I appreciate and thought the essays were illuminating. Peggy McIntosh’s piece was the most persuasive because it goes into specifics that allows readers to make personal and thus stronger connections. In closing, a point, I would like to raise about white privilege is that there is definitely individual variation in experience. Some European Americans have had it easier than others, most likely because they came from wealthy families that gave them even more privilege that just being white. Some European Americans have had it tougher than others because they came from families with less means.…
Junot Diaz’s “The Money” is a writing addressed to his sociologic peers and compels his fellow minorities to relate, sympathize, and empathize with him about the daily struggles of his neighborhood. Diaz is seeking his peer’s relation with the situation he was put in and wants them to empathize and understand a problem that has become pretty common among the people of his community. “The Money” brings to light all the hardships minorities face day to day and helps you to grasp what minorities have to deal with as a whole. The writing was intended to outreach to his community because minorities are going to be more susceptible to sympathy.…
In Document C, an African American scholar states, “Why should I strive hard and acquire all the constituents of a man if the prevailing genius of the land admit me not as such, or but in an inferior degree! Pardon me if I feel insignificant and weak.” He proceeds to say, “Shall I be a mechanic? No one will employ me; white boys won't work with me. Shall I be a merchant? No one will have me in his office; white clerks won’t associate with me.” This is important because this speech was written from the perspective of a black male. To continue, the fact that he felt discouraged based on his identity, represents the intense struggle blacks faced while applying for jobs. Although he was at the top of his class in an integrated school, he was looked down upon. Therefore, this proves free blacks were denied economic freedoms because they weren’t given the same opportunities as…
In Losing the Race, John McWhorter speaks about the “disease of defeatism that has infected black America.” In the novel he explores in detail three aspects of modern day black American cultural mentality, or "cults," that hold African Americans back. First, is the Cult of Victimology. In it, victimhood has been transformed “from a problem to be solved into an identity in itself.” Then there is the Cult of Separatism, in this cult, the uniqueness of our history is used as a justification to exempt us from the rules that govern the rest of American society. While in the Cult of Anti-Intellectualism, an affinity toward education is seen as running counter to an "authentic" black identity. In trying to explain these three cancerous aspects of black American cultural groupthink, McWhorter also addresses how these three “cults” have led African Americans down a destructive path of self-sabotage thus birthing such damages as Affirmative Action and Ebonics. McWhorter believes that blacks are suffering from a “cultural virus” which has made them “their own worst enemies in the struggle for success.”…
The article “I’m Black, You’re White, Who’s Innocent?’ is an analysis of the black and white racist situation that America has been facing. It is a claim to the fact that both the groups have created the racist situation. Some whites accept that the racist attitude that enforced slavery was due to the fact that whites in ‘innocence’ felt they were superior to blacks. The pursuit of power-convinced them they were entitled to it. Once convinced it was easy to believed in innocence. Conversely, they were morally secure in their actions which led to centuries of subjugation. Their power was derived from the innocence, and that is why Steele called it ‘innocence is power.’…
According to a 2008 Gallup poll, most African Americans residing in America strongly believe racism is still a major factor embedded in their lives. Racism is defined as prejudice or discrimination directed against individuals of a different race based on such a belief. Though racism is not extinct and plays a role in today’s society, it was much more severe and widely accepted during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. Anne Moody's book, Coming of Age in Mississippi, and Tate Taylor's film, The Help, based on the book written by Kathryn Stockett's, are both novels that expose the severity of racism and prejudice during the Civil Rights Movement. Though both novels take place during the same time period,…
Leanita McClain, an African American journalist, was greatly acknowledge as a black African American middle class success. McClain was condemned by her own peers and was pated on the head by whites who believed her success was only based on talent than affirmative action . Due to prejudice whites and berate blacks, Leanita was forced to choose between the envy of her own race or for her own amentities. In McClain's essay, "The Middle Class Black's Burden, She uses percise Rhetorical Strategies to express her burden. Those strategies are Compare/Contrast, Author's Tone, and Logical Appeal.…
Bibliography: Feagin, Joe R. and Sikes, Melvin P. – “Living with Racism: The Black Middle-Class Experience”, Acon Press, 1994…
all their lives, were brought up to believe that black people are of a lesser…
The Lesson is a short story written by the writer Toni Cade Bambara in the late 1970’s. Sylvia, the narrator of the story is a young African-American female who receives a lesson in class inequality. The setting story of begin the slums of Harlem, New York and is dated as “back in the days” which is described in the opening of the story. Throughout the story Sylvia, realizes its world outside of her neighborhood, not as similar has she once thought. I chose the article, “Sylvia and The Struggle against Class Consciousness in Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson” this article analyzes the Sarah Wiktorski writes the article and she analyzes the struggle against class-consciousness and sets the mind of the reader to think about some of the consequences of class-consciousness. It contributes to the study of literature because it helps us understand the book, “The consciousness” by Toni Bambara changes the way the reader thinks and attempts to re-conceptualize his or her understanding of representation of class-consciousness. The writer hopes to present to the world a real picture of disadvantaged minorities and shows how on should change the world and…
The essay opens up with Mrs McIntosh explaining the self-analyse that she did to realize about the real existence of a white privilege and male privilege. The author initiated an analytical thinking through an ordinary job situation. This is very hard thing to do, most of the people get stuck into their routine, and so they can’t realize the deep issues around themselves.…
Black-owned businesses are primarily service establishments simply because of the refusal on the part of white establishments to provide personal services for Negroes.…
In today’s society words like racism, inequality, discrimination, and prejudice take its toll, especially on minorities. In this essay I will discuss the ideas of functionalism and conflict theory to explain Dubois, “Of the Coming of John” chapter 13 of “Souls of Black Folk”. I will also try to identify the social and cultural factors that have been used to explain the origins of racism and discrimination. And Finally, I will try and explain how racial discrimination and prejudice continue to produce inequalities in the United States.…
‘’No rational man, cognizant of the facts, believes that the average Negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the white man. And if this be true, it is simply incredible that, when all his disabilities are removed, and our prognathous relative has a fair field and no favor, as well as no oppressor, he will be able to compete successfully with his bigger-brained and smaller-jawed rival, in a contest which is to be carried on by thoughts and not by bites. The highest places in the hierarchy of civilization will assuredly not be within the reach of our dusky cousins.’’…
The essay spoke about different stages during which racial discrimination changed its appearance and it appears that during each stage the racial minorities had that opportunity to become equal with the whites in terms of opportunities to succeed in life and accumulate wealth for the future use.…