Multiple Jeopardy and Consciousness of Black Women in Hidden Figures Film

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MULTIPLE JEOPARDY AND CONSCIOUSNESS OF BLACK WOMEN IN HIDDEN FIGURES FILM

A Thesis

Submitted to Faculty of Adab and Humanities

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Strata One (S1)

FARISA NAJMI FAUZIAH NIM 11140260000034

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES

UNIVERSITAS ISLAM NEGERI SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH

JAKARTA

2019

ABSTRACT

Farisa Najmi Fauziah, Multiple Jeopardy and Consciousness of Black Women in Hidden Figures Film. A thesis: Department of English Literature, Faculty of Adab and Humanities, Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2019. This research aims to show that black women, as they represented in Hidden Figures film, have multiple jeopardy which means that there are systems of inequality that work with and through each other to shape their experience uniquely. Furthermore, this research also aims to show whether their multiple jeopardy leads to the raising of consciousness that helps each character to fight the injustices. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative. The theory of multiple jeopardy and consciousness by a black feminist scholar, Deborah K. King is used to support the analysis. The result shows that white men are on the top of hierarchy status, while black women are in the subordinate position along with white women and black men. Though the three groups share a similar subordinate status, it is revealed that black women multiple jeopardy made them experienced incomparable discrimination compared to other groups. Black women even ironically discriminated by black men and white women who are also in the subordinate position. In short, black women's position is not equal to black men and white women, but below them. Hence, there are many obstacles for them to pursue their own liberty. Moreover, it is revealed that their unique position helps them gained the multiple consciousness that black women have but no other group has. This consciousness is important because it made them able to understand that they do not have to accept the systematic discrimination that shaped the inequalities in their daily experience and bravely fight for the injustices. In conclusion, women who burdened by multiple jeopardy also have multiple consciousness that leads them to pursue their liberty.

Keywords: women, black feminism, multiple jeopardy, Deborah K. King, consciousness

APPROVAL SHEET

MULTIPLE JEOPARDY AND CONSCIOUSNESS OF BLACK WOMEN IN HIDDEN FIGURES FILM

A Thesis Submitted to Faculty of Adab and Humanities In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Strata One (S1)

FARISA NAJMI FAUZIAH 11140260000034

Approved by:

Advisor,

Ida Rosida, M.Hum

(Day/Date: Monday/November 11, 2019)

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES UNIVERSITAS ISLAM NEGERI SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA 2019

LEGALIZATION

Name : Farisa Najmi Fauziah

NIM : 11140260000034

Title : Multiple Jeopardy and Consciousness of Black Women in Hidden Figures Film

This thesis entitled above has been defended before the Faculty of Adab and Humanities Examination Committee on December 20th, 2019. It has already been accepted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of strata one.

Jakarta, December 20th, 2019

Examination Committee

Signature Date

1. Hasnul Insani, PhD. (Chair) 197605012008012010

2. M. Agus Suriadi, M. Hum. (Secretary) 197808012014111001

3. Ida Rosida, M.Hum (Advisor)

4. Arief Rahman Hakim, M.Hum.(Examiner I)

5. Inayatul Chusna, M.Hum. (Examiner II) 197801262003122002

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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no same material previously published or written by another person which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institutes of higher learning, except where due acknowledgement has been made in text.

Jakarta, 20th December 2019

Farisa Najmi Fauziah

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All the praises and thanks be to Allah, the Lord of the 'Alamin for the eternal guidance and blessings to the writer so she could complete her thesis. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad, his family, and his companions.

Deepest gratitude to writer’s parents: Renny Nurbaeny and Iwan Setiawan for giving her everlasting support, patience, and love. To writer’s grandmother, Siti Zakiah who always reminds her to be a good person that loves to help other people. Their prayers which always accompany the writer in every step she takes, make it possible for the writer’s to face any challenges in her journey. Also to her sisters Savira, Alina, Nadine, and her brother Tival who always bring her happiness. May Allah always bless our family.

Special gratitude to Ida Rosida, M. Hum for being a great advisor. The writer is thankful for her advices and patience as they made it possible for the writer to finish her thesis with joy. May Allah bless her and her family.

The writer would like to declare her deepest gratitude for:

1. Saiful Umam, Ph. D., the dean of Faculty of Adab and Humanities, State Islamic University of Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. 2. Hasnul Insani, Ph. D., as the head of English Literature Department. 3. M. Agus Suriadi, M. Hum., as the secretary of English Literature Department. 4. All the lectures in the Department of English Literature. 5. Huge thanks to Jehan Shofiah, Ainul Mardliyah, Farha Dinanti Kirli, Fena Basafiana, Ariestia Anindita, Debby Praditya Andini, Rahayu Utaminingsih, and Zaki Ari Setiawan for being writer’s best friends. May all the good things in life come to you all. 6. Thanks to fellow classmates and friends who helped the writer’s a lot: Laili, Abu, Guntur, Bobi, Mul, Nabil, Ghesty, Laila, Fazaky, Ningdyah, Wina,

Arika, Abu, Obi, Qusye, Fikar, Andi, Icha, Puput, Rakan, Tamara, and all of writer’s friends in Class B and Literature Class. 7. People that the writer’s met in Rusabesi, thank you for the knowledge and laugh that we share together.

Jakarta, 20th December 2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ...... i APPROVAL SHEET ...... ii LEGALIZATION ...... iii DECLARATION...... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...... v TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... vii CHAPTER I ...... 1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1 A. Background of Study ...... 1 B. Focus of the Research ...... 4 C. Research Questions...... 4 D. Research Objective ...... 4 E. Research Significance ...... 4 F. Research Methodology ...... 4 a. Research Method ...... 4 b. Data Analysis Technique ...... 5 c. Research Instrument ...... 5 d. Unit of Analysis ...... 5 e. Research Time and Place ...... 5 CHAPTER II ...... 6 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...... 6 A. Previous Research ...... 6 CHAPTER III ...... 15 RESEARCH FINDINGS ...... 15 A. Characters ...... 16 1. Katherine Johnson ...... 16 2. Dorothy Vaughan...... 17 3. Mary Jackson ...... 18 B. Multiple Jeopardy of Black Women ...... 19 1. Black Women and White Women ...... 19 2. Black Women and Black Men ...... 29 C. Multiple Consciousness ...... 32

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D. Multiple Consciousness and Equality ...... 38 CHAPTER IV ...... 41 CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ...... 41 A. Conclusion ...... 41 B. Suggestion ...... 42 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 43

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study

The world is full of people with different identities such as race, sex, class, sexuality, or religion. Somehow, not everyone in society gets treated equally, many people experienced discrimination that is based on their identities. Roberts argued that discrimination happens because they have the identity that is considered as bad or inferior by a dominant group (qtd. in Okechukwu 3). For example, in many parts of the world, women had been treated unequally and have limited access to pursue education and get the right to work. It revealed that even in this decade, women are still the minority in powerful positions like politics or professional academics (Morgenroth and Ryan 671). Women also still be the victim of sexual abuse whether in workplaces, schools, universities or even in their own home (Fitzgerald 1). Women's experiences of inequality are in need to be heard and to be discussed for the sake of finding solutions to their problems and a make the world a better place for them. The aim to understand any woman's life experiences should consist of the recognition that her life is not simply determined by her sex, but also her other identities such as race, ethnicity, class or sexual orientation (Rosida and Rejeki 135). Rosemarie Tong in her book, Feminist Thought, believed that every single identity of a woman takes parts in explaining her subordinate status (Tong 213). In other words, it is essential to observe deeply a woman’s identities that affect her life and not simply based on her being a woman. This idea of understanding the experience of being a woman by not solely look at her gender was first offered by black feminists that aim for the liberation from the interlocking system of racism, sexism, and classism.

