Ethnicity, Racism, Sexism, Classism, and Gender Dissonance in Alice Walker's Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart

Scientific Essay from the year 2021 in the subject American Studies - Literature, Andhra University (ANDHRA UNIVERSITY), course: RESEARCH SSCHOLAR (Ph.D), language: English, abstract: This research paper analyses how race, ethnicity, gender dissonance, racism, sexism and classism affect black women's lives oppressively, and how womanism is an elixir that saves them from such oppressive forces. It concentrates on womanism as a theory, put forth by Alice Walker. Walker used the term womanism in her collection of essays titled In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose published in 1983. Furthermore, this paper focuses on the black womanist of the novel alone, to show how womanists with womanist awareness, grit and substance alone can overcome ethnic conflicts, racism, sexism, classism, and gender dissonance. Multiethnicity is a common feature of the present day world. This paper concentrates on the fact that, race is an assigned social construct, and ethnicity is an asserted social construct. Ethnic groups within the domain of a larger society display a unique set of cultural traits, and a sense of community. They have a shared ancestry and heritage. They have a degree of consciousness that separates them from others. American society since its inception has been an ethnically and racially diverse one. Large scale immigration has made America the heterogeneous abode of many ethnic communities. Multifarious ethnicity has led to identity crisis, conflict, and competition. In America, African Americans are both a race and an ethnic group. Moreover, they are the most visible ethnic group. African American women have faced sexist oppression, and gender dissonance in addition to racism, classism and ethnic conflicts when compared to their male counterparts. The intersection of racist, sexist and classist oppression has forced African American women, face complex social and psychological realities.