Socialization vs. Liberation as Represented in Black Female Art
By: Jamie Gallo
How do scholars come to create and publish theories? Who gets to render one theory more legitimate than another? In the United States, we have a history of systematically dehumanizing black people. Be it through the 3/5ths Clause, widely accepted theories of social darwinism, or history books that ignorantly graze over slavery, no legislation, theory, or concept that generalizes an entire race can be trusted. Bobbie Harro, a social justice educator, has masterly configured two theories that dissect socialization and liberation, without adhering to these outdated and offensive concepts of race. While still being incredibly specific and intentional, Harro’s concepts are universal enough that they apply to all instances of oppression, beyond race. Harro’s “Cycle of Socialization” outlines how we experience oppression and socialize it. The “Cycle of Liberation” responds to the previous theory by outlining the healthy cycle dominated by love, education, and acceptance. Harro’s main argument is that with an understanding of these cycles, we can work toward a post-racist and post-oppressive society. Furthermore, these theories can be observed in literature, specifically, literature by and about black women. Considered to be one of the mothers of black literature, Toni Morrison’s work certainly embodies Harro’s theories, as does the work of Audre Lorde, acclaimed writer and civil rights activist. Specifically, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye embodies Harro’s “Cycle of Socialization” while Lorde’s poem “A Litany for Survival” embraces the “Cycle of Liberation,” despite their inherently connected subject matter, the experiences of black women. Finally, Morrison and Lorde do not stand alone. A multitude of impassioned black women, including the legendary Nina Simone, have been speaking truth to power with Harro’s theories.
To begin, we must unpack Harro’s two theories. Harro describes the “Cycle of Socialization” as having five key aspects. She writes, “This socialization process is pervasive (coming from all sides and sources), consistent (patterned and predictable), circular (self-supporting), self-perpetuating (intra-dependent), and often invisible” (Harro 45). Harro organizes the cycle into seven categories, starting with “The Beginning” and culminating in a category called “Actions”. Together, they address each of the five aspects of socialization. For example, the pervasiveness and consistency of the cycle is emphasized by family, teachers, television, and even business companies that socialize us to believe certain ideas about our identities. As she stated, we are being socialized consistently since the day we are born until the day we die through all aspects of our lives. “[These socializations] shape our self-concepts and self-perceptions, the norms and rules we must follow, the roles we are taught to play, our expectations for the future, and our dreams,” says Harro (Harro 47). At the core of the cycle, fear, ignorance, confusion, and insecurity enable the cycle to be self-supporting. It is never interrupted because it preys on people who do not have the willpower nor the understanding to challenge it. It is important to note, however, that Harro indicates that one can escape the cycle through education, change, questioning, and a raise in consciousness. Labeled “Direction for Change” this arrow theoretically could point to Harro’s following theory, the “Cycle of Liberation”.
Devised after publishing the “Cycle of Socialization”, Harro writes of how she came to articulate the “Cycle of Liberation”. She questions, “If there is an identifiable pattern of events that repeats itself, becomes self-fulfilling, and leads us to a state of unconsciousness about issues of oppression, then there may be another identifiable pattern of events that leads us toward liberation from that thinking,” (Harro 618). Harro establishes that the “Cycle of Liberation” must be prompted by a moment of self-realization that she entitles “Waking Up”. To explain this, she provides the example that, “Perhaps a white mother adopts a child who is Puerto Rican and in dealing with her expectations for the child she suddenly realizes that she has more deeply based racist attitudes than she thought she did,” (Harro 619). In direct opposition to the “Cycle of Socialization”, liberation begins with empowerment of self. At the core of the cycle lie self-love, hope, balance, joy, and security among other characteristics. Already, these notions alone overpower the feelings at the core of the previous cycle: fear, ignorance, confusion, and insecurity. Additionally, rather than passively accepting socializations from all aspects of our lives, the “Cycle of Liberation” requires us to relearn how we have been socialized and then re-present that to those around us. In doing so we form coalitions of people “like us” and “different from us”, as Harro puts it, and we can then coalesce to create change. Finally, while the “Cycle of Socialization” ends with passivity, the “Cycle of Liberation” ends with inspiration, spreading, and integrating. While the “Cycle of Socialization” feeds on passivity and insecurity, the “Cycle of Liberation” feeds on action and self-love, causing both cycles to be self-supporting but in two opposing ways.