Black feminist scholars realize that black women are “theoretically erased” from feminist that fought for gender equality and the anti-racist movement that fought against racism because both movements tend to prioritize the rights of their race and sex only (Crenshaw 139-140). In other words, while the anti-racist and the feminist group fought for their rights, they were unaware of the black women's position that are prone to discrimination that is based on their sexuality and their racial identity. The discrimination that based on race, sex, and class often make most scholars and activist tend to rely on a “monist” approach, which means they positioned race, class, or gender as a single inequality and that each one of them occurs independently (Harnois 972). Deborah K. King, a black feminist scholar, criticized this in her article in 1988, “Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology,” She argued that separating racism, classism, and sexism to black women’s lives will lead to misunderstanding how systems of inequality operate and are experienced. She advocated for an alternative approach, that the disadvantages of black women experience by race, class, and gender are not simply additive, instead these systems of inequality interacting with one another that results in another form of discrimination. During the slavery era in America (1619-1865), both black men and black women suffered the same physical labor and punishment as a slave. But black women were also suffered from the oppression that only applicable to women, which is rape. This case not only became the evidence that the black women's slavery experiences are distinguished from the black male's experiences, but also from the white women's sexual oppression experiences. Because the sexual oppression of being a sex slave to white men "could only have existed in relation to racist and classist forms of domination" (King 47). In her article King also argues that black women’s experiences with multiple jeopardy also came with “multiple consciousness” which is an awareness that there are multiple systems of inequality that work with and through each other. In other words, those who hold multiple minority

statuses and whose lives are shaped by multiple jeopardy have an understanding of how inequalities work together to structure power and privilege (Harnois 973). One of the films that depicted the life of black women is Hidden Figures that released in 2017. The film is based on a non-fiction historical book titled “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race” written by Margot Lee Shetterly and directed by Theodore Melfi with the help of Allison Schroeder as the screenplay writer (IMDB). This film took set in Hampton, Virginia, United States of America in the year 1961, around that time the slavery has ended but racial segregation was still happening. The film tells real-life stories about three brilliant black women named Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson who work at NASA, which depicted as a male-dominated area. NASA only gives the position of computer (do math by hand), secretary, or janitor to the female worker but not a higher position as engineers or scientists. Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy who work as a computer are segregated from the white female computer. Because like the American society during that time, NASA also applied segregation or ‘separate but equal' rule. This leads to a bigger discrimination for black women workers. Mary who is planning to be an engineer has to face several preventions from many sides. While Dorothy does not get her salary that she deserves as a supervisor. On the other hand, Katherine continuously does not get the credit of her work and treated badly by her white co-workers. In short, they are the hidden figures that throughout the film, their works are under- appreciated and that they stuck in the subordinate position for years even though they are geniuses. It is interesting to apply King’s multiple jeopardy and multiple consciousness concept to observe and describe black women characters' statuses compared to other characters that share similar subordinate statuses like white women and black men. This thesis also aims to show that the three characters gained multiple consciousness.

This research is important because it focuses on women with multiple marginal statuses, not to divide women by their differences, but because each identity of a woman shaped their experience distinctively from other women. This research hopefully will increase the applications of multiple jeopardy and consciousness concepts in literature as a tool for better understanding women with multiple marginal statuses. B. Focus of the Research Based on the explanations above, this research focuses on the topic of multiple jeopardy and the simultaneous effect which is multiple consciousness of the three main black women in Hidden Figures film. C. Research Questions 1. How does multiple jeopardy shape the subordinate statuses of the three main black women characters? 2. How does multiple jeopardy raise multiple consciousness of three main black women characters to resist inequalities? D. Research Objective The objectives of the study are to investigate multiple jeopardy of three black women characters in the film and to show that it raises their multiple consciousness which leads them to resist the inequalities. E. Research Significance This research is expected to provide a different perspective in understanding the experiences of black women in Hidden Figures film. Furthermore, the reader can gain their knowledge about people that hold multiple minority statuses which expected to be aware of similar issues on their social circumstances that may relevant to this research.

F. Research Methodology a. Research Method

Research for Multiple Jeopardy and Consciousness of Black Women in Hidden Figures film uses a qualitative method. This method tries to hold the knowledge that represents the reality by giving the focus of interest to value and perspective (Woods 2-3). It means that the viewpoint of the

researcher is important to answer the research questions by analyzing the data gathered from the film.

b. Data Analysis Technique This technique of data analysis in this research is descriptive analysis techniques. This technique means that the researcher will describe and analyze the data that are found in the film. There are two steps of this technique. First, the data were analyzed to reveal that black women characters suffered multiple jeopardy and explaining their statuses. Second, the results of the analysis used to find the connection whether their statuses made them succeed or fail to gain multiple consciousness. c. Research Instrument Research with qualitative method emphasizes the importance of the researcher’s perspective. It means that the main instrument of this research is the writer (Sugiyono 61). The writer states the issue, collect and analyze the data, and answer the research questions. d. Unit of Analysis

The unit of analysis of this research is the film entitled Hidden Figures that is released in 2017. It is written Allison Schroeder and directed by Theodore Melfi. The story based on real-life characters that first were discussed in the book Hidden Figures written by Margot Lee Shetterly published in 2016.

e. Research Time and Place

This research began in the academic year of 2018/2019. Conducted in Faculty of Adab and Humaniora UIN Syarief Hidayatullah Jakarta. This thesis also conducted in several public libraries.

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Previous Research

There are three researches that can be used as a reference and to see the analysis that had been done to draw the distinction from those previous researches. The first two researches were chosen because they use the same corpus which is Hidden Figures film like this thesis. It is an undergraduate thesis by Muhammad Azhar originally entitled in Indonesian language as “Analisis Semiotika Pemaknaan Rasisme dalam Film Hidden Figures Karya Theodore Melfi” or “Semiotic Analysis of the Meaning of Racism in Hidden Figures Film by Theodore Melfi” in English and “The Representation of Female Characters as Black Feminist in Hidden Figures Movie” by Destri Delastuti. The last previous research is a journal article that was chosen because it uses the same concept as this thesis entitled Jeopardy, Consciousness, and Multiple Discrimination: Intersecting Inequalities in Contemporary Western Europe by Catherine E. Harnois.

The first previous research was written by Muhammad Azhar from the Faculty of Da'wa and Communication Sciences in UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. He entitled his thesis as “Semiotic Analysis of the Meaning of Racism in Hidden Figures Film by Theodore Melfi” which was published in 2018. In his qualitative research, Azhar uses Roland Barthes’ semiotic theory to identify the racism in Hidden Figures film. With Barthes’ theory, Azhar analyses the visual, dialogue, and the type of shoot to find the information of racism that happens to the main characters in the film.

He divides his analysis into three categories; denotation, connotation, and myth, which results in finding that six scenes depicted how racism happened to the main characters in the film and two scenes that depicted the resistances from the main characters to the racism. Azhar then

relates his findings to a wider discourse of what truly happening in the United States at that time. The scenes where the main characters in the film cannot use the same bathroom with the white people and cannot read the book from the white people section in the library are because the state where the film took set was applied the Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation between the white people and black people in such things as public schools, public toilet, public library, and public transportation.

In conclusion, Azhar finds that the racism scenes in the film are the reflection of what was happening in the era of segregation in the United States. He also finds that racist acts towards the three black main characters were not coming from individuals only, but also from the institution. His research findings are helpful to understand the discrimination in a form of racism and its historical context in the film. Meanwhile, this thesis has the purpose of finding the discrimination in a wider and deeper understanding that is not limited in a form of racism as Azhar did in his thesis.

The second previous research is an undergraduate thesis entitled “The Representation of Female Characters as Black Feminist in Hidden Figures Movie” that was published in 2017 by Destri Delastuti, a student of the English Department Faculty of Humanities in Diponegoro University. Destri uses Patricia Hill Collins' theory of Black Feminist Thought to identify the characteristics and the thoughts of black feminists in the main black female characters.

