Toni Morrison's Lorain

Description

Toni Morrison's "What the Black Woman Thinks About Women's Lib" explores the complexity of Black women's social location in the society where racism and sexism are intertwined. Much earlier than Kimberlé Crenshaw named this form of oppression upon Black women "intersectionality," Morrison incisively explains the impossibility of representing Black women's experience with the white umbrella of the women's liberation movement. This excerpt describes that the mundane life of Black people is disrupted by racism in practice. This essay was published in the New York Times Magazine, on August 22, 1971. 

"Whenever you wanted to do something simple, natural, and inoffensive. Like drink some water, sit down, go to the bathroom or buy a bus ticket to Charlotte, North Carolina. Those classifying signs that told you who you were, what to do. More than those abrupt and discourteous signs one gets used to in this country- the door that says 'Push,' the towel dispenser that says 'Press,' the traffic light that says 'No'- these signs were not just arrogant, they were malevolent: 'Whites Only,' 'Colored Only,' or perhaps just 'Colored,' permanently carved into the granite over a drinking fountain."