"Cora Unashamed" by Langston Hughes
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Consider what opinion Langston Hughes has about the following topics:
- Miscegnation (mixing of races particularly referring to marriage, living together, and sexual intercourse)
- Gender Roles & Motherhood
- Social Norms (Standards, Societal Pressure, & Expectations)
- Hardships & Injustices
Make 3 comments on this short story that analyze the text and the author's overall message. Remember, the characters represent larger society, so focus on how Hughes feels about society instead of focusing solely on the characters themselves.
Melton was one of those miserable in-between little places, not large enough to be a town, nor small enough to be a village -- that is, a village in the rural, charming sense of the world. Melton had no charm about it. It was merely a nondescript collection of houses and buildings in a region of farms -- one of those sad American places with sidewalks, but no paved streets; electric lights, but no sewage; a station, but no trains that stopped, save a jerky local, morning and evening. And it was 150 miles from any city at all -- even Sioux City.
Cora Jenkins was one of the least of the citizens of Melton. She was what the people referred to when they wanted to be polite, as a Negress, and when they wanted to be rude, as a nigger -- sometimes adding the word "wench" for no good reason, for Cora was usually an inoffensive soul, except that she sometimes cussed.
When people are wanting to be polite, they call Cora a “Negress”, which is already, to me, has a negative connotation to it. Negro and Negress, however, of course, there is no Blanchess or Whitess or anything of that nature. And When they want to be rude, it is the harsh cold slur, “Nigger”. But, to me, what’s really the difference? It is still putting a wall between white and black.
Make sure to avoid asking questions, instead of making clear, strong statements. Your personal interpretation and feelings are important, but for this assignment, we want to focus more on what the author proposes throughout the text. However, I don’t know what the connotation/distinction of those words during that time period. It’s something I will have to research further.
This refers to social norms and more specifically, standards. Here, society treats Cora based off the color of her skin and not by her character when they call her those names. Even though to them, they may use different names when they would want to be polite, versus when they’d want to be rude, overall either name is still rude and demeaning. Hughes believes that African Americans are calling them racial slurs regardless of who they actually are and just judge them based off what they look like.
She had been in Melton for forty years. Born there. Would die there probably. She worked for the Studevants, who treated her like a dog. She stood it. Had to stand it; or work for poorer white folks who would treat her worse; or go jobless. Cora was like a tree -- once rooted, she stood, in spite of storms and strife, wind, and rocks, in the earth.
Cora’s actions in this line represent how African Americans in society back then and also sometimes now have to settle for deplorable treatment due to the institutionalized obstacles placed for black people. They accept these conditions themselves sometimes too just to make ends meet.
What do you think Hughes is saying about the character of both White and Black people? Consider how the Studevants treated Cora versus how Hughes describes her.
In this line Hughes is not only using this simile to show how society treated African American like they were animals but how even today people who work in the service industry are sometimes forced to serve people who treat them in a similar manner. Both groups of people do this under the basis that it is the persons job to do this and it what they are getting payed for.
We see the work that Cora does for the Studevants, but what does this treatment say about them? The focus is not only what Black people endure, but also reflects on the people who oppress them.
In this sentence Hugh’ s uses figurative language (simile)to compare the mentality of Cora to the actions of a tree. Despite it appearing as if everything and everyone was against her Cora was forced to submit and persist with following orders and doing as she is told. Trees do the same of enduring what comes their way. The point Hugh’s is trying to get across is that we all act in survival mode and anything that could interfere with mans/womans need to survive is almost immediately stripped away. Cora acting in this same manner is a tell tale sign of her internal strength and human nature.
A tree not only withstands hardships, but it continues to grow, blossom, and flourish in spite of it all. It provides what we need (shade, oxygen, fruit, etc.) without us paying it much attention or giving back to it in any way.
She was the Studevants' maid of all work -- washing, ironing, cooking, scrubbing, taking care of kids, nursing old folks, making fires, carrying water.