In order to explore that the three black female characters are black feminists, Destri uses the method of analyzing the dialogue and characteristics of each character and compare them to the black feminist characteristics by Patricia Hill Collins, which according to Collins’ theory are; self-definition, self-valuation and respect, self-reliance and independence, self-change and empowerment. Destri finds that the characters can be considered as black feminists because based on the storylines, they fit into all of the black feminist characteristics. The three main characters refused to be disrespected, for example, in one scene,

Katherine left a man that she was attracted to but then leave immediately after the man gave a sexist comment when they discussed her job at NASA. Another example of having self-valuation and respect is depicted in the scene where Mary shows her disagreement when her husband said she should not be a female engineer. The main characters also empower themselves to be what they wanted to be. These can be seen in the scenes where Mary goes to the court to fight her right to get the education and Vivian learns about the new technology of NASA from a book that she stole from a library.

In conclusion, Destri succeeded in proving that the three main characters represent the black feminist because they possessed and fit into the black feminist category from Patricia Hill Collins's theory that Destri chooses as the theoretical framework of her research. But what missing from her thesis is the aim to understanding the connection between the discrimination and how those discriminations bring the consciousness to the three main characters, which results in being able to fight the discrimination itself by being conscious. This thesis will try to fill that gap.

The third previous research is a study by Catherine E. Harnois entitled Jeopardy, Consciousness, and Multiple Discrimination: Intersecting Inequalities in Contemporary Western Europe. She published her work in the Sociological Forum journal in 2015. Though Harnois’ work is quantitative research, it is still related to this thesis because she uses the same theory. Using the multiple jeopardy and consciousness theory by Deborah King, Harnois analyzes the intersecting inequality in Western Europe to see how far people with multiple minority statuses understand their own experiences of multiple axes of inequality and whether those individuals that had experienced multiple forms of discrimination have a broader awareness of intersecting inequalities (multiple consciousness).

Harnois uses data from a survey which includes 9.012 individuals with varied ethnicity, disability, age, gender, and religion from 10 European Union founding members countries such as France, Belgium, the

Netherlands, western Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Denmark, Ireland, Great Britain, and Northern Ireland. She found that women and men with no other minority statuses are least likely to perceive experiencing multiple discrimination, but women with religious or ethnic minority women and women with disabilities are the most likely marginalized groups perceive discrimination, and they likely to perceive having experienced multiple discrimination. In conclusion, she finds that marginalized groups recognize discrimination and the consequences of these injustices in shaping those marginalized people’s consciousness. It means that Harnois’ research findings revealed to be consistent with Deborah K. King’s theory.

As stated before, while Harnois' work is a quantitative research, this thesis will apply the multiple jeopardy and multiple consciousness as a theory to analyze the Hidden Figures film in a qualitative research. While the objects of Harnois’ analysis are individuals from the European Union, this thesis will use the characters of Hidden Figures film as the objects and reveal that the characters with multiple forms of discrimination have a comprehensive awareness of intersecting inequalities than other characters who are not.

Each previous research above is important for this thesis to enrich the knowledge of how far the analysis of the film and broaden the information about the application of multiple jeopardy and multiple consciousness theory by Deborah K. King. More importantly, those previous researches are helpful for this thesis to avoid making any repetitive analysis. The chosen theory of this thesis will fill the gap in which Azhar’s and Destri’s researches had not filled yet. This thesis will continue to understand the experience of the main characters as black women which Azhar only limits in the form of racism, while according to multiple jeopardy theory, is not completed yet. The use of the theory by Deborah K. King will also differ this thesis from Destri’s work, it will help to explore that discrimination will bring the consciousness to the main characters, which results in being able to fight the discrimination itself. This thesis will not analyze the characterization of each character and analyze the type of

shoots to avoid repetition because Azhar and Destri had done it in their thesis. The application of King’s theory in Harnois' work expands the knowledge about the theory itself and shows that people with more subordinate statuses have a deeper consciousness rather than those who do not.

B. Multiple Jeopardy and Multiple Consciousness The term was first coined by Deborah K. King, an African American scholar, in her publication of Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology that was published in 1988 by The University of Chicago Press. As a black woman herself, King recognized that black women in the United States not only share the similarities with women from all races but also with the men from their race. These similarities made black women prone to discrimination of racism and sexism. But instead of getting the favor of feminist and anti-racism movements, their unique position somehow results in the marginalization from both movements for women's liberation and black liberation. Not only in movements, but the majority of scholars also likely to examine white women as the object of sexism and black men as the object of racism in their researches (Sesko and Biernat 356). With that being said, black women tend to be left behind both in the movement and theorizing. King believes that there are imperfections in feminist theorizing that needs to be addressed, because “Feminism has excluded and devalued black women, our experiences, and our interpretations of our own realities at the conceptual and ideological level.” (King 58). Even though both theories devalued black women, these theoretical conceptualizations were the most well-established tool that used by the majority of intellectuals, which somehow made the discussion of black women unique experiences seem unnecessary. The experience of black women is apparently assumed, though never explicitly stated, to be synonymous with that of either black males or white females; and since the experiences of both are equivalent, a discussion of black women, in particular, is

superfluous. It is mistakenly granted that either there is no difference in being black and female from being generically black (i.e., male) or generically female (i.e., white). (King 45).

For the reason above, it is urgently needed that black women have their own conceptualization as a tool to understand the intersection of race and gender which results in challenges that none of the white women or black men experienced, but black women themselves. Unlike white women and black men, black women were born to this world without the “luxury of choosing to fight only one battle." (Jones 56). While the race-sex-class analogy commonly used by many scholars as the conceptualization to understand of black women's status, King criticizes that most applications of this framework “overly simplistic” the experiences of black women. These relationships among the various discriminations are interpreted as if it is a mathematical equation: racism plus sexism plus classism (King 47). In short, the concept of race-sex-class assumes the discriminations are simply additive and that each factor able to displace one another. King believes that it is not that simple. King then claims that an interactive model which she termed as ‘multiple jeopardy’ which means that there are systems of inequality that work with and through each other could explain the experience of black women better. She introduces the term to explain that multiple minority status that black women have, as a woman and as a black person, leads to structural disadvantages.

The modifier "multiple" refers not only to several, simultaneous oppressions but to the multiplicative relationships among them as well. In other words, the equivalent formulation is racism multiplied by sexism multiplied by classism (King 47).

King explained that the word ‘multiple’ does not simply mean that there are several oppressions that burden someone with multiple minority statuses, but when those several oppressions met, they multiplied themselves into another form of oppressions that is unique.

In other words, multiple jeopardy helps to avoid the misunderstanding that racism + sexism equals to black women's experience because this process will not represent the nature of black women's oppression, as they have to fight the multiple systems of oppression. In fact, it is necessary to define the issues first and black womanhood itself:

In the interactive model, the relative significance of race, sex, or class in determining the conditions of black women's lives is neither fixed nor absolute but, rather, is dependent on the socio-historical context and the social phenomenon under consideration (King 49). The experience of black women in the slavery era that King puts in her work is an evidence that the status of black women as a sexual slave of white men was not an additive of racism and sexism only, as there was no white women and black men that became the victim of sexual slavery.

Our institutionalized exploitation as the concubines, mistresses, and sexual slaves of white males distinguished our experience from that of white females' sexual oppression because it could only have existed in relation to racist and classist forms of domination (King 47). In other words, those two factors work together which results in a situation that cannot be experienced by black men or white women because being a sex slave during the slavery era, could only happen if one is a slave (racism factor) while also a female (sexism factor). In addition, black women during slavery were also positioned as if they are a machine to produce more slaves which could increase their white master's assets. Those are the evidence of racism that works together with patriarchy that produced “the most dehumanizing form of slavery.” (Roberts 8).

This unique status of black women helps the development of multiple consciousness which means that they are aware that there are multiple systems that made them in their subordinate position. With this unique position, black women offer multiple consciousness to feminist and civil rights movement that are considered as “outdated” and a “failed attempt at political and social reform or, at best, unresponsive to the current

political and social conditions of persons living in the United States.” (qtd. in Rivera 482).

A movement like feminist which focused on gender-based oppression will open the possibility of unconscious racism and so does a movement that focused on race-based oppression only, unconscious sexism is unavoidable. For instance, Ramphele believes that black women are not simply oppressed as a black person. They may face the oppression by the same system that burdened black men, but black men also oppress them (qtd. in Matandela 12). Besides that, one time in an international conference on women's history in 1986, a white feminist stated that “We have enough of a burden trying to get a feminist viewpoint across, why do we have to take on this extra burden?” (qtd. in Spelman 8) which indicates that she refuses to fight the other form of oppression that burden non-white women. This is an ignorance that can be avoided with the multiple consciousness as it is grant the recognition that there is nothing as more dominant or essential in system of oppressions (Ward 83).

