For White Women: Your Blues Ain't Like Mine, but We All Hide Our Faces and Cry--Literary Illumination for White and Black Sister/Friends

Abstract

This essay is an experiment, seeking to facilitate honest and less defensive discussion about race and gender. Generally, discussions of race, gender and the law are difficult, but perhaps, the discourse can be facilitated through the lens of literature. My theory is that women are unable to claim a position of power because of divisive racial conflicts. I approach these conflicts by examining the conflict between two literary characters (a black woman and a white woman) in Bebe Moore Campbell's novel, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine. Directly examining the characters illuminates the racial divide between black and white women existing in our real lives and systems. This experiment is essential because as long as women, potential sister/friends, remain alienated from one another-which is also an alienation from self-they will never fully actualize their power and reorder oppressive societal and legal orders.