“‘Don’t argue with white folks,’ [Luke] had said. ‘Don’t tell them ‘no.’ Don’t let them see you mad. Just say ‘yes, sir.’ Then go ’head and do what you want to do. Might have to take a whippin’ for it later on, but if you want it bad enough, the whippin’ won’t matter much.” (Butler 96). Throughout the years many things have changed with the way we view others. Racial barriers have been destroyed and cultures have united more than they ever have in the past. Groups that used to appose are now together yet there are still issues everywhere you look. Kindred by Octavia Butler and GAME by Walter Dean Myers show prime examples of how powerful language truly is, affecting all of the world in many different ways. One small word can leave a lasting impact on someone forever, creating aggravation and depression. Sticks and stones can definitely break bones but unfortunately words can hurt too. …show more content…
“The only time our neighborhood made it in the news was when something bad happened.” (Myers 39) Chris was from the projects, where life was really tough and most of the kids that grew up in the ghetto were expected to be gang bangers and drug dealers.
Chris was not like that, he really wanted to be successful. All of the people in the town attempted get him into gangs or even sell him drugs. Chris put up a wall to the negative influences for his true love, basketball. Chris was very good at basketball but the coach and team did not give him a chance because he was different. During the first game Chris says, “Don't worry Casey he won’t play us because hes white and we are not.” This shows how much of an effect his skin color really was towards the
coach. Dana has to deal with a lot of the same problems throughout Kindred because she is at the bottom of the ladder. She has to work as a slave with the threat of being beaten nearly every day. “Years ago, I would have sworn there couldn’t even be anybody like you. You’re not natural! But you can feel pain- and you can die. Remember that and do your job. Take care of your master. “ (Butler 243) She has the responsibilities to look after Rufus and many others when they make all kinds of mistakes. Perhaps the strongest word of them all really affects Dana. When anyone uses the word nigger around Dana she automatically tenses up because it is used as such a derogatory term through the early 1800s. When Dana sees the kids out in the field playing the auction house and selling each other as slaves it hits home. This shows how accepting people can be of things around us that happen every day. Sticks and stones have been known to break bones, but the power of words is greatly underrated. They affect people everywhere, whether it be because of the color of people's skin or even because they do something differently. The world is greatly affected and it is slowly getting better but there are always places to improve with linguistic ideas. One small hello to the kid with no friends in the hallway can start a friendship that blows up into best friends forever. Relationships are created if, and only if you reach out and meet new people. The more words of kindness spread, the more happy people around us.
The Adventures of Huck Finn is a very controversial book which brings much debate on whether it should be taught to children in America. The main reason for this debate is because the offensive word ‘nigger’ is used commonly throughout. The book is a classic and is seen to some people as such a great book that we should overlook the offensive word to understand the real lessons Mark Twain wanted to get across. One solution to this ongoing debate is something called the New South Edition, which substitutes ‘nigger’ for a ‘slave’ a word that is less personal and describes the history of America. Dr. Alan Gribben writes about the controversy and how the change effects the new edition. He uses personal anecdote, emotional appeal, historical references.
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines takes place in Louisiana in the 1940’s. When a young African American man named Jefferson is unfairly sentenced to death, school teacher Grant Wiggins is sent to try to make Jefferson a man before he dies. Throughout the novel, racial injustice is shown in both Jefferson and Grant’s lives in the way other people view them.
Laurence Hill’s novel, The Book of Negroes, uses first-person narrator to depict the whole life ofAminata Diallo, beginning with Bayo, a small village in West Africa, abducting from her family at eleven years old. She witnessed the death of her parents with her own eyes when she was stolen. She was then sent to America and began her slave life. She went through a lot: she lost her children and was informed that her husband was dead. At last she gained freedom again and became an abolitionist against the slave trade. This book uses slave narrative as its genre to present a powerful woman’s life.She was a slave, yes, but she was also an abolitionist. She always held hope in the heart, she resist her dehumanization.
In "The Meaning of a Word" and "Being a Chink", Gloria Naylor and Christine Leong examine words of hatred that are meant to scorn, hurt and disgrace people. But these same words could also be used without harmful intentions and in a fashion of endearment amongst the people those words were created for. They each had a different word to discriminate their different culture and ethnicity. These writers discuss the words "nigger" and "chink", which are words in our language mostly ignorant people use. Naylor and Leong are also both minorities who were raised in America. They talk about how discrimination and hatred towards minorities is almost always inevitable in America, which is mostly populated by Caucasians. Naylor and Leong observe how these racial acts of discrimination can unify a group of people even closer together. Naylor didn't know the true meaning of the hate word nigger until it was used against her in a degrading manner. On the other hand Leong already knew what chink meant but wasn't traumatized until she found out her father discovered it.