Therefore, it is necessary for white women to change their consciousness first by learning from their colored sisters like black women to recognize their own privilege (Albrecht et al. 17). Because in contrast with the white women in the feminist movement that were associated with the upper class and higher education, black women being in the movement were encouraged with the circumstances of their lower socioeconomic life (King 71).

[C]onsciousness is "never fixed, never attained once and for all"; It is not a final outcome or a biological given, but a process, a constant contradictory state of becoming, in which both social institutions and individual wills are deeply implicated. A multiple consciousness is home both to the first and the second voices, and all the voices in between (Harris 584). With that being said, black women were not merely born with multiple consciousness, but there is the process to achieve it. Which in other words, the conditions that bring black women to their consciousness are specific to their own reality, such as social and historical experiences.

Furthermore, Putnam argued that compared to white women, black women are ready to counter discrimination and continue to advance for a better circumstance for themselves despite living under oppressions as they already “raised in culture of resistance.” (Putnam 677). This nature of black women works well with multiple consciousness that people with no multiple subordinate identities do not have.

The awareness of their own multiple oppressions makes it possible for black women to discover their ability where they do not always have to be at the lowest position and be the victim. In other words, multiple consciousness is necessary for a black woman that wants to be free from the injustices and move from their subordinate status. Because when black women are aware of their various discriminations, they have also resisted those oppressions (King 43), and it can be seen through the way black women encourage themselves to pursue liberty and equality.

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH FINDINGS

This chapter is purposed to answer the following research questions, they are “How does multiple jeopardy shape the subordinate statuses of the three main black women characters?” and “How does multiple jeopardy raise the multiple consciousness of three main black women characters?” to answer the research questions, this research will use the theory of Multiple Jeopardy and Multiple Consciousness by Deborah K. King.

Hidden Figures film was directed by Theodore Melfi and the screenplay was written by him and Allison Schoerder. It was first released in 2017 but the story took set in the year 1961. The film tells the stories of the three black women characters named Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson that work in NASA as a computer which means that they do mathematic by their hands. Even though they are brilliant, they often got mistreated and receive inappropriate salaries. America as the set of the film was still applying the segregated rules. In results, not only that Katherine, Dorothy, and Mary received discriminations in their workplace, they also experienced discrimination while they are in society.

In the subchapters below, the writer gives information about important characters of the film and then analyzes the data in Hidden Figures film to find out how being black women differ their experience from others and describe their experience of multiple jeopardy compared from other characters in the film. Next, the writer analyzes whether multiple jeopardy leads to multiple consciousness as claimed by Deborah K. King that eventually will trigger the characters to counter the discrimination that they received.

A. Characters 1. Katherine Johnson

Katherine is one of the three main characters in Hidden Figures. She is a black woman who worked at NASA as a computer with 20 black women. In the film, she stated that she analyzes “the manometer levels for air displacement, friction and velocity and compute over 10,000 calculations by cosine, square root and lately Analytic Geometry.” (Hidden Figures). Her works are important for NASA to accomplish its missions.

Space Task Group, which is a team full of engineers, requested a mathematician to help their projects. Dorothy who plays the role of a supervisor then chooses Katherine because she is the smartest computer in her team. Katherine delighted about the news as it feels like a slight promotion, but then she had to face discrimination as her new place is a team of engineers that is full of white men and a white woman named Ruth that works as a secretary.

As the only black person in the room, she treated poorly by her co- workers. Even though Katherine work hard for her calculations, her co- worker named Paul Stafford did not let her write her name in the reports. He also prevents Katherine to attend briefings. Besides that, she cannot use the same coffee pot and cannot share the toilet with Ruth as NASA separated facilitations between colored and white workers. She had to walk to her old building which is quite far just to use the toilet. All of this made her hard to do the work efficiently every day.

Katherine is a widow and a mother of three beautiful daughters. Later she met Colonel Jim Johnson, a black soldier who just came back to their city. In the end, they ended up married and Katherine changed her last name from Goble to Johnson.

2. Dorothy Vaughan

Dorothy Vaughan is a black female computer who has work at NASA for ten years. Not only as a computer, but she is also responsible as a supervisor for black women computers. But she does not get the title nor the salaries as a supervisor because NASA denied giving Dorothy her rights. She asked Vivian Mitchell who is a supervisor for white female computers about her application, but Mitchell refused to help her even though she knows that Dorothy has worked as a supervisor for her team.

Turns out NASA was purchasing IBM (International Business Machines) which is a machine that will do the calculations for any missions that NASA was trying to accomplish. IBM will replace the work of Dorothy and her colleagues, as that machine believed to work faster and more accurately than human computers.

Because Dorothy knows that NASA about to dismiss her team, she then tries to learn how to operate IBM by learning from the book she gets from the public library. She then teaches her colleagues what she had learned from the book with the thought that her team will stay at NASA and be the people that operate the IBM.

Dorothy is a hard-working woman who is also a wife and a mother. Every day Dorothy drives her car to work that often broke in the middle of the road and she had to fix the car with her own hand. Katherine and Mary also ride the same car with her every day.

3. Mary Jackson

Mary also works at NASA as a computer, but she has a dream of becoming an engineer. Unfortunately, she knows that it is almost impossible for her to achieve her dream as she is a black woman. One time, Zielinski which is the head of engineers at NASA asked for her help to test a prototype. Zielinski knows that Mary wants to be an engineer, so he let her know that there is a training program for those who interested to be an engineer. Mary who at first refused to try then feel encouraged because of Zielinski. She tried to apply but somehow her husband, Levi Jackson, does not let Mary pursue her dream. He says that it is unbelievable for a black woman to be an engineer and he also criticizes Mary who is not a stay home mother.

Besides that, Mitchell who found out about her application to the engineer training program also furious about this. She prevents Mary to apply because she is a woman and she does not have the degree to be an engineer. Mary had to get an additional degree from a university or a school that is unavailable for a colored person like her. She then bravely goes to the courthouse to get the permission to attend the school.

B. Multiple Jeopardy of Black Women

Multiple jeopardy born as a critic towards a monist approach such as racism or feminist theory that was commonly used as a tool to understand black women. Those approaches were made and tend to be focused on black men and the other focused on white women, therefore, those theories cannot capture the experience of black women’s lives perfectly as they were made without trying to acknowledge people with multiple marginal statuses like black women. Without understanding that black women live with multiple marginal statuses, study about black women will focus only on their experience as a black person or only on their sexism experience as a woman. Multiple jeopardy also helps to avoid the belief that racism and sexism are simply additive in black women’s experience because that false belief leads to a misunderstanding that black women sexism are just the same as the one that experienced by white women or the racism that black women experience is equal to black men. This concept emphasizes that it is not that simple as Deborah K. King stated:

The importance of any one factor in explaining black women’s circumstances thus varies depending on the particular aspects of our lives under consideration and the reference groups to whom we are compared (King 48). With that being said, to reveal how black women characters subordinate status shaped by multiple jeopardy, it is important to compare them to other groups that share similar subordinate status with them. Among the many characters in Hidden Figures, there are two groups of characters that will be analyzed for this research. The first group is the white women and the second group is black men. Both groups share subordinate status with black women and can be used as the comparison to explain black women characters' experiences. It is important to analyze their relationships and differences with each other.

1. Black Women and White Women

To begin with, the analysis of the multiple jeopardy starts from their workplace, NASA Research center where Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy

meet two white women workers named Vivian Mitchell which has the position as the head of white women computers and Ruth as a secretary in Space Task Group. The relationships and differences between them are important to analyze to show how multiple jeopardy shaped black women’s experiences in this film.

