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Racism and literature
Racism and literature
Annotated bibliography on mental illness in literature
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The Hoopster There lies a black teen in a parking lot, looking mentally and physically damaged. Andre is a black teenager who loves to play basketball. His best friend Shawn is white and his cousin Cedric, who is also black, are Andre’s teammates and are the people that he hangs out with the most. The Hoopster, by Alan Lawrence Sitomer, is an urban fiction novel that describes Andre’s life and his problems associated with racism. Andre is a gifted writer that is asked to write an article about racism for his local magazine, but little does he know, that he will be violently beat and fall into deep depression. Andre and Shawn arrive at the Cuckoo Clock Night Club to support Cedric in an amateure talent show that receives $500 as a prize. Andre is excited to see Cedric perform his comedy act, but quickly becomes disappointed when he learns of the context of the racist jokes and making fun of his own people. After the show, Andre confronts Cedric about his jokes. Andre starts to get up in Cedric’s face. While Cedric is collecting his reward, Andre walks away in utter disgust as he kicks a …show more content…
trash can and continues out the door. When Andre arrives home, his father realizes that something is disturbing him.
Pops, Andre’s father, commands him to sit down. Pops proceeds to tell Andre about how he lost hearing in his right ear. Pops tells Andre that his hearing loss is not from a work injury, but from being attacked by three white men at a college party. “Do not tell me you wore purple” Andre interrupted.” (109 Sitomer) Pops shot back with a stern look. “I look mighty good in purple.” (109 Sitomer) Pops was in the restroom when one of the white males had started to pee on his boot. Infuriated, Pops punched the man in the stomach and then hit him in the nose with a left hook. The two others, that were sitting in silence from all the blood on the walls, were standing still. On Pops way out of the restroom, one of the skinny white guys hit him in the head with a glass bottle and damaged his
hearing. Andre is angered by this story and cannot understand why his father never seeked out revenge after this attack. Pops explains that revenge doesn’t exist and Andre struggles to comprehend his father’s thinking. After the county fair on July 4, Gwen, Andre’s girlfriend, and Andre decide to go to Andre’s clubhouse. As they walk in, Andre sees that Theresa, his older sister, is smoking a joint. Andre became very upset with Theresa because she does not think that smoking marijuana is a big deal. Andre lunges toward Theresa with ferocity, but Gwen pulls Andre toward the door. Andre is so upset because he thinks that society relates black people to doing drugs. This book reminds a reader that doing the right and keeping a good attitude will bring a positive outcome in life instead of doing wrong and seeking revenge. This is an excellent book to read to remind a reader how wrong racism is. The author does a great job in reminding the reader that nothing good comes from hate and revenge.
African-American players are often negatively affected due to the prevalence of racism in the town. Ivory Christian, for instance, is a born-again Christian with aspirations to be a famous evangelist, but he is unable to pursue his dream due to his commitment to the football team. Because of this, the townspeople have unrealistic expectations of him and assume that he will put all his time and energy into football. Furthermore, there is a greater pressure on him to succeed...
Your dreams of being someone may not turn out the way you think they will. The documentary Hoop Dreams is a story about two boys from the ghetto that want to play in the NBA. Arthur ¨Man”Agee goes to Marshalls and William Gates goes to St. Joseph’s which are both situated in Illinois, where their dreams of becoming a pro basketball player vanished. Both of the boys face obstacles that are outside of themselves. Arthur´s family struggled with money, education, and pressure from others hurts him. Also, William struggled with balancing his family with basketball, the pressure from others, and education.
Walter LeFeber's book serves as a cornerstone of reference for its content as it relates to race, black business and the expansion of global capitalism since the late 20th century. With regard to race, it shows how race effected middle-class Michael Jordan at a young age and how he grew in the star he became, yet still could not es...
Remember that boy in high school that was the star of the basketball team? He still holds most of the records for the team. He scored more points than anyone else in the school’s history. He never studied much because he was an athlete. His basketball skills were going to take him places. But high school ended and there are no more games to be played. Where is that former all-star now? In his poem “Ex-Basketball Player,” John Updike examines the life of a former high school basketball star. Flick Webb was a local hero, and he loved basketball. He never studied much in school or learned a trade because he was a talented athlete. Now years later, the only job Flick can find is working at the local gas station. He used to be a star, but now he just “sells gas, checks oil, and changes flats” (19-20). The purpose of Updike’s poem is to convince the reader that athletes should also focus on getting a good education.
In the book Friday Night Lights by author H.G Bissinger, there are various themes circulating around, However, the theme of racism overwhelms the majority and provides sufficient insight into the social hierarchy and social structure of the town of Odessa, Texas. The book overlooks a group of high school students dedicated to playing football and their struggle with identity, culture, and race. Race not only affects social problems within the book but also psychological, economic and political. Friday Night Lights compares the tensions between the black and white players and the community as a whole, who idolize the game, proving that a single high school football team can shape an entire town. Bissinger uses the racism
The transition of being a black man in a time just after slavery was a hard one. A black man had to prove himself at the same time had to come to terms with the fact that he would never amount to much in a white dominated country. Some young black men did actually make it but it was a long and bitter road. Most young men fell into the same trappings as the narrator’s brother. Times were hard and most young boys growing up in Harlem were swept off their feet by the onslaught of change. For American blacks in the middle of the twentieth century, racism is another of the dark forces of destruction and meaninglessness which must be endured. Beauty, joy, triumph, security, suffering, and sorrow are all creations of community, especially of family and family-like groups. They are temporary havens from the world''s trouble, and they are also the meanings of human life.
