Shirley Marie Jordan - Broken silences: interviews with Black and White women writers

Copyright 1993 by Rutgers, The State University
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Broken silences: interviews with Black and White women writers
edited by Shirley M. Jordan.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-8135-1932-2 (cloth)-ISBN 0-8135-1933-0 (pbk.)
1. Afro-American women authors-20th century-Interviews. 2. Women authors, American-20th century-Interviews. 3. Afro-American women-Intellectual life. 4. Women-United States- Intellectual life. 5. Afro-Americans in literature. 6. Race relations in literature. 7. Whites in literature. I. Jordan, Shirley Marie.
PS153.N5B665 1993

810.9'9287-dc20

(B)92-28914

CIP

British Cataloging-in-Publication information available

The mutual history of black and white women
in this country is a realm so painful, resonant,
and forbidden that it has barely been touched by
writers either of political "science" or of
imaginative literature. Yet until that history is
known, that silence broken, we will all go on
struggling in a state of deprivation and ignorance.

I would that I could speak of
white womanhood as it will and
should be
when it stands tall in fill
equality
But then, womanhood will be womanhood,
void of color and class,
and all necessity for my speaking
thus will be past.

White supremacy is your own enemy and mine
so be careful when you talk with me;
remind me not of my slavery;
I know it well.
But rather tell me of your own,
Remember, you have never known me.
You've been seeing me as white supremacy
would have me be.

The history of the relationship between black and white women is a tangle of suspicion, mistrust, resentment, anger, curiosity, and fear that remains submerged in silence, superficial courtesy, and shallow tolerance. Despite these barriers, some women develop rewarding, long-lasting friendships rooted in honesty, mutual respect, genuine acceptance-all necessary ingredients for building the trust that is the foundation for friendship.