NASA as a workplace in the film depicted as a male-dominated area. The engineers and the scientists in the Space Task group are all men. The women are only given the position as the computers, secretary, and janitor. According to Kramer, employers often do the discrimination in deciding “whom to hire and fire, whom to assign to certain shifts and special projects, and whom to promote and transfer.” (Kramer 900). In this film, NASA obviously discriminates women, because they only let men fill the highest or important position without considering that women are as capable as men to do the tasks of scientists or engineers.

Not only that NASA differentiates male and female workers for job positions, but the female computers also divided into two groups based on their race: the white female and the colored female computers. This is because the film took set during the 1960s in Virginia, which means that segregation rules still exist in that state. Segregation or “separate-but-equal” means that the citizens of Virginia divided based on their race, white or colored. It claimed as “equal” treatment, but it was not. Segregation was actually a system that degrades citizens that is non-white. For example, the state separated schools, public transportation, theatres, public restrooms, hospital, or any public facilities for white and black people. This segregation system was arranged by the state and local laws was codified in state and local laws which implemented with intimidation and brutality (Ware 1087).

NASA as a government institution of the United States as expected applied the segregation that was constitutional law of the country. Although both black and white women are computers, somehow NASA made their rooms separated. It made black women and white women rarely meet each other as they do not work in the same room.

Furthermore, compared to other rooms, the colored computer room is tiny, crowded, and isolated from the rest of the Langley research center. While the white female computers room is in the main building along with the Space Task Group. The placement of their room shows that white women computers are considered as more important than black women computers. This is the comparison of Colored Computer Room and the East Computing Room where Mitchell’s and other white women placed:

Colored Computer room for black women computers

(Picture 1, 00:10:47)

East Computing room for white women computers (Picture 2, 00:41:32) Though there are more workers in the Colored Computer group, the East Computing group's room is more spacious and well maintained. This indicates that there already a different treatment for the two groups even though both groups are working as computers. On one of the earliest scenes, when Vivian Mitchell visited the colored room, she mumbled “didn’t think

I’d come all the way down here.” as if it is unbelievable for someone like her must come to a place like that. From this only it can be seen that the status of black and white women in NASA as computers are not on the same level. This is similar to what King states that multiple jeopardy results in black women segregated from white women in industrial workplaces (King 65). Though not an industrial workplace, the segregated system can also be found in NASA on the film. This is an example of how multiple jeopardy shaped the life of black women. As women that work in the patriarchal institution, all of them already have no choice but to work as computers. But being the black women, their position is even lower because the patriarchal system and racist system work together that results in an experience that is incomparable or extremely different to white women.

Besides the differences between their rooms for work, black women’s and white women’s toilets are divided. When Katherine moved to Space Task Program which is in a different building from the colored room because the team needs extra help for the project, she met Ruth which is a white woman who works as a secretary there. One time she asks Ruth where the female toilet is. She then gives a surprising answer, “Sorry, I don’t know where your bathroom is.” With this, Ruth already objectified Katherine as the ‘other' which makes black women remain unseen as human beings (Crawley 177). This is an evidence that Ruth separated herself from Katherine even though both of them is a woman that logically should share the same restroom.

Although Ruth and Katherine share a similarity that both are women, Ruth is still a part of white people that has certain views about the black and might oppress her black ‘sister’ like the white men. As Mae King has stated that:

Racial oppression, intensified by sex discrimination, means that black women are subjugated to white women as well as white men. Within this context, one can extrapolate that white females will favor the same policy orientations toward black people as white men, namely, continued subjugation in its various forms, or extermination (King 127).

This is also why not only that the white women marginalized black women from them, in Hidden Figures they also act as the oppressors. For example, in her team, Dorothy is responsible for being a regular mathematician and a supervisor. But she did not receive the salary that she deserves as a supervisor because Mitchell refused to help Dorothy to get her rights.

Dorothy : Mrs. Mitchell...if I could. My application for supervisor, ma’am. Was wondering if they’re still considering me for that position. Mitchell : Yes. Well, the official word is: no. They’re not assigning a permanent supervisor to the Colored Group. Dorothy : I see. May I ask why? Mitchell : I don’t know “why.” I didn’t ask “why.” Dorothy : We need a Supervisor, ma’am. Haven’t had one since Ms. Jansen got sick. Been almost a year. Mitchell : Things are working just fine as is, Dorothy. Dorothy : I do the work of a Supervisor. I’m in charge of the Group, like a Supervisor. Mitchell : That’s NASA, for ya. Fast with rocket ships. Slow with advancement. (Dialogue 1, 00:12:50) From the dialogue above, it is obvious that Mitchell does not want to help Dorothy to get her rights of appropriate salary as a supervisor. This is because even though both of them are women, just like a white man, Mitchell still has a way of thinking as white people. She also believes that black people are inferior compared to herself. This is why while Dorothy calls her with ‘Mrs.’ that indicates respect, Mitchell just call Dorothy by her name. Watson believes that white people in a society where they are the most dominant race constantly feel like those from different races are trying to take over their power and being disrespectful to the ‘superior' group (Watson 74). Therefore, Mitchell does not care about the injustice that happened to Dorothy. When Dorothy asks for her right, Mitchell feels like

Dorothy is being impolite for wanting more than just accepting what the people in power already gave her.

Similarly, what Watson stated also justified when Mitchell tries to stop Mary’s attempt in pursuing her dreams as an engineer at NASA. Mitchell was so angry when she found out that Mary applied for the engineer training program.

Mitchell : NASA doesn’t commission females for the engineer training program. Mary : That position is open to any qualified applicant. Mitchell : Right. Except you don’t have the educational requirements. Mary : I have a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physical Sciences. Same degree as most engineers ‘round here. Mitchell : We now require advanced extension courses through the University of Virginia. (Dialogue 2, 00:46:44) Mitchell gets angry when she found out that a black woman wanted to be more than just a computer in NASA. She feels like this is disobedience to people that already gave her a position to work in a predominantly white workplace. In the dialogue, Mitchell even stated that "Ya’ll should be thankful you have jobs at all.” to reminds Mary and other black women that they should not ask for more. Mitchell does not want these black women to be more powerful by having a higher position at NASA.

Between women and men, sexism is most often expressed in the form of male domination which leads to discrimination, exploitation, or oppression. Between women, male supremacist values are expressed through suspicious, defensive, competitive behaviour. It is sexism that leads women to feel threatened by one another without cause (Hooks 129). What Mitchell does is a form of competitive behavior because she feels threatened if Mary and other black women workers have a higher position compared to her. Furthermore, what happened to Mary here is also an evidence of multiple jeopardy that burdened her. Mitchell first tries to

stop Mary by using a sexist excuse that NASA will not accept her as an engineer because she is a woman, but when it does not stop Mary, she said that Mary does not qualified because the requirements to be an engineer included extension courses in University of Virginia, a university that is still a segregated area. It means that Mary cannot get the required degree because the university is limited for white people only and not available for a colored like her. It is an evidence of how the discrimination of race and sex work together to make Mary stuck in her position. This shows that “race and gender intersect to produce unique challenges that neither white women nor men of color must overcome.” (Lenhardt and Emile 69). Because if Mary is a white woman, there is still a chance for her to get extension courses that are required to be an engineer.

King states that the combination of race and sex discrimination result in black women to have a limited option of jobs, which result in them have no choice but to work in low status and low paying jobs (King 50). There are pieces of evidence that show the fact that colored workers have a low salary. The dialogue of the film below when the car that they ride together for work broke down in the middle of the road is an evidence for that.

Mary : We’re all gonna be unemployed driving this hunk of junk to work every day. Dorothy : You’re welcome to walk the 16 miles. Katherine : Or sit on the back of the bus. Mary : Won’t do neither. I’ll hitchhike. (Dialogue 3, 00:03:44) First, the three main characters have to ride Dorothy's car that often broke down in the middle of the road as depicted in the dialogue above. They have no choice but to ride that car or walk for 16 miles or sit at the back of the bus. This indicates that their salaries are not enough for Katherine and Mary to get a car on their own, or Dorothy to purchase a better car than that.

