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Recommended: Racism in literature
Literary Appreciation #1- “Incident” by Countee Cullen
“Incident”, is a poem that was written to make us as readers think, not only about racism but also about how one occasion can allow us to judge a race, or a place. Racism is an issue that plagues not only African-Americans but also other creeds, genders, and races. In this essay I will discuss the poem and the role that racism took within it, by using personal knowledge, the text, and obtained research.
The poem in its self takes on a rhyme scheme that allows you the reader to feel the narrator, so that you can not only imagine that you were there, but you can also almost gather the same feelings as the narrator. In the begin he talks about how he first rode through Baltimore happy, and filled with glee. Unti...
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker starts by telling the reader the place, time and activity he is doing, stating that he saw something that he will always remember. His description of his view is explained through simile for example “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets of their branches” (Updike), captivating the reader’s attention
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
Countee LeRoy Cullen was one of the leading poets of the Harlem Renaissance. Although there is no real account of his early life, his accomplishments throughout his time was magnificent. During the Harlem Renaissance, he and other writers and poets used their work to empower blacks and talk about the ongoing struggle of blacks. His poem, “Incident”, depicts how overt racism was and how it attacked anyone regardless age or gender.
Through the study of life and literature, one can tell that racism continues to be truly pervasive. In Nikky Finney’s “Dancing with Strom”, the reader can witness the tension that exists between the races in society today. Although the poem shows how as times progress, mentalites seem to change as well, it is evident that many African Americans, such as Nikky Finney, still live in fear of the racism that hides and lurks in the corners.
African-Americans aged 12 and up are the most victimized group in America. 41.7 over 1,000 of them are victims of violent crimes, compared with whites (36.3 over 1,000). This does not include murder. Back then during the era of the Jim Crow laws, it was even worse. However, during that time period when there were many oppressed blacks, there were many whites who courageously defied against the acts of racism, and proved that the color of your skin should not matter. This essay will compare and contrast two Caucasian characters by the names of Hiram Hillburn (The Mississippi Trial, 1955) and Celia Foote (The Help), who also went against the acts of prejudice.
In his poems, Langston Hughes treats racism not just a historical fact but a “fact” that is both personal and real. Hughes often wrote poems that reflect the aspirations of black poets, their desire to free themselves from the shackles of street life, poverty, and hopelessness. He also deliberately pushes for artistic independence and race pride that embody the values and aspirations of the common man. Racism is real, and the fact that many African-Americans are suffering from a feeling of extreme rejection and loneliness demonstrate this claim. The tone is optimistic but irritated. The same case can be said about Wright’s short stories. Wright’s tone is overtly irritated and miserable. But this is on the literary level. In his short stories, he portrays the African-American as a suffering individual, devoid of hope and optimism. He equates racism to oppression, arguing that the African-American experience was and is characterized by oppression, prejudice, and injustice. To a certain degree, both authors are keen to presenting the African-American experience as a painful and excruciating experience – an experience that is historically, culturally, and politically rooted. The desire to be free again, the call for redemption, and the path toward true racial justice are some of the themes in their
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
Without details, the words on a page would just simply be words, instead of gateways to a different time or place. Details help promote these obstacles, but the use of tone helps pull in personal feelings to the text, further helping develop the point of view. Point of view is developed through the story through descriptive details and tone, giving the reader insight to the lives of each author and personal experiences they work through and overcome. Issa Rae’s “The Struggle” fully emplefies the theme of misplaced expectations placed on African Americans, but includes a far more contemporary analysis than Staples. Rae grapples as a young African-American woman that also struggles to prove her “blackness” and herself to society’s standards, “I feel obligated to write about race...I slip in and out of my black consciousness...sometimes I’m so deep in my anger….I can’t see anything outside of my lens of race” (Rae, 174). The delicate balance between conformity and non-conformity in society is a battle fought daily, yet Rae maintains an upbeat, empowering solution, to find the strength to accept yourself before looking for society’s approval and to be happy in your own skin. With a conversational, authoritative, humorous, confident and self-deprecating tone, Rae explains “For the majority of my life, I cared too much about my blackness was perceived, but now?... I couldn’t care less. Call it maturation or denial or self-hatred- I give no f%^&s.” (Rae 176), and taking the point of view that you need to stand up to racism, and be who you want to be not who others want you to be by accepting yourself for who you are. Rae discusses strength and empowerment in her point of view so the tone is centered around that. Her details all contribute to the perspectives as well as describing specific examples of racism she has encountered and how she has learned from those
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.
