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I see Anna Julia Cooper as being a phenomenal race theorist. In A Voice From the South, Cooper proposes two types of authors in general—without race being a factor:

1. "[T]hose in whom the artistic or poetic instinct is uppermost" (Cooper 380) (art for the sake of art).
2. "All those writers with a purpose or a lesson" (Cooper 381) (referring to writers that act to push an ideal upon their audience—intended to persuade an audience in a certain direction about something).

She goes on to apply the second author type to authors that "have . . . attempted a portrayal of life and customs among the darker race" (Cooper 381).

Gates, Jr. "Writing Race"

I can definitely see how racism fits perfectly into the realm of terministic screens.  The influence of past experiences and ideology of a person has much to do with how they view other races.  With their predetermined feelings on race they see all people in that race with a tarnished view.  This prevents them from having a clear and fresh view on each person as they have predetermined screens that have been in the making their whole life and in some cases before they were alive with family values.  These terministic screens can be evident in writing about race.  The view of the author alters their writing on certain races just as their though process is altered when a non author views someone in a race other than their own.  I would not go on to directly state that race is definitely a terministic screen in the way that Gates historicizes “race” as something that someone rights.  I would say that it definitely can be.  To state that it definitely is would be generalizing all writers and that is impossible as writers come from all walks of life and have limitlessly differently views on life and race.

Re/Presentation & A Suggestion

Cooper & Johnson both speak for their respective cultural groups when they claim misrepresentation by the majority. Through literature especially, both the black woman and the native american (“Indian,” Johnson used ironically) woman have been either flattened or entirely voiceless. Specifically women are discussed in this week’s readings because they are the most unrepresented or misrepresented people groups in art and literature, women of color even more so. This is an effect of a selective majority who historically (and so habitually) hasn’t “quite put themselves in the dark man’s place,” and so cannot accurately present them through art (Cooper 380). 

Gates and Race

Gates’  Writing “Race” and the Difference It Makes, addresses the importance of the topic of the “other.” I found this article interesting because although it seems apparent that race is a factor that separates us from one another, Gates dives further into the issue. He explains, In much of the thinking about proper study of literature in this century, race has ben an invisible quantity, a persistent yet implicit presence” (Gates 2).  While race has been present, I agree with the fact that it has not been explicitly addressed.

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.

Race? Is it Important?

Let's first come to an understanding that Gates defines race in literature as merely a subcategory. I think it's evident that Gates supports the idea of race in literature being presented by people who has shared similar experiences as their characters, “'race' was the source of all structures of feeling and thought: to 'track the root of man'... is 'to consider the race itself... the structure of his character and mind, his general processes of thought and feeling'” (Gates 4). In essence, only black literature can be written by black authors, black voice can only be represented by black voices.

Cooper and Johnson

After reading these two pieces, the general idea I got was that each orator is challenging the idea of what a specific person of a specific background should be. Johnson mainly focuses on how people think about and view Indian women, while Cooper is more involved in black identity. Each author raises the question 'what does it mean to be (black/Indian/white/European/etc)'. But is it the same question for each one? 

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.

Choosing your Place

Hegemony means the dominance or dominant influence of one nation, group, or class over another or others. An example of it is, after WWII, the United States became the hegemonic superpower worldwide because of their thriving economy, strong military, and politics. During the Cold War there was a hegemonic ideological conflict between communism and democracy. All three writers this week show this idea/term of hegemony in their work. 

Cooper and Johnson

Anna Julia Cooper argues that “an authentic portrait, at once aesthetic and true to life, presenting the black man as a free American citizen, not the humble slave of Uncle Tom’s Cabin- but the man, divinely struggling and aspiring yet tragically warped and distorted by the adverse winds of circumstance, has not yet been painted” (382). Before this passage Cooper writes that the Black Woman is not well portrayed in American literature either. She does not blame white people for this. It is impossible for a “Caucasian barrister” to fully put themselves in the place of a black man or woman. Furthermore, Cooper states that the African American race has “yet found no mouthpiece of its own to unify and perpetuate its wondrous whisperings…” (383).

Gates, Jr.