Another evidence of colored workers received low salaries are when Katherine told by Mitchell the rules of Space Task Group, one of them is to not use any pieces of jewelry but "a simple pearl necklace is the exception." When Mitchell said that, Katherine looks a little bit taken aback because she is wearing a jewelry necklace. In the next scene in the office, Katherine can be seen not wearing any jewelry and also not wearing pearls. It is can be concluded that Katherine is simply cannot afford pearls.

The pearl necklace also indicates the different status of black and white women in NASA. As it has been analyzed above, Katherine cannot afford pearls and none of the black female computers can be seen with a pearl necklace. But in contrast, white women computers often seen wearing pearl necklaces. For example, when the astronauts came for visit, black women computers and white computers have to stand side by side to welcome them. In this scene, white women are visible to wear pearl necklaces, while none of black women computers wearing it.

White female computers are the only group that wear pearl necklace.

(Picture 3, 00:38:44)

Furthermore, not only the white women computers, Ruth as the secretary of Space Task Group also spotted several times with a pearls necklace. As Kellner has stated, someone’s identities can be constructed by observing their appearance, which also determines their social class or status (Kellner 264). The ability of white women workers in NASA to afford

pearls necklace while black women workers cannot shows that there are a different status and class between them.

Ruth the secretary of Space Task Group wears pearls necklace (Picture 4, 01:02:05) Though all of them have the same position as computers (except Ruth), only the white women computers that can be seen wearing pearls necklace. This indicates that there is a pay gap or different salary that exists between the black and the white women computers. Another supporting evidence that black women received low salaries and different payment between them and white women shows when Al Harisson the head of Space Task Group gets mad at Katherine for being away from her desk for a long time in every single day, Katherine then tells her reasons.

Al Harisson : What do you mean there’s no bathroom for you here? Katherine : There’s no bathroom. There are no COLORED bathrooms in this building or ANY building outside the West Campus. Which is half a mile away! Did you know that? I have to walk to Timbuktu just to relieve myself! And I can’t use one of the handy bikes. Picture that, with my uniform: skirt below the knees and my heels. and simple string of pearls, well I don’t own pearls. Lord knows that you don’t pay the colored enough to afford pearls! (Dialogue 4, 01:02:05) This dialogue gives a specific explanation that she cannot afford pearls like Ruth or other white female workers because the colored workers

do not get enough salary. Katherine mentioned that “you don’t pay the colored enough to afford pearls!” but not ‘women’ because as it can be seen white women can still afford pearls.

Moreover, as the only women in Space Task Group that is full of men, Katherine and Ruth tend to be overlooked. It can be seen as their boss Al Harrison always refers to his workers as if they are all men. For instance, when he congratulates his workers, he says “Good luck gentlemen.” This shows that he forgets the fact that Ruth and Katherine are women that took part in the project too. Similarly, when Al Harrison alarmed that the works will be tough and all of them have to stay work late, he suggests his workers to call their wives. This indicates that Al Harrison once again overlooked the female workers in his own team.

But as a black woman, Katherine's experience is far worse than that. In Space Task Group, she receives poor treatment from her colleagues. Her ability as the only black women who work there was doubted as there are common belief in American society that women are less valuable than men and that black people are less valuable than white people (Scarborough 1458). This belief puts Katherine as the worker with the lowest status. For example, when Katherine drinks a cup of coffee from a coffee pot in their room, she receives hateful glares from her colleagues because they do not like it when a black person using the same facility with them. The next day when Katherine wants to drink coffee, she finds that they separated the coffee pot between colored and white. Sadly, the colored coffee pot for her is empty. What the white men workers did to Katherine is a form of racism that Ruth does not have to deal with. In the end, just like Katherine, the other black women characters like Mary and Dorothy have to accept the bad treatments they received at their workplace and the low payments, or they will end up jobless due to lack of different options of jobs for black women despite the fact that they are geniuses.

This subchapter revealed how multiple jeopardy shaped the life of black women. Their experience as women is totally different from white

women even though they are working under the same institution that holds a patriarchal system. It is because the patriarchal system itself works together with the racist system, result in making black women being in the lowest position at NASA.

2. Black Women and Black Men

Though being born in the same race, often black women are in conflicts with black men, even though they shared the struggles as black people that live in a racist or predominantly white society. Black men view black women’s struggle of living under patriarchy as opposed or incompatible to discuss in their community (Simien 87) and those who bring the sexism issue will get called as men haters (qtd. in Crawley 182). This is because black men failed to understand the position of black women as the victims of racism, sexism, or classism when they merely focused on racial injustice only.

The result is that black women “may be absent from, invisible within, or seen as antagonistic” in black men's point of view (King 52). In other words, black men consequently took part in burdening black women's lives and marginalized them. For that reason, it is important to analysis black men characters and their relationship with black women characters to see how multiple jeopardy shaped the lives of black women and not black men.

There are two black men characters in the film that are the evidence of this, Levi Jackson and Colonel Jim Johnson. First, Levi Jackson which is Mary’s husband depicted as the civil rights activist that eager to abolish segregation and racial injustices. As a character that is actively counter the injustice that oppressed black people, Levi Jackson ironically took part in subjugating Mary as a woman that wanted to pursue her dream as an engineer at NASA, for evidence is the dialogue below.

Levi Jackson : I don’t understand, a female engineer? A female engineer. We’re Negro, baby. Ain’t no such thing. Understand it. Mary : It’s not like that there, Levi.

Levi Jackson : You can’t “apply” for freedom. Freedom is never granted to the oppressed. It’s got to be demanded. Taken. Mary : Stop quoting your slogans at me. I’ve heard them all. There’s more than one way to achieve something. (Dialogue 5, 00:33:37) Not only the dialogue above shows how Levi Jackson as a black man trying to stop Mary to be an engineer, Mary’s reaction “Stop quoting your slogans at me” revealed that as a black woman she does not take part in the civil rights movement that his husband in.

More evidence that shows black women are not part of the movement is when Dorothy on her way to the library with her two sons. On her way, they saw dozens of black men protesting the segregation. When her sons asked her, she said “Don’t pay attention to all that. We’re not part of that trouble.” And walk straight to the library. These are the depictions of how Mary and Dorothy do not believe that the anti-racist movement guarantees their liberation as black women injustice is not simply racism (King 69).

Reynolds stated that while sometimes black working mothers are praised because of their ability to handle both work and family, often they also get blamed for judged as a failure for their husband and children (qtd. in Crawley 180). Besides not supporting Mary's dream to be an engineer, her husband also criticizing her choice to work as a mathematician at NASA as depicted in the dialogue below.

Levi Jr. : I don’t want any greens. Levi Jackson : I tell you about interruptin’? (Mary steps in, replaces the greens with mac and cheese) Mary : Try this, baby. Levi Jackson : He’s gonna eat the greens too. (Levi pushes the greens back on his son’s plate)

Levi Jackson : Kid needs to eat vegetables. You would know that, if you were home. (Dialogue 6, 00:33:59) The dialogue indicates Levi's criticism of Mary who is a worker and not a stay-home mother. This is considered as a patriarchal view where a woman should stay at home and do the domestic works of fully taking care of their children and husband. Similar to Reynolds, King also stated that when a black woman is independent and is an earner for her family, they often interpreted as a threat for their black family (King 50). In this case, Levi clearly sees Mary who is a worker as a threat to their family conditions because she is rarely at home because of her work.

Besides Levi, there is another black man character named Colonel Jim Johnson that is important for the story. He is a National Guardsman that just returned to Hampton where the three black women main characters live. Dorothy and Mary helped him introduce himself to Katherine, who is a widow with three little girls. After that Colonel Jim and Katherine take a walk just the two of them.

Jim : Pastor mentioned you’re a “Computer” at NASA. What’s that entail? Katherine : We calculate the mathematics necessary to enable launch and landing for the Space Program. Jim : Pretty heady stuff. They let women handle that kind of… Well. That’s not what I mean. Katherine : What do you mean? Jim : I was just surprised something so...taxing (Dialogue 7, 00:36:14) Jim thought that it is unbelievable that NASA let women do the calculating for their projects. There is this stereotyped of black women that they are “intellectually inferior” or not competent for working (Hall et al. 213) and Jim reaction came from the beliefs of that stereotype. Though he feels sorry about what he said, it is obvious that Jim believes that women

are not capable of doing that kind of work because they are less brilliant than men which considered as sexism.

