Overcoming Racial Tension In Skeer's The Help

In the article Scottsboro Boys and To Kill a Mockingbird: Two Trials for the Classroom it stated that, “The lessons of the infamous 1930s Scottsboro Boys case in which two young white women wrongfully accused nine African American youths of rape illustrate through fact what Harper Lee tried to instruct through her fiction”. Black people were always accused by white people of crimes they might have not committed and the judge will always believe the whites. Blacks were considered criminals, barbarians and savage, that was one of the main reasons why Lee wrote her book; she felt that things should be changed and blacks should have a voice. Blacks did not feel that they live in their country because of the discrimination they faced, they needed help to make their voice heard; some of the white writers helped them to fight for their rights that was mentioned in the article “To Kill a Mockingbird”: Two Trials for the Classroom“Both historical and fictional trials express the courage required to stand up for the Constitutional principle providing for equal justice

In her images, she expresses her thoughts on the representation that black woman has in our culture she also points out that because of our society black women aren 't able to embrace themselves as who they are because they are influenced by other cultures. Simpson portrays empowerment gender, identity, and culture in her images despite the oppression of racist culture impacts black women 's body and identity. Five-day forecast by Lorna Simpson incorporates five large boxes with days of the week Monday through Friday. It 's a way of expressing misconceptions as a black woman. In her image “five-day forecast” she has two words in each day such as; misdescription, misidentifies and mistranslate.

Because Frado is of mixed race, she experiences an even worse sort of degradation than she would have if both of her parents had been black, a situation which leads to her position as a societal outcast. For example, Mrs. Bellmont’s hatred for Frado and the strength of her cruelty progressively increase throughout the story in part because Frado “was not many shades darker than Mary now,” suggesting that Mrs. Bellmont fears the power that black people could gain if they were treated as equals to whites in the North (Wilson 39). For example, Mrs. Bellmont forbids Frado from sheltering her skin from the sun in an attempt to make Frado darker. She fears that her peers will notice that Frado is not much darker than Mary: “what a calamity it would be to ever hear that contrast spoken of.... Mrs. Bellmont was determined the sun should have full power to darken the shade which nature had first bestowed on her as best fitting” (Wilson 39). Although Mrs. Bellmont has already alienated Frado as a result of her skin color, she attempts to further remove Frado by attempting to expel Frado from the liminal space she occupies as a mulatto by making her darker skinned.

For example, in the forth stanza Angelou states “Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries?”. These lines display the theme set through out the poem by showing the fight that the African American people of America had for their civil rights in the 1950s-1960s. Angelou shows this in her writing by asking rhetorical questions to the people who were the oppressors of the African American community on how they would like to see them, but she shows that they will no longer be treated like a dog or a door mate they will stand up and fight for what they believe was a fight that could be won by them.

Resistance to Racism Resistance to racism is the refusal to accept or comply with prejudice or discrimination based on someone’s race. African Americans have experienced displacement and racism since 1619, when slavery first began in America (History.com). In the book “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, an African American women who grew up alongside her family whom throughout their lives have experienced displacement in society in America. After reading this book it led me to question, To what extent does the racial displacement of African Americans in America still exist today? Maya Angelou has been through thick and thin to find a balance in society and still to this day there is a need for resistance to racism.

I didn 't meet anybody I wanted to marry ' '. Before Skeeter left for college, she wanted the married life that her mom instilled in her but this quotation reveals that Skeeter is no longer one of the typical white women in Jackson , Mississippi who worried about marriage, having children and the perfect life. Later in the novel, we see another character development from Skeeter when she sees the unfair treatment of the blacks have totally changed ever since she left for college. One afternoon, Miss Hilly suggested that the black help should not use the same bathroom as the whites in their household as they spread diseases. Annoyed Skeeter responds loudly and says ' 'Maybe we ought to just build you a bathroom outside Hilly ' '.

According to the chapter “Is the Personal Still Political” in Patricia Hill Collins’s book From Black Power to Hip Hop, African American women could not fully identify with the American feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s because of “race, class, and nation matter” (Collins 178). In other words, African American women did not wholly face the same struggles as White women and formed their own feminist organizations as a result. Even today, there is still a divide between White feminism and Black feminism and many Black artists have taken on the role of mobilizing the Black feminist movement. Of all the works we have studied in RLGN 278, I was most fascinated by the works of Janelle Monae and the film Black Panther. Through Django Jane, Janelle Monae is able to provide commentary on today’s current climate of gender and sexuality while Black Panther provides a utopian view of these topics.

Surely, only an opposing, selfish, and insensitive person could send their wife and child away upon realizing that they both were mixed race. In Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby”, however, protagonist, Desiree, is altered over just a few days as she goes from being thankful from the happiness of her husband and baby into saddened and betrayed by her lover. The story eventfully shows how racism and denial both play a part in the way the future may turn out. From the time that the story begins, one can see that the love between Armand and Desiree is what they say to be a dream come true. It’s the love that everyone asks for.

The novel primarily focuses on the problems that the African-American women faced in the 20th century in the south of the United States depicted on the example of Celie, who came through a number of events and finally managed to self-actualize herself in a world that was hostile to her. The Color Purple unleashed a storm of controversy; a number of male African-American critics complained that the novel reaffirmed old racist stereotypes. Nevertheless, the Color Purple also had its supporters,

Let the Circle Be Unbroken, a novel by Mildred D. Taylor, portrays the inequality of colored people and the numerous issues they faced in the 1930s. Depending on where one was in the country affected how they were treated; African Americans in the south were often treated worse than those who resided in the north. Either way, they endured back-breaking work, lived through the Great Depression, and were the victims of racism. Although they were no longer slaves, and hadn’t been for several decades, many people refused to see colored people as equal. Mildred D. Taylor took these events into consideration when writing her novel, and in doing so, gave an accurate representation of how life was for colored people in the 1930s.