Here Hughes is listing all the things Cora is said to do but it does not apply to just her. Seeing as this was written during the 1930s women were most likely subject to doing house work such as cleaning and cooking. Hughes is emphasizing the fact that Cora, a black women, has to do all this on her own and she can not choose to not complete these tasks without there being consequences. If a white woman were to do her own housework she most likely has more liberty in choosing when to do what.
Middle class white women could go into the workforce at this time, though jobs for women (especially married women) were limited. However, wealthy wives were expected to stay at home and raise the children. The wealth of the Studevants allows Mrs. Studevant the luxury of having Cora do all of her household chores, but notice that Cora also takes the responsibility of caregiver for children and the elderly. A person arguably needs support most at the beginning and end of their lives, and it is Black women who are filling this role for White families instead of their White mothers.
Cora, bake three cakes for Mary's birthday tomorrow night. You Cora, give Rover a bath in that tar soap I bought. Cora, take Ma some jello, and don't let her have even a taste of that raisin pie. She'll keep us up all night if you do. Cora, iron my stockings. Cora, come here... Cora, put... Cora... Cora... Cora! Cora!
Cora in this paragraph is being constantly pushed around and ordered to do a lot of different tasks. Back in these days,
African American women like Cora, wouldn’t have a choice of not doing a task. It was like she a machine, where the people ordering her to do work would just tell it to her and expect her to do it immediately. In this line, the author repeats her name multiple times to put emphasis on how women like Cora wouldn’t have a break when it came to doing household chores.
And Cora would answer, "Yes, m'am."
The Studevants thought they owned her, and they were perfectly right: they did. There was something about the teeth in the trap of economic circumstance that kept her in their power practically all her life -- in the Studevant kitchen, cooking; in the Studevant parlor, sweeping; in the Studevant backyard, hanging clothes.
Here Hughes compares America’s economy to a trap, one targeted towards black people. He’s criticizing how easy it is for black people to be placed into economic despair due to conditions in place before they were born that are out of their control.
The current economic circumstances that Cora and her family were in was described as being a “trap”. The authors use of this word was purposeful in its intent due to the negative connotation this word carries. This word is typically linked to deceptive traits and being tricked when you are in a state of cluelessness or naivete. I find that the author views that when faced with economic hardship people (primarily blacks) are willing to do whatever to keep their heads above water despite the consequences that follow, allowing them to be controlled and led into subjugation.
You want to know how that could be? How a trap could close so tightly? Here is the outline:
Cora was the oldest of a family of eight children -- the Jenkins niggers. The only Negroes in Melton, thank God! Where they came from originally -- that is, the old folks -- God knows. The kids were born there. The old folks are still there now: Pa drives a junk wagon. The old woman ails around the house, ails and quarrels. Seven kids are gone. Only Cora remains. Cora simply couldn't go, with nobody else to help take care of Ma. And before that she couldn't go, with nobody to see her brothers and sisters through school (she the oldest, and Ma ailing). And before that -- well, somebody had to help Ma look after one baby behind another that kept on coming.
I think, what Hughes was doing with this whole sentence, is showing how much an older sibling breaks their backs for the younger ones. How much responsibility one bares, and if any younger sibling is doing better, the comparison. Cora believes it is her duty to take care of her parents, as the eldest. And it’s quite sad.
As a child Cora had no playtime. She always had a little brother, or a little sister in her arms. Bad, crying, bratty babies, hungry and mean. In the eighth grade she quit school and went to work with the Studevants.
Cora didn’t have a chance at having a normal childhood. She didn’t get the chance to just go to school and come home and play or relax, she had to take care of her family at a very young age. Many women like Cora, had to grow up very quickly since they didn’t have the chance at having wealthy parents who could afford to have someone helping around the house. Girls like Cora, ended up having to drop out of school because school wasn’t a priority anymore since the parents would need help in finances. Cora may have made this decision by herself, but more often than not, it usually isn’t purely by choice, but of force.
