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Important examples of racism
Racism in America Today Examples
Important examples of racism
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I hate my mom. My mom gets on my nerves. I respect my mom’s actions. I understand her actions. I agree with my mom’s actions. I love my mom. James perspective of his mother in the Color of Water is drastically different throughout the book. He sees his mom as an embarrassment to him, he respects his mom, and finally, he loves his mom. Things can change rapidly and things can change over a lifetime; James perspective took a lifetime to change. It all had to start somewhere and James perspective started at the bottom. Has your mom ever done something that just made you want to run and hide? I know my mom has and so did James mom. Ruth was a white woman who married a black man, had black children, and lived in a black neighborhood. “When I was …show more content…
fourteen, my mother took up two new hobbies: riding a bicycle and playing the piano. The piano I didn’t mind, but the bicycle drove me crazy. It was a huge old clunker, blue with white trim, with big fat tires, huge fenders, and a battery-powered horn built into the middle of the frame with a button you pushed to make it blow”(pg.
5). Ruth would openly ride her bike through the neighborhood displaying her color for all to see. This really embarrassed James. The fact that he had a white mother was an embarrassment to him enough, then she broadcasts it to every black person in a 2-mile radius. Also, Ruth was very proud and feisty. In fact, living in the neighborhood, she lived in should have made her tamer and want to fly under the radar, at least that’s what James thought. As a result of her personality is the way it was it made James even more embarrassed. He didn’t understand why she acted the way she did. How she could have so much confidence. Why she would even want to be seen. James just didn’t understand. He couldn’t stand when she would argue with someone or broadcast her color to all. “I could not understand such anger. I could not understand why she didn’t just give up the milk. Why cause a fuss? I thought. My own embarrassment overrode all other feelings” (pg. 101). In this section James accidentally bought spoiled milk and Ruth yelled at the store owner making a big scene, embarrassing James as a result. To sum it all up he …show more content…
didn’t understand how she could not live scared or timid. James hated his mother in an innocent way. True hate wasn’t possible because he still cared about her. “When they were out of sight, I turned to the Black Panther’s son sitting behind me and punched him square in the face with my fist. The kid held his jaw and stared at me in shock as his face melted into a knot a disbelief and tears”(pg. 36). This quote shows he obviously cares for her, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t hate her or that she didn’t get on his nerves. James didn’t understand his mom's actions but that can and does changes as he matures and grows. Sometimes my mom will say or do something and it will just make me so angry. I used to not get why she would do things, why she would say things. Through the years I’ve grown and matured and now at this point in my life I still don’t like all my mom's actions but understand them. This is how I feel at this point in my life about my mother. Interestingly enough James felt a similar way at about the same age as me. As a result of the neighborhood, James grew up in he fell into the wrong crowd and wrong path. During his days he would spend much time smoking weed or other illegal activities. Like any other teenager he still was annoyed with his mom and how confident she was, but after meeting Chicken Man he began to mature. ”You ain’t no smarter than anybody here. If your smart, why you got to come on this corner every summer? ‘Cause you flunkin’ school! You think if you drop out of school somebody’s gonna beg you to go back? Hell no! They won’t beg your black ass to go back. What makes you so special that they’ll beg you? Who are you? You ain’t nobody! If you want to drop out of school and shoot people and hang in this corner all your life, go ahead. It’s your life”(pg. 150) The words that Chicken Man said to him really kicked him in the teeth. They pulled him back into existence, which was just what he needed. Following the transformations that took place, he respected Ruth’s actions at least. He still did not understand everything she did but he respected them at least. “I could not understand such anger. I could not understand why she didn’t just give up the milk. Why cause a fuss” (pg. 101)? Also during the spoiled milk scene, he doesn’t understand why she is so mad, but he respects that she is angry. James respects her actions even though he does not understand them, but this transformation doesn’t happen until a little later on in his life. After he met Chicken Man and matured in the way that he did. Finally, James matures to the point that he loves what his mom did in that grocery store and her confidence level. My mom is a hero.
