In The Heartbeat of Struggle, Diane Fujino, associate professor and chair of Asian American studies and affiliate faculty member of Black studies at UC Santa Barbara, reveals the life and activism of one of the prominent Asian American activist of the 1960's, Yuri Kochiyama. Written in 2005, section six of Diane's novel focuses on the individuals and organizations, which deeply affected Yuri's philosophical and political beliefs. Unlike many non-African American activists, Yuri was deeply involved with within the black nationalist movement and heavily influenced by their leading figures. This essay will illuminate Yuri's activism within the black nationalist movement as well as its influence on her political beliefs. According to the Fujino, …show more content…
Yuri's political ideology was been transformed from "integration and nonviolence to self-determination and self-defense," (Fujino, 162). This dramatic shift was attributed to her involvement in radical politics. Being brought into the Movement by Alkamal Duncan, Yuri was quickly inspired by the activism of Max Stanford, who introduced her into the RAM Black Panther Party in Harlem in 1966. Renowned for her strong involvement as a "constant communicator, constant worker, and constant facilitator," Yuri was quickly accepted by black nationalist activists (Fujino, 164). After describing Yuri's acceptance of Robert F. William's philosophy of self-defense, the Harlem Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School's understanding of self-determination, and May Mallory's political mentorship, the author detailed Yuri's unique roles within the black nationalist movement. Due to extensive activity as a networker, political prisoner advocate, and host of political meetings, Yuri gained unparallel access to the Movement, which was denied to almost all non African Americans. Willing to remain active despite constant FBI investigations and searches, Yuri became a citizen of the Republic of New Africa (RNA), as a result of her dedicated activism and close relationship to Malcolm X (an inspirational figure to the group). As a member, she supported the mission of Black nationhood and an independent nation of New Africans within the United States through "the ordinariness of her participation," (Fujino, 181). The work concludes by summarizing Yuri's main forms of her activism within the RNA, Yuri's belief in socialist nationalism, and the need of a separate New African state. Throughout the article, the author constantly alluded to Yuri's uniqueness in gaining membership into exclusively black nationalist groups (such as the RNA), and the breadth of her activities (from a messenger to publisher of the North Star) within black nationalist organizations as well as other rights groups. Yuri's road to activism began with her relationship with Radical Action Movement member Max Stanford.
Described as "being of her most significant political mentors," Stanford's influence led Yuri to develop political relationships with RAM ideological mentors Malcolm X and Robert F. Williams. Removed from the NAACP, William advocated for "self defense in the sense of protecting one's community from racist violence or one's homeland from imperialism," (Fujino, 166). Pointing to the violent attacks by white supremacist on the Freedom Riders, Williams argued that active non-violence alone was not enough to force real change in American society. Forced to flee the United States to Cuba due to inaccurate kidnapping charges, Williams became a major spokesperson of the Cuban revolution with his publication, The Crusader. Yuri's advocacy for Williams started with her relationship with Mae Mallory, a civil rights activist and political prisoner. While working on Mallory's behalf, Yuri grew closer connected to the Harlem black nationalist movement. This budding relationship brought Yuri to the Black Arts Repertory Theathre/School (BART/S )and the teachings of LeRoi Jones. Once a firm supporter of integrationalism, her time at this institution exposed her to the ideals of nationalism. Yuri came to advocate for the "need for autonomous space to solidify unity and realize self-determination," (Fujino, …show more content…
171). During her lessons that BART/S, she witnessed and became a target of FBI investigations.