After that, she ate better. Half day's work at first, helping Ma at home the rest of the time. Then full days, bringing home her pay to feed her father's children. The old man was rather a drunkard. What little money he made from closet-cleaning, ash-hauling, and junk-dealing he spent mostly on the stuff that makes you forget you have eight kids.
Hughes is most likely showing how some parents crack under the pressures that come with maintaining a family and prefer to try and forget about their situation instead of trying to better it. Cora’s father is in a way a foil to Cora in that she uses the majority of her time and money to help her siblings while her father uses his money for himself. Hughes also shows in this line how that type of parenting or lack there of causes children to resentment their parents.
He passed the evenings telling long, comical lies to the white riff-raff of the town, and drinking licker. When his horse died, Cora's money went for a new one to haul her Pa and his rickety wagon around. When the mortgage money came due, Cora's wages kept the man from taking the roof from over their heads. When Pa got in jail, Cora borrowed ten dollars from Mrs. Studevant and got him out.
Cora stinted, and Cora saved, and wore the Studevants' old clothes, and ate the Studevants' leftover food, and brought her pay home. Brothers and sisters grew up. The boys, lonesome, went away, as far as they could from Melton. One by one, the girls left too, mostly in disgrace. "Ruinin' ma name," Pa Jenkins said, "Ruinin' ma good name! They can't go out berryin' but what they come back in disgrace." There was something about the cream-and-tan Jenkins girls that attracted the white farm hands.
Even Cora, the humble, had a lover once. He came to town on a freight train (long ago now), and worked at the livery-stable. (That was before autos got to be so common.) Everybody said he was an I.W.W. Cora didn't care. He was the first man and the last she ever remembered wanting. She had never known a colored lover. There weren't any around. That was not her fault.
“Industrial Workers of the World” Look them up to see why this would have been a problem during this time. You’ll also want to look up the Red Scare.
To fully analyze a piece of literature, you’ll need to have a deep understanding on the period they’re writing in as well as know something about the author. However, if you’re simply reading a text, at least look up words you don’t know for a quick synopsis.
This white boy, Joe, he always smelt like the horses. He was some kind of foreigner. Had an accent, and yellow hair, big hands, and grey eyes.
It was summer. A few blocks beyond the Studevants' house, meadows and orchards and sweet fields stretched away to the far horizon. At night, stars in the velvet sky. Moon sometimes. Crickets and katydids and lightning bugs. The scent of grass. Cora waiting. That boy, Joe, a cigarette spark far off, whistling in the dark. Love didn't take long -- Cora with the scent of the Studevants' supper about her, and a cheap perfume. Joe, big and strong and careless as the horses he took care of, smelling like the stable.
Ma would quarrel because Cora came home late, or because none of the kids had written for three or four weeks, or because Pa was drunk again. Thus the summer passed, a dream of big hands and grey eyes.
Cora didn't go anywhere to have her child. Nor tried to hide it. When the baby grew big within her, she didn't feel that it was a disgrace. The Studevants told her to go home and stay there. Joe left town. Pa cussed. Ma cried. One April morning the kid was born. She had grey eyes, and Cora called her Josephine, after Joe.
I think the most baffling but unsurprising thing in this whole story is how Joe just left. It was obvious he wasn’t going to stay, he was white, she was black. But still, when reading this in person, it’s baffling how Cora was okay with it. Though, she had her baby, and she was very happy because it gave her a bigger purpose in life. To finally have something to be happy about. And when thinking how Josephine dies, it’s like Cora’s happiness died as well. Like Black people just can’t be happy. Sorry for the tangent!
Cora had the confidence to proudly show of what she thought to herself was a great moment in her life. No matter what others said or did she remained content with the idea that she was having a child. I think Hughes message here is that if one feels comfortable with something there is no need to feel a burden of guilt inside yourself. Overcoming hardships should be handled in a well mannered way, instead of fighting back or retaliating. If everything were handled this way, societal pressures would not deeply or cruelly affect an individual.