She has fought through adversity. She has made mistakes that made her the hero she is today. No matter what she is a hero. This is not a direct quote from James, but I imagine if asked the question of who his mother is near the end of his life this is the answer you would receive. Following the events of chicken man and the maturing that occurred in his life, James went back to his mother’s hometown to get a better understanding of who she is.”I don’t remember the name of the town where I was born, but I do remember my Jewish name: Ruchel Dwarjra Zylska. My parents got rid of that name when we came to America and changed it to Rachel Deborah Shilsky, and I got rid of that name when I was nineteen and never used it again after I left Virginia for good in 1941. Rachel Shilsky is dead as far as I’m concerned. She had to die in order for me, the rest of me, to live”(pg. 3). As a result of this visit, James learned that Ruth changed her name to sound not Jewish. This rung a few bells in James' head and connected a few dots. It forced him to see the adversity that Ruth had faced from everyone around her. Even her own father gave his own set of challenges that she had to fight through. “He’d wear those black pants till they glazed and shined and were ripe enough to stand in the corner by themselves, but God helps you if those pants were coming your way in a hurry because he was nobody to fool with, my father. He was hard as a rock”(pg.2). As you can see Ruth lived
an abusive childhood for years. James had the revelation that this type of childhood would tear most people down and make them small, but not his mom. His mom built herself up. She gained confidence and power rather than feeling weak and helpless. His mom helped herself. This realization completely flipped his perspective. The women who raised him and seemed over-confident or a little short tempered was a hero. She was overconfident because she deserved to be. After living the life she lived and thriving she deserved to be confident. Maybe she was a little short tempered but that is because she had to fight for herself. No one else fought for her. The events that took place in his mother’s hometown was the turning point in his perspective of his mom. He now doesn’t just respect he understands her actions. Following the reading and analyzation of the perspective of James and how it developed, I attempted to put myself in his shoes. If it were me I would be dumbfounded by the amazing brave women I had as a mother. Sometimes my mom really gets on my nerves and quite often I don’t understand her actions, so to get an explanation of why she does everything she does would be so overwhelming and helpful. My perspective would do a 540. I would turn in circles for so long at that, but finding the answer would be liberating. I hate my mom. My mom gets on my nerves. I respect my mom’s actions. I understand her actions. I agree with my mom’s actions. I love my mom. James matured so much through his life from beginning to end and his perspective of his mother changed right along with him. The events that occurred along the way are what got him from hate/annoyance to love/understanding. James perspective of his mother is drastically different throughout the book. He sees his mom as an embarrassment to him, he respects his mom, and finally, he loves his mom. As a result of the events in his life, the perspective of Ruth went from villain to hero in James mind. That turn around is dumbfounding and truly amazing.
Throughout Ruth’s journey, after the death of her husband, she finds different ways to make a living for herself and her daughter. She does whatever she has to do for her daughters, even it means to leave the role of the “traditional” woman. Once she steps down as the role of the “traditional” woman, she looks for different jobs in order to support her children she cares about. Despite all of this, her own family still believes that she is incapable to take care of herself and her children. They put her down constantly by stating that she is much better
Unknown, to James at this point he did not realize that he was having a problem with a psychological theory called behaviorism. Now this theory is one that is saying human behavior is developed through learning experiences which in this case would apply to James. His behavior as an adult was reflected by the way he was treated as a kid by his father and mother because they fought all the time. They never truly paid any attention to him, which in terms taught him how to stay out of their way and learn how to steal and burglarize places without getting caught. Therefore, within the psychological theory of behaviorism Behaviorists saw crime as something that is a learned response to life’s situations such as James situation which led him to a life of crime because of his parents. Although, he was never truly mistreated, he did not receive his father attention due to the fact of the way his father was treated as a child growing up an abusive household. Therefore, he did not want to place his son in the same situation. There is also the fact that James could be suffering from the psychodynamic theory which says that a person’s personality can be controlled by their unconscious mental process and that is grounded in them in early childhood. These entire things such as the id, ego, and superego
In conclusion, the fact that Ruth lived through so much trauma from her father most likely brought out the strength in her heart, and caused her to realize that she wants a good life for her children instead of the trauamtic life that she lived through in her own childhood. Ruth’s overall identity could be explicity explained as a mother who is strong, has a lot of faith in God, and a woman with a lot of value and love for all of her twelve children. Ruth Mcbride’s strength and confidence helps herself through the hardships of her childhood, her relationships with Dennis and Hunter, as well as James Mcbride and the rest of her children. She developed the identity of a strong-willed mother, lover, and a woman of God.
