Sabrina Benaim - "Explaining My Depression to My Mother" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqu4ezLQEUA Button Poetry. "Sabrina Benaim - "Explaining My Depression to My Mother""YouTube. YouTube, 20 Nov. 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2016. In the beginning of the poem, the lines that stood out to me were the one’s about the firefly turning into a bear. Then how the bear attacks her so she plays dead hoping the bear leaves her alone. Those are the dark days she says and I know that she is speaking the truth, for my depression is the exact same way. Sabrina uses a lot of symbolism. She speaks about her being the party and anxiety. Sabrina is feeling the need to bring depression or being stuck in bed not being able to come or making plans just to make …show more content…
"Javon Johnson - "cuz He's Black" (NPS 2013)." YouTube. YouTube, 20 Aug. 2013. Web. 31 Mar. 2016 What stood out to me, is the fact that Javon’s nephew sees a cop car and thinks to hide, well before he’s even able to read. Also the fact that Javon acknowledges he doesn’t like how African American boys are raised in today's age. Javon uses references to real life people and events to imbue power into the message he is trying to spread. The metaphor he uses to explain how his nephew thinks allows us to see what today’s way of raising our children looks like. Javon didn’t challenge my way of thinking I do feel that children in this day and age learn to afraid first and smart second. For Javon’s nephew to see a cop and to hide instinctually is saddening I don’t believe Javon taught me anything new. With this poem as an African American I am reminded how I see police differently than another man who is of a different race. Javon started the poem showing us the joy he feels when he is with his nephew, but also shows us the rage,insecurity and sadness of how his nephew sees police. The rage comes from the mindset that we should be afraid but in reality we shouldn’t. The insecurity from trying to say that he is not afraid and so his nephew shouldn’t be too and the sadness when he realizes he is afraid and doesn’t know how to tell his nephew he is and that it’s
This is shown through the tone changing from being disappointed and critical to acceptance and appreciative. The speaker’s friend, who after listening to the speaker’s complaints, says that it seems like she was “a child who had been wanted” (line 12). This statement resonates with the speaker and slowly begins to change her thinking. This is apparent from the following line where the speaker states that “I took the wine against my lips as if my mouth were moving along that valved wall in my mother's body” (line 13 to line 15). The speaker is imagining her mother’s experience while creating her and giving birth to her. In the next several lines the speakers describe what she sees. She expresses that she can see her mother as “she was bearing down, and then breathing from the mask, and then bearing down, pressing me out into the world” (line 15 to line 18). The speaker can finally understand that to her mother the world and life she currently lived weren't enough for her. The imagery in the final lines of this poem list all the things that weren’t enough for the mother. They express that “the moon, the sun, Orion cartwheeling across the dark, not the earth, the sea” (line 19 to 21) none of those things matter to the mother. The only thing that matter was giving birth and having her child. Only then will she be satisfied with her life and
“I have a dream that one day right here in Alabama little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” –Martin Luther King Jr. (Atkinson). Racism is believed to be a part of the past. In many circumstances it is, such as the desegregation of the army and schools. In light of this fact, tensions between whites and blacks have been increasingly seen in the recent shootings of unarmed black boys. This is determined in many different scenarios such as: George Zimmerman shooting unarmed Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old playing with a toy gun being shot by a city police officer, and one of the most recent and controversial, Michael Brown being shot down by a
When Ta-Nehisi Coates spoke about the murder of his friend, Prince Jones, I felt the same pain and frustration he expressed in his essay. Though none have been acquaintances of mine, I too have mourned the deaths of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, and many others over the years. I realize increasingly that these deaths at the hands of police officers are not only mourned by those closest to them, but the black community as a
The poem begins with an organized dialogue between daughter and mother during which the mother prohibits the daughter to march for her freedom, with fears that there would be an eruption of street violence. Instead, the mother gives her daughter the permission to sing in the kids’ choir at their church. How could she know that the streets might have offered some relatively enhanced safety? Together, Randall’s body of work evokes and chronicles, emotes and
“Maddie Clifton” is a most horrific telling, as it is based on a true story, ripped right the headlines of The Florida Times-Union. Told from the perspective of the 8-year-old murder victim, this poem speaks loudly to the bond only a mother and child can share. I found my eyes welling up several times, thinking of my own mother and I’s close, close relationship. Being forced to relive this nightmare each night in your own slumber, thinking you are reuniting with your child, walking peacefully along the shore, your words flowing like the wind to the ears of your daughter, and suddenly, forcefully, without fail, that serenity and peace is shattered. No, it is stolen.
This year there's been a lot of brutalities. In fact, there have been at least 500 people killed by the police officers this year. In this article, we are going to be talking about police brutality against African Americans. We are also going to talk about the differences and similarities of different cases that have been in the news this year. For example, the Sandra bland, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and the Walter Scott cases. Also, we're going to talk about how these cases have affected the African American community.