The Bluest Eye caters to Harro’s first theory in its exploration of oppression. In her foreword, Morrison indicates her attempt to “enter the life of the one least likely to withstand such damaging forces because of youth, gender, and race,” (Morrison X). This exploration manifests itself in the character Pecola Breedlove, an 11-year-old black girl growing up in Ohio. Morrison explores the first two categories, youth and gender, with the arrival of Pecola’s first period. The foreign sensation of blood running down her legs causes Pecola to ask if she is going to die. This fear of her own body mirrors the fear, ignorance, and confusion that lie at the center of the “Cycle of Socialization”. Her body becomes a cause for suffering and shame because she has never been taught to love or appreciate it. Not only is Pecola afraid of herself, but she is bombarded with the message that she is ugly and worthless. In fact, the entire Breedlove family is seen as ugly. Because this message is coming from all aspects of her life, and because she is rarely told anything otherwise, Pecola internalizes this “ugliness”. Pecola’s self-hatred is a result of events that could be identified under “Institutional and Cultural Socialization” in Harro’s theory. She notes that we are bombarded with messages from our communities on “conscious and unconscious levels”. Morrison, too, acknowledges this, saying, “You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source,” (Morrison 39). Despite being unable to justify this disdain for the Breedlove family, society deems them as “ugly” anyways. Other times, though, Pecola’s ugliness is associated directly with her blackness. Maureen, a fellow classmate who happens to be light-skinned, tells her, “I am cute! And you ugly! Black and ugly black e mos” (Morrison 73). The equalizing of “black” and “ugly” is just one example of how Pecola learns to hate her appearance. This self hate is completely opposite from self-love, which would allow Pecola to begin the “Cycle of Liberation”. Unfortunately, she is eventually swallowed whole by the “Cycle of Socialization” when she asks Soaphead, a failed preacher and now misanthrope, for blue eyes. She is “A little black girl who [wants] to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes,” (Morrison 174). Even the title of the book embodies Pecola’s obsession with european beauty standards; it marks the whole book as Pecola’s quest to obtain blue eyes, which she has been socialized to believe to be the most beautiful.
Audre Lorde’s poem, “A Litany for Survival,” speaks to the same oppression of black women as Morrison’s novel, but conversely embodies the “Cycle of Liberation”. In her poem, Lorde uses the image of breastmilk and its connotations to display just how deeply fear is ingrained in her community. She writes, “learning to be afraid with our mother’s milk / for by this weapon / this illusion of some safety to be found” (Lorde 18-20). Distrust radiates from these lines. Lorde manipulates something as natural, nourishing, and inherent as breast milk into a weapon, something dangerous, hurtful, and unnatural. Lorde, intentionally or unintentionally, echoes Morrison’s characterization of Pecola’s period in The Bluest Eye. Both feminine bodily fluids are seen as otherworldly and scary, showcasing the fear and misunderstanding of oneself that oppression can cause. What separates the two works, though, is that the speaker in Lorde’s poem has an awareness of how they are being socialized. Pecola, in The Bluest Eye, does not have this understanding. The speaker in Lorde’s poem declares the injustices they face, suggesting that they’ve already had the “Waking Up” moment needed to start the cycle. The poem itself embodies the entire category of “Reaching Out” which includes speaking out and naming injustices. Furthermore, after dedicating almost every line to naming the injustices and how heavily ingrained they are in society, Lorde unexpectedly concludes the poem with a call to action. Dissatisfied with this way of life, and, knowing they have nothing to lose, the speaker decides to protest and raise their voice instead of remaining silent. A key part of the “Coalescing” section of the “Cycle of Liberation” necessitates transforming anger into action so change becomes possible. Lorde concludes with this transition, “So it is better to speak / Remembering / we were never meant to survive” (Lorde 44). The final lines display the speaker’s commitment to making change, as well as inspire the reader to raise their own voice, despite the barriers they may face. The poem is then a representation of triumph and strength, of survival and liberation, rather than of invisibility and perishing.
