Oppression in Literature

Gates uses a similar methodology as Hum to describe the roll race and history play in literature. For Gates, early literary theory was concerned with historical perspectives in literature. Literature was interpreted according to the period in which and the people by whom it was written. Race was crucial in literary criticism. It was considered to be the origins of man, the truths, ideas and ideals held by the author as part of the race. These were expressed implicitly and explicitly in their work. For gates, many of his ideas stem from his belief in the meaninglessness of race as a biological classification. We as a society treat race like a scientific classification. That classification leads us to further isolate ourselves from one another by attributing characteristics and biases to that race. To clarify lets dissect a concept called “talking white”. This is a concept that Gates addresses in another one of his works. “Talking white” is the idea that ones ability to speak properly and intelligently is attributed to their relative “whiteness”. Similar to the story about Phillis Wheatley, it’s as if other races must “prove” their whiteness in order to be considered intellectually equal. But under this racialized white gaze like the one described in Hum’s work, African Americans will never be able to create their own personal perception of themselves or the work they create because of the feeling of “otherness” that this gaze and racial classification causes. We associate characteristics concerning intelligence with the attributes of certain races. Gates would likely take issue with that sentence alone simply for its acknowledgment of specific races having specific attributes, an idea that contradicts his argument.

Hums central argument is that "the racialized gaze as Design provides a valuable theoretical framework for visual rhetoric, exegesis, and cultural analysis by directing our attention to how designers may unwittingly sustain practices of racialization and perpetuate racially based sociocultural exclusions". Hum defines the racialized gaze as a dominant cultural habit that we use as humans to interpret and perceive “race related visual phenomena”. Hum claims that in order for us to truly understand design, we must first dissect and understand the various different perceptual habits that guide, create, and confine our study of literature. A prime example of this is the racialized gaze she talks about. One of Hum’s claims that resonated with me the most the idea that no person approaches an image with a pure or innocent eye. Every ones perception is tainted in one form or another. (Perhaps a result of their terministic screens, mini shout out to Burke J) Gate would argue that this “tainting”, in regards to the interpretation and harsh criticism of African American Literature, is a result of the adoption of race as an oppressive measurement of merit. Together the two theorists essentially exemplify the continuing struggle African Americans have had and will likely to continue to have, of trying to create texts and discourse that allows them to be perceived in a manner that abandons the limitations placed on them by centuries of mistreatment and oppression.