In the first stanza, she describes the ocean going in and out which could be a symbol for the time passing. Her next line is “The sea takes on that desperate tone of dark that wives put on when all love is gone.” (Doolittle 1.5). This is about the darkness and grief she feels without her past love. Stanza two is all about her wanting to be saved or rather
In a speech given in support of Trayvon Martin, President Barack Obama spoke about his own personal experiences with Racial Profiling and how the story behind Trayvon’s death hits home because it easily could’ve been him. This is the full video of Obama speaking about Trayvon Martin and race in America . The mentality of “this could’ve been me” that Pr...
The topic of police is something everyone is very aware of. Society is constantly bringing to light the idea officers have power over people and are there to help everyone. The poem opens with “supported by one leg like a leather stork”, this shows that the police is obviously aware of the power he holds against this teenager and is very relax in the situation. Whereas the third line of the poem, “his glances accuses me of loitering”, sets up the feeling that he is very much uncomfortable with the situation and feels as if he is being accused of causing trouble when in reality he may just be standing there. Although he clearly shows no signs of causing any serious trouble that would stir up something with the officer, he gives off the feeling that he is worried and must toughen up when faced to faced with this
The poem also focuses on what life was like in the sixties. It tells of black freedom marches in the South how they effected one family. It told of how our peace officers reacted to marches with clubs, hoses, guns, and jail. They were fierce and wild and a black child would be no match for them. The mother refused to let her child march in the wild streets of Birmingham and sent her to the safest place that no harm would become of her daughter.
In a typical family, there are parents that expected to hear things when their teenager is rebelling against them: slamming the door, shouting at each other, and protests on what they could do or what they should not do. Their little baby is growing up, testing their wings of adulthood; they are not the small child that wanted their mommy to read a book to them or to kiss their hurts away and most probably, they are thinking that anything that their parents told them are certainly could not be right. The poem talks about a conflict between the author and her son when he was in his adolescence. In the first stanza, a misunderstanding about a math problem turns into a family argument that shows the classic rift between the generation of the parent and the teenager. Despite the misunderstandings between the parent and child, there is a loving bond between them. The imagery, contrasting tones, connotative diction, and symbolism in the poem reflect these two sides of the relationship.
Johnson mentions his nephew that is only four years old, who is growing up to be terrified of the police. Johnson captured the moment when his nephew exclaims: “Oh man, Uncle 5-0, we gotta hide” (Line 28). The term 5-0 is another reference for cops. The dialogue Johnson uses with his nephew shows the fear this little kid has with the police. Why should a little kid have to be afraid of the police at such a young age? Society is teaching the little kids that they should be afraid of the police because of all the brutality they have caused against black people over the years. As a child, the majority of the time they grow up fearing the police. However, as they grow up they start to feel hatred against the police because of what they make their people go through. They feel as though they have to make a stand and let it be enough with the treatment they get. The dialogue Johnson shows helps emphasize the damage that the police has against people especially the little kids. Kids should do nothing but admire the police because they are supposed to be heroes. However, due to the circumstances of how they treat colored people, they have kids who are in fear of
Imagine saying hi to an older friend in a mob, unknowingly he was going to kill a prisoner in a cell that your father was guarding for the night. The youths in TKM plays an important role in today's society, in how just being alive and polite can affect people deeply. It’s important to know this because youths are everywhere we go, and what they do can effect us all. Youth effects people is proved when Scout tells Mr. Cunningham his son is a friend that she goes to school with.(205) Mr. Cunningham didn't want to kill a person in front of a child so he decided that his mob should not kill Tom Robinson, (our targeted black man who has been accused of a crime) instead he tells his mob to leave because of scout.
Waking up everyday to see four, sometimes even five, cop cars driving down my street. The sound of sirens always grew loud as they’d pass by and the lights would peer through my window. As a child, I never understood why the cops were down my street every day. I lived in the south side of Sacramento, California the community there had altered my way of living. My parents coached me that even though things were as they were I should still act as though the matter at hand was important, and that I should care. As I have gotten older I realize that it's my family and others around me that I love me had educated me to respected other
The silent killer that takes lives without warning, punishment, or any sympathy; depression is truly one of the most prominent mental illnesses in the world. Depression is defined as a mental illness inducing a severe and staunch feeling of sadness. The term depressed is coined in English as a temporary sadness that everyone experiences in their life. Despite that depression is more active in women, it is still one of the most common mental illnesses in the world. It affects anybody, regardless of sex, race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic standing. Regardless of all these facts, surprisingly little is known about depression, however, scientists have been able to hypothesize major causes, effects, and treatments for the disability affecting over