P.S. Be Eleven

In P.S. Be Eleven, Delphine is finally able to see the importance of power in relationships between adults and children, and her insight comes from her previous exposure to Black Power, a movement defined by its assertion that Black people should feel pride in their racial identity and gain greater social power in order to represent the interests of Black people. For Delphine, the source of these ideas about power comes from her experiences with the Black Panthers, a group that was particularly active in 1960s Oakland, where the Gaither sisters spent the summer. While there is little contact with the Black Power movement in the Gaither home and neighborhood, Delphine and her sisters have learned the Panthers’ lessons of Black Power politics well, and many of their responses to others are fueled by their understanding that even children can show a measure of Black pride in public spaces and in their interactions with adults. The Gaither sisters ultimately use their perspective of Black Power in more personal spaces as well, challenging the long-held beliefs of their father and grandmother.

At the start of the novel, the Gaither sisters rely on their experiences with Black Power to resist various adults’ attempts to manage their behavior. For example, when the girls bolt from the airplane and the stewardess call them “Negro girls,” Vonetta replies that they are “black girls” (4), thereby rejecting the disparaging, conservative connotations of the first term and exhibiting the firm pride inherent in claiming the second term. Vonetta also claims that the bathroom stall for “the people” (5), and this is meant to be a reference to the Black Power idea that Black people as a racial community must disrupt the status quo in order to liberate themselves.

However, in a family ruled by the conservative mindsets of Pa and Big Ma, there is little room for the girls’ newfound Black Power beliefs. For example, Big Ma punishes Delphine for bumping into a white man at the airport, and this incident compels Delphine to change her previously respectful view of Big Ma. She reflects that Big Ma so “fear[s] white people and place[s] them up on a pedestal” that if the “Black Panthers […] had seen Big Ma, they would have called her a traitor to her people” (9-10). These harsh, judgmental words from the mind of an 11-year-old demonstrate how influential the Black Power movement has become to Delphine’s understanding of her family, her community, and the world.

Over the course of the novel, Delphine and her sisters expand their understanding of Black pride and power as they use its tenets about the nature of power to guide their interactions in their personal relationships. One of Delphine’s fears is that as the most dominant sibling, she is the oppressor of her sisters, and her suspicion is confirmed when her sisters defy Delphine over the use of the money in their savings jar and sing, “the giant is dead” (156). This is a reference to the children’s tale in which a boy named Jack manages to kill a giant, who is depicted as being much more powerful. This moment becomes a painful lesson for Delphine, as she realizes that every person has the potential to be both the oppressor and the oppressed. This new understanding is more nuanced than the lessons the girls learned in Oakland.

Delphine also applies the lessons of Black Power and pride more broadly to her developing understanding of Black female identity and feminism. This dynamic becomes clear when she wonders if Black politician Shirley Chisholm’s success at winning a Congressional seat in New York is “real power, like the Black Panthers, or […] just a taste of power” (207). Her reflections indicate that she understands the limitations of power within systems like the federal government. Her growing doubt that Black Americans and women can ever achieve real power within the American political system shows the enduring influence of Black Power on her identity but also reveals her increasingly insightful understanding of the true nature of power.