"Well, you know whut dey say ‘uh white man and uh nigger woman is defreest thing on earth.’ Dey do as dey please." (Chapter19, pg 181)
According the African American men speaking above, white men and black women are free from the restraints and expectations that other subgroups are forced to abide by. White men, being from both the superior race and sex, enjoy the privileges of doing what they want to who they please without having to worry about trifle consequences, as there is no higher human to whom they would have to answer. Black women, in contrast, are deemed the lowliest of the subdivisions, both pathetically inferior in sex and race. Because of their alleged weakness, they seemed to receive an inordinate amount of mercy from their oppressors, much like parent would dispatch to a young child.
This is the logic of the black men in the novel, but, historically speaking, was it accurate? Did the white man and the black women enjoy more freedom than the rest?
Well, the former statement could obviously be backed up with the barest knowledge about world history and a bit of common sense; the past has shown us, whether it be through the Crusaders, Conquistadors, or the Klansmen, that white men have often taken what they wanted with little regard to the imprint it leaves on others, and came away completely unscathed. They have long been the sole determiners of morality in this world, bending and stretching their ideals to fit those of their actions. Only fools stood in the way of this all-powerful group, especially the negro race, to which it spelled out a death sentence in most cases.
Black woman, however, did not deserve the accusations of the aforementioned black gossipers. By virtue of being both a racial minority and the "weaker" sex, black women had it worst of all and were essentially the bottom of the social totem pole. Just as Nanny once claimed, they have been both the crutch of their men and the mule of the whites, often bearing the burdens and the scorn of both unflinchingly. They were the sturdy glue that held together the seams of the black community, keeping the great quilt of their lives from unraveling layer by layer. They enjoyed no unjust freedoms, as the men above claimed, but were, in most cases, shackled by the chains of condescendence and injustice that were place upon them by nearly every other group. This is the real truth that was often cast aside by people like the men in this novel, and something that would have served them well to recognize.
