Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman

This book is the most honest book I have ever read about the modern black woman's experience. My mother read it because it was given to her by a friend in her Master's program, some years ago Then when I was a sophmore in college she gave it to me and I read it. I would encourage women who have sons especially to read it, I have a daughter, a toddler, and she will read it too,probably in high school. If we are to end the cycle of abuse and torment and empower black women in America we must start with all the issues she addresses.

This is an account of Michele Wallace's experiences with the civil rights movement and growing up in the late 60's. Judith Wilson, who reviewed this for Ebony Magazine, has since said, "it was a pioneer work. Angela Davis's book 'Women, Race and Class' wasn't published until 2 years later. Ntozake Shange's play 'For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide' had moved to Broadway but it's approach was poetic rather than analytical". Wallace mentions of the ladies in her family, "It was understood, you were either going to be a bright success or a desperate failure, and it was your job to proclaim which you were going to be at as early an age as possible". She recalls how she was taken out of private Catholic school when her mom found posters of Richard Nixon in the bedroom she shared with her sister, "can you believe it? we were that brainwashed". Things would be entirely different at the NY school where she transferred. . . This book, about Black women being shortchanged, is probably most relevant for women who came of age during the period of time from the 1960s to the 1990s. It has some relevance today, though, as it probably would have before the 60s as well. For the most part Wallace implies black women are oppressed and almost never tells us they are. On it's surface, this could possibly have the working title, "Why I became a feminist". No where in this work does she say she's a feminist though, only show's us a version of events she's experienced. Black Macho is an odd read and yet a modernly familiar one. At times, one is struck with a feeling Wallace is trying to say something completely opposite from what is literally on the page. Is she a master propagandist or does she know her audience and want to keep them reading? She begins each chapter with a true-ism, for instance, this genuine one, "white men were always the ones making pronouncements about everything" and ends up at the end of the chapter quoting a figure proclaiming, "Kill Whitey". This is almost an expose' of the civil rights movement. Some of the irony may be intentional. The defining statement of the book is Wallace saying "the civil rights movement meant a white woman in every bed and a black woman under every heel". Wallace also says that black men and women have a sometime dislike for each other, stemming in part from black men/white women relationships, and she asserts a lack of confidence he'd, in her words, "come home". Wallace was criticized some for Black Macho and one has to wonder: is this criticism (of a work claiming black women are treated unfairly) simply proof of her thesis? 20 years later she says, "in some ways I'm still being punished today". To be honest, 'Sexism', was a major issue in the public eye at the time, but I might argue, only for white women. It's been said that liberal Bill Clinton, being accused of sexism, did a lot to reduce some of the perception of it. Wallace doesn't ignore the media in her book. She asks, was there a consc

This is an account of Michele Wallace's experiences with the civil rights movement and growing up in the late 60's. Judith Wilson, who reviewed this for Ebony Magazine, has since said, "it was a pioneer work. Angela Davis's book 'Women, Race and Class' wasn't published until 2 years later. Ntozake Shange's play 'For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide' had moved to Broadway but it's approach was poetic rather than analytical". Wallace mentions of the ladies in her family, "It was understood, you were either going to be a bright success or a desperate failure, and it was your job to proclaim which you were going to be at as early an age as possible". She recalls how she was taken out of private Catholic school when her mom found posters of Richard Nixon in the bedroom she shared with her sister, "can you believe it? we were that brainwashed". Things would be entirely different at the NY school where she transferred. . . This book, about Black women being shortchanged, is probably most relevant for women who came of age during the period of time from the 1960s to the 1990s. It has some relevance today, though, as it probably would have before the 1960s as well. For the most part Wallace implies black women are oppressed and almost never tells us they are. On it's surface, this could possibly have the working title, "Why I became a feminist". No where in this work does she say she's a feminist though, only show's us a version of events she's experienced. Black Macho is an odd read and yet a modernly familiar one. At times, one is struck with a feeling Wallace is trying to say something completely opposite from what is literally on the page. Is she a master propagandist or does she know her audience and want to keep them reading? She begins each chapter with a true-ism, for instance, this genuine one, "white men were always the ones making pronouncements about everything" and ends up at the end of the chapter quoting a figure proclaiming, "Kill Whitey". This is almost an expose' of the civil rights movement. Some of the irony may be intentional. The defining statement of the book is Wallace saying "the civil rights movement meant a white woman in every bed and a black woman under every heel". Wallace also says that black men and women have a sometime dislike for each other, stemming in part from black men/white women relationships, and she asserts a lack of confidence he'd, in her words, "come home". Wallace doesn't ignore the media in her book. She asks, was there a conscious effort to keep young minds focused on sports, guns and violence, and off business, education and the stock market? She begins her treaties on 'Black Macho' (the 2nd half of the book) with, "imagine for a moment that there was a part of your body, an organ, that by the very nature of the society in which you lived, existed under immense pressure. Imagine that this organ, placed in a conspicuously vulnerable position on your body, was to expand, rise, and remain

I read this book when it was originaaly published in 1976. Although Michele Wallace was a relatively young black woman (still in her twenties as I remember)I was most impressed by the maturity of her insights regarding both black men and black women. Her intent seemed to be to point out areas that both genders needed to look at if the race as a whole was to make any progress.In both sections of her book, Wallace focused our attention on "male privilege" and how it translated into black "macho-ness", with the resultant effect that black men are as guilty of taking for themselves unearned advantages over black women as white people are guilty of taking for themselves unearned advantages over black people. She pointed out that black women continued to nurture the race physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and that the convenience of the self-sacrificing "superwoman image" (which black women willingly accept) allowed the predominatly male leaders of the civil rights movement to discount the interests and issues of black women, much like white slaveholders did; the typical black superwoman served only as an ancillary utility for black men. Wallace revealed to the world that black women, more often than not, were still "sleeping with the enemy."Wallace was virulently attacked by almost every black "leader" who could get herself (yes, even women) and himself heard. However, if you re-read the book today, you cannot deny the fact that she was prescient in her observations and conclusions. The problems which she identified then still exist today. I would recommend this book as a basic text for every black women's college. It should be discussed whereever concerned black people convene.