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A research paper on prejudice and discrimination
A research paper on prejudice and discrimination
Social changes in the south post civil war
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John Howard Griffin
The black man in the Deep South of America was greatly despised during the 1950’s. The world that the Negroes lived in was not the same as whites in their society. In this book, John Howard Griffin Sacrifices his life as a middle-class white man and becomes a dirt poor Negro, trying to survive in the South. He simply did all of this in order to bring out the truth about what it is really and truly like to be a Negro in the South during the 1950’s.
John Howard Griffin is a white journalist with a wife and three children. He began his project of being a Negro, while he was reading a chart about suicide rates. This chart displayed that the Southern Negro man had a rapidly increasing rate of suicide, because they could not see a reason to go on as the second class citizens that they had become due to their skin color. The whites thought that the Negroes had it made since they had given them “so much” during reconstruction. Griffin realized that the only way to really see the truth about what the Negroes had to endure from day to day was to become a “Negro” himself.
While Griffin was expecting prejudices against himself as a Negro, he went into his project with an open mind trying to discover the truth. He took note of all the prejudices of whites against and took in consideration any acts of kindness. Therefore Griffin’s journal was straightforward and unbiased.
Griffin’s main goal in writing this journal was to break the gap between blacks and whites. He was not trying to totally offend whites, but aware them of their injustices towards the Negroes. The fact that he wrote his whole adventure as a journal clearly shows his intentions. He went into the world of the second class Negro, wrote a straight out account of every event that happened by writing a journal. Then the reader saw what his experience was like and believed it more so since it was in a journal setup instead of a story setup.
The entire approach of Griffin’s research was ingenious, very creative, and even a bit daring. Not many people would like to experience that drastic change of lifestyle.
However it was a very efficient way of discovering precisely what it was like to be a black man in the 1950’s.
The use and repetition of the word “nigger” suggest both physical and psychological boundaries for Griffin, which, of course, also extend to the black population of the mid-twentieth century. In identifying himself with the term, Griffin becomes overwhelmed by its dehumanizing and de-individualizing effect: “I knew I was in hell. Hell could be no more lonely or hopeless, no more agonizingly estranged from the world of order and harmony” (66). Griffin’s internalization of discrimination and his repression as “Other” allows Griffin to convey the “wrong-doing” by the white middle class, forcing a truthful realization of the detrimental effect of racism on the
America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.
“The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, – this longing to attain self-consciousness, manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message f...
the black man in the South in the early 1900's. This story deals partly with racial
In the book " Black Like Me " which written by John Howard Griffin who is the main character also. The author's story started on October 28, 1959, in Mansfield, Texas, about the white man in a middle-age wants to change the color of his skin to black which gives him an opportunity to experiencing the Negro life. Mr.Griffin traveled to 3 places, which are Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia, all of these cities located in the South. When he was in the New Orleans he started his medical treatment with a dermatological regimen of exposure to ultraviolet light, oral medication, and skin dye.
As I read Black Boy, Griffin provided me with a small insight on the way whites and blacks were differently treated. Black Like Me was based on a white man who wanted to get a better understanding of the life of negroes and how it feels to be treated unequally. He wanted to know what stood between the white man and black man, why they could not communicate. Griffin writes in his book that, “the only way I could see to bridge the gap between us was to become a Negro” (Griffin 1). His journey then began and he lived the life of a black man. It is with such bravery that he went and risked becoming a Negro. He knew that adverse consequences would occur once people knew the truth. He did not care; I was fascinated with his desire to see what...
