African American women suffered through so many injustices over years. Their bodies were degraded, their spirits were crushed, and their self-esteem lowered. Society didn’t care for their well-being, and continued to oppress them. For a long time Black women wasn’t able to value themselves, because they felt worthless and broken. However, the “Black is Beautiful” movement officially change this, by encouraging African American women to embrace their beauty and their talents. Black women for the first time felt comfortable in their skin, and wasn’t willing to accept any more disrespect and abuse because of it. June Jordan’s “Poem about my Rights” and Lucille Clifton’s “Homage to My Hips” both illustrate the major shift in the way African American…
Freedom and Equality is something everyone wants and what people try and live by. If you think about it, back then everyone wasn’t “free” whether it had to do with being an African American or a woman. “What the Black Man Wants” by Frederick Douglass and “What the American Woman Wants” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton are both two speeches that are trying to persuade their audiences for freedom basically. Douglass is arguing that all African American should be free to live life for themselves and Stanton argues that women need their rights just like men because they deserve it. Both of the speeches have pathos and logos to prove their arguments, while Douglass uses…
play like format to captivate the reader. The subject matter of her work is very…
Frida Kahlo once said, “To trap one’s self suffering is to risk being devoured from the inside.” Race and gender have been and still are a huge deal for all people. Many people have issues with the mixtures of races there is all over the world, but there are only so many of us that are actually affected by it. There will always be injustice between gender roles and also discrimination against colored people. Before women began to fight for their rights, many women were not allowed to express themselves. They were mistreated and disrespected by their husbands and men around them. They believed they deserved a voice and that they were capable of making their own decisions. As women began to rebel many men felt threatened and thought that all…
The article called Black Brothers Inc., written by Sean Patrick Griffin tells an interesting story about the Black Mafia. These individuals were excellent businessmen and working men that participated in obtaining drug dealers, maintaining crap games, and holding regular meetings at many different locations, but they were also coldblooded people who would kill anyone who might testify against them in court. This is how they gained power in the Philadelphia local neighborhoods; people were intimidated by them, as a result; it prevent many people from reporting the group’s activities to the police. This is why the police had difficulty prosecuting the members and many of the cases were getting dropped most of the time. Because of this, the Black Mafia continued to thrive and succeed, killing more than forty people and other countless crimes.…
There have been many forms of oppression throughout history. While many forms of oppression have been eradicated, many forms still exist in today’s society. Concerning the forms of oppression that have been eradicated, the question that comes to mind is how these forms of oppression were dealt with and what led to them being eradicated. The process of dealing with oppression in turn brings to light another question in how successful are the resistors’ approaches in dealing with oppression. There are two main distinct approaches to oppression which are violent resistance and non-violent resistances. Since there have been many oppressed groups that have seen success from nonviolent resistances to oppression, the focus of this paper will be taking a stance in proving that the oppressed do see success in nonviolent approaches. In analyzing this notion, I will discuss the forms of oppression portrayed in the film Pride by Stephen Beresford and Angela Davis’s chapter “Class and Race in the Early Women’s Rights Campaign.” I will then discuss the resistors’ approaches in dealing with oppression and give my opinion of the most effective way to resist oppression which is a union of many forms of resistances coming together. Finally, I will discuss how much power really…
The roles these woman faced between their community and family were relentlessly altered compared to the female roles that were a tradition in society. 1 As Deborah Gray White stated in her book Ar’n’t I a Woman? “black woman were unprotected by men or by law, and they had their womanhood totally denied.” (12) Unfortunately, black women did not belong to that body of females who deserved respect and protection. Female slaves had the least power in the society. They were also the most vulnerable due to the fact that they were African American in an all-white society and were slaves in…