Cora was humble and shameless before the fact of the child. There were no Negroes in Melton to gossip, and she didn't care what the white people said. They were in another world. Of course, she hadn't expected to marry Joe, or keep him. He was of that other world, too. But the child was hers -- a living bridge between two worlds. Let people talk.
Hughes views interacial marriges as a good thing within society and compares it to a bridge to possibly mean that intergrating and mixing races regardless of how its done could help connect different opions and views/worlds.
In a literal sense this child was a 50/50 mixture of two races whom upon birth possesses an automatic link to both races,cultures, and the stereotypes that come with it. I believe that Hugh’s holds no issue with the idea of interracial relationships in our society. The idea of a “bridge” insists that there is a way of connecting the two almost seemingly opposite worlds that at that time period would never have the ability to come together on their own naturally.
Cora couldn’t care less if Joe was white, there was no such boundary for her, except for the fact that they were never going to be able to get married so she immediately rejected that idea because they were simply from two different worlds. But through her baby, I believe that she saw her as a true blessing because she represented a connection between two worlds and it was all hers to cherish and keep.
Cora went back to work at the Studevants' -- coming home at night to nurse her kid, and quarrel with Ma. About that time, Mrs. Art Studevant had a child, too, and Cora nursed it. The Studevants' little girl was named Jessie. As the two children began to walk and talk, Cora sometimes brought Josephine to play with Jessie -- until the Studevants objected, saying she could get her work done better if she left her child at home.
"Yes, m'am," said Cora.
But in a little while they didn't need to tell Cora to leave her child at home, for Josephine died of whooping-cough. One rosy afternoon, Cora saw the little body go down into the ground in a white casket that cost four weeks' wages.
Since Ma was ailing, Pa, smelling of licker, stood with her at the grave. The two of them alone. Cora was not humble before the fact of death. As she turned away from the hole, tears came -- but at the same time a stream of curses so violent that they made the grave-tenders look up in startled horror.
She cussed out God for taking away the life that she herself had given. She screamed, "My baby! God damn it! My baby! I bear her and you take her away!" She looked at the sky where the sun was setting and yelled in defiance. Pa was amazed and scared. He pulled her up on his rickety wagon and drove off, clattering down the road between green fields and sweet meadows that stretched away to the far horizon. All through the ugly town Cora wept and cursed, using all the bad words she had learned from Pa in his drunkenness.
The next week she went back to the Studevants. She was gentle and humble in the face of death -- she loved their baby. In the afternoons on the back porch, she would pick little Jessie up and rock her to sleep, burying her dark face in the milky smell of the white child's hair.
- - PART II - -
The years passed. Pa and Ma Jenkins only dried up a little. Old Man Studevant died. The old lady had two strokes. Mrs. Art Studevant and her husband began to look their age, greying hair and sagging stomachs. The children were grown, or nearly so. Keneth took over the management of the hardware store that Grandpa had left. Jack went off to college. Mary was a teacher. Only Jessie remained a child - - her last year in high-school. Jessie, nineteen now, and rather slow in her studies, graduating at last. In the Fall she would go to Normal.
Cora hated to think about her going away. In her heart she had adopted Jessie. In that big and careless household it was always Cora who stood like a calm and sheltering tree for Jessie to run to in her troubles. As a child, when Mrs. Art spanked her, as soon as she could, the tears still streaming, Jessie would find her way to the kitchen and Cora. At each school term's end, when Jessie had usually failed in some of her subjects (she quite often failed, being a dull child), it was Cora who saw the report-card first with the bad marks on it. Then Cora would devise some way of breaking the news gently to the old folks.