Peggy McIntosh wrote this article to identify how her white privilege effects her life. Each statement is written as a privilege that Ms. McIntosh does not need to consider or fear as a white woman. From financial credibility to national heritage, this article makes a valid point regarding the way white people can be arrogant and naïve when the same treatment is not being given to their neighbors, coworkers, and peers. There can be two responses when reading this. The first would be a person of color. They will appreciate the attempt at realization of what white people take for granted. The second would be the reality that smacks the white people in the face when they realize how true all 50 statements are. Once this begins to sink in, many will start to broaden their competence realizing the unfair treatment of the people in this world. Moving down the timeline, we can see how the acknowledgement can mend broken relationships. Owning the reality and doing something to change it can give the people of different races the treatment they deserve (McIntosh,
...nly seen in everyday television. Common beliefs of black families being more aggressive, having lesser moral values, and living less socially acceptable and lawful lives can be clearly seen through the actions of the white characters, and the thoughts that Chris expresses throughout the episode. The show uses satire to exaggerate black stereotypes to the point where it means the opposite of the comedic nature of which it was presented. The treatment and visualization of the lives of the black characters in the episode, through comedy and exaggeration, clearly shows the real-life problem of black stereotyping that is still all too present in American life. Chris’ everyday life as a black student in a white school and struggle to “fit in” is a struggle that non-white students have faced and are still facing today.
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
My mom, with her camera in her hand, was so excited that she lined up at the front of the church one hour earlier to get a good seat at one of the church pews. Dressed in a shepherd costume, I sang the opening to the musical piece “Will You Be Ready for the Light” by Mark Patterson. On my way back to my seat, I experienced linguistic discrimination, the judgment about a person’s intelligence, social status, or character based on his or her use of language, for the first time in my life. My fourth grade classmate at the time probably did not even know that what she said was a form of discrimination and microaggression. To be honest, I also had no clue about what F.O.B. meant until I researched it in google and found that it meant “Fresh Off the Boat”, a phrase to describe the new immigrants who were not yet accustomed to the American
...c backlash. I, for one, am intolerably affronted by racial slurs. If there be right ways of distinguishing people, it should on grounds of their adherence to virtues, their sense of humanity, the degree to which they grease their elbows, the measure of their happiness, and most importantly, how much they’re being loved; not based on race, creed, sex, social and political statuses. While it may seem hilarious or sometimes even solemnly appropriate to make slights of racism in media and literature, it serves nothing but to misrepresent people from different cultures and races and cast them in the wrong light to people across the globe. This happens to be a grave impediment to achieve global harmony, and it’s really sad when highly acclaimed authors would contrive their stories with undertones of racism which are plausibly as impactful as blatant denunciation of races.
Muhammad Ali, a famous boxer, once said, “Hating People because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. I’s just plain wrong” (Goodreads, 2015). For many centuries, ethnic conflict between the humans have existed immortally due the never changing differences of culture and values, spinning the cycle of war. Fortunately, some have ended however some still remain immortal in the eyes of those who have experience struggle to this date. The lack of awareness of problems in a cultural crisis concerning those who fall victim to a system and society that discriminates and alienates. With assistance of Critical Race Theory, this essay will examine how the role of race with has affected has caused consequences within the lives of marginalized groups within society through the lives and their relationship with those in their communities.
These three authors tell of the division of the American race. They tell of the struggles of the black in a white people’s world; however, America has become a melting pot of the World and the “black” and “white” people that we know are slowly becoming a dying breed. There is so much that we could all learn from each other. All people bleed red no matter what the color of their skin; what a wonderful place this America and world could be if mankind would live together in peace and harmony.
The Theme of Racial Prejudice in Short Stories Racial prejudice is a form of discrimination. In the short stories "Country Lovers" and "The Gold Cadillac" there are some good examples of it. In both the stories the black people are being discriminated against because they are black and they are "different" and are "not as well off" white people. "Country Lovers" is set in South Africa, and there are black and white people living largely separate lives under apartheid. At a young a age the black and white children all play together as if they were all the same.
It has long been understood by educated individuals and laypeople alike that some words are considered acceptable in polite society and others, are simply not. It is not the habit of most academics to use language that demeans of otherwise subjects others – particularly not minorities. It is, nonetheless, common to hear phrases and slurs with either a direct connection to, or perhaps a historic origin in, racial oppression or bigotry. Not all of these phrases and slurs are uttered with the intent to verbally assault the minorities they consequentially disparage – at least not in every instance of use. However, their very existence is not only harmful to those to whom they are directed, but they propagate a culture which is, by necessity,
With the whole United States watching Martin Luther King Jr. told the world about his dreams. Just as he would not rest until his voice was heard, African American literature would not stop either. Together they opened the American’s eye to the lives being lived by many African Americans for the first time. Many of these stories, poems, essays, and plays held common themes of having dreams, dreams with which could not be achieved due to the overbearing power of the White man, dreams just like that of Martin Luther King Jr. The theme of racism inhibiting the chance for African Americans to better themselves is common in American literature up until the late 1900’s. The poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes, the essay “Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples, the play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, and the short story “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin all adhere to this theme. This theme is made clear in these works through the use of setting, characterization, and language.
Most white people are dumb or uneducated. Mark Twain is not racsit in anyway it's just how it was back then and he was just showing us how it was. It was nothing to be racist like I said in my essay that taking the N'Word of out the Huckleberry Fin was like taking nazi out out texts book today. If you took it out it would take away the historical importance of slavery and how bad it was. Most of the black people are educated. Most of them have good jobs and are smarter than most white people. Also Mark Twain is involved in 21st century politics; when against the censoring of “Huck Finn,”.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is again being said to be a book you to wouldn't want to read. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written in a language and dialect that Twain heard a lot growing up in MIssouri. This writing type is call regionalism which means''a writing feature different to a certain region and not part of the regular language of a country”'.In this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri negro dialect; the extremist form of the backwoods Southwestern diale...