Mary Anna Benko Honors English 12 Mr. Maloney 2 March 2024 Parallels to American Society in Colson Whitehead’s “The Nickel Boys” In “The Nickel Boys”, Colson Whitehead examines the friendship of Elwood and Turner through their suffering at Nickel Academy. When Elwood is shot by his headmasters of Nickel, Turner carries his identity to preserve his legacy. While the boys’ experiences at Nickel appear traumatic to the readers, they often correspond to the society outside of the institution. Nickel reflects negatively on moments of corruption and racism, emphasizing significant issues in American society. The structure of Nickel is meant to instill racism inside its facility, demonstrating prevalent racial injustice in American society. Significant …show more content…
Additionally, black students face more severe punishment than white students. More specifically, black students of Nickel refer to the white campus: “The White House delivered the law and everyone obeyed”. On the contrary, white students refer to the black campus as “The Ice Cream Shop” (Whitehead 66). The name chosen by the black students criticizes white privilege and corruption in both the American government and Nickel. The name chosen by the white students symbolizes the different colored bruises black students receive from the headmasters, illustrating that black students experience greater violence because of their racial identity. In another example, Nickel organizes an annual boxing match between one black student and one white student. Later revealed, Elwood and Turner become aware of the stageness of the match, recalling: “Turner sat up in surprise when he heard Spencer tell Griff to take a dive” (Whitehead 101). Spencer ensuring that a white student dominates the match preserves white privilege and racial violence inside the …show more content…
Elwood describes the match: “White men from town claimed the folding chairs closest to the ring, then came the staff, and beyond that the student body crammed into the bleachers, squatted on the floor, ashy elbow to ashy elbow” (Whitehead 106). The implementation of a boxing match demonstrates an abuse of power by the staff by encouraging violence among its students. Thus, the boys are exploited to fulfill the selfish desires of the staff. Additionally, headmaster Spencer’s methods of discipline abuse the students. In one scenario, “Elwood held onto the top of the bed but into the pillow and passed out before they were done, so when people asked later how many licks he got, he didn’t know” (Whitehead 69). Nickel, being a reform school, is funded by the government to better its students for society. Spencer’s greed allows him to profit from the abuse of his students, keeping him in a place of authority and wealth. Moreover, corruption is present in the school’s community service program. Nickel is provided with food and school supplies to be utilized by students, however, students are involved in selling these supplies to the school’s outside
Nickel And Dimed: Occupations Barbara Ehrenreich provides evidence in “Nickel and Dimed” that she’s an outstanding author with this book. Its engaging and compelling, no question about that. But it’s hard to get from side to side at times since of the authors attitudes. Her key summit is to carry concentration to the scrape of the working deprived, but she manages to be both abusive and divisive. Occupation on attacking our industrialist system, she fails to become aware of that the endurance of upper classes seems to be what motivates the poor, fairly than what dispirits them. She blames capitalism for the injustices of the world, slightly than easy bad management techniques. A company should be shown that would benefit from a union and it will be shown to all around that one that will promote even better from decent, gentle management decisions. Most irritating, she’s constantly negative about the whole lot, even the positive experiences she has. When one of her colleagues offers to allow her move in with her and her family, not only does Ehrenreich turn the propose down, but she still describes it sneeringly as a "touched by an angel moment." Does she have to dribble with irony yet when writing about an authentically type deed? She condemns "visible Christians," any and all organization, yuppies, anybody who hires and consequently exploits maids, welfare reform, and still tosses in a prod at people who study John Grisham. Is there someone she likes? Her logic is troublesome as well. She begins her research to see if the functioning poor have some financial endurance tactics that the center class don’t know regarding, and decides at the conclusion that no, they don’t, as if admitting that this would signify the poor are imp...
Cause and Effect The author of Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich, began her experiment in Key West because she lived near there. Then she moved to Portland, ME since it was mostly white.
Wenhui Qi Different places, same hard life “To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else”. Barbara Ehrenreich in her book Nickel and Dimed explored life as a low wage earner by working several “unskilled” jobs in different areas of the country and attempted to live off the wages she earned. She undertakes many noble trades, working in low wage and underappreciated jobs while trying to figure out how the people of this country do it every day. She also looks to examine the functional and conflict theories of stratification as they relate to the low wage jobs she pursues. The goal of Barbara was to find out if she would be able to live off the money she earned, and by also having enough money to pay the monthly rent.
In 1994 Renown College Professor Nikki Giovanni published a breath taking book that contains guidance to black college students on how to academically apply their selves in College, and she teaches them how to deal with the ignorance of white people from sharp tonged comebacks to gaining a Professors respect. Along the way The Article “Campus Racism 101” states Giovanni has acquired a tenure, she has a teaching position for life at the predominately white student body Virginia Tech. (Writing on the River 11) Nikki Giovanni’s “Campus Racism 101” gives advice to black students on how to succeed in College, appeals to Giovanni’s credibility, and appeals to the emotions of racism all in order to educate how black College students need to deal with ignorance on a College campus.
