QuizKindred

Kindred, the story of oppression and disillusion of the way our society is told to be free when in reality no one really desired freedom except African Americans. The government expresses real concern and desire for everyone to be free when speaking publicly in hopes of gaining all the free support they can but in private many of the political figures are still holding the ideas that there is a genetic difference between white and blacks. These beliefs make the way our society works very racial and unjust. With the ideas that blacks were not as good as whites and that they were genetically different and should be looked down upon just because of the color of their skin our society suffered major problems which have taken a long time to attempt to eradicate. One excerpt of Kindred was in the beginning when Dana, a black woman attempted to save a young white boy having trouble while in a lake. Dana jumped in to help the boy and was greeted on shore with a shotgun in her face pointed by the boys white father. This is not very surprising especially for the time period in which it took place. The whites in this generation were still very wary of the blacks and any help that they were receiving. Blacks were still not totally equal in just about anyone’s eyes. To the majority of the population blacks still had to obey a whole different set of rules when out in public because they were still thought of as second class citizens. This excerpt from Kindred relates to the video we have been watching in class about the major turning points in oppression of African Americans. Even though Dana was legally free there were still many ideas and people who believed that she and others like her did not deserve to be treated freely. At this time there were still rules in place, not just in the form of ideas but actual laws that guaranteed that blacks were still not as free as they were thought to have been. This ideas that blacks were still objects not worthy of the freedom given to them from white people was not limited to Dana in this story but Carrie who was a friend of Dana but a slave who was thought of as being mentally handicapped. Though she did have a somewhat of a disability she was not retarded. Jake Edwards was a hire hand to manage the “workers” over a farm which Luke had managed before. Jake would do he same job except instead of being somewhat courteous he would threaten whipping. This shows that Jake still thinks of blacks as just property and that whipping, beating and hanging are acceptable alternative ideas for punishment.