Last class, Amanda posed the following question:
“In recognizing the importance of for colored girls centralizing collectivity among black women, or what Soyica Diggs Colbert describes as “creating alternative sites of belonging,” how can we begin to explore and deconstruct criticism of the play’s presentation of black men?”
I cannot help but want to answer this question in light of this week’s reading. Though there is an incredible sense of community and sisterhood between the women in for colored girls and part of the glue that binds them is their experiences (whether positive or oppressive) with black men.
In a world without men, for colored girls would cease to exist. Poems such as “latent rapists,” “sorry,” “abortion cycle #1” in for colored girls speak to neglect, rape and misfortune in black women’s lives that is a result of black men’s behavior. Probably the reason why the criticism hits home for the male critics of for colored girls is because the women are not abused by an abstract, distance entity, but are “bein betrayed by men who know [them]” (33) and those have been “considered a friend” (34).