Black Gothic/ Generational Curses

 Jessica Mitchell

Professor Harris

African American Literature

15 November 2022

Black Gothic/ Generational Curses 

Black Gothic Literature is characterized by death, fear, and generational curses. The Black Gothic can also be characterized by supernatural manifestations. This semester, many of my readings always emphasize the elements of generational curses of African American culture. I truly believe that people can inherit misfortune. Generational curses have been troubling African American lives since the biblical days. African American men and women have been brainwashed for generations to look, act, speak, heal and not heal a certain way. 

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi sheds light on generational curses from a male and woman's point of view. In Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, in Marcus’s chapter, he doesn't care for water due to the stories his family put in his head about their ancestors. African Americans were transported across the Atlantic during slavery days, during which they endured a lot of pain and suffering.  African American slaves were thrown over the ship; some also jumped ship just to keep from being enslaved. This happened for many years, so just imagine the number of bodies that were in the Atlantic. The average African American does not know how to swim and fears large bodies of water. I wonder the same fear of water that our ancestors had during the slavery days still haunts African Americans today, being that African Americans have a fear of water. 

Also, the fact that African American still experiences racism and living challenges as I ancestors have is very interesting. We still face everything our ancestors faced in a more discrete way. In Homegoing Willies’ chapter, she makes a statement about wishing she can change her skin tone, and that her life would be better if she had lighter skin. Still, to this day, some African Americans to this day wishes to be a different race. That leads me to the thought of why African America try and change their appearance by changing their hair texture or even wearing wigs. Some African Americans today even go about by bleaching their skin and have surgery just so they can have an image of whites. That is a major curse that is getting out of hand even to this day, it's getting worse. Even some slaves would have thoughts of befriending their slavers or join the slavers. I would consider this to be brainwashing and a way of escape. So, what our generation is escaping from by changing their natural appearance to look in an image of a white person.

I wonder, can generation curses really be broken, or do it just sincerely repeat themselves generation after generation. The curses and scenarios just come in different forms. Women are left to raise children alone, while the men live their life as if they don’t have children, as seen in Homegoing in Willie’s chapter. Also, African Americans not receiving the same chance or even care like whites. Being that whites were considered very wealthy back then. African Americans still to this day have the thought that the majority of whites are wealthy based on their generation of wealth, from when their ancestors owned slaves and the majority of lands. Blacks also still face poverty and hard times based of our ancestors and what they endure around slavery times. There has been some change due to the African American generation curse, but African Americans still face the majority of the conflicts that their ancestors faced.



https://michiganchronicle.com/2021/02/15/breaking-the-generational-curse-the-history-of-poverty-in-black-detroit/

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teacher-resources/historical-context-facts-about-slave-trade-and-slavery

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/examining-the-black-white-wealth-gap/

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