Malcolm X: The House Negro vs The Field Negro (Plus Sellouts

[julie*mango]

Can someone tell me what the difference is between house negro and field negro.

Can someone explain to me like I am a 6 year old why one is considered to be better and the other used in a derogatory fashion..

[Blackstar*]

Re: House Negro vs Field Negro

[video:youtube]www.youtube.com/watch?v=znQe9nUKzvQ[/video]

[Derek]

Re: House Negro vs Field Negro

The House Negro is more 'important' because he/she 'enjoys' the 'luxury' of living/working indoors (maid, butler etc) while the Field Negro works outdoors in the er, field - doing stuff such as picking cotton.


I think - did I miss something - is this one of those double meaning threads?

[twiney]

Re: House Negro vs Field Negro

i think i fall in the house negro category because I have not interest in white men and believe that most black Jamaican women are not rejected by the white Jamaican men they simply arent interested in them because of what them have.

[Tropicana]

Malcolm X: The House Negro vs The Field Negro (Plus Sellouts

You know there was a time when the writings of Malcolm X and "Black Power" books were banned in Jamaica. I believe that this was during Shearer's administration. If I am wrong, please come in here and correct me. I can understand someone who was going to school in Jamaica at that time not knowing certain things. I do find it appalling that so many decades later, there seems to be such a high degree of ignorance in some quarters.

Blu talks about sellouts and some people don't seem to have a clue WHAT he is talking about and some don't seem to have a clue what one means when one speaks of house negroes.

For those who truly want to learn, here is some information. I hope I find some find it useful:

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
by Malcolm X

&quot;There was two kind of slaves. There was the house negro and the field negro. The house negro, they lived in the house, with master. They dressed pretty good. They ate good, cause they ate his food, what he left. They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near their master, and they <span style="font-weight: bold">loved their master, more than their master loved himself</span>. They would give their life to save their masters house quicker than their master would. </div></div>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

The house negro, if the master said &quot;we got a good house here&quot; the house negro say &quot;yeah, we got a good house here&quot;. Whenever the master would said we, he'd say we. That's how you can tell a house negro. If the master's house caught on fire, the house negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. If the master got sick, the house negro would say <span style="font-weight: bold">&quot;What's the matter, boss, we sick?&quot; We sick!</span> He identified himself with his master, more than the master identified with himself. </div></div>

Now this is the important part and it will also help position the term &quot;sellout&quot;.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
And if you came to the house negro and said &quot;Let's run away, Let's escape, Let's separate&quot; the house negro would
look at you and say &quot;Man, you crazy. What you mean separate? Where is there a better house than this? Where can I wear better clothes than this? Where can I eat better food than this?&quot; There was that house negro. In those days, he was called a house<span style="font-weight: bold"> EDIT</span>. And that's what we
call him today, because we still got some house<span style="font-weight: bold"> EDIT </span>srunnin around here.</div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

This modern house negro loves his master. He wants to live near him. He'll pay three times as much as the house is worth just to live near his master, and then brag about &quot;I'm the only negro out here. I'm the only one on my job. I'm the only one in this school.&quot; &quot;You're nothing but a house negro. And if someone come to you right now and say &quot;Let's separate.&quot;, you say the same thing that the house negro said on the plantation. &quot;What you mean separate? From America? This good white land? Where you gonna get a better job than you get here? I mean, this is what you say! &quot;I ain't left nothing in Africa&quot; That's what you say. <span style="font-weight: bold"> &quot;Why, you left your mind in Africa&quot;. </span> </div></div>

[Tropicana]

Re: Malcolm X: The House Negro vs The Field Negro (Plus Sellouts

[qu<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">On that same plantation, there was the field negro. The field negro, those were the masses. There was always more negros in the field as there were negros in the house. The
negro in the field caught hell. He ate leftovers. In the house, they ate high up on the hog. The negro in the field didn't get nothing but what was left in the insides of the hog. They call them chit'lins nowaday. In those days, they called them what they were, guts! That's what youwere, a guteater. And some of you are still guteaters. The field negro
was beaten, from morning til night. He lived in a shack, in a hut. He wore cast-off clothes. He hated his master. I say, he hated his master. He was intelligent. <span style="font-weight: bold">That house negro loved his master. But that field negro, remember, they were in the majority, and they hated their master. </span>

