This summer I took a course at Stamford UConn to make up for some credits that I needed. In this English course I read a short story about a woman who accused a black man of raping her. When I read the handout on Ida B. Wells-Barnett, I instantly was reminded of that story. I can’t remember what it was called or who it was by, which is very unfortunate, but I remember at the time being particularly drawn to the story for some reason. I think what interested me the most and brought out my fascination finally dawned on me when I read the section in the Ida handout, about the woman who accused a black man of raping her because she was afraid of bringing shame to her marriage since she had had a consensual relationship with the black man she accused of rape.
In the story I read this past summer the woman accusing the man of rape was described and purposefully kept, by the author, to seem mysterious. In the beginning the reader is told that she is upset because none of the men or boys look at her anymore, so the reader thinks she is upset that she has lost her charm and beauty. Then not much else is mentioned of the woman until we hear that she accuses the man of rape, and that the men in the town are getting together to go after the black man, and obviously lynch him. After the long scene leading up to and the eventual lynching, the reader is left wondering if the man ever raped her at all. There is no evidence that he did or didn’t, but it seems very likely that the woman was just bored or vain and wanted some sort of attention. However, when I read the excerpt from the Ida handout I began wondering if maybe, the woman from my earlier story was like the woman Ida talks about, if she had had a relationship with the black man and was ashamed and so accused him of rape. I think the main reason that story has stuck with me for so long, was because I always felt like I needed some type of explanation, that too many things were left uncertain for me. Was the woman just that cruel to accuse the man for no reason, or was there a relationship before and she now was ashamed, or is it possible (unlikely this was the case) that he raped her? I always wanted to know the answer, and felt I needed some justification for the man’s death, just how Ida felt and the reason for her writings on lynching.
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This, too, reminds me of a play i read and watched by Amiri Baraka. It is called "The Dutchman" and it is this sort of twisted Adam and Eve type of story, in which an attractive white woman seduces a reluctantly willing, naive, bourgeoisie black man. In the end she entices him into acting crazy by trying to humiliate his race and his life; as a result giving her the opportunity to kill him. The train is full of other people but no one does anything to help him -- much like the lynchings Ida B. Wells Barnett protests. It is also an accusitory piece providing its audience with the notion that the white woman seeks nothing more than the pleasure of seducing a black man and eventually stabbing him in the back. I wonder if women actually tried these sort of things back then, just because they knew they could get away with it. It's like white women were the root of all evil, the bane if the black man's existence. Similar yet, is the story about the little boy who smiled at a woman and was hung for it. For further examples of lynchings and other atrocities, i.e. "A Philadelphia physician has his shoes made from the skin of negroes," check out this site: http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/links/misclink/moulton/; it contains news from 1817 to 1917, it is interesting to see the way that things did and did not change over time.
ReplyDeleteIa addition to my white woman/evil woman point is the case of William Offet vs. Mrs. J. C. Underwood, in which a lie she told to her husband escalated into Mr.Offet serving fifteen years in prison because of her covered-up adultery. Why? She said, "the neighbors saw the fellow here, i was afraid i had contracted a loathsome disease... i feared i might give birth to a Negro baby. I hoped to save my reputation..." I'm just saying that maybe along some social norm it was acceptable to destroy the lives of black men...maybe.
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