Ain't I a Woman

"Ain't I a Woman is a speech by Sojourner Truth about how she is a woman but she is not being treated how women are supposed to be treated. She is not being treated fairly because she is a black woman. One of Emerson's theories is that everyone is significant. This was also a theme in the transcendentalism period(Quinn). This woman Sojourner Truth did not feel she was significant which is sad. She did everything that she was supposed to do in life including raising her children(Truth). She feels that she is just as equal as the white woman who are so important. This makes me think of the Titanic how the women and children were supposed to go first because they were the the makers and the future. I agree with that, but they let the rich women and children go first. That is completely unfair. I feel this is how blacks were treated as well. Sojourner Truth also says that she is just as equal as a man, she can eat as much as them and that she has plowed, farmed, and done all these activities that men have done, so why is she so insignificant? Another one of Emerson's theories is no discrimination. Discrimination was definitely occurring during the time that Sojourner Truth wrote this speech. At first everyone was definitely not equal because there was slavery. After that, people were technically equal, but there was extreme segregation. Separate but "equal" still is not equal. I wish that everyone could of lived by Emerson's theories because then maybe slavery, racism, discrimination, and other issues and history may of never been an issue. I have never understood the issue of racism, I really haven't. If people did not discriminate instances in history that were genocides could of maybe been prevented. Awful things such as the holocaust were millions of Jews and other minorities were mass murdered could of maybe never happened. However, a world with no discrimination and that everyone is significant and equal is never going to happen, maybe in a utopian society. There have been inequality since forever. It is an issue that I honestly do not think will ever be put to rest, which is sad.

Truth, Sojourner. "Ain't I a Woman?" 14 July 1998. Web. 14. Feb. 2012.

Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 14, 2012).