Ciere Welton on Yvette Abraham: "Saartjie Baartman"

Yvette Abraham points out the ignorance of an author who writes a story of Saartjie Baartman. In doing so, this author fails to deliver the raw facts of her. Yvette proceeds in her writing to introduce a pattern of many other authors who did as well.

In this reading, Yvette argues that Richard Altick is ignorant in his writing about Saartjie because he refers to her as an "heavy-arsed heathen", along with other demeaning names. Yvette goes on to explain that there is no evidence that actually proclaims her religion. I understand this argument from a perspective of, how could one have the ability to speak on the life of another without concrete facts. Although Altick might not have had malicious intent, this brings me to the thought of how white superiority has authority in more ways than recognized. What's even more "bloggable" is how society continues to accept it.

Yvette gives two examples of white men who are in a position of power or control and instead of doing research and giving Saartjie the respect that was denied of her during her lifetime, these men continue the pattern and refer to her in their writings as the degrading names mentioned over history. The repetition in Saartjie's stories that have been written or told have always remained the same, so why would it change? Why would this author stop and think, "I shouldn't refer to her as such", when the British put her on display as inconceivable and being symbolized as a monstrosity. To my knowledge, her story has yet to be told as Saartjie Baartman, the KhoiKhoi woman who was degraded.

In the world today, there are still many aspects of which white superiority continues to fabricate and alter anything and or anyone that is deemed threatening to the white culture.  In the TED talk, "The Danger of a Single Story", Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gives an example of how her white college roommate was intrigued with her intelligence and her being able to read. She was intrigued because based on what she was told "Africans" couldn't read and were all indigent. This is tied into another example of ignorance and fallacies being told due to white superiority.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODzwb90b5qE

To date, we as a society live amongst many misconceptions and fabrications as a way of assimilating the world around us.