Constructing Difference and Hierarchy: "The Body's Defenses Against Itself" and the Critique of Assimilation

The assimilation of people of color into the White middle class has been an important part of the thought of Black people since the 19th century. An early DuBois spoke of a "talented tenth" that would be allowed by more egalitarian structures to achieve economic success and distribute it to the rest of the community. He would later sour on this view and emphasize how capitalism required the exploitation of Black people to function. Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) would pursue a similar line of reasoning in light of affirmative action programs championed by the Johnson administration during the 1960s, claiming that they only allowed some Black people to "make it" in order to buttress systems of racial segregation and domination.

"The Body's Defenses Against Itself" makes a similar point, demonstrating how in order to establish themselves in the White middle class, Black people must mold other members of their community into "untamed" others, thus justifying their position in society. The story begins in a yoga class, traditionally a sphere of middle-class White women. Our main character, Fatima, of a Black middle-class background, notes how she wears "short briefs and a sports bra," a "typical uniform" for the women in the class. She contrasts this outfit with the unorthodox "bagginess" of the clothes and body of a Black woman who has recently joined the class. In particular, she is explicitly disturbed by how "this new Black woman" isn't "uncomfortable" (Thompson-Spires 48). She worries that she will be unable to sufficiently "other" this woman and establish her own belonging in the process.

What follows next in the story are flashbacks to Fatima's experience in middle school, when she and the only other Black girl in her class, Christinia, both sought to gain the approval of their White peers by drawing attention to each others' bodily imperfections.  Christinia mocks Fatima's tendency to excessively sweat by turning her nose at her and labeling her "Sweatima" (Thompson-Spires 49). Fatima responds by consciously "flaunting [her] thinness" over Christinia's "tendency toward chubby" (Thompson-Spire 51). In particular, Fatima notes the commonalities among them. Both of them are intelligent and have mothers who are doctors, members of the Black middle class. Fatima notes how Christinia's abuse is "interspersed with kindness" (Thompson-Spires 50). Christinia helps Fatima remove a splinter from her hand with a tweezer and later sits with her regularly in high school. Through this detail, we can see that their tendency to ostracize the other only appears in public, an attempt to fit in with White middle-class society.

 

In both scenes, female Black characters attempt to otherize others on the basis of them being unable to control and mold their bodies according to norms. This is an idea with very old roots. Southern slave-holding society justified the physical and sexual exploitation of Black people by arguing that they were unable to control their bodies. Sources described them as "clumsy, gross, [and] sensual" (White 33). The brutal practices of slavery, whippings that amounted to torture, were justified on the basis that female slaves were unable to control themselves without the language of violence. When masters forced themselves on their slaves, they were held blameless and believed to have been manipulated by the natural promiscuity of Black women (White 38). Thus, from this historical context, we can observe the basis behind these attempts to otherize other Black women based on their bodily imperfections. Since such narratives were used to justify racial hierarchies, by distinguishing themselves from other Black women in such a manner, the characters in "The Body's Defenses Against Itself" seek to position themselves as the exception to such systems. Yet in the process, they reinforce the idea that racial hierarchies are justified for other people of color by labeling them unable to perfect their bodies.

 As we near the end of the narrative, Fatima repeatedly tries to discipline her body and contrast herself with the other Black woman in the class by trying to exhibit as much grace as possible in her yoga postures. Fatima feels threatened by the other Black woman's "effortless" Warrior Three pose, and she notes how she feels "more competitive than usual" (Thompson Spires 55, 56). Ultimately, Fatima decides to "challenge" the other Black woman by attempting a forearm stand, crashing to the ground in the process and getting a concussion. This scene clearly illustrates the destructive anxiety that follows from people of color trying to prove their worth in White, middle-class society. What's also notable is the suddenness of the chaos. Fatima describes how "the fall is so sudden that [her] body and brain disagree about the directions" (Thompson-Spires 57). The other women in the class, predominantly White, do not notice the struggles Fatima faces until they violently erupt throughout the injury even though they've participated in a culture that has indirectly created them. "The Body's Defenses Against Itself" not only powerfully explicates the persistence of racist structures in an ostensibly race-blind post-civil-rights era but illustrates how the slow violence of such systems can manifest suddenly and dramatically in the eyes of the general public.

Works Cited

Thompson-Spires Nafissa. Heads of the Colored People. Chatto & Windus 2018.

White Deborah G. Ar'n't I a Woman? : Female Slaves in the Plantation South. Rev. ed. W.W. Norton 1999.