Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Professor Gordon
Black History II
March 8, 2017
Reading both Robin Kellys, We are Not What We Seem, and Shetterlys, Hidden
Figures, gave insight to Black Society during the early and mid twentieth century. Kellys
essay illustrates hidden movements within the black society, along with the treatment of
incivility within everyday life. In, Hidden Figures, white authority uses African American
women, and white women, to their advantage from WWII through the Cold War, which was
hidden from American society. Both contexts show segregation in everyday life, along with
In both reads, American society was ruled by the Jim Crow laws which allowed
segregation in a legal stand point. White society felt they were superior to blacks and would
do anything to make themselves feel dominate over them. In Shetterlys read, a vast amount
of workers at Langley were African American women, who were mathematicians. Chapter
one first indicates that executive order 8802 ordered the desegregation of the defense
industry. However, segregation was still very clear within the workplace.
Langley was divided into two separate wings; the east wing for the white workers and
the west wing for the black workers. Initially one could recognize the contradiction within the
executive order of desegregation simply due to the separation of wings. The repression was
also carried out to both the bathrooms and cafeteria which was an insult to the black workers
who have earned their position to the same extent as white workers. One of the characters in
the book started a form of resistance by removing the racial signs and stashing them in her
purse. However, despite her efforts the signs would always get replaced and her resistance
would either be counter-reacted or could possibly have her position taken away.
Other important aspects to examine when reading Shetterlys book are the
discrimination and hidden roles women in general played in these historical movements. Not
only were there intelligent black women in the workplace, but there were also white. The text
has multiple accounts of males being surprised that women in general had the ability to
calculate and generate mathematical abilities. These women workers were also degraded to
the level of girl computers purposely stripping the importance of a more dominate title,
Compared to Kellys essay, Shetterly gives insight to the black middle class lifestyle
of repression and resistance. In Kellys context, many of the employees were more labor
workers and the acts of repression focused more on transportation. The resistance in Kellys
text included: assembly in protected areas, stealing\strikes both in and out of the workplace
and transportation. Hidden Figures, has a different theatre, representing black individuals
thriving for middle-class success and have to resolve to more subtle forms of resistance, such
as stealing segregation signs. The individuals highlighted in Shetterlys text had to push
beyond the factor of being discriminated and segregated in order to serve the country, which
repressed them, and put a positive name for both black and women populations.
Worked Cited
Margot Lee Shetterly, Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the
Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race. New York: William
Morrow, 2016.
Opposition in the Jim Crow South, Journal of American History, Vol. 80, No. 1