Document Information
- Title: “Another Frontier”
- Subject: Unpublished speech, excerpt on gender and race.
- Draft: Early Manuscript
- File location: Box 4, folder 5
Discussion Questions
- What does this passage from an early manuscript draft of Gaines’s speech “Another Frontier” reveal about his perspectives on gender and race in the South?
- How do the views expressed in this speech manifest in Of Love and Dust?
But my imagination does not stop here Like all overseers, good ones and bad ones, this one had a wife as well. This little woman, unique, when compared to several other white women of the South, hated the black woman and hated her husband. Some of you might ask, how is this unique? Wasn’t this universally accepted? Yes, it is universally accepted when the women feel that the other woman is a human being. But for centuries she had been taught that the black woman was not. Or if she were a human being, she was far below the white woman’s level, and thus a white man could not look at her the way he would look at a white woman. For years, the white women of the South believed this, are believing it, and will believe it. When they see the mulatto child going by the gate—when they see how much the child looked like the dad, brother, and husband—[illegible] or this shooting husband, or hating father, [illegible], he will no longer [illegible].
Document Information
- Title: “Another Frontier”
- Subject: Unpublished speech, excerpt on gender and race.
- Draft: Early typescript
- File location: Box 4, folder 6
Discussion Questions
- Gaines chooses to change the word “years” to the word “centuries.” What impact does this change in word choice have on the passage’s message in relation to Gaines’s argument on race and gender?
- Similarly, how is the word “divorce” more powerful than the word “leave”? What does the word “divorce” add to a conversation about a woman’s reaction to an unfaithful husband?
Like all overseers on plantations, good ones and bad ones, the one I created for my novel “Of Love and Dust” had a wife as well. This little woman, so unique, when compared to many other white women of the South, hated the black woman and hated her husband. Some of you might ask—“But how is that so unique? Isn’t it universally accepted that when you have a rival you hate her?” Yes, this is universally accepted--but only when you feel that your rival is a human being that you can feel jealousy. But for centuries my little woman had been taught that the Black woman was not. Or if she were human, she was far below the white woman’s level, and therefore a white man could never look at her the way he would look at a white woman. For centuries, the whte women of the South believed this, are believing it, and probably shall for the rest of their lives. When they see the mulatto child going by the gate, when they recognize the child as being the off spring of brother, father or husband, there’s only one reason for them not to criticize brother, hate father, or divorce husband. And the reason is that they blame the woman and not the man. The Black woman is the beast here, the white man is the beauty. And the beast cannot resist beauty.