written by Professor Tracey; crossposted from Aunt Jemima's Revenge
I must confess to never understanding Rebecca Walker's appeal. Her work, particularly her autobiography, Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self, has always seemed to me to be only about herself, self-centered and self-pitying. She has always seemed to be confused and conflicted, vacillating between ideologies, races, politics, sexualities, and cultures.
And I could never shake the feeling that everything about Rebecca Walker was malleable, her entire being, capable of being shaped and twisted to fit whatever world view she was currently existing in. She never seemed to remain in any kind of consistent or comfortable state of grace, she always seemed to be jumping from one extreme to another.
From promiscuous to monogamous, from straight to gay to bi-sexual. Fiercely bi-racial with a definite comfortability with whiteness and a shaky and obvious fear of blackness, currently moving from third wave feminist founder to anti-feminist baby mama. Rebecca Walker has indeed had an interesting life, but I'm just not sure why the rest of the world needs to hear about her life or what we are supposed to gain from her very public confessions.
On May 23, 2008, Walker wrote a blistering, no-holds-barred opinion piece on her famous mother, author Alice Walker, entitled How My Mother's Fanatical Views Tore Us Apart. Walker methodically dismantles Alice Walker as a mother, a feminist, and as a human being. While I can understand Walker's anger, sadness, and bitterness toward her mother, I can't respect her airing her grievances in print and in public.
Walker is too well-educated, well-traveled, and experienced to believe that she was not just laying bare to Alice Walker, the author and feminist icon, she knew all too well that she was tossing black motherhood out there to the world as well. And in a society that still seems to know so little about black women as people, much less as mothers or daughters, her actions seem even more mean-spirited and short-sighted.
I have yet to meet a woman with a strong black mother that does not have some issues with their mother's actions, choices, and skills as a parent in regard to themselves. In my book, black motherhood is different, it's complicated by racism, sexism, hope, and fear. A black mother's fear for herself and her child in a society that is hostile to both of them. Rebecca Walker seems to have little empathy for the woman, her mother, who was publicly vilified for daring to openly express that black women might just have a different view of the world.
Alice Walker paid a very heavy price to create a open space where black women could embrace feminist ideals on their own terms. And maybe her dedication to her writings and her activism made her an inattentive and aloof mother. Rebecca Walker would not be the first child with a mother like that and she won't be the last. And not every child that had an absent parent has made the choices that Rebecca Walker has made in her life. She's grown woman now and she needs to own those decisions.When Rebecca Walker first appeared in the literary and feminist circles over fifteen years ago, I was always interested in why she chose to use her mother's last name. I never begrudged her using her mother's famous and thus more marketable last name, but I am extremely troubled by it now. It seems rather hypocritical and cowardly to bash your mother so publicly, yet continue to use her last name as your own.
If Rebecca Walker felt so loved and cared for by her father's new family, why isn't she using her father's last name? If Rebecca Walker has decided that her mother is such as monster, why isn't she using her male partner's last name? Why not make a completely clean break and change your last name completely, to something of your own choosing? Clearly Ms. Walker is not angry or bitter enough to stop using her mother's famous last name.
And for someone who has spent the majority of her writings examining her own life, I find it interesting that now as an adult and as a mother herself, Rebecca Walker has not learned to forgive. Maybe if she stopped focusing so strongly on how her mother failed her as child, she could gain some understanding, some compassion of her mother, black woman to black woman, black mother to black mother.
And I could never shake the feeling that everything about Rebecca Walker was malleable, her entire being, capable of being shaped and twisted to fit whatever world view she was currently existing in. She never seemed to remain in any kind of consistent or comfortable state of grace, she always seemed to be jumping from one extreme to another.
From promiscuous to monogamous, from straight to gay to bi-sexual. Fiercely bi-racial with a definite comfortability with whiteness and a shaky and obvious fear of blackness, currently moving from third wave feminist founder to anti-feminist baby mama. Rebecca Walker has indeed had an interesting life, but I'm just not sure why the rest of the world needs to hear about her life or what we are supposed to gain from her very public confessions.
