In an article in the New York Times, Racism on Campus: Stories from New York Times Readers, Maya Bird-Murphy told her story. Bird-Murphy was one of two black students in a class of more than 20 people at Ball State University. The class was studying William Grant Still, one of the first black composers, when the Caucasian professor asked Bird-Murphy to read one of his poems written in the ‘20s. Bird-Murphy read the poem aloud in her usual voice and the professor said, “No. Do it again. You know how it’s supposed to sound. I can’t read it because that’s not my…
In this cartoon, Mike Luckovich is referring to the controversial use of the word “nigger” within Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Luckovich wants his audience to note the changes in the meaning of the “n-word” over time. In the early 19th century, the “n-word” was a common term used to identify an African American. In today’s society, this word can often be heard throughout pop culture and rap lyrics, which is why the young boy has mistakenly referred to Mark Twain as one of the great “gangsta rappers.” However, Luckovich uses this scenario to indirectly explain that since the “n-word” is considered an acceptable identification of an African American in modern music, why should it not be allowed within Twain’s work?…
Cited: Gardner, Janet. Literature A Portable Anthology.” On Being Told I Don’t Speak Like A Black Person” 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. 728-729. Print.…
In an attempt to rebuke the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s claim that controversial books damage the self-esteem of African-American children, Hentoff recounts an experience where he talked with a group of eighth-grade students who were studying Mark Twain’s Huck Finn alongside a history of cities with a reputation for having a high tolerance for racism. One student in the class was bold enough to comment that his class was taught that the “bigots” Twain referred to in his novel commonly referred to African-Americans as “niggers,” stating that just because of Twain’s over-zealous use of the term did not equate to an assumption that Huck Finn was a racist novel (Hentoff). On the contrary, this particular student claimed that as evidence that Twain was expressly critiquing the word and people who used it in order to write a very anti-racist novel.…
When African Americans first began their so-called normal lives, it was widely unaccepted by whites in the rest of the country. Their intent was to live among everyone in peace and equality. But because they were different and thought to be inferior, people were unsure and uncomfortable with their presence. Similarly, this…
Without the original vocabulary, society cannot learn the important message that Twain is trying to teach. Twain’s use of “nigger” is like a whole new form of imagery. Many students shift uncomfortably in their desks when they hear it out loud, some…
In Leslie Savan’s essay, “What’s Black, Then White, and Said All Over?,” Savan talks about the “hidden costs”(381) and benefits of the black language in America. When observing this economic and psychological boundary its clear that African American people went through lots of pain and suffering when creating trendy words and sayings. This is important to African Americans because most people do not understand that these words have now been adopted by white people “who reap the profits without paying [their] dues”(Savan 382).…
John Howard Griffin, the author of Black Like Me, writes an autobiographical account what he passed through for a period of about 10 months. Howard has an idea that has been haunting him for a long duration of time; he wondered the various kinds of life changes that a white man would need to be labeled a Negro in the southern region of the United States. Howard wanted to acquire first hand information of the daily experiences of the African Americans in the Deep South. Black Like Me offers an account of the bad and good things that Howard went through because of the vivid makeover from being white to being black. This paper reviews John Howard Griffin’s Black like me, the paper provides a summary of the book, a critique that assesses the strengths and weakness of the book and a discussion of at least three incidents found personally interesting and an identification of what they illuminated concerning the way prejudice and discrimination were both overt and covert during the Jim Crow era.…
W.E.B. DuBois believed that though African Americans were free men, they did not experience the full experience of what it means to be free. The Souls of Black Folk expands the minds of the readers allowing for a deeper acceptance into the lives of the people of African heritage. W.E.B. Du Bois articulates the true meaning of the problem of the color line through history as well as descriptive personal scenarios. In his essay, Du Bois explains the handling of both a rational and an emotional appeal by underlining the facts of racial discrimination through Jim Crow Laws and lynching as well as his personal pain through of childhood memories to demonstrate his viewpoint of the problems of African Americans. Du Bois successfully reaches his audience by sincerely convincing the people of the North and the South. The Souls of Black Folk famously declares, "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line."…
