“Keepin’ it real”, an essential standard in the distinguishing racial identity as an African American, or so it was until Mark Steyn drags it through an abrasive bath of satire and exposes it for what he truly thinks it is, a detriment to the black community, and society as whole. Steyn exposes the hypocrisy and flaws in mindset African American cultural leadership that has allowed this new "outlook" to flourish through a scathing assault comprised of exemplification, irony, definition. An instrumental tool in his tirade against the cultural leaders whom he believes are dragging down the black community is exemplification. Using this technique he is able to deconstruct the issue and attack its individual facets. He introduces …show more content…
The device which Steyn uses to gleefully flay African American cultural leadership is irony. Black leaders, he maintains, "... have a far greater interest in maintaining racism than any humdrum Ku Klux Klan kleagle", as it gives them the edge they need to maintain their power. He demonstrates how laughable it is that their incompetence goes unpunished simply because they are of that racial group, despite their failures to protect their community like "Mayor Culpa whose Emergency Management Plan consisted of finding the nearest TV camera and pointing fingers at everybody else. He mocks how the same people who claim to be fighting against racism, while anyone who dares to have " the impertinence to wander off the Democrat victim-culture plantation, he 's been damned as merely this season 's "black conservative"; a black man who 's no longer authentically black". The effect of this is that the moral high ground, built on a faulty principle of victimization, from under their feet. The cultural leadership 's coveted position, a place where they could point down at all who criticized them as racists. With the opposing argument held down by its own hypocrisy, Steyn has justified his position to the reader, and now he is able to define what effect this failed leadership has had on the …show more content…
Definition is without a doubt the most damning and effective tool used by Stein in his condemnation of what destructive leadership has allowed the community to become. The culture is being protected now, a culture fostered from failed leadership, is the culture of "Keepin it real." Steyn defines this as a culture where "men are violent and nihilistic, women are "sluts, bobbing chicken heads, and of course bitches." It 's a society where an admired figure Nelly , a musician and in part a cultural leader as well, can make "a video in which he swipes a credit card through his ho 's butt." Steyn 's tone is harsh, ironic, and humorous as he condemns the culture of today. He aims to shock the audience , to make them feel disgust for what the leadership in the black community is protecting. Then he calls to mind the beauty, and creativity that the culture of previous generations of African Americans, and defines this new culture as something which is wiping " a half 's tradition of beauty and grace from [their] identity." He defines "keepin ' it real" as the true destructive entity, not perceived racism. Steyn maintains through this definition that the leaders who defend this culture of self-destruction are the ones who are " keepin ' millions of young men and women unreal in ways the most malevolent bull-necked racist could never
What does it mean to be a writer? Who or what defines a writer? Is it up to the critics, the readers, or the author’s original intentions? For Richard Wright and James Baldwin, their own authorial intentions define their work. Baldwin identified with Wright through his literature as he was growing up.
These devices ensure the audience’s attention and understanding, rather than a lack of sympathy or interest. His devices also connect the audience to the issue and makes them understand the depth of misrepresentation. Staples in his own way is able to show how preconceived notions are cruel generalizations of large groups of people, and a constant plague to the african american
Shakur describes that African Americans are a product of their environment and that they “are being manufactured in droves in the ghetto streets.” Assata Shakur uses metaphor to compare African Americans to being a product of a factory where they are designed a certain way. When she illustrates this idea of simply being a product, her audience can recognize the distance between them and the government. Assata Shakur suggests they “ create shields that protect us and spears that penetrate our enemies.” Shakur warns African Americans that they need to protect themselves from the corruption and injustice ways of the American
Where do we draw the lines between adoration and mockery, influence and appropriation, and individuality and stereotyping? Accordingly, the racial subject has always been a touchy topic to discuss, but with the lasting effects that the black minstrelsy has left in the society, we most definitely need to deal with the racial subject. Only this way can the American society move forward both as a nation and as a species, and through such efforts, only then can we ensure that such history can never repeat
Author Darryl Lorenzo Wellington, wrote “The Power of Black Lives Matter,” published in 2015 in The Crisis, and he emphasizes the importance of Black Lives Matter and argues that is the only way to correct the issue of class. Wellington builds his credibility with reputable facts, statistics, citing sources, and successfully employing rhetorical appeals such as ethos, pathos, and logos. He adopts a didactic tone of voice in order to sound like a high scholar to create a sense of superiority, while addressing the issues of class and race to white Americans’ and other races in the United States. In his article, Wellington first introduces his argument by making an inference of a cultural shift by saying, “Something indeed is happening here and now in America,” and that “class exists” and
By using his role to depict Emenike as a former criminal representative of all black men in the media, Sugerman commits a fixed and legalistic fallacy. This dynamic proves reminiscent of campaigns demonizing and criminalizing blacks during the reconstruction and post-reconstruction eras in Jim Crow South (Gilmore 2006:92). A legalistic fallacy assumes removing racism as a legal theory also removes it from practice (Desmond and Emirbayer 2009:343). Although Emenike has now been out of prison for some time, the systemic oppression and inherent racism towards black men, remains with him. This can be seen through Sugerman’s casual references to Emenike’s robberies when he was a juvenile as a “reign of terror” (CBS 2012).
