Volume III Issue II April-June 2023

Name of Author : Mr. N Ranjith Kumar, Dr. S Udhayakumar

Title of the paper : A Tragedy of Oppression and Internalized Racism in Afro-American Literature

Abstract: The life of Afro-American women had been affected by racism, sexism and classicism. These so-called systems of social and psychological restrictions were put on the Africans living in that country when the colored people were regarded as inferiors. As the blacks were relegated to a lower class by virtue of their race, women were related to a separate caste by virtue of their sex. In the same way, black women were also victimized not only on the basis of races and sex but they were also badly treated by class exploitations which was the greatest oppression of blacks in America. In this way, black women suffered from the double disadvantage of racial discrimination and gender bias. That black women survived and flourished under these conditions is surely a testament to the human spirit, but that is precisely the point. Black women, in the midst of both racism and sexism, did survive, and their ability to do was the glue that wrapped together black communities both during and after slavery. Hence, the hierarchy created by patriarchal society crumbles to a certain extent in Toni Morrison. She exhibits the woman’s situation, emotion and realization which are scrutinized to observe the universality of female psyche. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye deals with the life of women, their activities and their victimization at the hands of male ones. They are not human beings but simply things to be used and this is why they are subhuman, exploited and tortured all their life. This paper is an insight to discuss the life of African-American women who are the victims of the prejudices everywhere in the society and in their own families.

Keywords : Exploitation, Racial Discrimination, Gender, Inequality, Oppression

DOI :

Page No. : 39-41