| By far the most severe oppression that the | | | | running their cattle on reservation land for |
| women faced comes from the dominant culture. | | | | a mere pittance, by using [Indians] as |
| This oppression is shown in numerous ways, | | | | colorful props to attract the Eastern |
| such as degradation, exploitation, and | | | | tourists" (Crow Dog 81). Mary discovered that |
| murder. As a result, the women have an | | | | her people were being cheated by the |
| understandable fear and hatred of white | | | | reservation trading post when she was in New |
| people. Maya describes an errand into the | | | | York. According to Mary, "everything was so |
| white section of town like this: "We were | | | | much cheaper than on the reservation where |
| explorers walking without weapons into | | | | the trading posts have no competition and |
| man-eating animals' territory" (Angelou 25). | | | | charge what they please" (Crow Dog |
| Likewise, because of Mary's beatings by | | | | 112).African Americans suffer from this |
| Catholic nuns at the Indian Boarding School, | | | | exploitation also. Since they were |
| she "hated and mistrusted every white person | | | | segregated, African Americans were only |
| on sight, because [she] met only one kind" | | | | allowed to attend certain schools and |
| (Crow Dog 34).One example of whites' | | | | colleges. These colleges trained "Negro youth |
| degradation of minority peoples is the | | | | to be carpenters, farmers, handymen, masons, |
| changing of their names. Native American | | | | maids, cooks, and baby nurses" (Angelou 170). |
| peoples were forced to adopt Christian first | | | | They were not given the opportunity to become |
| names. Mary writes that her husband's family | | | | "Galileos and Madame Curies and Edisons and |
| name should have been Crow Coyote, but due to | | | | Gaugins" (Angelou 179). As with the Indians, |
| a white interpreter's misunderstanding, they | | | | whites cheated the black cotton pickers out |
| ended up with the name Crow Dog (Crow Dog | | | | of their earned wages. Maya reported that "no |
| 10). Maya also had her name changed by her | | | | matter how much they had picked, it wasn't |
| white employer. Her given name is Marguerite, | | | | enough" to pay the "staggering bill that |
| but the white woman called her Margaret. Then | | | | waited on them at the white commissary |
| a friend of the white woman told her the name | | | | downtown" (Angelou 8).The most severe |
| Margaret was too long and she would "call her | | | | oppression suffered by minorities is the |
| Mary if I was you" (Angelou 107). Maya said | | | | physical violence and unjustified murder |
| that "every person she knew had a hellish | | | | committed by white people. Maya describes a |
| horror of being 'called out of his name'" and | | | | gruesome scene in which she and her brother |
| that "it was a dangerous practice to call a | | | | learn about the murder of a black man:And |
| Negro anything that could be loosely | | | | once, we found out about a man who had been |
| construed as insulting because of the | | | | killed by whitefolks and thrown into the |
| centuries of their having been called | | | | pond. Bailey said the man's things had been |
| niggers, jigs, dinges, blackbirds, crows, | | | | cut off and put in his pocket and he had been |
| boots, and spooks" (Angelou 109).Another | | | | shot in the head, all because the whitefolks |
| element of oppression by whites is how | | | | said he did 'it' to a white woman (Angelou |
| minority peoples are exploited for their | | | | 37).Mary also recounts numerous times Indians |
| labor and cheated out of what is owed to | | | | were murdered by white men. The following |
| them. Native and African Americans were | | | | account is particularly inhuman:Not long |
| relegated to the lowest and worst paying jobs | | | | before that a Sioux, Raymond Yellow Thunder, |
| by whites. Mary claimed that all the whites | | | | a humble, hard-working man, had been stripped |
| living near the reservation "made their | | | | naked and forced at gunpoint to dance in an |
| living in some way by exploiting [the | | | | American Legion Hall at Gordon, Nebraska. |
| Indians], by using Indians as cheap labor, by | | | | |