It causes a drift into their family and it influenced James from then on out. A few months after he died, everything changed. James writes, “She sent us off to school and tried to maintain her crazy house as usual, ranting about this and that, but the fire was gone. In the evening, she often sat at the kitchen table completely lost in thought” (137). When Ruth becomes lost in her own world, her behavior influences James. They both grieved for his death in different ways yet, his mothers grieve influenced him the most. Seeing her slowly fall apart was too much for James. He started skipping school, shoplifting, hanging with the wrong crowd, and he eventually became addicted to smoking reefer or drinking alcohol. Slowly, James is sinking into a hole he can't climb out of with all of his bad decisions. On an afternoon, after James nearly dies, he talks with chicken man, “Everybody on the corner is smart. You ain't no smarter than anybody here. If you so smart, why got to come on this corner every summer? ‘Cause you flunking school! You think if you drop out of school somebody's gonna beg you to g back? Hell no. They won't beg your black ass to go back. What makes you so special that they'll beg you! Who are you? You ain't nobody! If you want to drop out of school and shoot people ad hang on this corner all your life, go ahead, it's your life” (150). After James spoke with Chicken
No one may have understood Ruth’s actions and her motives for doing what she did, but Ruth knew what she was getting herself into. She wanted a better life for herself and her twelve children, which she accomplished. Although many may not agree with her process of achieving her goals, she still managed to raise twelve successful men and women. Through all the miseries and tragedies, Ruth picked herself up and moved on. I am proud of her.
Growing up, Ruth had a rough childhood growing up in a very strict jewish household. Her family was poor, her mother was physically handicapped, her father was verbally and physically abusive, and she faced prejudice and discrimination from her neighbors and classmates because she
Morrison places emphasis on Ruth’s upbringing in order to convey her idea. Ruth was born into an upper class setting and from a young age had the things that some of the white girls had and it made her feel good as well as beautiful because she had the dresses and all of the beautiful European materialistic things that they had. Ruth spent her childhood in an environment that was more Europeanized than that of her racial community with no one there that was like her making her feel that she is, “little; I mean small, and I’m small because I was pressed small. I lived in a great big house that pressed me into a small package. I had no friends, only schoolmates who wanted to touch my dress and my white silk stockings"(124),Ruth’s childhood consisted of her receiving compliments on the materialist things which she perceived as making her beautiful and therefor making her feel as though she is the clothes and not a naturally gorgeous African American woman and has in turn internalized the compliments on her items as her beauty and now feels that the only thing that makes her beautiful are her clothes For Ruth the white stockings and all the European clothes have consumed Ruth, but much like Hagar; Morrison uses Ruth to emphasis and
As a boy, James questions his unique family and color through his confusion of race issues. Later in his life, as an adolescent, his racial perplexity results in James hiding from his emotions, relying only on the anger he felt against the world. It is only when James uncovers the past of his mother does he begin to understand the complexity of himself and form his own identity. As James matures, issues of race in his life become too apparent to ignore. His multiracial family provides no clear explanations on prejudices and racism, and when "[James] asked [Ruth] if she was white, she'd say, No. I'm light skinned and change the subject.
Cecilia was diagnosed with cancer while Ruth was in high school and the day before her daughter’s graduation, she passed away (Salokar & Volcansek, 1996). One of the greatest influences on Ruth’s life was her mother and the values she instilled in her from a young age. Two of the greatest lessons that Ruth learned from her mother was to be independent and to be a lady, and by that she meant not to respond in anger but to remain calm in situations (Reynolds, 2009).... ... middle of paper ... ...
Ruth has an intriguing personality. She is very loving towards her family. She will do all in her power to improve the lifestyle of her family. When it appears that the deal for the house in Clybourne Park will fall through, she promises to dedicate all of her time to make the investment work. “Lena-I’ll work… I’ll work 20 hours a day in all the kitchens in Chicago…I’ll strap my baby on my back if I have to and scrub all the floors and wash all the sheets in America if I have to-but we have to MOVE!” she pleads to her mother-in-law (Hansberry140). Her plan is unrealistic and idealistic, but the well being of her family is more important to her than anything. Ruth is also witty and sarcastic at times. She cracks jokes to lighten the mood of her family when they’re worried. “Well that’s the way the cracker crumbles. Joke. (121)” When Beneatha and Mama are stressing over the neighborhood they are moving into, Ruth makes a witty joke to improve the mood. Ruth supervises the daily routine and well being of her family. She makes sure that everyone does what they are supposed to and stays on track. ...
