Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Strange Career/Strange Title
I'm curious what the class thinks about the use of the word "career" in the title. Woodward discusses why he uses it in general terms, but I wonder if you believe this is the most appropriate way to describe the Jim Crow narrative. Is it merely a quirky synonym for "history" or "evolution" or is there something inherently apt in using this word as a thematic framework for his argument that no other term could have encapsulated as well?
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I read this as a form of personification. Jim Crow was an employee at the service of a resurgent white power structure that emerged from a brief period of political empowerment for blacks after Reconstruction. This attribution, I feel, also gives the institutionalized discriminatory practices just as much agency as the real people who used and struggled against them.
ReplyDeleteAppropriate? Yes. This is a creative way of presenting a vast cultural dynamic. Just my 2¢.
I COMPLETELY agree that it is an attempt to personify the history of Jim Crow. I also think it works well as a narrative device to make the reader approach these laws differently. Do we run a risk with this device, however, of giving the institution of segregation as a concept too much power? Could it over generalize the unique plight of individuals who suffered under these laws? In other words, by implying Jim Crow laws were a living entity, even rhetorically, does it alleviate the complicity of those who worked tirelessly to ensure its survival? Perhaps this is a debate more about semantics and does not apply to his overall argument , but the fact remains that he probably spent a very long time coming up with this very simple title for a reason.
ReplyDeleteThen why "strange career"?
ReplyDeleteTo me, the term "career" works, although while reading I did think more about the life of the thing. A career is the pursuit of a goal, which pertains to what Jim Crow codes were all about: the goal of white supremacy. JC codes "worked" in overt, covert, but always insidious ways to reach/enforce that goal. As for "strange," I was struck by Woodward's discussion of the instability of race relations. It must have seemed to many that things were not as they seemed, at least not for very long. The conservatives could not be counted on--they capitulated; the Populists turned out the same way. Watching Jim Crow's "career" must have been like watching a tornado, not knowing where it would wreak destruction next as it absorbed everything in its wake.
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