"Ain't I a woman?"

[BainsBane]

Kerry Washington brings the voice of the incomparable Sojourner Truth to life. Truth's message is as powerful and resonant as it was in 1851.

(Thanks to Sufrommich for posting this first).

[NYC_SKP]

1. K/R, off to the greatest!

Thanks to both of you.

Saw this posted on a friends page two days ago, thank you!

[AuntPatsy]

2. Wow just wow, thank you for posting this, between tears and laughter one comes away with

a strength one might have forgotten they possessed...

She was amazing!

[BainsBane]

6. I have read that speech many times

but it is so much more powerful when enacted by Washington!

[AuntPatsy]

7. I had never heard it and I can do nothing but agree Ms Washington was powerful!!!

[leftstreet]

3. Nicely done

Trivia: although Truth was born in NY and spoke Dutch when young, apparently she could finesse a multitude of accents and styles in delivering her speeches, which some commentators said added to the power of her speaking presence

DURec

[cwydro]

4. Recced

[BainsBane]

5. Truth demonstrates that women are not weaker

Truth speaks to different notions of womanhood based on privilege. She takes apart the idea of the Southern Lady and shows how it excluded women like her. The Southern Lady was depicted as weak and vulnerable. Truth showed that women are far from that. Truth was not helped into carriages. Instead, she toiled in the fields and worked as hard as any man, all while bearing 13 children. The strength in Truth's speech stands in stark contrast to the patriarchal notions of feminine weakness that pervaded upper-class society but also served to culturally define womanhood more broadly. Truth turns those race- and class-based notions of womanhood on their head.

She shows that women are not weaker, more emotionally vulnerable, or more easily baited than men. Truth articulates and embodies the idea of women as powerful individually but even stronger as part of a collective movement of feminism that sought to abolish slavery, expand the franchise, and secure human rights for all.

Such notions of women's inherent emotional vulnerability persist to the present day. Women are every bit as capable as men of articulating our views and expressing or controlling our emotions. The idea that women are overly wrought hyper-emotional creatures baited into outbursts is, I believe, offensive to women. Each person, man or woman, is responsible for what each of us does or says. No one forces or baits us into uncivil or abusive behavior. All of us are fully cognizant human beings who draw upon both reason and emotion as we go through life. Each of us is capable of great things and ill will. It is for each of us to determine how we choose to act and what we choose to be. That is not to say we control our economic destiny. That is in large part a function of society, where we are porn in the social order, and how we grow up. What we do control, however, is our everyday behavior and interactions with others.

Weakness is not speaking out against injustice and exploitation. Women like Truth who do so insist they will not be victims, that they are not subject to baiting or that others, not themselves, are responsible for how they respond to the circumstance and people around them. Women are not too weak to speak out for themselves, demand justice for crimes against them, or accept responsibility for their own actions. Insisting otherwise portrays women as weak and helpless.

[AuntPatsy]

8. Loved reading those words, I have a feeling I have missed out earlier in life but not being more

Aware of woman such as Truth

[BainsBane]

9. Here is her narative. Your local library should have it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0030CHFSU

You may be able to find a full-text version online as well.

[AuntPatsy]

11. Thank you, I'm going to it to book mark the site for later reading, my house will too soon be

Too loud to give it my full attention, grandchildren on way, but for my female babies, I have to take the time in order to ensure they do not end up with the same mindset I had for most of my adult life

[William769]

10. Kick & recommended.

[KitSileya]

12. That was a treat.

Just a simple treat.

I was just heading into HoF to see it, since I've been reading DU on my cell lately, but such a delight to find it here in GD too.

Sojourner Truth deserves to be the next American put on a dollar bill, that is long and short of it. She must have been awesome to listen to - her words are revealing. She reveals the hypocrisy of her contemporary men in such an incisive way it is a delight to listen to. And Kerry Washington does a phenomenal job in bringing her words to life.

I can simply say, kudos, Ms. Truth and kudos, Ms. Washington.

[BainsBane]

13. She could have been talking about today

Particularly the beginning of the speech.

[KitSileya]

14. That is very true.

However, if I said Sojourner Truth reveals the hypocrisy of men, how long would it take before someone posts 'not all men - misandry!' and ruins a wonderful thread? A nanosecond? And you betcha they wouldn't actually watch the video, even though they would feel perfectly entitled to posting in the thread.

[BainsBane]

15. I think there is another thread providing more fruitful material

for them right now.

[KitSileya]

16. Do you mean the thread on Whisp?

Or did I miss another horrible thread that just emphasizes how much HoF hatred there is on DU?

I wonder what Ms. Truth would have said about the progress, and lack of progress, we've had in for women and African Americans since her time.

[BainsBane]

17. No, that is the worst

and the other is about an issue.

We have had progress, but not nearly enough. We are also currently in a stage of backlash with too many desperately seeking to turn the clock backward.

[lovemydog]

18. K & R

Thank you for sharing it, BainsBane and Sufrommich!

[SunSeeker]

19. "Ain't you mean not to let me have my little half cup?"

I remember when I read that speech many years ago how much it struck me. The sheer meanness of not letting women and people of color pursue their talents because they weren't as seen to be as talented as men.

[BainsBane]

24. and now that they have begun to have those opportunities

We hear moaning about how oppressed white men are.

[SunSeeker]

26. Yes, as if life is a zero sum game. nt

[secondwind]

20. wow, that was good!

[lunatica]

21. Sojourner stood up in an all white church and said those words

It just happened that one of the men there wrote it down as she was saying it. We came very close to never knowing these words.

She used to walk into white people's churches and stand in front of the preachers until they allowed her to speak. She was an abolitionist (a freed slave herself) who also renamed herself Soujourner Truth. To modern women she is also considered a feminist.