Her mother was always a little ashamed of stupid Jessie, for Mrs. Art was the civic and social leader of Melton, president of the Woman's Club three years straight, and one of the pillars of her church. Mary, the elder, the teacher, would follow with dignity in her footsteps, but Jessie! That child! Spankings in her youth, and scoldings now, did nothing to Jessie's inner being. She remained a plump, dull, freckled girl, placid and strange. Everybody found fault with her but Cora.
In this paragraph, Hughes uses Jessie’s situation with her parents to show how many parents worry more about a child performance in math, science, or literature then in other creative forms like the arts. Hughes shows how our society values those three subjects more and often looks down on those who excel in subjects like cooking or the arts refusing to see the jobs for how important they are. he is trying to show that there is more to a person than just those few subjects.
Frustration and lack of belief in the american middle class dream, Jessie isn’t living up to the aspirations for her parents. She gets terrible grades in school, which makes her parents lose hope she’ll ever make it in life. Jessie was spanked and scolded and it lowered her self-esteem. Since she’s lost all faith from her parents, the only option she has left is Cora. Someone who has faith in Jessie. In terms of society, I think parents tend to have expectations that are just too high for their child to reach. Not only that but some kids just don’t do good in school. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t capable to do good in life. I believe Hughes brings the topic of relationship towards the family as an aspect to appeal to certain audience that could possibly relate.
What message is he he sharing with the audience? How are we supposed to feel about parents like the Studevants? Why are they so disappointed with Jessie?
In the kitchen Jessie bloomed. She laughed. She talked. She was sometimes even witty. And she learned to cook wonderfully. With Cora, everything seemed so simple -- not hard and involved like algebra, or Latin grammar, or the civic problems of Mama's club, or the sermons at church. Nowhere in Melton, nor with anyone, did Jessie feel so comfortable as with Cora in the kitchen. She knew her mother looked down on her as a stupid girl. And with her father there was no bond. He was always too busy buying and selling to bother with the kids. And often he was off in the city. Old doddering Grandma made Jessie sleepy and sick. Cousin Nora (mother's cousin) was as stiff and prim as a minister's daughter. And Jessie's older brothers and sisters went their ways, seeing Jessie hardly at all, except at the big table at mealtimes.
Like all the unpleasant things in the house, Jessie was left to Cora. And Cora was happy. To have a child to raise, a child the same age as her Josephine would have been, gave her a purpose in life, a warmth inside herself. It was Cora who nursed and mothered and petted and loved the dull little Jessie through the years. And now Jessie was a young woman, graduating (late) from high-school.
More specifically, in this case, a Black mother. As seen here, Jessie’s mother barely makes time for her daughter and even calls her a “stupid” child. But unlike Cora, since she had lost her baby, she deeply loves Jessie as her own daughter despite the fact that she’s from “a different world”. I’m thinking that maybe what Hughes was trying to say was that a Black women who has been a mother will always have a motherly love for someone even if they are a different race because they are appreciative of the small things (since they have little advantage in life). While on the other hand, Jessie’s mom, a white women, has everything she could want in the world so she doesn’t give much of importance to her daughter (but Cora sees her as her WORLD).
But something had happened to Jessie. Cora knew it before Mrs. Art did. Jessie was not too stupid to have a boy-friend. She told Cora about it like a mother. She was afraid to tell Mrs. Art. Afraid! Afraid! Afraid!
Cora said, "I'll tell her." So, humble and unashamed about life, one afternoon she marched into Mrs. Art's sun-porch and announced quite simply, "Jessie's going to have a baby."
Cora smiled, but Mrs. Art stiffened like a bolt. Her mouth went dry. She rose like a soldier. Sat down. Rose again. Walked straight toward the door, turned around, and whispered, "What?"
"Yes, m'am, a baby. She told me. A little child. Its father is Willie Matsoulos, whose folks runs the ice-cream stand on Main. She told me. They want to get married, but Willie ain't here now. He don't know yet about the child."