Labeled as a "Red Chinese agent" and "one of the ring leaders" of the Black radical movement, Yuri became increasingly observed and tracked by the FBI for her political activities (Fujino, 174). Despite the these investigations and threats of arrest, Yuri continued to support the Movement by welcoming black nationalists into her home, hosting meeting, distributing information, and supporting political prisoners. Due to her personable demeanor and extensive activism, Yuri was invited and became a citizen of the RNA. With its strong connection to Malcom X, RNA worked to fulfill the idea of Black nationhood. Yuri supported the RNA's push for a separate state in the South from land seceded to them by the U.S. government. While participating in all the membership activities including seminars, gun safety training, physical regiments, and survival training, Yuri promoted the RNA belief in the "transformation of the whole person," (Fujino, 178). This included feeing oneself from individualism, consumerism, and
capitalism. In the RNA, Yuri did not hold any leadership role but served as a "main communications person, " due to her rich network of contacts, "communications center," relaying messaged between activists, the "primary contact for many political prisoners," and "a storehouse of political information and updates on political prisoner cases," (Fujino, 182-183). To aid in the spread of information, her newsletter, the North Star, described the events occurring during the revolutionary nationalist struggles in Harlem. In addition to her diverse activism within the black nationalist movement, Yuri was active in the civil rights struggle of many ethnic communities, especially as a political prisoner advocate. From her work in the RNA, Yuri viewed integrationalism and nationalism as compatible, unlike William who "considered the Black nation infeasible and was never a nationalist," (Fujino, 186).To Yuri, both groups can join together in the greater fight of self-determination and revolutionary socialist nationalism. Influenced by Malcolm X and Robert Williams, Yuri understood that race was the main form of oppression and supported the socialist ideals such as the distribution of resources and the primacy of human rights over profits. In order to have the freedom necessary for this form of society, Yuri argued, blacks must have a sovereign nation in the South, and "must be concerned with all people's struggles," (Fujino, 190). Yuri supported this viewpoint together with future RNA president, Imari Obadele, during and internal argument over the strategy of the RNA. In conclusion, Yuri identified the struggle of African Americans as part of oppressed people everywhere. The activist viewed oppression in all its forms was rooted from racism. Upon analysis of the essay, it can be discerned that this work aimed to identify the source of Yuri Kochiyama's philosophy and political views. This work is significant in aiding our understanding of how activists learn and reformulate their viewpoint based on their connections and activities with other organizations and activists. Fujino wished to clearly display the strong relationships that molded and transformed Yuri into the ardent activism she participated in throughout her life. In a world filled with political and social upheaval, this work stands as proof of the power of the human connection. This is reinforced by the existence of the Oslo Freedom Forum. One of the largest meetings of human rights activists from around the world, this global conference works to discuss global issues and organize protests to confront these crises. For example, according to the BBC, Hong Kong demonstrators protesting the Beijing crackdown of democracy were aided by Western activists in organizing their occupy movement of Hong Kong's streets and non-violent activism. In essence, Fujino teaches that by forming bonds with individuals, one's life and viewpoints can be radically shifted.
Good afternoon fellow HSC students my name is Mr Zec from the University of Wollongong and I’m here to talk about the play The Shifting Heart and the related text Hospital Evening. The Shifting Heart is a play written in 1957 by Richard Beynon, and it is set in Collingwood in Melbourne. The scene consists of an untidy backyard with a large garbage can, the right fence has barbed wire running across it and the left fence is broken with rusty nails in it. It takes place at the afternoon of Christmas Eve to the morning of Christmas day. Throughout the play the language used is usually either stereotypical Australian or Italian.
The book, “My Soul Is Rested” by Howell Raines is a remarkable history of the civil rights movement. It details the story of sacrifice and audacity that led to the changes needed. The book described many immeasurable moments of the leaders that drove the civil rights movement. This book is a wonderful compilation of first-hand accounts of the struggles to desegregate the American South from 1955 through 1968. In the civil rights movement, there are the leaders and followers who became astonishing in the face of chaos and violence. The people who struggled for the movement are as follows: Hosea Williams, Rosa Parks, Ralph Abernathy, and others; both black and white people, who contributed in demonstrations for freedom rides, voter drives, and
the prejudice, hate and violence that seem to be so deeply entrenched in America's multiracial culture and history of imperialism, Takaki does offer us hope. Just as literature has the power to construct racial systems, so it also has the power to refute and transcend them… The pen is in our hands.
Recently you have received a letter from Martin Luther King Jr. entitled “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In Dr. King’s letter he illustrates the motives and reasoning for the extremist action of the Civil Rights movement throughout the 1960’s. In the course of Dr. King’s letter to you, he uses rhetorical questioning and logistical reasoning, imagery and metaphors, and many other rhetorical devices to broaden your perspectives. I am writing this analysis in hopes you might reconsider the current stance you have taken up regarding the issues at hand.
Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi and Eyes on the Prize characterize life for African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s as full of tension, fear, and violence. Eyes on the Prize is a documentary series that details major figures and events of the movement, while Anne Moody gives a deeply personal autobiographical account of her own experiences as an African American growing up in deeply segregated and racist Mississippi and as a civil rights activist during and after college. These two accounts are very different in their style yet contain countless connections in their events and reflect many ongoing struggles of the movement. These sources provide an excellent basis for discussion of nonviolence versus violence
In chapter 17, “Or Does It Explode?”, Zinn’s overarching point is that the black revolt that occurred during the 1950s and 1960s should not have come as a shock to white America and that there were many signs leading up to it. In order to emphasize and back up this point, Zinn uses various examples to point out how black American were originally expressing their feelings before the ‘revolt’ began.
Everyone that has been through the American school system within the past 20 years knows exactly who Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is, and exactly what he did to help shape the United States to what it is today. In the beginning of the book, Martin Luther King Jr. Apostle of Militant Nonviolence, by James A. Colaiaco, he states that “this book is not a biography of King, [but] a study of King’s contribution to the black freedom struggle through an analysis and assessment of his nonviolent protest campaigns” (2). Colaiaco discusses the successful protests, rallies, and marches that King put together. . Many students generally only learn of Dr. King’s success, and rarely ever of his failures, but Colaiaco shows of the failures of Dr. King once he started moving farther North.