Imagine if one's presence had the power to change the mood of those around instantly. Without missing a beat, once happy, smiling faces turned sour. The expression shown would be as if there was a rancid taste in their mouth. An individual may ask, what has happened to these people? The answer is racism. Racism has the power to reform one's mind and dehumanize them. Southern society, blinded by the color of one's skin, disabled black people to share their true identity. The entries in John Howard Griffin’s book “Black Like Me” revealed the evils of racism within the South and the grotesque views of a white man on a black man. Through Griffin's experience and transformation to a black, second class citizen in America’s racist South, he exposes
John Howard Griffin was an American Journalist who wrote mostly about racial equality. He is devoted to the problem of racial justice and confused about him being a white man trying to understand the experience of living like a black man. In this book, “Black like Me” Griffin took an essential move and went to a professional doctor to get his skin changed to black for a short period of time. Throughout this book, he is trying to understand living like a black man, he wants to find discrimination, struggle, and injustice, but he is appalled at the duration of it. Griffin travels to New Orleans to live as a black man and explore the black neighborhoods. He begins with describing how every time he goes somewhere, he come across problems and insults.
John Howard Griffin’s book “Black Like Me” gives us a look into a black man’s everyday life in 1959-1960’s. Griffin realized that he needed to live as an African American to be able to have the slightest knowledge of how hard their lives actually were. I believe that Griffin can empathize with the black race because even though he was only colored for 6 weeks, he then understood how difficult life was for those men and women. He went through the struggles first hand, he met people and families that he learned from, and he experienced the racism that effects their everyday life.
...eding hearts” and “mouth . . . . myriad subtleties” (4-5).Today, everyone is entitled to having equal opportunities in the US. Back in Dunbar’s time, on the other hand, slavery prohibited blacks from being an ordinary person in society. Although they prayed heavily and persevered, they wore the mask for the time-being, in the hopes of living in a world where the color of one’s skin would not determine his or her character.
Wright, R. (2001). The ethics of living Jim Crow: An autobiographical sketch. In P. Rothenberg (Ed.). Race, class, and gender in the United States: An integrated study. (5th ed. pp. 21-30). New York: Worth Publishers.
...ether or not the Mozart effect could be applied to them in a school setting. Positively, it was shown that the children scored higher on a spatial ability task of paper folding after listening to Mozart, although the results, just like every other study concluded, seemed to last only for the duration of the test which was around 10-15 minutes. One must also keep in mind that many tests never endeavoured to delve into whether or not the results could be reproduced later without the need of Mozart’s sonata.
The past research about the effect of music on the brain is called the Mozart Effect. The Mozart Effect refers to claims that people perform better on tests of spatial abilities after listening to music composed by Mozart. This experience examined whether the Mozart effect is a result of differences in stimulation and temper. (William Forde Thompson, E. Glenn Schellenberg and Gabriela Husain, 2001). A research was made by Dr.Gordon Shaw at UCI and Fran Rauscher about this Mozart effect. The experience is to use college students who listened to Mozart’s symphonies while they are solving a spatial temporal task. This task is a famous one: the paper folding and cutting test. The results were astonishing. In fact, all the students recorded impressi...
In conclusion it is apparent that the Mozart effect does not actually exist in the way that it has been promoted. The effect is related to changes in arousal states from listening to music. The initial findings may indicate a researcher bias and preference for Mozart’s music. Further examination would have lead the researchers to conclude the effects are not limited to Mozart’s music. Unfortunately, this information was misrepresented and has lead to the wide spread belief that listening to Mozart’s music results in an increase in intelligence.
Positive test results have shown that this is true. Different findings have suggested that “different types of music instruction affect different aspects of cognition” (Rauscher, 2003, pp. 3-4). Rauscher found effects from a number of research studies, connecting keyboard instruction and aspects of cognition. In one of these tests, the preschoolers that were tested showed a 46 percent boost in their spatial IQ after taking eight months of keyboard lessons (Rauscher, 2003). Another test showed students scoring 51 points higher on verbal and 39 points higher on math from their SATs after participating in fine arts (Mitofsky, 2002). Scientific studies have shown how active music making, as opposed to passive listening improves brainpower. This increases spatial-temporal reasoning, and increases test scores (AMC, 2004).