Cora would have gone on humbly and shamelessly talking about the little unborn had not Mrs. Art fallen into uncontrollable hysterics. Cousin Nora came running from the library, her glasses on a chain. Old Lady Studevant's wheel-chair rolled up, doddering and shaking with excitement. Jessie came, when called, red and sweating, but had to go out, for when her mother looked up from the couch and saw her she yelled louder than ever. There was a rush for camphor bottles and water and ice. Crying and praying followed all over the house. Scandalization! Oh, my Lord! Jessie was in trouble.
"She ain't in trouble neither," Cora insisted. "No trouble having a baby you want. I had one."
"Shut up, Cora!"
"Yes, m'am. . . . But I had one."
"Hush, I tell you."
"Yes, m'am."
- - PART III - -
Then it was that Cora began to be shut out. Jessie was confined to her room. That afternoon, when Miss Mary came home from school, the four white women got together behind closed doors in Mrs. Art's bedroom. For once Cora cooked supper in the kitchen without being bothered by an interfering voice. Mr. Studevant was away in Des Moines. Somehow Cora wished he was home. Big and gruff as he was, he had more sense than the women. He'd probably make a shot-gun wedding out of it. But left to Mrs. Art, Jessie would never marry the Greek boy at all. This Cora knew. No man had been found yet good enough for sister Mary to mate with. Mrs. Art had ambitions which didn't include the likes of Greek ice-cream makers' sons.
Jessie was crying when Cora brought her supper up. The black woman sat down on the bed and lifted the white girl's head in her dark hands. "Don't you mind, honey," Cora said. "Just sit tight, and when the boy comes back I'll tell him how things are. If he loves you he'll marry you. And there ain't no reason why you can't marry, neither -- you both white. Even if he is a foreigner, he's a right nice boy."
"He loves me," Jessie said. "I know he does. He said so."
But before the boy came back (or Mr. Studevant either) Mrs. Art and Jessie went to Kansas City. "For an Easter shopping trip," the weekly paper said.
Then Spring came in full bloom, and the fields and orchards at the edge of Melton stretched green and beautiful to the far horizon. Cora remembered her own Spring, twenty years ago, and a great sympathy and pain welled up in her heart for Jessie, who was the same age that Josephine would have been, had she lived. Sitting on the kitchen porch shelling peas, Cora thought back over her own life -- years and years of working for the Studevants; years and years of going home to nobody but Ma and Pa; little Josephine dead; only Jessie to keep her heart warm. And she knew that Jessie was the dearest thing she had in the world. All the time the girl was gone now, she worried.
After ten days, Mrs. Art and her daughter came back. But Jessie was thinner and paler than she'd ever been in her life. There was no light in her eyes at all. Mrs. Art looked a little scared as they got off the train.
"She had an awful attack of indigestion in Kansas City," she told the neighbors and club women. "That's why I stayed away so long, waiting for her to be able to travel. Poor Jessie! She looks healthy, but she's never been a strong child. She's one of the worries of my life." Mrs. Art talked a lot, explained a lot, about how Jessie had eaten the wrong things in Kansas City.
At home, Jessie went to bed. She wouldn't eat. When Cora brought her food up, she whispered, "The baby's gone."
Cora's face went dark. She bit her lips to keep from cursing. She put her arms about Jessie's neck. The girl cried. Her food went untouched.
A week passed. They tried to make Jessie eat then. But the food wouldn't stay on her stomach. Her eyes grew yellow, her tongue white, her heart acted crazy. They called in old Doctor Brown, but within a month (as quick as that) Jessie died.
She never saw the Greek boy any more. Indeed, his father lost his license, "due to several complaints by the mothers of children, backed by the Woman's Club," that he was selling tainted ice-cream. Mrs. Art Studevant had started a campaign to rid the town of objectionable tradespeople and questionable characters. Greeks were bound to be one or the other. For a while they even closed up Pa Jenkins' favorite bootlegger. Mrs. Studevant thought this would please Cora, but Cora only said, "Pa's been drinkin' so long he just as well keep on." She refused further to remark on her employer's campaign of purity. In the midst of this clean-up Jessie died.
