Problems with Meridian Part 2

I am torn on my ideas on the portrayal of white women in Meridian, mainly because I feel that many of the accusations are earned. Obviously, my interactions with white women have occurred on strictly a 21^st century basis, so I am biased.

Meridian’s grandmother “held strong opinions which she expressed in this way: 1. She had never known a white woman she liked after the age of twelve. 2. White women were useless except as baby machines which would continue to produce little white people who would grow up to oppress her. 3. Without servants all of them would live in pigsties” (110). Upon reading this section I had agreed with this depiction of white women, remembering a similar sentiment in Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave.

Of Northup’s time as a slave, he spends a great percentage on the Epps plantation, owned by the ruthless drunkard Edwin Epps. Epps sexually assaulted another slave, Patsey, and Epp’s wife romanticized this assault as some sort of relationship. Jealous and cruel, she encourages her husband to torture Patsey, and looks for little ways to make her life miserable.

Obviously a very small minority owned slaves in the South, but of these slaveowning families I do not doubt that the wives hid behind their husbands (and therefore encouraged their actions with silence) or supported their abuse entirely.

White women during the Civil Rights Movement were often bigoted and racist, but Meridian’s character choice to display this frustrates me. Who is our main archetypal white woman of this novel? Lynne. Lynne who looks at black people as art (for now let’s ignore the fact that Truman belittles Meridian for her race (ex. “Have my beautiful black babies” (120))). What frustrates me about this romanticized and poetic description is the fact that Lynne is married to a black man for years, has a child with this man, and works alongside him for black rights. Lynne is raped in this novel, loses her only child, and is left over and over again so that Truman can use Meridian for her race. And yet she is the ditzy, clueless woman who looks at black people as art: “I will pay for this,” she often warned herself. “It is probably a sin to think of people as art” (136). If she actually viewed black people as art, would she be intelligent enough to be this introspective? And if someone suggests to me that this line is foreshadowing her ‘atoning for sins’ after her rape I will scream. But yet “I will pay for this” seems to suggest exactly that—Lynne ‘deserved’ the rape, she has paid for looking at people as art.

I realize it sounds ridiculous to vouch for the white woman during the Civil Rights movement, and I suppose part of my problem is that I’m hoping for some womanpower uprising. My problem is also not aided by the fact that I did not once feel for Truman’s character. He belittled and used Lynne just as he did Meridian (and yet did not forget to remind the readers they should feel bad for him, too!). I am thinking specifically of the time when Truman dismissed Meridian’s experiences when he describes the racism he faces: “’You women sure are lucky not to have to be up against’em all the time” (117). It is probably another fault of mine that I see the men of this novel as the villains (ex. Truman, Tommy Odds). I do not feel for the plight of Truman or Tommy Odds or Eddie in nearly the same way as I do for Meridian and Lynne.

So, I cut out the men as the villains, praise the women as the underappreciated heroes of the book. But then I am frustrated with both Meridian and Lynne come page 198, “’Besides,’ [Lynne] continued, ‘nobody’s perfect.’ ‘Except white women,’ said Meridian, and winked. ‘Yes,’ said Lynne, ‘but their time will come.’” Haha, yes, Meridian and Lynne, you have finally discovered the group that has not yet properly been fucked over by society! Everyone knows women have had it way too good for way too long. Yes, they are encouraged to marry young and stay at home to raise the kids so their husbands can shine, but they’ve had the right to vote for a solid 40 years now! Where do they get off getting away with so much?

If Lynne and Meridian had simply said white people, I would have been more empathetic, as it seems they are selecting white women specifically for their sex. What about white men? Aren’t they equally (if not more) to blame?

I suppose it is flawed to seek some sort of women-of-all-races-uniting in this book, as that is not how history worked (and is still not how society works now). But I feel that throughout the novel, white women had been showcased far more than white men, and I still have yet to feel any sort of sympathy for the main self-involved male character of the novel, Truman.