Representations today

            I read a post on facebook the other day that said, "They're killing black men in the streets and they're killing black women on tv." That really made me stop and think, especially relating to this class and the topics we've recently discussed such as the representations of black women. In the beginning of "Hearts of Darkness" we see how the dichotomy of the love/hate relationship with the white man and the black woman begun, it European man went to Africa and captured the black woman and brought her over here as his sex slave. His ignorance kept him from understanding the black woman but it didn't not keep him from lusting after her and profiting off of her. This relationship started a smear campaign of the black woman's reputation and black woman have been trying to defend their reputation ever since. Today there are stereotypes of  Sapphire, Mammy and Jezebel that are easily identified today on regular daytime and night time television. As a black woman I have to carve out my identity for others to see every where I go because of these images. Those are not the only roles we operate in in our real, day to day life.
           As far as the white man goes and how he is viewed, I really don't have any thoughts on this particular subject. Only the fact that in America the white man comes in first place and he'll do whatever he can to keep his position. The relationship between the white man and the black woman  in "Hearts of Darkness" shows how he will help the black woman and her kids get a better leg up in the world. The way this is set up though is that it alienates the black man. It doesn't give him a chance to rise up. Instead it keeps him lost, forgotten and at the bottom of the barrel. I know that my focus should strictly be upon the white man and the black woman but I think the relationship between the two definitely and directly affects the black man and the white woman. You can't talk about one without talking about the other.