On the day of the funeral, the house was stacked with flowers. (They held the funderal, not at the church, but at home, on account of old Grandma Studevant's infirmities.) All the family dressed in deep mourning. Mrs. Art was prostrate. As the house for the services approached, she revived, however, and ate an omelette, "to help me go through the afternoon."
"And Cora," she said, "cook me a little piece of ham with it. I feel so weak."
"Yes, m'am."
The senior class from the high-school came in a body. The Woman's Club came with their badges. The Reverend Doctor McElroy had on his highest collar and longest coat. The choir sat behind the coffin, with a special soloist to sing "He Feedeth His Flocks Like a Shepherd." It was a beautiful spring afternoon, and a beautiful funeral.
Except that Cora was there. Of course, her presence created no comment (she was the family servant), but it was what she did, and how she did it, that has remained the talk of Melton to this day -- for Cora was not humble in the face of death.
When the Reverend Doctor McElroy had finished his eulogy, and the senior class had read their memorials, and the songs had been sung, and they were about to allow the relatives and friends to pass around for one last look at Jessie Studevant, Cora got up from her seat by the dining-room door. She said, "Honey, I want to say something." She spoke as if she were addressing Jessie. She approached the coffin and held out her brown hands over the girl's body. Her face moved in agitation. People sat stone-still and there was a long pause. Suddenly she screamed. "They killed you! And for nothin'... They killed your child... They took you away from here in the Springtime of your life, and now you'se gone, gone, gone!"
Folks were paralyzed in their seats.
Cora went on: "They preaches you a pretty sermon and they don't say nothin'. They sings you a song, and they don't say nothin'. But Cora's here, honey, and she's gone tell 'em what they done to you. She's gonna tell 'em why they took you to Kansas City."
A loud scream rent the air. Mrs. Art fell back in her chair, stiff as a board. Cousin Nora and sister Mary sat like stones. The men of the family rushed forward to grab Cora. They stumbled over wreaths and garlands. Before they could reach her, Cora pointed her long fingers at the women in black and said, "They killed you, honey. They killed you and your child. I told 'em you loved it, but they didn't care. They killed it before it was... "
Langston Hughes here, uses Mrs. Art as a reference to how society correlates relationships with social status. Since Mrs. Art’s family were made of high class people with lots of leadership roles, she felt furious that her daughter was having a baby whose father’s family owned a small business. They prefer social status over love. This is implicating that some families of higher class discriminate against anyone in a lower class and would only accept those who are like them, where it would be beneficial for both sides, even if the couple weren’t actually in love with each other.
A strong hand went around Cora's waist. Another grabbed her arm. The Studevant males half pulled, half pushed her through the aisles of folding chairs, through the crowded dining-room, out into the empty kitchen, through the screen door into the backyard. She struggled against them all the way, accusing their women. At the door she sobbed, great tears coming for the love of Jessie.
She sat down on a wash-bench in the backyard, crying. In the parlor she could hear the choir singing weakly. In a few moments she gathered herself together, and went back into the house. Slowly, she picked up her few belongings from the kitchen and pantry, her aprons and her umbrella, and went off down the alley, home to Ma. Cora never came back to work for the Studevants.
It does not matter what your physical appearance is. You can have an amicable connection and interaction with others regardless. That is what Hughes is saying. This bond resembles that of motherhood. A safe space is built amongst two individuals that can help in the long run to overcome any hardships.
Now she and Ma live from the little garden they raise, and from the junk Pa collects -- when they can take by main force a part of his meager earnings before he buys his licker.
Anyhow, on the edge of Melton, the Jenkins niggers, Pa and Ma and Cora, somehow manage to get along.
-- From The Ways of White Folks, originally published in 1933, Vintage Classics Edition, 1990.
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