In American society the “F” word has been deemed a cuss word, a dirty word. It’s a simple, four letter word that shouldn’t be used. In Firoozeh Dumas’s essay, “The ‘F Word’”, she gives a new light to a different “F” word with the same context in our culture today with the help of her Iranian background. Firoozeh Dumas criticises the American ability to adapt to different and unfamiliar cultures through humor, empathy, and metaphors. She begins by drawing people to read her essay merely with her title, “The ‘F Word’”, and its implied meaning that comes to most people’s minds at first glance. It brings humor that draws in people, namely close minded Americans, who wouldn’t originally be open to learning an opposing side to something they strongly believe in. Then she starts by using “F” names such as “Farbod… kids called him ‘farthead,’” and “Farshid… became ‘Fartshit’” (Dumas para 1) to develop the idea of new “F”words. The simple beginning gets readers laughing and eases them into the subject without proclaiming her argument …show more content…
and turning people away. It hooks people onto the subject, making them want to read more and subconsciously makes readers more susceptible to understanding and accepting her side of the argument. Names like Farbod, Farshid, and Neggar, “She whose name almost incites riots” (1), are used to lighten the heavy mood that she creates by evoking compassion in her readers through the telling of her family’s names and how their meanings changed once they came to America.
She uses her friend’s name, Neggar, to invoke feelings of sympathy by relating her issue to a derogatory name from African Americans, who had their own problems in gaining acceptance in American culture. The alternative meanings bring up the deep rooted American issue of bullying, allowing Dumas’s argument about American acceptance to be sympathized with rather than being branded an unimportant issue that goes unrecognized by most American’s as an non-issue compared to other problems going on in our nation that make the front pages of newspapers. Using sympathy to connect her argument to other emotional topics allows her to rally support from unsuspecting
Americans. Then Dumas gains her readers trust by sharing her personal story with them. How “Firoozeh… means ‘Turquoise,’” but “In America, it means ‘Unpronounceable,’ or ‘I’m not going to talk to you because I cannot possibly learn your name and I just don’t want to have to ask you again and again because you’ll think I’m dumb or you might get upset or something” (4). Then once she changed her name to Julie, a simple American name, she still felt like she was living a double life. With her past still looming around her, it made her life seem fake in spite the fact that she was finally getting what she wanted, which was to fit in. Dumas shares her troubled childhood due to her name which increased her knowledge about her argument for American acceptance to uncommon and unfamiliar names in order to increase her credibility among her readers. This increases her expertise on her argument, making her more credible and trustworthy to any readers who would doubt her ability to be writing on the subject of the American ability to adapt to foreign cultures. She creates a metaphor for adding dificult names to the American vocabulary by comparing it to adding a new spice to the spice cabinet. In a land of Marys and Joes, “move over, cinnamon and nutmeg, make way for cardamom and sumac” (4). She relates spices to names in saying that we cook with spices that are more commonly known and easy to remember in our culture rather than reaching out to try something new. Like how in our culture, we prefer not to learn different names because they aren’t what we’re used to, we’re afraid of offending them so we don’t try something new just because it might be difficult. Firoozeh Dumas creates an emotionally charged essay with plenty of humor to help readers better understand her argument without turning them away from the idea. She uses the emotions and humor to denounce the American practice of not being accepting of other cultures that are difficult and unfamiliar. Just like the spice cabinet, we need to be open to trying new things before dismissing them because it’s new and unknown.
Firoozeh Dumas’s essay “The ‘F word”” is not about what people really think it is. When people hear the someone mention the “F” word all sorts of things pop into their head. Yet Firoozeh Dumas twist that. Dumas takes a stereotype in the title to grab our attention. In the article, Firoozeh Dumas tries to explain her experience as an immigrant from Iran to the US. Dumas tries to show how hard it was for her to come to America and live with her name. This blatantly apparent during her childhood because the children would make fun of her and the rest of her family’s name. To counter this Firoozeh decided to add Julie as an American middle name so strangers would not feel so awkward around her. Julie became the author’s middle name which caused her to play a “double role” in her life. This was because her family knew her as Firoozeh and her friends and coworkers that knew her as Julie. Later when she became a stay at home mom Dumas decided to be called by her first name. This return caused her some uncomfortable situations because the “double role” collided. Dumas states, “make room in [the] spice cabinet.” because she
Ever since the abolition of slavery in the United States, America has been an ever-evolving nation, but it cannot permanently erase the imprint prejudice has left. The realities of a ‘post-race world’ include the acts of everyday racism – those off-handed remarks, glances, implied judgments –which flourish in a place where explicit acts of discrimination have been outlawed. It has become a wound that leaves a scar on every generation, where all have felt what Rankine had showcased the words in Ligon’s art, “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background” (53). Furthermore, her book works in constant concert with itself as seen in the setting of the drugstore as a man cuts in front of the speaker saying, “Oh my god, I didn’t see you./ You must be in a hurry, you offer./ No, no, no, I really didn’t see you” (77). Particularly troublesome to the reader, as the man’s initial alarm, containing an assumed sense of fear, immediately changing tone to overtly insistent over what should be an accidental mistake. It is in these moments that meaning becomes complex and attention is heightened, illuminating everyday prejudice. Thus, her use of the second person instigates curiosity, ultimately reaching its motive of self-reflections, when juxtaposed with the other pieces in
The novel The Garies and their Friends is a realistic examination of the complex psychology of blacks who try to assimilate through miscegenation and crossing the color barrier by “passing as white.” Frank J. Webb critiques why blacks cannot pass as being white through the characters Mr. Winston and Clarence Jr.
