Anna Hedgeman Essay

After World War 1, the United States was able to move from war to peace in the 1920s . However, with this transition came racism, the red scare, end of progressivism and bumps within the economy. Domestic problems that the United States had to face was the predicament of African Americans, labor unions that had grown in size and influence , the way that living costs had risen, the Red Scare, etc. For instance, with the tansition from war to peace, the United States had to deal with racism. A type of racism was a hate group known as the KKK (Ku Klux Klan).

The major role played by African American women in the reconstruction era is revised and illustrated in Tera W. Hunter’s To Joy my Freedom and Elsa Barkley Brown’s article Negotiating and Transforming the Public Sphere: African American Political Life in the Transition from Slavery to Freedom. Both documents analyze the participation and involvement of black women in social and political activities inside of their communities. To Joy my freedom, written by Tera W. Hunter provides an inner look into the lives and strives of African American women – mainly working class – living in Atlanta between the eighteenth and nineteenth century, in the middle of one of the most belligerent environments created in the era of Reconstruction.

In 1911, 146 people die in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Months before, shirtwaist workers, mainly immigrants, marched on strike for worker’s rights, a true testament to their courage. In Mary Jane Auch’s historical fiction novel Ashes of Roses, the courage of immigrants is the heart of the story. The book follows the young protagonist Rose Nolan, an Irish immigrant coming to New York City. She meets challenges after challenge as she navigates her new life in America, while also making new friends such as Gussie Garoff.

In the 21st century, Native American culture is largely represented by mascots. Issues of isolation, education, and alcoholism continue to plague Native American reservations, but these issues are largely ignored by the general public. Instead, much of the battleground relating to Native American rights has centered on where they are most visible--sports. In “Racism American Style…,” Elizabeth Delacruz presents the problems with the mainstream portrayal of Native Americans. She uses four examples of problematic mascots to support her claim that racist imagery depicting Native Americans continues to be prevalent in American society.

Institutional racism was depicted in Marissa Alexander’s case. Marissa Alexander had stopped by Rico Gray’s house to visit him. She gave her phone to Rico, letting him view the pictures of their baby daughter and then noticed text messages from her ex husband. The argument had started and she headed into the garage, armed herself, and then shot a warning shot near her husband. Alexander tried to use the ‘stand your ground’ law, which had failed and was later sentenced to prison for 20 years.

When women commit a shocking crime or murder, they are most likely to kill the people who are closest to them. To illustrate, Karla Faye Tucker, convicted of murder in Texas in 1984 and was put to death fourteen years later. She was the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1984, and the first in Texas since 1863 when Chipita Rodriguez was hanged for killing a horse trader. The Dallas Morning News asserts that “Tucker, 38, was convicted of using a 3-foot-long pickax to hack Jerry Dean to death during a burglary at his Houston apartment in 1983. Also killed was an overnight guest, Deborah Thornton” (Hoppe).

Wallace Thurman poses the question “What did the color of one’s skin have to do with mentality or native ability” (Thurman 50). For a woman in America, quite a lot! While some have the luxury of living in “one nation, with liberty and justice for all”. For African American women, justice is hard to come by, and liberty is nothing more than a term without any true purpose or meaning. It is true, “to be black is no disgrace, just often very inconvenient”, but to be both African American and female, is nearly unbearable (Johnson,.

Jamaica Kincaid 's A Small Place examines the historical/social context of how Antiguans dealt racism through slavery after an oppressive European colonization. Kincaid reveals that European colonization resulted in Antigua dealing with injustice such as corruption and poverty. She argues Europeans and Americans traveling to Antigua are focused on the beautiful scenery, which is not a correct representation of the day to day lives of Antiguans. Although racism has many negative effects, Kincaid seemed to state the benefits of Europeans’ colonialism and how it contributed to her life such by introducing the English language and the library that helped her to become a writer. Kincaid states that we “cannot get over the past, cannot forgive and cannot forget” (26); therefore, Kincaid feels that the past influences the present.

The article by Dorothy Roberts focuses around how race was invented. She talks about how and why people of different cultures were treated differently. It reflected on the different laws that “assigned” people to certain races and how it was different from state to state. In the second chapter Roberts talks about how people aren’t that different from each other genetically but we still focus on that 0.1%.

Finally, the yellow wallpaper plays the biggest role in the story. Not only for the reason that the narrator saw a woman behind it. But for the reason that the woman behind the yellow wallpaper was Perkins. According to the narrator "And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. "(Perkins 532),"I don't like it a bit"(Perkins 532), Trying to send out the moral of the story which was gender oppression.

Beyond the Walk to Natchez A historical great piece of literary art, “A Worn Path” published in 1941, is a story of an old woman’s journey to town through the forest. The setting is rural Mississippi in the 1940’s, a time when racism was a way of life and a trip to town, especially for an old black woman, was often a long journey and thus a trip not often taken. The old woman’s name is Phoenix Jackson and she has quite an adventurous trip through the forest to town. One is made to believe this is just an average walk down the path for this old woman; however the reader is entertained by Phoenix’s mannerisms and realizes there is deeper meaning of the story.

Elizabeth Wurtzel defends her stance on feminism in her article, “1% Wives Are Helping Kill Feminism and Make the War on Women Possible”. Wurtzel argues that the only kind of equality is economic equality and that until all women realise that then they will always be unequal. She states her opinion that women who chose to stay at home and become housewives deserve to be thought of as dumb. “ These women are the reason their husbands think all women are dumb, and I don't blame them”. Wurtzel basically argues that if a woman is not contributing to any of the household income then they are giving themselves a reason to be treated unfair.

As a College freshman in his second semester, I have learned to deal with the challenges that I have to deal with peaceful, yet exhilarating moment when my mind engages with an author’s thoughts on a page. As John Dewey states “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” What Dewey insists is from my early days in high school to my first year in college as a freshman, I wanted to know the full concept of English; however, I have now realized this subject would fill in my void of English with noteworthy complexities. This was not the case for most of my second semester in Montgomery College; I always had trouble in various parts of the subject, such as development in thesis statement, sentence writing and reflecting on previous essays. Writing a thesis statement had been one of my down falls in English.

Wu Alessandra Wilton 1.10 #1 To This Day Shane Koyczan Short story/poem To This Day is a Poem/short story by Shane Koyczan. It is about bullying and the lifelong effects it has on people. Shane tells the story of many people and how they reacted, and responded to being bullied.

Stella Lieback and McDonalds Hot Coffee Case: One decision let lead to life changing circumstances can happen to any of us. The outcome of the many decisions involved within this case brought about moral and ethical debate for centuries. On the morning of February 27th, 1992, 79-year old Stella Liebeck (passenger), and her grandson, Chris (driver), chose drive-thru breakfast at a McDonald’s in Albuquerque NM. Stella was not driving nor in the driver’s seat at the time of the incident. Unfortunately for Stella, she spilled her fresh, scalding cup of coffee in her lap.