When the house caught on fire, he didn't try to put it out, that field negro prayed for a wind. For a breeze. When the master got sick, the field negro prayed that he died. If someone come to the field negro and said &quot;Let's separate, let's run.&quot; He didn't say &quot;Where we going?&quot; he said &quot;Any place is better than here&quot;. We got field negros in America today.
</div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
I'm a field negro. The masses are the field negros. When they see this mans house on fire, we don't hear these little negros talkin bout &quot;Our Government is in trouble. They say thee Government is in trouble.&quot; Imagine a negro, &quot;Our Government&quot;. I even heard one say &quot;Our astronauts.&quot; They won't even let him near the plant, and &quot;Our astronauts&quot;. &quot;Our neighbors&quot; That's a negro that's out of his mind. That's a negro that's out of his mind! <span style="font-weight: bold">Just cause the slave master in that day, used Tom, to keep the field negroes in check. The same ole slavemaster
today has negros who are nothing but modern Uncle Toms. 20th
century Uncle Toms to keep you and me in check. Keep us under
control. Keep us passive and peaceful.</span> </div></div>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

It's like when you go to the dentist and the man
is going to take your tooth. You're going to fight him when he start pulling. So they squirt some stuff in your jaw called novocane, to make you think their not doing anything to you. So you sit there and because you got all that novocane in your jaw, you suffer peacefully. Hahahaha.

</div></div>

If you want to know more, go to the library and borrow a copy of the Autobiography of Malcolm X. Soon come wid defintion of sellout.

[Tropicana]

Re: Malcolm X: The House Negro vs The Field Negro (Plus Sellouts

The term sellout, refers to slaves who informed on other slaves who were planning to run away or who were planning an uprising or rebellion.

You can read an excerpt from <span style="font-weight: bold">From Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal </span> by Randall Kennedy (Author)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/sellout.htm

He examines valid uses and abuses of this term in both historical and modern contexts. This is from a book review:

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> In a 1963 speech Malcolm X distilled black America's long history of social and political struggle into two simple yet enduring composites: House Negroes and Field Negroes. Field Negroes bore the brunt of racial oppression from antebellum slavery to the civil rights era's high tide, while <span style="font-weight: bold">House Negroes craved white approval, shared secrets with racial oppressors and generally aided and abetted white supremacy. They were the race traitors, the sellouts, the Uncle Toms.</span>

&quot;Suspicions regarding racial betrayal continue to be omnipresent,&quot; writes Harvard Law professor Randall Kennedy in his slim but thought-provoking Sellout, which challenges conventional understanding of what exactly constitutes racial betrayal. American history is filled with instances in which prominent, successful blacks have been categorized as race traitors. While Booker T. Washington is often regarded as the quintessential &quot;sellout&quot; by some critics, prominent figures such as W.E.B. DuBois and Marcus Garvey also found their allegiance to black progress under question despite seemingly unassailable records as iconic &quot;race men.&quot;

Kennedy seeks to complicate standard discussions of racial betrayal by questioning the underlying assumptions behind such accusations. Were slaves who informed about plans for impending rebellion Uncle Toms or pragmatists unwilling to sacrifice friends and family for insurrections that seemed doomed to failure? What are we to make of civil rights era informers who collaborated with segregationists in opposition to Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists? For Kennedy, <span style="font-weight: bold">blacks who would be considered &quot;sellouts&quot; during the 1960s and '70s for informing on civil rights and Black Power-styled organizations </span> have been at least partially vindicated by historical evidence suggesting that &quot;alongside the noble figures and exemplary deeds of the Second Reconstruction, however, were base criminals and appalling misconduct that warranted governmental intervention.&quot; This is a bold and provocative charge, one that merits the support of more than just Hugh Pearson's controversial polemic, The Shadow of the Panther.