African Americans have faced great difficulties in owning and having a voice and respect in the early years in the United States of America. For far too long, they have faced oppression by the whites. However, they no longer accepted the mistreatment and double standards they faced and took a stand and fought for they believed in. Even though African Americans did not have much rights as families, the fact that they stood up for themselves, to bring peace, honor, and freedom was enough so that they can start a new life and many new opportunities to start a whole new way of living.…
Military scholars have devoted countless hours studying the implications of the war on generals, allied soldiers, and Nazi Germany, but, much of this research has not since covered the effects war has had on European women—until the notion of gender relations arose. When scholars began to question the whereabouts of females, studies commenced in order to understand how American intervention and occupation in European counties impacted women. As a result, scholars like Mary Louise Roberts focused on the relationship between American GI’s and females. What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France the romance, accusations of rape, racism, and prostitution amongst the American GI’s and French females.…
The women in Nigeria believe that in order to find a husband they must be fair skinned and the only way to accomplish this is through the use of the skin bleach. They did not come to this conclusion by themselves. While watching the documentary Skin Bleaching Addiction, I noticed that the Nigerian men also showed a preference for the lighter skin women. The men in the documentary made comments about how they prefer a woman with lighter skin due to preference but they did not approve of the women that bleach their skin since these women “look like ghost or sickly”. Among African American’s the ideal has evolved into wanting a woman with light skin and hair that is Caucasian type. (Hall, 1990) This blatant kind of colorism is what is helping…
Jalata, A. (2002). Revisiting the black struggle: Lessons for the 21st century. Journal of Black Studies, 33(1). Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=7268500&site=eds-live…
I am taking some classes that will eventually qualify me to major in Astro - Physics, or Chemical engineering, I also want to work with NASA and train as an astronaut. It was amazing to know that Dr. Mae C. Jemison who happens to be the youngest of three children born to a middle class African American family, Charlie Jemison, a maintenance worker and his wife, Dorothy, a teacher. Dr. Mae C. Jemison was the first black woman astronaut to be in space in an era filled with segregation and racism, she is a Chemical engineer, scientist, physician, teacher and astronaut, she has a wide range of experience in technology, engineering, and medical research. In addition to her extensive background in science, she is well-versed in African and African-American Studies, speaks fluent Russian, Japanese, and Swahili, as well as English and is trained in dance and choreography.…
To this day interracial dating has been an issue all around the world. Particularly, in places such as China and India they are strict about going outside of their class to date or marry. But most of all many black women feel that many or even all black men are being stolen by the Caucasian women. Most black women believe that it is best for there to be pure black couples so the generation can evolve. Others say that while that black women are angry because they have been hurt by black men leaving them for women. But my opinion, like others, is that I don’t really care as much or even bother to think about interracial couples. The essay, “Betrayal” by Bebe Campbell is about a group of women coming to a cafe and they see a black man walking in with a white woman, and they are full of fury. Bebe Campbell speaks in depth about the subject of interracial couples and the fury of black women. My reaction toward interracial couples is different from Bebe Campbell; because I believe in freedom of choice, self-acceptance, and ownership.…
Abolitionists faced certain problems in the fight to end slavery. Once the strength in abolition increased, as well did the violence against abolition. Even northern opposition, was the cause of fear of competing with African American for jobs. Many mobs attacked even killing Elijah Lovejoy an abolitionist’s editor. On the other hand women faced other problems. But with the help of public speakers who influenced the women’s movement Lucy Stone was said to be “the first who really stirred the nation’s heat on the first subject of women’s wrongs.” Many of these speakers did experience violent heckling, even Stone once had a prayer book thrown up by a man in the audience.…
It’s like a type of conditioning has been conducted on the Black race. Whites can physically, verbally, and sexually abuse Blacks on all types of different levels and oppress and us, but when we fight back against this violence on a physical level, it begets a more violent response back. It seems that over time, this would just simply keep Blacks from fighting back at all, but much like how the types of violence and oppression have changed over the years, so to have the ways to combat this violence. Literature, as proven through the Black Arts Movement, is an effective means to “fight” back and do so without evoking a response that can lead to loss of excessive loss of life ultimately, but can in fact make changes and make these issues…