After placing these two texts at opposing sides of the discussion of the socialization of black women, we begin to see that these two authors are not the only people discussing socialization vs. liberation. Nina Simone’s song “Ain't Got No - I Got Life,” released in 1968 as a part of her Album Nuff Said, also embodies the “Cycle of Liberation”. Simone was known for bluntly stating the injustices she faced as a black woman in her music, but “Ain't Got No - I Got Life” powerfully balances the dichotomy of being deprived and having everything you need. The first two stanzas of the lyrics are about what Nina does not have. Repeating the phrase, “Ain’t got no…”, she lists off what has been taken from her, including, but not limited to: her shoes, money, love, god, culture, friends, mother, and class. Like Lorde, she is being authentic; she is most definitely not pretending to have it all. Both Simone and Lorde have already had the key “Waking Up” moment, and they use their respective art forms to name the injustices, a crucial step to the first stage of the “Cycle of Liberation”. Once she has listed all that she does not have, the emotional and musical climax of the song occur concurrently as she sings, “Hey, what have I got? / Why am I alive, anyway? / Yeah, what have I got / Nobody can take away?” (Simone). Simone is seriously grappling with why she should continue to live, considering how almost everything has been taken away from her. But just like Lorde, she rises above to celebrate what she does have, rather than what she does not. As the band reenters, Simone belts, “I got my…” and lists all of her possessions. Simone celebrates owning her hair, brains, mouth, boobies, smile, and sex, among other things. Despite being cheated out of so much by society, Simone declares in the final lines, “I've got life, I've got my freedom / I've got life / I've got the life / And I'm going to keep it / I've got the life,” (Simone). In this cacophony of piano, drums, and guitar, Simone chooses freedom for herself, even though others have deemed her undeserving. Furthermore, beyond the song itself, Simone’s numerous performances of this song across the world have allowed its message of liberation to spread.
It is unfair to hold Lorde’s or Simone’s work above Morrison’s or anyone else’s just because they ultimately choose freedom. While Morrison ultimately chooses despair and suffering for Pecola, this is not something people choose in real life.The unfortunate ending of The Bluest Eye reflects a reality for many people who are subject to this kind of oppression and socialization. Lorde’s and Simone’s work inspires the oppressed to continue fighting by offering up instances of survival. What is most important, though, is that both of these stories exist. In fact, by writing a story that exposes the “Cycle of Socialization” Morrison may in fact wake up own readers, causing them to enter the “Cycle of Liberation”. Additionally, the fact that these artists, all black women, unconsciously adhere to Harro’s theories in their work, legitimizes Harro’s findings. Clearly, her research is a result of careful observations of people experiencing oppression. Together, with thoughtful theories that help us understand oppression and art that both reflect and challenge those theories, a society liberated from that oppression can be realized.
Works Cited:
Adams, Maurianne, et al., editors. Readings for Diversity and Social Justice: an Anthology on
Racism, Anti Semitism, Sexism, Heterosexism, Ableism, and Classism. Vol. 1, Routledge,
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Lorde, Audre. “A Litany for Survival by Audre Lorde.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation,
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147275/a-litany-for-survival.
“Nina Simone – Ain't Got No, I Got Life.” Genius, 13 May 1968,
genius.com/Nina-simone-aint-got-no-i-got-life-lyrics.
“Nina Simone – Little Girl Blue.” Genius, 24 June 1958,
genius.com/Nina-simone-little-girl-blue-lyrics.
Simone, Nina. “Color Is A Beautiful Thing.” Lyrics,
www.songs-lyrics.net/so-Nina-Simone-lyrics-Fodder-On-My-Wings-lyrics-Color-Is-A-Beauti
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