</div></div>

http://www.wrongonrace.com/choosingsides.htm

[diabolical_Tanya]

Re: Malcolm X: The House Negro vs The Field Negro (Plus Sellouts

its this type of thinking why the black community is where it is now and why blacks don't support black owned businesses

sad sad sad


to think that in almost 2010 wi still a chat bout field an house negro knee-grows

it's a crying shame

[Tropicana]

Re: Malcolm X: The House Negro vs The Field Negro (Plus Sellouts

I think so Tanya. It is the result of divide and conquer during slavery. We STILL don't support one another and anyone who tries to expose injustice is mocked. There is also another negative side to this. Sometimes Blacks who do well are labelled sellouts (inappropriately). It's a big problem in some high schools. Black kids who do well and cooperate with the teachers are labelled as &quot;sellouts&quot; and &quot;trying to be White&quot;. So the term can be appropriately and inappropriately applied.

I think that we do have to speak in these terms as long as we don't support each other and undermine efforts to expose racism. It's unfortunate that this is still going on. The mentality continues to this day.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Twiny</div><div class="ubbcode-body">i think i fall in the house negro category because I have not interest in white men and believe that most black Jamaican women are not rejected by the white Jamaican men they simply arent interested in them because of what them have. </div></div>

Twiny, stop playing dumb. You make excuses for Whites who are racist and you KNOW it. You also display a &quot;blame the victim&quot; line of reasoning and you know it.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Malcolm X: The House Negro vs The Field Negro (Plus Sellouts

Not disregarding what Malcolm said. I did not bother to read it; I have a CD of his speeches.
But the House Slave and the Field Slaves were real items during Slavery so there should be no confusion about their roles one it is explained. Now I know we might be talking about two different things here because I imagine this was post-slavery and the term might have come into its own construct based on what was happening then.

Don't know if I am making sense hear but there is not need to get Malcolm to explain House Slaves vs. Field Slaves when he might have been talking about the attitudes of House Field and Stream Negroes vs. Field enlightened Negroes.

There is one thing that is guaranteed to happen in any discussion on real or imagined issue to do with race one or more respondents is going to play the Malcom, Marcus, Martin or Marley Card….sometimes even a Mahatma or Mandela might jump out.

[diabolical_Tanya]

Re: Malcolm X: The House Negro vs The Field Negro (Plus Sellouts

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">House Field and Stream Negroes vs. Field enlightened Negroes.</div></div>

I don't get that part

[Tropicana]

Re: Malcolm X: The House Negro vs The Field Negro (Plus Sellouts

It's not a matter of playing the Malcolm card. He explained this better than anyone. I certainly can't improve on his explanation. It is clear and succinct. That's probably the same reason people quote King, W.E.B. Dubois or Garvey. No point in trying to improve on what they have expressed so clearly and eloquently.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Malcolm X: The House Negro vs The Field Negro (Plus Sellouts

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Diabolical_Tanya</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">House Field and Stream Negroes vs. Field enlightened Negroes.</div></div>

I don't get that part

</div></div>
Field and Stream Magazine I am sure the House Negroes subscribe to it whilst the Enlightened Negroes are reading/quoting the words of the Ms.
A <span style="font-weight: bold">play</span> on words all-round!

<span style="font-style: italic">Full disclosure I once subscribed to Field and Stream.</span>

[Wahalla]

Re: Malcolm X: The House Negro vs The Field Negro (Plus Sellouts

<span style="font-weight: bold">Malcolm X was wrong on this is issue..historically and by any Hegilian analysis of Carribean History</span>

[Wahalla]

Re: House Negro vs Field Negro

Both were slaves.. one was in domestic service and the others did manual labour.. 90% of rebellions was led by so called house slaves.....