Black Blues singer Ma Rainey: Oppressions of Intersectionality

DescriptionThesis: This paper will demonstrate how the interlocking system of intersectionality where racism, sexuality, and classism work to limit her liberation and freedom. Sometimes, classism works independently of sexism as Levee demonstrates in the film. He’s a young progressive Northern city slicker and Rainey is a Southern old, country hick. Another point is the racism and exploitation of white executives. And yet another point that should be made, by creating radical blues music and proclaiming her sexuality in songs like “Prove It On Me” and others, she demonstrates how black women practice liberation inside a culture bent on oppressing and confining them to negative restricting images and stereotypes. Black Rap artist and actress, Queen Latifah, as a black lesbian dealt with similar issues. PLEASE INCLUDE 2 COUNTERPOINTS. Ideas for counterpoints: capitalism and exploitation; polarization by black men; ostracization by the black community (blues music was taboo). During the 1920s being a lesbian was taboo.Please use these articles as references: 1. Patricia Hills Collins, Framing the Issues: Intersectionality and Critical Social Theory;2. Angela Y. Davis, I used to be Your Sweet Mama: Ideology, Sexuality, and Domesticity in Gertrude “Ma” Rainey and Bessie Smith’s Blues; 3. Hollywood Netflix film adaptation, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; 4. The Black Feminist Reader book by Joy James and T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting; 5. Audre Lorde, article Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining DifferenceThank you.