Stand Up for Your Dreams “Someone once asked me how I hold my head up so high after all I have been through. I said it’s because no matter what, I am a survivor. Not a victim” (Patricia Buckley). In the article “The Color of Success”, the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, and the Montgomery bus boycott all have something in common; they all have someone who refused to play the part of a victim. In “The Color of Success” written by Eric Watts talks about how he was not taken serious as an African American man because he acted too white. Watts was considered too white because he wanted to study, talk with proper English, and go to school. He was bullied for wanting to do these things, but refused to look at himself as a victim. …show more content…
He does not let these situations define who he is. The Montgomery bus boycott was led by one female named Rosa Parks. She never thought of herself as a victim. Watts, Junior, nor Rosa Parks acted as a victim; instead they capitalized on their abilities. In “The Color of Success”, Watts explains what he has gone through and how the African American race views their lives. Watts went to a primarily all white school and was always pressured by the stereotypes created about the African Americans. He was considered to be “acting white” because he wanted study and have an education. Watts talked with proper English and wanted to study. These things were considered to be white because an African American should not want to do this. Watts did not care that he was “acting white”. He just wanted to further his knowledge and not care what anyone thought about him. Watts writes, “It seemed to me that certain things I valued- hard work, initiative, articulateness, education-were not solely white people’s prerogative” (249). This quote proves that Watt’s knew he had the right to get the education he wanted and the motivation to go against the stereotype. Many blacks believe they are not supposed to want an education because it is
In the piece, “Just Walk on By,” written by Brent Staples, the author writes about how he is discriminated against because of his race and his appearance. He was a graduate student and new to the University of Chicago. He explains how he has victims which are people who judge him and make him feel he is a dangerous criminal. He talks about his first victim who is a white woman she was terrified of him and made him feel dismayed, surprised, and embarrassed. After that encounter is when he realized and became familiar with the language of fear.
The “acting white” theory is a term most commonly used on minorities (precisely African Americans), where they are accused of “acting white” based on having characteristics of white people. This emphasis of acting white focuses on a black person betraying their own culture by getting good grades in school. Research has been done by Ronald G. