Cooper and Johnson's thoughts on race, rhetoric, etc.

Anna Julia Cooper and E. Pauline Johnson the role of race, gender and cultural differences in rhetorical practice. Both authors, having been personally affected by societal terms and language used to describe race/gender, struggle with the fine line of terminology- what is acceptable and what is not. In her text, A Voice from the South, Cooper brings up the point of how without experiencing life as a specific race or gender, an author cannot adequately put themselves in their place. She says “the art of ‘thinking one’s self imaginatively into the experiences of others’ is not given to all, and it is impossible to acquire it without a background and a substratum of sympathetic knowledge” (Cooper 381) She brings forward the fact the in America, a picture of a strong, free black man as an American Citizen has not been a picture painted in literature yet, just an image of black men and women in slavery, such as the one from Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I can see how her to views coincide here, that there is this gap in our society’s literature that needs to be filled, and a Caucasian person can not fill it because they have not had the same experiences and would not be authentic.

I believe Johnson has a very similar belief as well. In her text, A Strong Race Opinion she just seems to attack authors that are guilty of portraying a race (specifically Native American) in a certain way more than Cooper, who is merely analyzing rhetorical practice. Johnson is very focused the stereotype of the “Indian girl” and recounts the classic story line that can be found in many works involving an older white man and a younger Native American female (such as Pocahontas.) This same image of the girl lying to and turning her back on her family and friends for this white man who does not marry her in the end, definitely paints the Caucasian male as the superior. Both authors see the way rhetoric can be used to influence the views of entire society’s and how important it is for reader’s to criticize what they’re reading and consider the underlying gender and racial stereotypes that so many authors subconsciously include.

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.