Introduction: We as a society face many issues. Due to our diversity as a country, the values and beliefs of one culture battle against another. II. We must address the current standing issues that we face, but before we can do that, we must understand them.
People’s appearance can sometimes trick a person into their true identity. In the film, “Get Out” by Jordan Peele, the character Rose is introduced as a charming girlfriend, but at the end, her true form is revealed causing a life and death situation. This movie is based on how an interracial couple is going to visit Rose’s parents house. The irony falls there because she knows exactly what it is going to result at the parents home and her boyfriend, Chris, is going to be the victim. Although the knowledge that is out there about White people not liking African Americans and doing bad things to them, now in this movie it's seen as if the Whites want to be them.
For this reason, when reality clashes with that fantasy, it feels like a punch in the stomach. I received that reality punch on the way home from a disappointing, mediocre-at-best summer camp experience, that I thought was going to be the time of my life. Just ten at the time, and more knowledgeable on politics than many ignorant adults in rural Missouri, I found myself defending my race to my very Caucasian grandmother, claiming that “democratic social programs only feed black people’s reliance on the government.” I knew I was different on a physical level- I shared no resemblance to this woman with whom I was supposed to have a great bond, but that’s when it was evident that my physical differences are also fundamental- as if ‘my culture’ was against her
Pap’s virulently negative reaction to the African American professor is ironic because Pap is an abusive, alcoholic, ignorant thief who would definitely fall under the category of the scum or scourge of society and yet he finds the idea of this intelligent, responsible, African American professor voting repugnant, calling him a “prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free nigger,” (27). Pap himself was “too drunk to get there [the polls]”(27) but now Pap “[he]’ll never vote ag’in”(27) which will most likely better the voting population. Pap’s feeling of superiority and juxtaposition of Pap and the African American professor shows the unfounded claims of racism throughout America, questioning the ethos of its perpetuators and their own
He evokes emotion on his audience by discussing the trials and injustice African Americans have endured. In his letter he uses examples like “when you have seen hate-filled policeman curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters.” and “when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and gathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim” to make his audience envision and feel what many negroes felt while watching their families put up with this mistreatment. King provides imagery to make the audience see what it would be like to be an African American in the united
Throughout his essay, Staples is able to make the audience understand what he has to deal with as a black man. Staples does this by using words and phrases such as, “...her flight made me feel like an accomplice in tyranny” and “... I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area…” (542). By writing and describing how he (Staples) feels, the audience is able to get an inside look into how black men are treated and better understand why society’s teachings, play a vital role in how we see each other. Staples’ powerful writing also allows the reader to take a step back and see how as a society, people make judgements on others based on appearance alone.
Slavery is over therefore how can racism still exist? This has been a question posed countlessly in discussions about race. What has proven most difficult is adequately demonstrating how racism continues to thrive and how forms of oppression have manifested. Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, argues that slavery has not vanished; it instead has taken new forms that allowed it to flourish in modern society. These forms include mass incarceration and perpetuation of racist policies and societal attitudes that are disguised as color-blindness that ultimately allow the system of oppression to continue.
In the Novel “Cry the Beloved Country” by Alan Paton, two fathers are trying to put the pieces of there families back together while also keeping themselves together. Paton uses the racial tension in South Africa to illustrate many themes. The story is written before the apartheid in South Africa. There are many major themes in cry the beloved country but racism is definitely the biggest one it is used in political power, caused whites to fear blacks, and it destroys Kumalo’s family.
Moreover, demonstrate consequences are taken to oppress racial and ethnic minorities to keep them in a subservient position. Overall, this film has provided me with a visual depiction of how stereotypes are a mental tool that enforces racial segregation and self-hate. The label of “White” became a necessity for Sarah Jane to achieve in society. To attain it she needed to move to a new city, change her name and deny her mother.