The essay by Joanne Kilgore Dowdy discusses black women in films and books and the roles they play. It focuses on analyzing the role that literacy plays in the lives of the black women in the films. The author discusses how you can learn a lot about the time period, the society and the culture from these black films. Dowdy talks about how you can experience and observe women of different literacy levels as well as how these women are depicted by black actresses.
Dowdy also discusses the importance of location or as she calls it, “the politics of location.” (Dowdy 155) She talks about how depending on where you are, people will treat you differently concerning whether or not they respect you. Then she goes on to address the issue of what it means to be black. This particularly stood out to me because the color of your skin really does matter in the black community. Whether or not you are light skinned or dark skinned determines how you will be treated in the black community. In some parts of the black community you will be respected or better treated if you are darker and in some parts because you are lighter.
Thinking back, I realize that people have treated me differently because I’m lighter skinned. Guys tell me I’m beautiful or they call me “yellow bone” which insinuates that it is better to have lighter skin than darker skin. It also insinuats that light skin is equated with beautiful while darker skin is not. However, if you go to a part of the black community where Africans are prevalent, darker skin will be embraced, appreciated probably even preferred over lighter skin. Therefore it depends on where you are in the black community.
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