From Slave Cabins to the White House by Koritha Mitchell

Author:Koritha Mitchell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2020-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Why Move at All?

People of color who measure success by home ownership often encounter white violence, making poignant the question Mr. Lindner asks the Youngers: “What do you think you are going to gain by moving into a neighborhood where you just aren’t wanted?” (Hansberry 119). Might it be better to find contentment in segregated spaces? As Toni Morrison has often noted, integration robbed black communities of many of their resources.21 Further, as bell hooks has argued, cultivating spaces of affirmation in the midst of dehumanizing circumstances is a victory to be celebrated, a prime example of what this study calls homemade citizenship. hooks notes that creating “homeplace” empowers marginalized people to “be affirmed in our minds and hearts despite poverty, hardship, and deprivation” (hooks 42). That is, homeplace does not obliterate the hostility and injustice of the larger society; it equips communities to survive and thrive while mainstream forces work for their destruction. Alice Childress’s Wine in the Wilderness acknowledges the “homeplace” function of black-oriented spaces of the 1960s by foregrounding the importance of the “Black Is Beautiful” philosophy. The United States attacked African Americans by erecting innumerable barriers to material resources, but black communities made the homes they occupied spaces of affirmation. In Hansberry’s script, Lena’s belief in her right to success manifests in her commitment to patriarchal ideals that connect her to the black church, and in Childress’s play, characters believe they succeed by embracing “Black Is Beautiful” discourse. Never denying that the characters’ chosen ideals are empowering, these works also examine the consequences of the precise ways in which they empower. According to Wine, while African Americans have always gained strength by disregarding mainstream standards, “Black Is Beautiful”fails to create a safe space for all members of the race, especially single women. Indeed, Childress’s contribution to the community conversation on success suggests that “Black Is Beautiful” hinders homemaking practices centered on partnership and companionship and the more inclusive racial self-affirmation that these would foster.

Unlike their counterparts in A Raisin in the Sun, the characters in Wine in the Wilderness do not obsess about a “better” life in suburban single-family homes, but Childress suggests that patriarchy still plays too great a role in shaping their aspirations. Bill, the main male character, reflects and perpetuates the portions of the community conversation shaped by Black Power philosophies. As Margo Crawford makes clear, Black Power ideology was always intersectional; theorists’ conceptions of blackness revolved around manhood. Indeed, “their emphasis on black male power often convinced them that the liberation of black men would lead to the liberation of all black people” (Crawford, “Family Affair,” 185). With masculinity at the center, Black Power perspectives typically developed in opposition to white manhood, ostensibly rejecting everything set forth by white men because it had all been done in the name of oppression.

Accordingly, Bill believes he is free from white influence, partly because he is not striving to certify his success by becoming a head of household; he sees himself as an independent artist, a countercultural maverick.

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