Country Lovers And What It's Like To Be A Black Girl By Patricia Smith

Race & Ethnicity
Introduction to Literature

Professor Sarah MacDonald

As a black woman I can relate to the stories and struggles that were depicted in both read material. African American literature started in the early eighteenth century. The writings of the African American literature have focused on racism, ethnicity, and struggles of life for the African American people and the chase of freedom along with the search of equality in the society. Nadine Gordimer and Patricia Smith are famous contributors in the field of African American literature. This pair compares and contrasts the short story of Nadine Gordimer, “Country Lovers” and “What it’s Like to Be a Black Girl,” by Patricia Smith. Both the literature works has a clear-cut
“Racism in America has been depicted as an expression of controlled institutionalized trends of White power and direct social control serving to subsidiary populace of Color because of their racial group association (Clugston, 2010)”. Despite the tearing down of racist policies, like segregated schooling, and the realization of policies intended at correcting the disorder of ethnic inequities, such as Affirmative Action, racial discrimination continues to contaminate American society, whether as race-based abhorrence crimes. Social scientists have dedicated a progress of years to value the nature, techniques and possessions of racism (Pierce, 1995). The American system encourages dominance of White Americans in the government structure, judicial systems, and large scale businesses and also in the media, encouraging them with unequal power, dominance and social control, comparative to other race factors. The racial discrimination has been a part of the American society since way long and the effects of racism are depicted clearly and accurately in “country lovers” and “What It’s Like to Be a Black
The hardships that both the characters have faced is something which is faced by the females of the American society even today, unjust behaviors of the white Americans is a very common issue which has never been addressed properly. Similarities in both the pieces of literature are in accordance with the society where the black are ignored and the white are respected (Dovidio, & Gaertner, 1996). The difference in both the poem and the story is of the willingness and unwillingness of losing virginity. Thebedi’s love and feelings were thrown away by Paulus just because of the societal factors which clearly indicate the situation and the view point of the society about the black people. On the other hand, the girl in the poem gets raped because of the fact that black people have no respect in the society. Another fact is that there are no equalities among the African American and the white Americans when it comes to the law. The white Americans are given preference over African Americans in every field including the courts of the society. The alarming situation of the issue is shown accurately in both the literature works and the sufferings and the pain is clearly depicted (Fluehr-Lobban,