Beyond Ecological Democracy: Black Feminist Thought and the Matrix of Paule Marshall’s Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959)

Abstract

On August 20, 2019 during a seminar organized by Australian National University, Tim Hollo, an environmentalist, political strategist, the Executive Director of the Green Institute and the founder of Green Music Australia, delivered a groundbreaking address titled, “Towards Ecological Democracy – A Political Theory For The 21st Century”. During that address Hollo defined the concept of ecological democracy emphasizing upon the mutual dependence of human beings and negating the segregating and isolating policies of the capitalist societies which lead to the loneliness of modern man. According to Hollo’s model of ecological democracy, a self-centered approach based upon personal interests takes one to nowhere rather the practice of inter-dependence gives rise to the collective uplift of human society. Keeping in view Holo’s propositions of ecological democracy, this study analyzes socio-cultural and political environment of Paule Marshall’s celebrated novel Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959). It is the story of an African-American girl named Selina Boyce. Selina’s mother wants to settle in Brooklyn and buy a house, but her father wants to return to his homeland and eventually she ends up returning to Barbados. This Qualitative research, through the dialogues and incidents of the selected novel, highlights the earnest need of ecological democracy in the selected text. The matrix of the novel reflects its inclination towards Black Feminist Thought which has been described by Patricia Hill Collins that in the US society, the psychological make-up of a black woman and her definition of selfhood is greatly influenced by her socio-cultural experiences. Black Feminist Thought is grounded in black women’s historical involvement in enslavement, segregation, sexual politics, capitalism, and patriarchy. The research on the domination and segregation faced by Selina and her mother is conducted to establish the notion that in spite of the double burden of ethnic and sexual discrimination, African-American women have developed rich scholarly practices and customs that are not widely known. The essential task of this paper is to reinforce the notion that in order to make an all-inclusive community, we need to build participatory democratic processes and institutions allowing women of all race, creed and color to add their individual and unique perspective to the mainstream social mechanisms.