On May 23, 2008, Walker wrote a blistering, no-holds-barred opinion piece on her famous mother, author Alice Walker, entitled How My Mother's Fanatical Views Tore Us Apart. Walker methodically dismantles Alice Walker as a mother, a feminist, and as a human being. While I can understand Walker's anger, sadness, and bitterness toward her mother, I can't respect her airing her grievances in print and in public.
Walker is too well-educated, well-traveled, and experienced to believe that she was not just laying bare to Alice Walker, the author and feminist icon, she knew all too well that she was tossing black motherhood out there to the world as well. And in a society that still seems to know so little about black women as people, much less as mothers or daughters, her actions seem even more mean-spirited and short-sighted.
I have yet to meet a woman with a strong black mother that does not have some issues with their mother's actions, choices, and skills as a parent in regard to themselves. In my book, black motherhood is different, it's complicated by racism, sexism, hope, and fear. A black mother's fear for herself and her child in a society that is hostile to both of them. Rebecca Walker seems to have little empathy for the woman, her mother, who was publicly vilified for daring to openly express that black women might just have a different view of the world.
Alice Walker paid a very heavy price to create a open space where black women could embrace feminist ideals on their own terms. And maybe her dedication to her writings and her activism made her an inattentive and aloof mother. Rebecca Walker would not be the first child with a mother like that and she won't be the last. And not every child that had an absent parent has made the choices that Rebecca Walker has made in her life. She's grown woman now and she needs to own those decisions.When Rebecca Walker first appeared in the literary and feminist circles over fifteen years ago, I was always interested in why she chose to use her mother's last name. I never begrudged her using her mother's famous and thus more marketable last name, but I am extremely troubled by it now. It seems rather hypocritical and cowardly to bash your mother so publicly, yet continue to use her last name as your own.
If Rebecca Walker felt so loved and cared for by her father's new family, why isn't she using her father's last name? If Rebecca Walker has decided that her mother is such as monster, why isn't she using her male partner's last name? Why not make a completely clean break and change your last name completely, to something of your own choosing? Clearly Ms. Walker is not angry or bitter enough to stop using her mother's famous last name.
And for someone who has spent the majority of her writings examining her own life, I find it interesting that now as an adult and as a mother herself, Rebecca Walker has not learned to forgive. Maybe if she stopped focusing so strongly on how her mother failed her as child, she could gain some understanding, some compassion of her mother, black woman to black woman, black mother to black mother.
Tami's note: Thanks for sharing this Tracey. It is clear that Rebecca Walker is hurt by the way Alice Walker mothered her. That's okay. She has a right to that. But there comes a time when most adults realize that mothers and fathers are human and do the best they can with what they know (most do anyway). Sometimes a parent's best is way short of what a child needs. But when a "child" passes 30-years-old, it's time to stop talking about it. It's time to own your own shit. Talk to your mother or don't. Try to make amends or don't. Stop using missed dance recitals and stern words as an excuse for your own shortcomings. I'm not talking about cases of abuse. That's different. But, as far as I know, Walker doesn't accuse her mother of abuse, just stridency, aloofness and disinterest in traditional mothering. Too much of Rebecca Walker's writing comes off as a pampered, privileged child wringing every last bit of sympathy, notoriety and fame from being the child of a seriously flawed celebrity parent. And I wonder where is Rebecca Walker's anger at her father, who at times left her in the care of the mother she deems unfit? I'm not defending Alice Walker. Just because someone is a womanist pioneer and a brilliant writer does not mean she is a good person. Neither Walker comes off looking good in all of this.
P.S. I wonder about the name thing, too. Rebecca Walker was born Rebecca Leventhal exactly two days before me in 1969 (Funny, that).