Both Jim and Levi Jackson interactions with the black women characters indicate that even being with people in their own race, black women are not safe from discrimination or prejudicial treatment. At their community, black women may safe from racism, but their struggles as a woman remain unheard. With that being said, these are the forms of multiple jeopardy that can be found by analyzing the differences and interaction between black men and black women. It is obvious that black women’s experiences are incomparable to black men’s experiences. Both sexes may have the burden of living in a discriminative society as black people, but as the black women, they also face discrimination from their very own community.

This research has revealed the findings that supported King’s theory as she believes that there are multiple systems of oppression that interacted with each other which burden black women. Which in other words, King believes that several systems of oppression are not simply additive to each other, but they multiplied themselves (King 47). This interaction of the systems makes their experiences unique and incomparable to another subordinate group like white women and black women as it has been discovered above.

Hence, a monist approach such as racism, sexism or classism should be avoided as a tool to interpret black women. First, not only that they were not made to understand black women, but also because monist approach cannot capture the structural disadvantages caused by the multiple systems of oppressions that interacted with each other.

C. Multiple Consciousness

Through the multiple jeopardy analysis in the previous subchapter, it can be concluded that both white women and black men characters tend to separate themselves from black women and oppressed them despite their

similarities on the basis of sex or race. Especially Levi Jackson, as a civil rights activist that focused on racial injustices, he has failed to understand black women's unique position. This is because he does not have what Deborah K. King has termed as "multiple consciousness",

[T]hose who occupy multiple marginal statuses, and whose lives are characterized by multiple jeopardy, have a unique standpoint, which facilitates an understanding of how inequalities work together to structure power and privilege (Harnois 973). This unique standpoint is essential for those who are burdened by multiple jeopardy. Because these people naturally tend to have “internalized sexism” or “internalized racism” of themselves as the results of strong stereotypes of their identities in the society they live in (McRae 2). In other words, because the negative stereotypes are the common belief in a society, those who are under that assumption unconsciously believe those stereotypes.

Therefore, this subchapter will explain how black women characters shaped their multiple consciousness through their experiences, which urgently needed for black women as King has emphasizes that “[A]s long as black women have known our numerous discriminations, we have also resisted those oppressions.” (King 43). With that being said, the consciousness itself is important because without it, Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy would not achieve their liberty at the end of the film.

When Mary requested by Zielinski, the chief wind tunnel engineer, to help for Mercury 7 prototype testing, Zielinski informed her that there is an engineer training program and Mary should join it because he knew her ability and interest as an engineer.

Zielinski : Mary...a person with an engineer’s mind should be an engineer. You can't be a Computer for the rest of your life. Mary : Mr. Zielinski, I’m a Negro woman. I’m not going to entertain the impossible. Zielinski : And I'm a Polish Jew whose parents died in a Nazi prison camp. Now I'm standing

beneath a spaceship that's going to carry an astronaut to the stars. I think we can say, we're living the impossible. Let me ask...if you were a white male, would you wish to be an engineer? Mary : I wouldn’t have to. I’d already be one. (Dialogue 8, 00:15:17) The dialogue above shows that Mary refused to join the engineer training program, not because she does not want to, but because she is a black woman. Zielinski may show that he can be an engineer even though he is a Polish Jew with a tragic family history, but Mary aware that he is not the same as her. Just like Mary, Zielinski is also a minority. But he is a non- colored man, while she is a colored woman.

If we “look white,” we are treated as white in society at large […] although their internal identity may be different, if they “pass” as white, they will still have a white experience externally. If they look white, the default assumption will be that they are white and thus they will be responded to as white (DiAngelo 18). Zielinski, even though he is not an American he still considered as “white” because as a Polish, he has the features of white people. Which based on DiAngelo argument, means that he still gets the treatment and advantages of a white man. It is important for Mary to acknowledge that she is different from others, as Davidson argues that the awareness of it is the beginning of the resistance, because without it a black woman will be blinded by the fake promises that everyone is equal under the systems of domination (Davidson 113-116).

As it has analyzed in the previous subchapter, Mary faced some obstacles when she applied for the engineer training program. She had to stop because Mitchell told her that NASA does not accept female engineers and she must get a degree from a segregated university. This reveals that it is not as easy for black women as it is for Zielinski. That is why Zielinski already became an engineer when Mary is still stuck dreaming about it.

Mary then reaches her multiple consciousness that as a black woman she had to do more than just to apply for the engineer training program to

become an engineer at NASA like Zielinski. First, she must get the additional degree from the University of Virginia or to get an Advanced Extension Courses that are available at Hampton High School. But because both university and that high school are an all-white school, it not allowed for a black woman like her. Then she decided to make a petition at the courthouse in order to get the allowance for attending the school.

Furthermore, King argues that there is “The legacy of the political economy of slavery under capitalism” that made the employers above black women gain the greatest amount of advantage while black women themselves suffer in low status and salary (King 50). In this case, Katherine who acknowledges that she, in her own words, "work like a dog, day and night" for the Space Task Group with a low salary does something that seems like a little resistance for the injustice that she experiences.

Paul Stafford : I’ve told you this: Computers don’t author reports. Fix it. Katherine : Those are my calculations. My name should be on it. (Dialogue 9, 1:47:15) Regardless of how Paul Stafford, the lead engineer in Space Task Group, hates it when Katherine put her name on her reports next to Paul’s name, yet she still does it every time. Katherine refuses to let Paul discredit her when she works hard for the reports. This is a form of resistance that Katherine shows to overcome the injustice at the workplace that according to King, often happened to a black woman like her. Her resistance results in Katherine received the credit for her own work that is a form of victory for herself.

Another sign of consciousness is when Katherine wants to attend the Pentagon Briefings. She tried several times to join the briefing, but Paul Stafford does not let her. See contends that “[S]trength of black women is seen as a threat in the male-dominated corporate world. Therefore, any black woman who attempts to move into a position of responsibility may be labeled aggressive and “uppity” by whites and even by other blacks.” (See

41). Paul knows that Katherine is smart and capable to be a scientist like him, therefore he sees her as a threat for his position in NASA which is a male-dominated area. That is why Paul constantly treats Katherine badly and does not want to give her any chance to move forward.

Paul Stafford : We’ve been through this, Katherine. It’s not possible. There’s no protocol for women attending. Katherine : There’s no protocol for a man circling the Earth either, sir. (Dialogue 10, 1:20:20) Her sarcasm shows that she is conscious that the prohibition of a woman to join the briefings is ridiculous. She knew that she must know what the briefings is about to do her job effectively, besides it is her calculations that will be presented at the briefings by Paul Stafford. From the consciousness that she had, she insists to join the briefings and finally succeed to convince Al Harrison to let her join. Katherine able to join the briefings where women from any races were banned is a liberty for her. From the briefings, she can show her brilliant mind and ability which amazed everyone in that room, including Colonel John Glenn who will fly Friendship 7 to orbit the earth.

As it has discussed in the previous subchapter, Katherine once got angry that she screams at the space task room because she cannot hold it anymore when Al Harrison criticized her in front of everyone for being away from her desk in a long time. While the truth is that she has to walk half a mile to reach a colored bathroom because it is not available inside the building that they are in.

McRae argued that “Black girls learn that anger can be useful. Black women express their anger as a means of setting boundaries, standing up for and taking care of themselves, telling others what they will and will not tolerate.” (McRae 3). Instead of putting up with the blame for being misunderstood, Katherine shows her anger because she is conscious that she has the right to get mad for all the discrimination that she received.

When the IBM (International Business Machines) starts running, Katherine was sent back to her old division because Space Task Group does not need her anymore. But her bravery to insist joining the Pentagon briefing that one time opens the road for her. The day John Glenn supposedly fly, the IBM does not work perfectly, the landing coordinates do not match. John Glenn will not fly unless Katherine checks the calculations. After this, she received the respect that she deserves and work permanently for Space Task Group.