...ites a short 33-line poem that simply shows the barriers between races in the time period when racism was still openly practiced through segregation and discrimination. The poem captures the African American tenant’s frustrations towards the landlord as well as the racism shown by the landlord. The poem is a great illustration of the time period, and it shows how relevant discrimination was in everyday life in the nineteen-forties. It is important for the author to use the selected literary devices to help better illustrate his point. Each literary device in the poem helps exemplify the author’s intent: to increase awareness of the racism in the society in the time period.
The history of African-American oppression began in the early 1600s as slaves arrived on America’s shores. For hundreds of years, African-Americans struggled against crippling segregation, terrorism, and racial enmity to no avail. As a result of extensive physical and psychological beatings, African-Americans became fearful and very reserved in expressing their emotions. Their suffering, however, fuelled a sense of courage in some, such as African-American poets, who found the strength to address uncertainties that others had against their racial identity. These brave men included George Horton, who wrote “Liberty and Slavery”, and Paul Dunbar, author of “We Wear a Mask”. Through their powerful race-protest poetry, Horton and Dunbar portray that African-Americans feel incessantly trapped, both physically and emotionally, resulting in a deep-rooted yearning for freedom.
“Motivation is the process whereby goal-orientated activity is instigated and sustained” (Schunk, Pintrich & Meece, 2008. As cited in Eggen & Kauchak, 2010, p.284). Motivation comes in many forms and can be divided into two broad categories - extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivators are external factors which can motivate a student; rewards are an example of this. An issue with extrinsic motivators is that the desire for the learner to participate often lessens, once the rewards are withdrawn (McCullers, 1987). On the other hand intrinsic motivation comes from within - learning for the joy of it - where the desire to learn leads to a higher level of knowledge, and is a reward in itself. Kohn (1996, p.285) states that research suggests, “Rewards actually decrease interest in intrinsically motivating tasks, therefore sending the wrong message about learning” (as cited in Eggen & Kauchak, 2010a)
Electronic waste, or e-waste, refers to all consumer electronic products that are ready to be discarded into the waste stream. Once these devices are deposited into landfills, toxic substances leach into the earth and into the water supply. According to a recent study from the Government Accountability Office, 50 million computers become outdated each year, and studies suggest that between 315 and 600 million desktop and laptop computers will soon be obsolete.
Electronic waste, or any waste for that matter is an inevitable part of an economic system where the destruction of an ecosystem is the primarily source of resources that are used to create the product. The waste that occurs from this process has to be disposed of in some way and more often than not, it is disposed of carelessly with out consideration to the affect it would have on the environment or the very people that create and let capitalism live on, “The political economy approach also defers progress on environmental issues to a pint after economic ones are solved” (Robbins et al. 2010, 114). And if this continues there may be no place left for the excess waste created by capitalism.
Over the course of the century chronicling the helm of slavery, the emancipation, and the push for civil, equal, and human rights, black literary scholars have pressed to have their voice heard in the midst a country that would dare classify a black as a second class citizen. Often, literary modes of communication were employed to accomplish just that. Black scholars used the often little education they received to produce a body of works that would seek to beckon the cause of freedom and help blacks tarry through the cruelties, inadequacies, and inconveniences of their oppressed condition. To capture the black experience in America was one of the sole aims of black literature. However, we as scholars of these bodies of works today are often unsure as to whether or not we can indeed coin the phrase “Black Literature” or, in this case, “Black poetry”. Is there such a thing? If so, how do we define the term, and what body of writing can we use to determine the validity of the definition. Such is the aim of this essay because we can indeed call a poem “Black”. We can define “Black poetry” as a body of writing written by an African-American in the United States that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of an experience or set of experiences inextricably linked to black people, characterizes a furious call or pursuit of freedom, and attempts to capture the black condition in a language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm. An examination of several works of poetry by various Black scholars should suffice to prove that the definition does hold and that “Black Poetry” is a term that we can use.