[BainsBane]

22. That particular version of the speech was at a gathering of feminists

So while she may not have used the word, she was active in women's rights circles. Abolitionists split over the issue of allowing women to speak in public, and women activists worked for abolitionism in part because they saw their own rights and those of the enslaved linked.

[smirkymonkey]

23. K&R! Bravo!

[BainsBane]

38. Sufrommich found it

And what a great find it was!

[chervilant]

25. I have Truth in my personal library,

along with a number of other books celebrating the strong women who've taken a stand on racial prejudice, sexism, and other forms of bigotry that exist within the framework of white male privilege.

Sad that her words are as relevant today...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

27. That is a wonderful speech. So Much Truth--from Sojourner Truth.

She was one smart woman, and she spoke those words for all women, of all times.

K&R

[cntrygrl]

28. When I read the subject line I

knew it was about Sojourer Truth. A while back I read her biography. This past month I went back home to the Catskills and traveled to my old stomping grounds. Went to Kingston and took pictures.

[BainsBane]

31. very cool!

Thanks for sharing!

[Moonwalk]

29. It is a terrific speech, and should be repeated often, however...

...we all know that men and women who most need to hear this speech would answer: "No, you're not a woman..." Those Americans back when Sojourner first gave that speech and, sadly, now, take color and class into consideration when deciding who is a "woman" to be coddled and protected (as their valued property, like fine crystal) and who is not a woman, but a creature to be exploited and used.

Her words didn't, and likely still don't, have an effect on those who most need to hear them. American citizens who would answer, "No, you're not what I consider a woman," to any woman of a certain class or race who asked question or presented that argument. Most sad of all, such people, if honest, would probably say to such a woman, "You're not even human."

[BainsBane]

30. I wish I could disagree

but sadly I think it still the case for some.

[WinkyDink]

32. I taught that speech to h.s. juniors for decades.

[BainsBane]

33. Cool. Under which subject?

History? Something else?

[WinkyDink]

36. English, but I can't recall if it was "Black Literature" or a general Am. Lit. anthology.

I loved teaching the former: Langston Hughes; "Black Like Me"; some Malcolm X; etc.

[BainsBane]

37. Sounds like a lot of fun

and Truth's is a great piece, so powerful.

[BainsBane]

34. Here is the text of the speech

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883): Ain't I A Woman?
Delivered 1851
Women's Convention, Akron, Ohio


Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sojtruth-woman.asp

[BainsBane]

35. Truth's message is also instructive for those who deny others are "real women"

Last edited Fri Sep 5, 2014, 09:47 PM - Edit history (1)

Being a woman is a matter of biology and identity. It does not hinge on support for patriarchy or approaches to feminism. Refusing to tolerate abuse does not make a woman less than a woman. Speaking out against rape, sexist cultural imagery, or discriminatory SCOTUS rulings does not make a woman less than a "real woman." All women are women, regardless of their views on any subject: whether they are radial feminists, Marxist feminists, Third Wave feminists, or oppose feminism all together; whether Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, socialists, or Tea Partiers. We are all women. We may disagree on politics, on party, on any host of issues, but dong so doesn't make us any less of women, anymore than being black and a freedwoman, and enslaved before that, made Truth any less of a woman than the Southern Ladies helped into carriages. Women do not necessarily share a single view or common value, but that doesn't take away who we are. I can think of nothing more anti-woman that denying some human beings are "real women." It boggles the mind that anyone could be so dismissive of the basic humanity of others.

[AuntPatsy]

39. You should make this an Op, that was as powerful to me as Ain't I A Woman!

I read a lot today about Sojourn Truth, a very amazing woman and one who is an obvious role model for not only yesterday's female population but today's as we'll both young and old, I popped on DU a little bit ago and read a bit before posting, after viewing the thread about Kardashian and seeing the amount of responses I realized something, even on DU to myself an incredible source for information it was proof that no matter most issues, important ones to be specific, the sensational style ones win out more often than not...

I know it's good for the mind to just relax once in a while and find humor to help tone down an otherwise stressful day, and some DU threads are fantastic in producing such but threads like that I think simply make you realize why things in today's society exist when they should not, even the most intelligent and diligent of our species can become distracted and put off course by pure mindless nonsense...

[BainsBane]

45. Yes, and unfortunately

The thread on the Kardashians is high-brow compared to some of the threads that are posted purely to stir up shit.

[msanthrope]

40. I hate when people pass historical fiction off as truth....this is the 1863 rewrite

of the 1851 speech....written by a white woman.

Sojurner Truth's speech in Akron in 1851 did not contain the phrase "Ain't I a Woman too?" In fact, you are probably working off the 1863 re-write of her speech by Frances Dana Gage, a white woman.

Kerry Washingron's accent is off...really off. Sojourner Truth was born and raised in New York State. She spoke Dutch as a child, and her actual speech is far more articulate that what has been attributed to her.

[BainsBane]

41. The text of the speech is posted at Fordham University

and the Internet History Sourcebook. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sojtruth-woman.asp It is the exact same text with the exception of the interjection of the world "intellect," which seems like it comes from the audience.

This is a powerful performance, not a reenactment. Performance is not a time machine, nor is it meant to be.

[AuntPatsy]

42. I read all that myself earlier but honestly it does not take away from the message nor from

Sojourn herself, in fact I loved the fact that her speeches were not written as she was heard to tell an audience that she herself was waiting to hear herself speak, granted facts matter and it's good you brought the facts to light, regardless, black, white, or green and the words speak to all woman from all walks of life...that is IMO

[rbrnmw]

43. BB thank you for posting this

I love this it never fails to make me cry. I keep wondering how all the progress seems to be turning into regression. We can't tolerate regression.

[BainsBane]

44. I'm glad you liked it

and yes, I agree 100 percent.