THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996 TAG: 9605130179
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY DIANE SCHARPER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
DIVIDED SISTERS
Bridging the Gap Between White Women and Black Women
MIDGE WILSON AND KATHY RUSSELL
Anchor Books. 340 pp. $23.95.
In 1974, supermodel Beverly Johnson became the first black woman to appear on the cover of Vogue. Yet in 1992, when Vogue published On the Edge: Images from 100 Years at Vogue, Johnson's photograph was conspicuous by its absence. The racism implied in this glaring omission went unnoticed for the most part. But it shocked Johnson, who called it a discredit to all African-American contributors to the fashion world.
It also shocked Midge Wilson and Kathy Russell, who include the incident in their latest book, Divided Sisters. As co-authors (with Ronald Hall) of The Color Complex, Wilson and Russell collaborated successfully and forged a deep friendship despite the fact that Wilson is white and Russell is black.
Both women live in Chicago. Russell is a poet, scriptwriter and former television producer. Wilson is a psychology professor at DePaul University. A Norfolk native, Wilson has degrees from the University of Virginia, Old Dominion University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Divided Sisters combines interviews, statistics and references to contemporary fiction and poetry to study numerous issues affecting black/white female relations. Those issues include interracial sex, adolescent and adult interracial friendships, feminist political agendas, homemaking, health and beauty practices of black and white women and racial stereotypes in the popular culture.
The point of the extensive research - the book has nearly 100 pages of notes - is to examine, and thereby lessen, the differences between African American women and white American women.
These differences include everything from sexual tensions to conflicting notions of beauty. Some differences are superficial, such as the matter of ear piercing. Black women have almost always pierced their ears, since this is a tribal custom, passed down from African foremothers. White women previously considered ear piercing a sign of lower social class. But whites now pierce their ears forgetting this custom goes back to their black sisters.
Other differences are substantive. Black women, for example, resent interracial marriages between black men and white women. White women, proud of their black husbands, believe that their interracial marriages prove their lack of prejudice. Interestingly, the racially mixed children from such marriages are society's best hope for bridging the gap between the races.
Additional concerns include the lack of opportunity for black women. Near the end of the 20th century, many more black women than white are unmarried mothers. Many more black women than white drop out of high school. Many more black women than white work as domestics.
Writer James Baldwin wrote of the differences between blacks and whites more than 30 years ago, insisting those differences be resolved or ``vengeance would be inevitable.'' If we, the most socially aware whites and blacks do not dare everything, he said, ``The fulfillment of that prophecy is upon us: `God gave Noah the rainbow sign. No more water, the fire next time.' ''
Russell and Wilson propose connection not vengeance. They address racial differences in a conciliatory way. Their friendship and collaboration say what all the statistics in the world cannot say: All women are indeed sisters under the skin.
Near the end of Divided Sisters, the authors refer to a conversation in Toni Morrison's novel Tar Baby. Occurring between Margaret and her black domestic servant, Ondine, it holds the hopes of Russell and Wilson and black/white sisters everywhere:
``Ondine? Let's be wonderful old ladies. You and me.''
``Huh,'' said Ondine, but she smiled a little.
``We're both childless now, Ondine. And we're both stuck here. We should be friends. It's not too late.''
Ondine looked out the window and did not answer.
``Is it too late, Ondine?''
``Almost,'' she said. ``Almost.'' MEMO: Diane Scharper is a poet who teaches memoir writing at Towson State
University in Maryland. Her second book of poems, ``Radiant,'' was
published in April. by CNB