If we substituted everything that referred to race with buzz words that relate to feminism, I think it could still be a really educational article and I think it could work. One glaring, fundamental thing stands in the way of that for me though. Gates writes, “The biological criteria used to determine ‘difference’ in sex simply do not hold when applied to ‘race.’ Yet we carelessly use language in such a way as to will this sense of natural difference into our formulations.”  (5) If we are to close-read, as Gates advises us to, this doesn't bode well for feminism. He defines race as a trope by basically saying it is mystified to make things that don't appear naturally or genetically in a race seem to be natural and genetic. With feminism, the whole point is that it's true we are biologically somewhat different but that doesn't mean there is a "right" answer to gender.

An Observation of Tone; Cooper / Johnson

The first observation I made after skimming through the beginning of Cooper’s excerpts from A Voice From the South and Johnson’s text A Strong Race Opinion was that Cooper’s tone, compared to that of Pauline Johnson, seemed more (for a lack of better term) understanding or forgiving of the authors and perceptions that they are both critiquing. Anna Julia Cooper; born a slave in 1858 (freed at 9), was focusing on the assessment of race, specifically that of the African American woman, in American literature… whilst E. Pauline Johnson; a Canadian woman of Mohawk decent, focused her critique on the generalized perception of the “Indian Girl.”

Defining, "Race"

Upon reading the first sentence of Henry Louis Gates, Jr’s, “Writing ‘Race’ and the Difference It Makes,” I felt an overwhelming feeling of disagreement.  My brain instantly began flooding with example of literature in which race had a profound impact.  “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Diary of Anne Frank” all seemed to jump out at me as books that have had a pretty profound impact on our modern society.  “How could Gates be so blind as to ask a question and write about a topic that is so obviously incorrect?,” I thought.  That is until I continued reading, got educated, and learned about the inaccuracies of the term that he was using, “Race.”

Diaspora

For this blog post I wanted to talk about the term I am presenting on in class tomorrow. The term is diaspora.There are two very different meaning to the term. The first is Diaspora with a capitalized "D". When diaspora is capitalized it refers to the specific historical and biblical event of the jews being dispersed from the Holy Land and refers to the jews that are still living outside of Palestine. Diaspora with a lower case "d" is referring "to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands and the ensuring developments in their dispersal and culture" (Seigel).

Gates, Foucault and Heilbrun

The most important claim I think Gate made in his introduction was that non-literacy has historically dehumanized blacks and other minorities.  The quotes from all the Enlightenment theorists drove home the fact that these people genuinely believed in the sub-humanity of racial minorities due to the fact that they were unable to write.  Writing was seen as the pinnacle of human reason and therefore any race that had not created a uniform system could not be nearly as developed.  This rang too close to Foucault's idea of power and discourse to not comment.

Johnson & Cooper

A Strong Race Opinion -- I enjoyed reading Johnson's passage or article, because it has a distinct voice for individuality. It seems to erase the stereotypes of this culture of Indians, Native Americans or Anglo-Saxons. I like the way the article seems to embrace and encourage a number of various nations and cultures giving each one positive energy and hope which all cultures deserve because each nation has definitely had it fair share of historic hurdles to climb.

Race... Does It really Matter?

Today's reading were a bit more normal than most. What I would like to touch base on is the terministic view when it comes down to race. All the readings demonstrated the variety of critical approaches through which an author may discuss a text -- race being a meaningful category in the study of literature and the shaping of critical theory I think its only right that it is discussed. All of today's reading focused on Race: Cooper on African Culture, Johnson on Indians, but Gates's reading is what really drew me in. 

Johnson on A Strong Race Opinion

Knowing all that I know about feminist rhetorical theory, feminist critical perspective, and race, I would say that Johnson is considered a protofeminist, but I say this lightly, hoping that our class discussion will clear up some of the confusion I have regarding this. In A Strong Race Opinion, Emily Johnson says that "the American book heroine of to-day is vari-colored as to personality and action." (385)  I agree with this statement because it offers a broader description of a typical heroine, if you were to categorize a "heroine".  However, I don't agree that this is an individual that needs categorizing, but as long as the term "hero" is categorized, it can be agreeable.