Because of the laws against colored people, Rosaleen, as a black woman, lives with constraints in her life. For example, she cannot live in a house with white people (Kidd, p.8), she cannot represent Lily at the charm school (Kidd, p.19), or even travel in a car with white people (Kidd, p.76). The media is also influenced by racism, and constantly shows news about segregation such as the case of Martin Luther King, who is arrested because he wants to eat in a restaurant (Kidd, p.35), the “man in Mississippi was killed for registering to vote” (Kidd, p.44), and the motel in Jackson, that closes, because the owners don’t want to rent rooms to black people (Kidd, p.99).... ... middle of paper ...
The author distinguishes white people as privileged and respectful compare to mulattos and blacks. In the racial society, white people have the right to get any high-class position in job or live any places. In the story, all white characters are noble such as Judge Straight lawyer, Doctor Green, business-man George, and former slaveholder Mrs. Tryon. Moreover, the author also states the racial distinction of whites on mulattos. For example, when Dr. Green talks to Tryon, “‘The niggers,’…, ‘are getting mighty trifling since they’ve been freed. Before the war, that boy would have been around there and back before you could say Jack Robinson; now, the lazy rascal takes his time just like a white man.’ ” (73) Additionally, in the old society, most white people often disdained and looked down on mulattos. Even though there were some whites respected colored people friendly, there were no way for colored people to stand parallel with whites’ high class positions. The story has demonstrations that Judge Straight accepted John as his assistant, Mrs. Tryon honor interviewed Rena, and George finally changed and decided to marry Rena; however, the discrimination is inevitable. For example, when Mrs. Tryon heard Rena was colored, she was disappointed. “The lady, who had been studying her as closely as good manners would permit, sighed regretfully.” (161) There, Mrs. Tryon might have a good plan for Rena, but the racial society would not accept; since Rena was a mulatto, Mrs. Tryon could not do anything to help Rena in white social life. The racial circumstance does not only apply on mulattos, but it also expresses the suffering of black people.
The first problem Ruth faces is how to support her family. Accused of not paying enough attention to her son, Ruth snaps at Mama shouting, “I feed my son, Lena!” (1880). This encounter with Mama displays an uptight, stressed side of Ruth, who balances a job, a son, her husband, and keeping the expected baby a secret. With so much preoccupying her mind, Ruth still tries to make money while feeling ill telling Mama, “I have to go. We need the money,” (1881). Money becomes a topic of great interest in the Younger family causing everyone to worry entirely too much about it. Ruth puts her family before herself caring about their conditions and the money they make over her own health. The next struggle Ruth encounters is deciding what option is best for her family and possible new baby. After finding out about the pregnancy, Ruth assures her family “she”, the doctor, confirmed everything is fine (1888). The slip up reveals that Ruth is considering getting an abortion. Furthermore, pushing her own conflict aside, Ruth still supports her family’s dreams, encouraging Mama to “open it”, meaning the check, for Mama’s own benefit and use toward a better lifestyle (1893). Ruth solves her own conflict by deciding to keep the baby and motivate her family in whatever way possible in the new challenges to
This source goes generally explains the history of colorism and how it relates to slavery. It is relevant because it shows how black woman were sexually exploited by their slave masters. This unfortunate occurrence then is lead to the conception of a mixed race child. The subject of sexual exploitation goes hand and hand when talking about woman affected by colorism. Women of a darker skin tone are often perceived to be promiscuous, single mothers who have children with multiple men. Most would assume that the fathers of the children are not involved with in their lives; which is parallel to what occurred during slavery. During slavery, when the child was old enough, he or she was able to work and live in the slave masters house. These mixed race children were referred to “house Negros.” They were clothed, fed, and treated differently than slaves that did hard, physical labor in the fields. This can be compared to the treatment of people of color today. People of a lighter skin tone are thought to have more access to social opportunities than people of a darker skin tone. My mother is a figure in my life that has faced these social issues of sexual exploitation and discrimination as a black woman. She has had a career in a professional setting and although these statics that black women face are not in her favor she has still managed
James was an authoritarian parent. He was controlling, in-charge and no one questioned him. He would play the role of the doting father. When his children made mistakes, he made a point to criticize them. He often compared them to other kids that he felt were “more perfect.” When his often unspoken expectations were not met he would yell and scream striking fear into his entire family. “He’s not a warm, fuzzy kind of guy, and he’s not going to inspire feelings of intimacy. But when his system works, he can boast about one thing: His recruits tend to obey” (Dewar).