good as for the communities in the countries that attained independence from the colonial powers. Economic and social exploitation was committed against them on a very big scale; many of their cultural institutions were destroyed. Work hard, and work intelligently, to rebuild everything that was snatched away- that is the only option available with the races/communities that suffered! Baszile intelligently depicts that race relations have not changed in US since ‘60s and she is right. How life was difficult for her to live in upper-class white neighborhood! The book has only added to the consolidation process for the views that I hold on race relations. I am a writer by profession and I am not bound by the restrictions of official procedures. I am a free bird and the writer has provided me some rare insights on the subject of race relations. Works Cited 2. Baszile, Jennifer, The Black Girl Next Door: A Memoir, Touchstone; 1st Edition, January 13, 2009 3. 02_hogan.rtf Read More