On another hand, Dorothy consciousness might be considered as the most rebellious. Dorothy who found out that the IBM will replace all human computers at NASA try to learn what IBM is so they will not lose their jobs. She went to a public library where they divided the book for white and colored people. Unfortunately, the book in the colored section is limited and she cannot find any book related to IBM there, but the book she needs available in the white people section. Dorothy bravely read that book from the non-colored section until a white librarian came to her.

White Librarian : We don’t want any trouble in here. Dorothy : I’m not here for any trouble. White Librarian : What are you here for? Dorothy : A book White Librarian : You have books in the colored section. Dorothy : It doesn’t have what I’m looking for. White Librarian : That’s just the way it is. (Dialogue 11, 00:49:44) Dorothy’s bravery then leads to her and her two sons kicked out from the library by a security. On the bus she lectured her sons about what just happened, she said that they did not do anything wrong. Afterward, she pulls the book she read from her purse which shocked her two sons.

Leonard : You took that book, Momma?

Dorothy : Son, I pay taxes. And taxes pay for everything in that library. You can’t steal what you already paid for. (Dialogue 12, 00:50:40) Taking the book from a public library can be considered as stealing, but Dorothy’s act is a protest towards the injustice and to show her two sons to not accept the rule just the way it is when it is certainly racist. This happens because she has the consciousness that as a citizen, she has the right to read any book that provided by the state in a public library because just like white people and everyone else, she also pays for the tax.

Black women were not born with multiple consciousness, but there are processes to achieve it. In conclusion, it is revealed that the three black women characters gained multiple consciousness as they experienced multiple jeopardy in their lives.

D. Multiple Consciousness and Equality

When black women gained multiple consciousness, it made them a natural fighter that prepared them for “self-empowerment” and “independence” as their starting point to survive in the society that they are living in, all of these are the results of their own experiences (Wallace 286). Mary, Katherine, and Dorothy gained this consciousness as a black woman, which made them refused to just accept the rules of society. This refusal then led them to their liberties and victories. If it is not because Mary went to the court and fight for her justice, she will not be able to get the degree from that all-white school, which will not make her the first NASA's and America's female African-American Aeronautical Engineer.

Same goes to Katherine, if she was not conscious that her works were taken for granted and that it is totally wrong to be forbidden to join the Pentagon briefings just because she is a woman, she will not get the chance to show her expertise in calculations to important people at NASA, which lead her to be trusted to perform calculations for the next project, Apollo 11 to the moon and space shuttle.

On the other hand, Dorothy with her ‘little crime’ for taking a book from a public library made it possible for her to teach herself and her colleagues about IBM and its Fortran language. With her consciousness, Dorothy and the rest of colored computers can run the IBM, otherwise, they will be stuck as a colored computer until the division got dissolved because NASA does not need them anymore. Before, Dorothy cannot get her title as a colored computer supervisor, but because of her consciousness she received the title of IBM Computing Lab Supervisor. Now as the supervisor, she had both colored and white women computers work under her. Mitchell who used to call Dorothy just by her first name, finally called her as “Mrs. Vaughan” as a form of respect.

Raised in a culture of resistance, black women are better prepared than their white counterparts to encounter discrimination and to move forward amidst oppression. They are more vocal about injustices, accept their roles as outsiders, give back to their black communities, and develop a different professional identity from white women. White women managers, in turn, seem less prepared for male-dominated environments, seek advancement through fitting in (Putnam 678). Compared to white woman character like Mitchell who somehow tries to “fitting in” by having similar prejudice like white men towards black women instead of helping them as their sisters, Hidden Figures depicted black women characters as people that are brave to counter discrimination and step forward to achieve what they want which is similar to Putnam’s argument. Even Dorothy’s resistance comes from her intention to “give back” to her black women colleagues rather than just to help herself. Her bravery leads every single black woman computer to not dismissed from NASA but move to an upper position as the IBM team.

It is important to highlight the way all of the characters that act as their oppressors say something similar, Mitchell says "Things are workin’ just fine as it is.” to Dorothy when she asks for her rights to get the supervisor title and salary. Paul Stafford says, "That's just the way it is." When Katherine asks him to let her join the briefings. The white librarian also says the exacts the same sentence when she encountered Dorothy who

was caught reading a book from the non-colored section. These words that suggested black women to accept the rules and the system are the formula to make these three black women stuck in their subordinate positions. If they do not have the multiple consciousness of what is right and what is wrong under the multiple systems that make black women like them suffering, Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy will still be in the lowest position with the lowest salary at NASA.

This analysis revealed that multiple consciousness is an integral part of black women to fight for the injustices that they experienced because of multiple jeopardy. Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy realized that they cannot fight the injustices by depending on people that share similar inferior status with them like black men or white women. Since both black men and white women will only overcome the oppression that is based on their identity as it is what affected them directly, they cannot relate to their experience of living in the middle of intersections of race and gender like black women (Jones 140). Especially black men who refused to acknowledge that they can be the victim of racism but simultaneously be the oppressors of black women (Hooks 123). Even though all of them living under the same patriarchal and racist system, black women have to fight for their own kind of oppressions and often they had to confront black men and white women who act as their oppressors too.

In conclusion, not only that multiple jeopardy made black women characters experiences incomparable to other subordinate characters, but it is also the reason why they have multiple consciousness as their only way that helps them to survive in their society. They learned that expressing their anger and refuse to follow the rules of society can be useful to fight back the injustices that burden them to gain equality.

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

Hidden Figures is a film based on a non-fiction book titled “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly”. The film tells the story of three black women who worked at NASA named Katherine Johnshon, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson.

This research uses qualitative method and descriptive analysis to investigate the unique position and experiences of being a black woman in an American society that still applied the segregated rules and at their workplace, NASA, that is depicted as a male-dominated and predominantly white area in Hidden Figures.

In order to make this analysis of three black women characters as punctual as possible, this research uses the concept of multiple jeopardy and multiple consciousness by a black feminist scholar, Deborah K. King. First, the multiple jeopardy concept is applied to understand the status of black women characters. Second, the multiple consciousness is applied to explore whether people that are burdened by multiple subordinate identities simultaneously have the consciousness to survive and resist the injustices that are a part of their lives.

NASA is depicted as a workplace that is a male and white people dominated area because from their astronauts, scientists, and engineers are all men that are white. From the film, the women were only given the position of computers who do the calculation for NASA and the janitors who clean the buildings. It can be concluded that white men have the highest status in this hierarchy as they are the only group that holds the superior position, where the women are in subordinate positions burdened with the patriarchal system. But the concept of multiple jeopardy emphasizes that

black women experiences are incomparable with the woman that is not black. In other words, this concept is against the belief that patriarchy results in the suffering of each woman in the same way.

It is revealed that Katherine, Dorothy, and Mary's discrimination are totally different from the white women characters. Because besides only given the chance to work as computers, black women characters also separated from white women. Not only that they have a higher status and salary, but white women characters also took part in discriminating against them. Furthermore, black men characters who share a similar subordinate status as black people in American society also treat them as if they are inferior. Mary's husband which is a civil rights activist ironically tried to stop her wife to be an engineer. While another black man character, colonel Jim doubts Katherine's ability as a mathematician at NASA.

It shows that Katherine, Dorothy, and Mary experienced multiple jeopardy because their statuses are even lower compared to groups that share a similar subordinate status with them. Not only that, as black women they also receive discrimination from them. It is also revealed that their unique position and experiences help them raise the multiple consciousness, that no other subordinate group had. It helps them to resist the injustices, respected as a human being, and to finally achieve their dreams.

B. Suggestion

Besides multiple jeopardy and multiple consciousness, there is another issue in Hidden Figures that is interesting to be observed. Hidden Figures is a film about three real-life black women, but the screenplay is written and directed by white people. In black feminist theory, there is a concept named "controlling images" which is an image or a negative stereotype that is used to represent black women in media, including film. It is interesting to explore whether the black women characters have the stereotype of black women in controlling images concept.

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