Glenda Simms
PRESIDENT THOMAS Jefferson, one of the great forefathers of the United States of America and the late Senator Strom Thurmond are prime examples of men who used their power to force women to accept situations of sexual exploitation and psychological abuse as part of the legacy of female powerlessness and marginalisation.
Both of these men created a powerful connection between patriarchy, racism and the subjugation of poor women. In a real sense, both men are significant anchors in a syndrome of exploitation, which has resulted in generations of children who constantly must question their identity and their bloodlines.
It is interesting to note that it is on the level of the sexual that powerful men can scoff at their principles and their ideologies as if morality must be seen in spheres other than the sexual.
Interestingly, both Jefferson and Thurmond were involved with powerless women who were black but we need to understand that this syndrome is related not just to racism but to sexism and the intersection between class, race and gender.
It is this intersection between race, class and gender that helps in the illumination of the contradictions of the modern dilemmas in which both the white and the "not-so-white" descendants of Jefferson and Thurmond find themselves.
IRONIC SITUATION
According to the Jet Magazine edition of May 31, 1999, for the first time, the black descendants of Thomas Jefferson attended a family reunion at the Monticello Estate. The black and the "not-so-black" offspring of Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, his slave, were not always welcomed by their white relatives. The all-white side of the family blocked the vote that would give Hemming's offspring membership in the family's Monticello Association.
The irony of this situation lies in the fact that history records Jefferson as holding a strong belief that "all men are created equal". Against this ideological stance, he kept his children and his mulatto mistress, who was also his wife's half sister, as his slaves.
Jefferson, obviously, saw no contradiction in his lifestyle because on his terms "all men" were white and no woman, black or white, counted; and black men were definitely outside his frame of reference.
DETERMINED SILENCE
An article by Brian Staple in the December 26, 2003 edition of the New York Times, stated that Strom Thurmond's white descendants were as frantic as Jefferson's when they found out he fathered a daughter by a black maid who worked for his family during the 1920s.
This daughter, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, like many other offspring of powerful men, historically and contemporarily, had to deny her identity and in her particular case "met secretly with her father for more than 60 years".
In this process, she demonstrated a strong streak of 'determined silence' because she chose not to reveal her secret until after her father's death which came 100 years after his birth. Such determination ought to be noted especially since she was denied her ancestry in that she did not know her father until she was 16 years old. And for 50 years, Strom Thurmond denied her existence.
Of note also is the fact that her mother, Carrie Butler, was only 15 years old when she was impregnated by the 22-year-old Thurmond, the son of a powerful South Carolina white family a family which is considered "royalty" in the American social scene.
Carrie Butler must be recorded by history and by feminist thinkers as a courageous woman who made the decision to separate herself from her girl child in order to save her from the sexual abuse and exploitation of the "big man" in the "big house". For this reason, she sent her daughter north to live with relatives.
Ms. Butler is merely a past version of the contemporary maid who is forced by circumstances to continue to give sexual services to her employer because she sees this as a way out of poverty. Ms. Washington-Williams, in a recent interview, revealed that her mother continued a 16-year relationship with Strom Thurmond after her birth. She also revealed that she and her children received financial support from him even though he denied them identification with their biological roots.
THURMOND SYNDROME
Against the background of the racism that defined the social and economic reality of the United States of America, both Jefferson and Thurmond were primarily masters and owners of their slaves and servants while to their white women they were primarily fathers and lovers and secondarily owners. These relationships were carefully distinguished and maintained by the deliberate use of language. By the same token, in contemporary society language still differentiates between the powerful and the powerless, the master and slave, the Mrs. and the maid and the big man and his boopsy. Language cleverly keeps us in our place and languaging links, in an immediate way, the negative aspects of the past, the present, and the future if we do not intervene.
The Strom Thurmond syndrome is still with us.
So many women and children have had to live secret lives throughout history. Right now the story of the Jamaican woman is replete with instances of women who gave birth to children sired by powerful men but who either passed on paternity to their powerless husbands and boyfriends or kept the secret 'close to their bosom'.
For all kinds of reasons, women have a tendency to collude with their oppressors on the level of the sexual. Perhaps this collusion is about shame, economic marginalisation and powerlessness.
Ms. Butler, the Thurmond's maid, has much in common with the domestic workers who now reside in the big houses in different parts of the world. These workers are often very vulnerable to sexual harassment and abuse at the hands of their employers because of their high degree of subordination within their work environment. In some societies, they are further oppressed because of their status as foreign workers.
SEXUAL ABUSE
Women from low-income groups often accept sexual abuse as they cannot afford to lose the income needed for survival of their families. Oftentimes, for a domestic helper to resist the sexual advances of her employer she is risking her family to fall deeper into poverty and losing the only source of economic and personal freedom that she may have.
Haspels, et al in the 2001 ILO publication, Action Against Sexual Harassment at Work in Asia and the Pacific, describe some of the contemporary atrocities that female domestic workers have to endure across a wide spectrum of cultures and societies. In this study, the writers detailed a case of a 13-year-old Nepalese domestic helper, who migrated to Kathmandu and was not only subjected to sexual assault and harassment but also had boiling oil poured over her hand when she tried to take a stance against her employer.
In a similar vein, they recorded a case in Thailand which involved an ambassador who sexually assaulted three domestic helpers and a personal secretary and who was able to use diplomatic relations and immunities to prevent these women from getting justice.
Strom Thurmond is dead but his syndrome lives on. What we need to realise is that we must put a stop to the abuse of power at all levels of our society. The unacceptable actions of the powerful force a younger generation to question whether or not there is integrity and honour in those who govern and those who rule.
Dr. Glenda P. Simms is the executive director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs.
