Cooper and Johnson: Protofeminists or Spokeswomen?

Cooper and Johnson both talk about their respective races and how they are always misrepresented in European literature.  I do not view them as protofeminists but as two women who are fighting for their people's voices to be heard in a white and male-dominated society.  While some feminist qualities can be found in Cooper and Johnson's excerpts, there focus is not on women's progress but progress for their entire race.

Cooper says, "The colored man's inheritance and apportionment is still the sombre crux, the perplexing cul de sac of the nation, the dumb skeleton in the closet provoking ceaseless harangues, indeed, but little understood and seldom consulted (Cooper 379)."  So even if discourse about Blacks is being discussed among Whites, the Whites are not getting any opinions or first-hand experiences from the Other race.  It seems that she is trying to say that Europeans are judging the Black race from a distant with no consideration taken from the Other race directly.  She also says that the colored man is a 'dumb skeleton.'  In regards to literature and writing, Blacks are viewed as dumb and inferior to the White race because of their so-called inability to write and compose in the Western tradition.

Johnson says in regards to writings about Indians, "...half of our authors who write up Indian stuff have never been on an Indian reserve in their lives, have never met a 'real live' Redman, have never even read Parkman, Schoolcraft or Catten; what wonder that their conception of a people they are ignorant of, save by hearsay, is dwarfed, erroneous and delusive (Johnson 388)."  To further put the Indian race at a disadvantage, the people who are writing about Indian culture, customs, life, etc. have never had first-hand experiences with the subject matter they are writing about.  This connects with Cooper's concerns of judging these respected races from unfair and misconstrued viewpoints.  This is why Europeans believed themselves to be the inferior race compared to Indians and Blacks.  How can you expect to understand a different group of people's experiences told by someone who has no experience within that group.  

Both women make great points about the misrepresentations of their peoples.  The representations that have been created by white Europeans are based on false information and premises.  For them to understand the Indians and the Blacks, the Europeans have to allow opportunities for them to speak on account of THEIR OWN people.  These two examples brought to us by Cooper and Johnson exemplify misrepresentation at its worst in history.  

Works Cited

Cooper, Anna Julia. "Excerpts from A Voice From the South" (1892). Wielding the Pen: Writings on Authorship by American Women of the Nineteenth Century. Ed. Anne E. Boyd. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins U P, 2009. 379-384.

Johnson, E. Pauline. "A Strong Race Opinion: On the Indian Girl in Modern Fiction" (1895). Wielding the Pen: Writings on Authorship by American Women of the Nineteenth Century. Ed. Anne E. Boyd. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins U P, 2009. 385-389