Hoop Dreams is a story about two young men who want to become basketball players in the NBA. The author Ben Joravsky wrote the book. The idea for the book came from the documentary movie, Hoop Dreams, which is a true story. Arthur Agee and William Gates are the names of the two boys who were followed from eighth grade to twelve grade to do the movie. Arthur Agee was a 5'6 125 pound guard from the playgrounds of Chicago when St Joseph recruiters saw him. Arthur was playing against guy's three years older than he was and he was still the best in the neighborhood. Arthur's parents Bo and Sheila Agee were very poor people who were on cocaine and could not support their family. Big Earl, the guy who recruited Arthur told his family that St. Joe's would be able to pay Arthur's tuition if he played basketball for them. Arthur went to St. Joe's and met William Gates. They had become friends in grade school but had never really done anything together. Eventually William turned out to be the better player and all the attention and money was focused on him. Therefore, Arthur was booted out of St. Joe's in the middle of the school year. He was forced to enroll at Marshall, the area public school. As a result, Arthur could see his dreams of the NBA were slipping away. Along with that, he couldn't keep his grades up enough to attend a Division I school. He and the Marshall Commandos ended up going downstate Arthur's senior year. They finished third in the state overall. Arthur ended up going to a junior college named Mineral Area in Flat River Mississippi. After his two years in Mississippi, Arthur received a scholarship to Arkansas State. He finished his degree in communications and he graduated. Arthur never did reach his dream of going to the NBA, at least yet. As you can see, it takes a lot for an inner city boy to try and reach his dream, but most of the time it never happens. William Gates was also 14 when he was recruited to go to St. Joseph. He and Arthur both had to wake up around 5:30 every morning so they could get on the subway to make it to school in time.
In sports, there is no shortage of black success stories. Meanwhile, two black men of prominence in Odessa (who are not athletes) fell from grace. Willie Hammond Jr. (the first black city councilor and county commissioner) and Laurence Hurd (a minister and desegregation supporter) were glimmers of hope for the black community that were both snuffed out. Hammond was arrested on charges of arson conspiracy and perjury and Hurd is in prison for burglary and robbery, leaving a hole in the morale of the black community that was not repaired. These losses, combined the with negative news of black people circulated via media, made the possibility of succeeding in a white man’s world inconceivable. Yet, there is no shortage of black success stories in sports, like Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson; in every area that is not a “rich man’s sport”, black athletes dominate. To the poor children on the Southside, there is something very alluring about the “Cinderella stories” of men from poor black neighborhoods rising to prominence through sports. Based on these examples, there seem to only be two paths for a black teen to take: criminal or athlete. Many of these teens aspire to be sports stars and depend on nothing else because there is nothing else. Some may become the superstars they hope to be or they fall into ruin as Boobie Miles, Derric Evans, and Gary Edwards
Fred's dad and Fred is asleep blackie sees someone braking in the house when he finds out that its shy man blackie
The main character is completely alienated from the world around him. He is a black man living in a white world, a man who was born in the South but is now living in the North, and his only form of companionship is his dying wife, Laura, whom he is desperate to save. He is unable to work since he has no birth certificate—no official identity. Without a job he is unable to make his mark in the world, and if his wife dies, not only would he lose his lover but also any evidence that he ever existed. As the story progresses he loses his own awareness of his identity—“somehow he had forgotten his own name.” The author emphasizes the main character’s mistreatment in life by white society during a vivid recollection of an event in his childhood when he was chased by a train filled with “white people laughing as he ran screaming,” a hallucination which was triggered by his exploration of the “old scars” on his body. This connection between alienation and oppression highlight Ellison’s central idea.
Especially the audience motivates him because every time he plays they start to yell at him, but they don’t see why he is doing so. Finally, his hard work to win the game. This story seems a little bit of an external conflict because this story is all about the black man and the audience.
Wiggins, David Kenneth, and Patrick B. Miller. 2003. The unlevel playing field: a documentary history of the African American experience in sport. Urbana: University of Illinois Press
Race is a huge issue in the film and many stereotypes are made. Jamal Wallace is introduced in the film as a typical black teenage male who goes to a low class school in the Bronx and really excels on the court as a basketball player. He always plays basketball with his friends in a parking lot. Jamal is dared to go into the apartment of a recluse who watches them play through binoculars. Jamal is caught and, running away in fright
An Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man tells the story of a man’s journey living as a biracial person in the time of legal racial segregation in the United States. The novel not only describes the life of the narrator, but also emphasizes his journey into becoming a proficient pianist. The story describes his upbringing, family history, and adulthood experiences. As a child, the narrator was not aware of the concept of race. This, in a sense, led him on a journey of discovering African-American culture. Growing up in a privileged household, he wasn’t aware of the typical African-American’s experience. As a child, he thought he was “white”. For example, he talks about one occasion where his elementary school teacher asked, “’I wish all of the white scholars to stand for a moment (11).’” Since the narrator was not aware of his race, he stood up with his white classmates. This experience led him on the road to discovery of race, racial segregation, and the differences between white and African-American people. This journey brought him to the South and...
When reading the book The Goal written by Eliyahu Goldratt, there were many lessons that I learned in order to have a clear and concise understanding of a positive level of productivity in a company. To have a positive level of productivity there are may components that are taken into consideration. Understanding what it actually means to be productive and how to increase the level of productivity by knowing the actual goal of the company that is trying to be reached and the components that go into the process of being productive. There are many factors that contribute to the level of productivity and being able to identify these factors is the key ingredient to having a successful level of productivity.