The historical context of the book is the story took place in the late 80’s-early 90’s in the streets of Chicago. At this era of time, it had been about 20-30 years after segregation was outlawed, but the effects of years of racism and segregation could be shown in the “hoods” of cities. The author utilizes the two boys’ stories to show what the
In Dalton Conley’s memoir “Honky”, written in 2000, Conley talks about his experience of switching schools to a primarily white elementary school. He discusses the major differences between his prior, very diverse school and his new, primarily caucasian school. He focuses on the main topics of race and class, and how they enhanced the differences between these two schools.
The episode of Everybody Hates Chris that was shown in class is an excellent example of the negative representations of black, lower class people in the media. Specifically, the episode addresses the common black stereotypes of having poor home lives, absent parents, and the overall belief that black people are more violent and aggressive than white people. The episode addresses the everyday stereotyping that comes in a day of the life of a lower-class black, male student at an otherwise all white middle-class school.
In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich, a prominent and prolific journalist in Florida, posed an interesting question to her editor: “How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled” (Ehrenreich, 2001, p. 1). In this idea, Ehrenreich set out on a journey to discover just how “the other half” lived on the low wages that they receive. During her project, Ehrenreich set out playing the role of a divorcee hoping to re enter the workforce by taking on the task of finding an unskilled, low paying job in hopes to see just how the poorer class made it with such low pay. Throughout the book, Ehrenreich takes jobs that pay typically between 5to 7 dollars per hour. It is interesting to look into how the attitude of Ehrenreich changes in respect to the
Nickel and Dimed In the book Nickel and Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich disguised herself as a minimum wage worker, and also lived as one to determine what it is like to live that way. While working as a waitress she met Gail an unsuspecting coworker of Ehrenreich, who actually is living off a minimum wage salary. Even though living off minimum wage is difficult, Barbara Ehrenreich did not have it as difficult as Gail because Ehrenreich could have gone back to her luxurious life anytime she pleased while Gail would have to continue her way of living, and Ehrenreich also had multiple amenities such as the one thousand dollars she had been saving and her hotel room.
I was late for school, and my father had to walk me in to class so that my teacher would know the reason for my tardiness. My dad opened the door to my classroom, and there was a hush of silence. Everyone's eyes were fixed on my father and me. He told the teacher why I was late, gave me a kiss goodbye and left for work. As I sat down at my seat, all of my so-called friends called me names and teased me. The students teased me not because I was late, but because my father was black. They were too young to understand. All of this time, they thought that I was white, because I had fare skin like them, therefore I had to be white. Growing up having a white mother and a black father was tough. To some people, being black and white is a contradiction in itself. People thought that I had to be one or the other, but not both. I thought that I was fine the way I was. But like myself, Shelby Steele was stuck in between two opposite forces of his double bind. He was black and middle class, both having significant roles in his life. "Race, he insisted, blurred class distinctions among blacks. If you were black, you were just black and that was that" (Steele 211).
In public schools, students are subjected to acts of institutional racism that may change how they interact with other students. In the short story “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” by Packer, readers are allowed to view firsthand how institutionalized racism affects Dina, who is the main character in the story. Packer states “As a person of color, you shouldn’t have to fit in any white, patriarchal system” (Drinking Coffee Elsewhere 117). The article “Disguised Racism in Public Schools” by Brodbelt states “first, the attitudes of teachers toward minority group pupils” (Brodbelt 699). Like the ideas in the article “Disguised Racism in Public Schools” Dina encounters institutionalized oppression on orientation day at Yale.
Similarly, in Van Jones’s article, “What Do You Call White Rioters? Anything But Thugs,” in which he explains white people rioting compared to black people, he states how “‘When white people riot because their baseball team won, no one throws around the word ‘thugs.’ But when black people respond to physical violence with protests against inanimate objects, that word is all you hear.” ’ This quote expresses the unjustified social name that people of color receive.
When Moody tries to decide which college to attend after graduating from the primarily black school of Natchez Junior College, she knows that her exemplary grades will get her scholarships. However, Moody battles with the idea that her grades will not hold up to her white peers’ in an integrated school, stating, “I didn’t want the white students to act like they were smarter than me just because they had gotten off to a better start” (page 260). This exemplifies how Moody feels about being a second-hand citizen in a world where her white counterparts have had a much easier start in life. While her family came from slaves without any belongings of their own, the white students grew up without that same fear of racial violence and instability in their lives. Moody knows that it will be harder for her as a black woman to get to the same places as white people in life, and that she must put in ten times the effort.
(Ellison, 411). Even though all of these horrible things are happening to the black boys, the young man doesn’t lose hope in the white men. He still believes that there can be equality among the two races and they can see eye to eye with each other. After the black boys get dressed and are given their money, the M.C. says, “We almost forgot an important part of the program. A most serious part, gentlemen.
A white college student may be invited to his black friend’s home and hear his black friend flippantly use the word, “nigga”. As a white male, to even type this word brings me great discomfort, as it has been enflamed in vitriolic hatred for centuries. But, to the African American in this example, it is a common word no more strange or offensive than “bro” or “dude”. Upon hearing his friend use this word, the white male may consider the scandalous history of that expression and find his black friend to be immoral. However, if he begins to think with social imagination, he may understand why his friend says that word, and he may reflect on what he himself would be saying if he had grown up as a black