Let me begin by noting that answering this question was difficult for me. You’re either writing from your own biases or stereotypes when writing from the perspective of another race. A writer can write about what he or she observes, but not about the feelings and thoughts of the person. The reading “Desiree’s Baby”, is an insightful commentary on race. However, the author, Kate Chopin, is unable to fully comprehend the feelings of a person sentenced to slavery, as well as the experiences of black people. Kate Chopin, a white woman whose family owned slaves at the time, used her writing to challenge social standards and address racial concerns. If a white writer is willing to research and get information about the black experience in order to reach an audience, then, isn’t that okay? However, she was not personally affected by the problems that people of color faced. I do not feel that those who are not members of the group should be given greater weight than those who are. I believe that everyone, regardless of ethnic origin, should use their voice to combat racial inequity.
2 thoughts on “discussion post 2: chopin”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I think this was written very well, Chopin is unable to fully comprehend the feelings of one sentenced to slavery, she can only observe it. Her narrative should never hold weight over the narratives of those who actually have experienced it.
I agree with you, but in a way, I think we are like Chopin. Because we also don’t fully understand the experience that people sentenced to slavery experienced. Whether Black, White, Hispanic, Asian and etc. if you weren’t an actual slave the story shouldn’t hold that much weight. However, we still talk about it because in a way we can relate to it. This is probably what Chopin does too. She writes because she probably relates to her characters.