Brent Staples and Richard Rodriguez’s autobiographical essays both start out with a problem, but they deal with it in different ways. Brent Staples’ “Just Walk on By” deals with the issue of racism and social judgment he faces because he is African-American, while Rodriguez’s essay “Complexion,” details the self-hatred and shame he felt in his childhood because of his skin color. Both of these essays deal with race, appearance, and self-acceptance, but the authors write about them in different ways. When looking at the similarities and differences together, the points of these essays have a much stronger message about how to deal with discrimination.
In the modern society, millions of people realize that several offensive words with insulting taboo meanings heavily disturb their daily lives and break some special groups of people’s respect to push them to feel like outsiders of the whole society. As a result, more and more people join some underway movements to eliminate the use of these offensive words in people’s everyday speech and writing. However, these offensive words themselves are not the culprit, the bad meanings people attach are the problems and some other functions of the words are useful in the society. Christopher M. Fairman the author of “ Saying It Is Hurtful, Banning It Is Worse” also argues that although
“The “F Word”” is a great story of Firoozeh Dumas who opens a wide window about the problems and struggles of immigrants in America. Firoozeh Dumas was born in Iran, and she moved back and forth between her native country and America. She finally stabilized her life in California with her family at the age of eleven. She attended the University of California at Berkeley and got married with a Frenchman over there. Firoozeh Dumas is an amazing writer that is well known by many fantastic writings such as “Funny in Farsi,” “Laughing without an Accent,” and “The “F Word”.” “The “F Word”” is one of her best short stories that deeply expresses the problems as well as the struggles of immigrants in the United States. That is her own story, her own
One's identity is a very valuable part of their life, it affects the Day to day treatment others give them which can lead to how the individual feels emotionally. Atticus, defending Tom Robinson, who is an african american man from the plaintiff of the case, Mayella Ewell, who is a caucasian woman, accusing that Tom raped her is supposivly a lob sided case. During the great depression, any court session that contained a person of color against a caucasian would always contain the “white” individual winning the case. The cause of the bias outcome comes from the lawyer of the african american does not try to defend or the jury goes against the person of color simply because their black, this shows the effect of racism to anyone’s identity in the courtroom for a case simply because of race. Atticus, deciding to take Tom Robinson’s case seriously sacrifices his identity as the noble man he is, to being called many names for this action, such as “nigger lover”. He is questioned by
Danielle Evans’ second story “Snakes” from the collection of short stories, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self depict a biracial girl who has been pressured due to her grandmother’s urge to dominate her. The story pictures her suffering with remarkable plot twist in the end of the story. Evans utilize a profound approach on how to bring readers to closely examine racism implicitly, to make readers recognize the actions may lead to social discrimination and its consequences that are often encountered in our daily life.
In the article “In praise of the “F” Word” Mary Sherry discusses the “F” word, which means failure. Basically Mary Sherry stated that the kids of today are getting cheated out of a good education. They are passing through the school system because some are good kids and they do not create any problems in the classroom. But, at the same time employers are also being cheated because they expect graduates to have the basic skills. She also stated that Diplomas are considered meaningless because most of these kids who were awarded one could not read or write properly and therefore, they are back in night school along with adults who are trying to get their G.E.D.
There were countless uses of the word fuck and motherfucker. Also, there were instances of moderate to mild language such as “dickhead”, “jerking me off”, and “pricks”. Finally, some of the language used is sexual/biological such as "go fuck yourself", "motherfucker", and “butt-fucked.” (I apologize for typing the language used here, but I felt it helped to answer the question.)
In his collection of essays in Nobody Knows My Name, James Baldwin uses “Fifth Avenue, Uptown” to establish the focus that African Americans no matter where they are positioned would be judged just by the color of their skin. Through his effective use of descriptive word choice, writing style and tone, Baldwin helps the reader visualize his position on the subject. He argues that “Negroes want to be treated like men” (Baldwin, 67).
In “Citizens: An American Lyric” by Claudia Rankine the audience is placed in a world where racism strongly affects the daily American cultural and social life. In this world we are put as the eyewitnesses and victims, the bystanders and the participants of racial encounters that happen in our daily lives and in the media, yet we have managed to ignore them for the mere fact that we are accustomed to them. Some of these encounters may be accidental slips, things that we didn’t intend to say and that we didn’t mean yet they’ve managed to make it to the surface. On the other hand we have the encounters that are intentionally offensive, things said that are
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).
Baldwin and his ancestors share this common rage because of the reflections their culture has had on the rest of society, a society consisting of white men who have thrived on using false impressions as a weapon throughout American history. Baldwin gives credit to the fact that no one can be held responsible for what history has unfolded, but he remains restless for an explanation about the perception of his ancestors as people. In Baldwin?s essay, his rage becomes more directed as the ?power of the white man? becomes relevant to the misfortune of the American Negro (Baldwin 131). This misfortune creates a fire of rage within Baldwin and the American Negro. As Baldwin?s American Negro continues to build the fire, the white man builds an invisible wall around himself to avoid confrontation about the actions of his ?forefathers? (Baldwin 131). Baldwin?s anger burns through his other emotions as he writes about the enslavement of his ancestors and gives the reader a shameful illusion of a Negro slave having to explai...
Noughts and Crosses is an in depth story which explores the issues of racism and prejudice and the effects they can have on society. Blackman has created a world of her own in complete contrast to the society we live in. By doing this she has impacted her readers, challenged our contexts and allowed the reader insight into the effects of racism and the suffering it can cause. Blackman has effectively used a range of narrative techniques to bring her world to life giving the white reader a taste of the discrimination blacks have suffered for centuries, provoking feelings of empathy and understanding. By turning the world upside down, Blackman makes her readers see things more clearly.