Douglass, Frederick a man that taught himself to read and write, in his speech in 1852 “What to The American Slave is Your 4th of July” has given us a clear picture of the reality of inhuman cruelty that is slavery. That Douglass was triggered by it when the white man had the audacity to ask Douglas the opportunity to speak in stage about the united state’s independence, or how douglass see it, Their independence day. Douglass begins building his speech with personal facts and a clear horrific image of his people going through a inhuman life. His purpose that to confront the his audience that celebrating a day of everyone's independence and how it doesn't go by the black african americans and how yet slavery not been bring to a final point…
I chose to talk about the reading by Canedy, Dana. “The Talk: After Ferguson.” In the reading we are introduced to the life of a colored person. She explains the struggle of having to even bring up the topics of police brutality and black people. She is in a battle with herself of knowing when the time is right to explain to her child that society is making the police and black man a problem.…
In the book, The Color of Water, by James McBride, a young colored man deals with growing up and having a white mother. James McBride always realized that his mother was different from his friends mothers, but he never understood why. He would always ask his mother why she was different but she would just reply that all people are the same. He never knew anything about the background of his mother because she never talked about it and he was afraid to ask. She would ride her old bicycle in an all black neighborhood that was run by the black panthers. James was scared for his mother because even though he was young at the time, he knew what was going on. I think that this book was an impressive view on how twelve young colored children reacted towards having a white mother during the civil rights movement.…
During the time published this poem was filled with controversy due to the racial intolerance surrounding the times. More importantly, this poem touches me on an emotional level. I have experienced racism in the past. About a couple of years ago, my family and I took a family trip to a state up north. While we were dining at a restaurant, my family…
Audre Lorde’s piece “The Uses of Anger” is written in direct reference to the racism colored women face, specifically black women. Her main argument is that black women are angry about the ample ways they are mistreated and ignored and how black women should use that fuel of anger to stand together, act, and create change in our society. This piece was written in 1981, a period of time where new policies were placed to make African American women with children dependent on public assistance, furthermore meaning that they didn’t have sufficient funds to partake in extracurricular activities such as conventions. This is relevant because Lorde references that by stating how the convention advocates for responding to racism however they refuse…
Citizen, by Claudia Rankine, is a compilation of poems and writings explaining the problems with society's complacency towards racism. Rankine also points out instances where underlying racism hurts more than flat out racist remarks. The novel is riddled with images symbolizing the discrimination towards African Americans, which contribute to the overall theme of racism becoming naturalized. Citizen works to debunk these natural assumptions and feelings of the common stereotypes of African Americans. Rankine does so most convincingly by using the theme of “being thrown against a sharp white background” (pages 52-53), an idea first introduced by Zora Neale Hurston in How It Feels To Be Colored Me. This overall theme connects the book completely.…
In the two essays "Cut," by Bob Greene and "The Fourth of July," by Audre Lorde they both discuss how disappointments as a child affected their lives. Greene 's essay gives five examples about how five boys were cut from a sports team and how they used that disappointment to become successful as adults. Lorde 's essay differed in that it told one story of how her and her family were on their vacation in Washington D.C. and they were not served at a restaurant because they were black. Both authors discuss feelings of being left out, being discriminated against, and how disappointments affected their lives. However, there are more differences than similarities in the essays. I can relate more to Greene 's essay because I am an athlete; however, I have never been in position of worrying about being cut.…
The Meaning of Fourth of July for the Negro by Fredrick Douglass is one of Douglass’s most famous speeches. In his speech, Douglass speaks about what Fourth of July is like for an African American, and argues points that are still relevant today on why African Americans are equal to the white man.…
Gaining freedom does not mean one has gained equality. The civil war ended slavery but African Americans still suffered from racism. Ralph Ellison touches on this topic in his short story “Battle Royal” which portrays the life of a young African American post-civil war. Before the narrator in Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” was an “invisible man” he was a young African American who had to deal with oppression in order to survive in his modern time. Ralph Ellison uses symbolism, metaphors, and imagery in “Battle Royal” in order to enhance the portrayal of the life of a young African American male who tries to achieve academic success while being oppressed by his white counterparts.…
Julia Lawrinson depicts the effects of racism on individuals through a range of techniques in her novel Bye, Beautiful. Through use of Sandy’s perspective, the reader sees how racism impacts the Read family, especially Pat. The author also uses characterisation to represent certain characters’ feelings of isolation and sadness and to show them as being different from the townspeople. Lawrinson also uses the very powerful symbol of Billy’s death to demonstrate the way racism effects individuals. These techniques and various characters will be explored further in this essay.…
Everyone remembers reading the works of Mark Twain when they were in school. Freshman year of high school you’re sitting in your English class and the teacher is reading the story of Huckleberry Finn. As you go through the story, you start to think, “Wow, people actually treated other humans this way?” and you realize how cruel it really is. It teaches you that discrimination is not right and everyone deserves to be equal. Now just imagine never having read that book, never feeling the sympathy for the people that you felt, and never learning the lessons you learned from it.…
Once 9/11 occurred, racism grew in America, yet it was still there before it occurred. When Tassie would take Emmie out for errands, she would be looked down upon for instance when Tassie said “This was all said in looks, so the truth could not be uttered, but I saw again and again what it was simply to walk into a store for a doughnut and have a wordless racial experience (Moore 167-168). She especially got looks from white people such as when she said “To the white woman I was a whoring girl messing around with anyone (Moore 167). The comments and encounters in the novel showed that there are many forms of racism in our society. The first way that I stated was more of a looking down upon way while “Instead, he glared right at little Mary-Emma and shouted, 'Nigger!'” (Moore 151) was more of a verbal…
As she entered the local supermarket, everyone’s actions came to a standstill. They all watched her as she walked down the aisle minding her own business. Their eyes pierced into her dark flesh, discovering the humility that the woman felt as they watched every single one of her moves. The humiliation that she experienced caused her to question how one’s mind could be so immoral to the point where they discriminate people from society because of their skin color. She perpetually wondered what it would be like to be born a different skin color. It was challenging for the young woman to be a part of society without feeling discriminated by others. She longed for the time where color would not create a rift in society and instead would unite people…
Claudia Rankine highlights social injustices that occur in the daily lives of people of color in her book “Citizen”. She put the wrong doings, prejudices and stereotypical situations against people of color into a collective story. It is troubling that these accounts occurred. These sort instances pinches something inside of you. A sense of irritation builds up. It puts into perspective that even in modern times such acts…
When Tatum begins her assessment of racism, she uses her experience as a teacher to show how there is an obvious naïveté concerning the existence of racism among her White students. She quotes a conversation between two White students, one of whom had just discovered that Cleopatra was a black woman. In this conversation, one of the states her shock at this revelation and how there is no way that it could be true because – “Cleopatra was beautiful!” (Tatum, 1997). In recapping the thoughts of another one of her students concerning African-American or Black authors, this student wrote: “It’s not my fault Blacks don’t write books” (Tatum, 1997). In reading these statements I became even more aware to the extent in which the culture of Blacks has been distorted or erased from history. Was it impossible for Cleopatra to be Black and beautiful? When did the writings of James Baldwin or Zora Neale Hurston equate to Blacks not writing books?” It is this ignorance that angers and saddens me in deepest of places in my heart, because for many people my heritage…