In Living for the City, Donna Murch details the origins and the rise to prominence the Black Panther Party experienced during the 1960s and into the 1970s. The Civil Rights Movement and eventually the Black Panther Movement of Oakland, California emerged from the growing population of migrating Southern African Americans who carried with them the traditional strength and resolve of the church community and family values. Though the area was heavily driven by the massive movement of industrialization during World War II, the end of the war left a period of economic collapse and social chaos in its wake. The Black Panther Party was formed in this wake; driven by continuing violence against the African American youth by the local police forces, the Black Panther Party’s roots consisted mostly of educational meetings of local African American college students.
"Lost Hearts" written by M R James is a disturbing yet intriguing short story. M R James uses intense descriptions and shows ghostly figures to create tension. Throughout the story unpredicted events take place. Mr Abney’s obsession with pagans and religion makes the reader question why he is so interested about taking in his orphan cousin and how it could benefit him. “The Professor of Greek at Cambridge had been heard to say that no one knew more of the religious beliefs of the later pagans than did the owner of Aswarby.” We learn about the disappearance of the two previous children who had also been taken in by Mr Abney. After the ghostly sightings of the two children with their hearts ripped out, are witnessed by young cousin Stephen, it creates a sense of foreshadowing events and suggests to the reader, the third victim will be innocent Stephen.
Robert F. Williams was one of the most influential active radical minds of a generation that toppled Jim Crow and forever affected American and African American history. During his time as the president of the Monroe branch of the NAACP in the 1950’s, Williams and his most dedicated followers (women and men) used machine guns, Molotov cocktails, and explosives to defend against Klan terrorists. These are the true terrorists to American society. Williams promoted and enforced this idea of "armed self-reliance" by blacks, and he challenged not just white supremacists and leftists, but also Martin Luther King Jr., the NAACP, and the civil rights establishment itself. During the 1960s, Williams was exiled to Cuba, and there he had a radical radio station titled "Radio Free Dixie." This broadcast of his informed of black politics and music The Civil Rights movement is usually described as an nonviolent / peaceful call on America 's guilty conscience, and the retaliation of Black Power as a violent response of these injustices against African Americans. Radio Free Dixie shows how both of these racial and equality movements spawned from the same seed and were essentially the same in the fight for African American equality and an end to racism. Robert F. Williams 's story demonstrates how independent political action, strong cultural pride and identity, and armed self-reliance performed in the South in a semi-partnership with legal efforts and nonviolent protest nationwide.
In life all humanity faces a struggle or heartbreak that seems almost impossible to make it through. In the poem Everybody Has a Heartache the author Joy Harjo discusses and introduces the opinion that everyone faces a heartache or blues. The author goes into detail about the different kinds of heartbreak that goes on in a variety of peoples’ everyday life. This poem was very interesting to me because the author chose very diverse and out of the normal heartbreaks for her characters to face rather than the normal heartbreaks that everyone can see. The author used several literary devices to establish an emotional connection with the readers.
Harrison, Robert Pogue. “The Civil Rights Movement” . Chicago: U of Chicago, 2014. 98-111. Print.
Shaskolsky, Leon. “The Negro Protest Movement- Revolt or Reform?.” Phylon 29 (1963): 156-166. JSTOR. U of Illinois Lib., Urbana. 11 Apr. 2004 .
In the “Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator is extremely uncanny due to the reader’s inability to trust him. Right from the beggining the reader can tell that the narrator is crazy although the narrator does proclaim that he is sane. Since a person cannot trust a crazy person, the narrator himself is unreliable and therefore uncanny. Also as the story progress the narrator falls deeper and deeper into lunacy making him more and more unreliable, until the end of the story where the narrator gives in to his insanity, and the reader loses all ability to believe him.
For those Asian Americans who make known their discontent with the injustice and discrimination that they feel, in the white culture, this translates to attacking American superiority and initiating insecurities. For Mura, a writer who dared to question why an Asian American was not allowed to audition for an Asian American role, his punishment was “the ostracism and demonization that ensued. In essence, he was shunned” (Hongo 4) by the white people who could not believe that he would attack their superior American ways. According to writers such as Frank Chin and the rest of the “Aiiieeeee!” group, the Americans have dictated Asian culture and created a perception as “nice and quiet” (Chin 1972, 18), “mama’s boys and crybabies” without “a man in all [the] males.” (Chin 1972, 24). This has become the belief of the proceeding generations of Asian Americans and therefore manifested these stereotypes.