Prejudice And Discrimination In Graduation By Maya Angelou And James Baldwin

People have always had a problem with difference. Throughout history minority groups have been subjected to incredible prejudice and discrimination. Although discrimination affects all types of people, the African American population has had a particularly difficult time in their fight for equality. Writers have devoted many essays to trying to change this prejudice. Throughout the development of their essays, Maya Angelou in "Graduation" and James Baldwin in "If Black Language isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?" show that their struggles have shaped them into people of character and integrity through an important lesson that is taught to them about self worth. Facing the reality of prejudice in a society that insists on equality
She says in her essay "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul"(39). The struggles that Maya Angelou was faced with forced her to realize who she really was, and come to understand and grow as a person. "I had been able to stretch myself tall and trembling and say, ‘I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death'"(40). In listening to a speech to reassure her class of the future, she realize much more than many people do in a lifetime; there is no shame in any race, and although society tries to attack differences, growth occurs when a person fights back. "I was no longer simply a member of the proud graduating class of 1940; I was a proud member of the wonderful, beautiful Negro race"(40). In conquering her troubles she becomes a person of character and integrity through learning an important life
The language of the black population often distinguished them from the rest of society and had become a popular way to show the ignorance of the African American race. However, unknowingly the white population was proving the ignorance of themselves, but continuing to discriminate. "We, the blacks, are in trouble, certainly, but we are not inacticulate because we are not compelled to defend a morality that we know to be a lie"(624). James Baldwin's struggle lies in the fact that his language is looked down upon and not respected for the true quality it is. In his essay he discusses how the black race is continually looked down upon, and how discrimination occurs all around. He shows how the white people have no regard for the black people.
The brutal truth is that the bulk of the white people in America never had any interest in educating black people, except as this could serve white purposes. It is not the black child's language that is despised it is his experience. A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled. A child cannot be taught by anyone whose demand, essentially, is that the child repudiate his experience, and all that gives him sustenance, and enter a limbo in which he will no longer