White women fear black women’s power to expose their hypocrisy
Evidence
We all remembered Lillian Heilman’s frank comments about her relationship with the black woman servant who was in her employ for many years. Heilman felt that this woman really exercised enormous power over her, admitting that it made her fear all black women. We talked about the fact that what many white women fear is being unmasked by black women. One white woman, from a working-class background, pointed out that black women servants witnessed the gap between white women’s words and their deeds, saw contradictions and inadequacies. Perhaps contemporary generations of white women who do not have black servants, who never will, have inherited from their female ancestors the fear that black women have the power to see through their disguises, to see the parts of themselves they want no one to see. — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 203
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Black fear of betrayal pairs with white fear of exposure; Black female rage toward white women masks sorrow over failed contact; White women feared black women’s perceived immorality threatened their own status — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 384 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- White women feared black women’s perceived immorality threatened their own status
#expands(0.85) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 384 - Negrophobic women’s fear arises from imagination, not real danger
#corroborates(0.82) - White male sexual power over slaves redirected white women’s anger onto black women
#expands(0.78) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 451 - White women historically invoked racial superiority to assert sexual agency against patriarchal control.
#exemplifies(0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1287