In Black Like Me, written by John Howard Griffin, Mr. Griffin, a white novelist, experiences a treacherous journey throughout the Deep South disguised as an African American. He encounters racism, discrimination, and hate from various whites, but receives affection and hospitality from other African Americans. In this essay, I am going to explain Mr. Griffin's findings in his bold exploration in the Deep South during the 1959's.…
Salah O. Ahmed Intro to Afro-American Literature Professor Todd Duncan (This could use a longer conclusion) Inner Peace In the essays, "How it Feels to be Colored Me" and "On Being Young-a Woman-and Colored", the authors, Zola Neale Hurston and Marita Bonner, respectively, tell a similar story of having grown up and had to deal with racism in the Post-Bellum Era. In their appeal to a new generation, one less stigmatized by slavery and more hopeful about the future than its predecessor, Hurston and Bonner take divergent paths to point to a common understanding. The convergence between their works centers on the idea that in order for the young people of their generation to achieve a sense of peace with the world around them, they must first find peace within themselves.…
An undetected virus surfaces everywhere, while leaders of society try desperately to find a cure, to stop this heinous virus named: racism *dramatic music*. The articles “Is Everyone a Little Bit Racist?” by Nicolas Kristof and “Black Men and Public Spaces” by Brent Staples are emphasised primarily on how society is racist against African Americans. These articles acknowledge that black men in America are victims of extensive racism, individuals that declare they believe in racial equality, but are covertly supremacists, and also that American culture that encourages that black men are omens of danger. With racism manifested and lodged in society, Blacks will be prevented from reaching their full potential.…
"For years it was my embarrassing task to sit in on the meetings of whites and blacks, to serve one ridiculous but necessary function: I knew, and every black man there knew, that I, as a man now white once again, could say the things that needed saying but would be rejected if black men said them...for the simple reason that white men could not tolerate hearing them from a black person's mouth" (Griffin 177).…
David Brunsma and Kerry Rockquemore wrote an article titled, “What Does Black Mean?” The article analyzed the meaning of what it meant to be black in the United States historically as well as its meaning today. The authors used the 2000 census that was completed in the United States that had a check all that apply moniker for race. There were sixty-three different options to use from. The authors go on to examine the historic meaning of being black. They use the example of the one-drop rule to show how different the meaning of black has come to be. The authors also discussed a study they conducted amongst half black and half white college students. The majority of the students identified as bi-racial, while sixteen percent identified as solely black or white. In all the authors had five different types of racial identity groupings. The authors are making the argument that identifying, as black no longer means the same thing that it used to. The conclusion made by the authors is that meaning of black will continue to evolve and shift from the singular identification of…
Across all texts that I studied, characters are racially ill-treated. In Pepe Danquart’s Oscar-winning short film ‘Schwarzfahrer’, the main character is racially abused because of his African descent. Similarly in the novel ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, an African American called Tom Robinson is falsely accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell because of the colour of his skin. The black man in ‘Schwarzfahrer’ enters a tram, and sits on a free seat next to an old lady. The old lady, who first chose to ignore him when he asked if he could take the seat, starts to insult and berate him; criticizing him on taking the seat 'just like that'. Throughout her soliloquy, whilst the black man remains quiet, she states that all blacks stink, are unintelligent, criminals and the perfect bearer for AIDS. "...They should at least have their names changed when they come over here, or else you can't tell them apart at all. What's more, they smell awful. But there is no law against that!" The old lady in Schwarzfahrer separates herself from the black man by referring to herself as “we” and referring him as “they”. She uses this language to indicate that his race isn't as superior as hers. Tom, in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ is sentenced to death without a fair trial because of his African descent. His Lawyer Atticus Finch is the only being in the town of…