If cleanliness is next to godliness, what does that make the person who does the cleaning?
July 13th, 2007 Elliot
I’ve never understood why Gordon Parks’ “American Gothic” photo of a black cleaning woman in front of the American flag is supposed to be such a condemnation of the United States.
According to Wikipedia, the man who supervised Parks said, the photo was an indictment of America, and could get all of his photographers fired.
My grandmother was a cleaning woman for almost her entire life. She raised three children single-handedly while mopping floors and cleaning toilets in a hospital in Western New York.
Was that an indictment of America, too?
What about the fact that you couldn’t take this picture now because the only people willing to mop floors in America anymore are from Mexico?
Is that more of an indictment of America or less?
To me, the fact that this woman was met with racism outside of her job is something to condemn, but her willingness to work hard to meet her responsibilities is something to praise.
Entry Filed under: Observations
5 Comments Add your own
1. Something's wrong with mo&hellip | July 13th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
[...] Jul 13 2007, 08:31 PM Elliot Stearns wonders where the shame for America was in someone wielding a mop. His grandmother did it, after all (as did mine, [...]
2. Tim&hellip | July 14th, 2007 at 11:51 am
Just this woman working would not be an indictment of America. But if the only job available to black women at that time was a cleaning woman, that would be an indictment of America.
3. Administrator&hellip | July 14th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
The photographer was an African American, so I suppose janitor wasn’t the only career open to blacks at the time. ;)
4. Tim&hellip | July 14th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Actually, I was talking about black women, not all blacks. I was talking about the larger picture and the jobs that black women were expected to do at that point of history.
5. Snooping Around the Blogo&hellip | July 14th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
[...] “Is it an indictment of America?” is asked by From Where I Sit. [...]
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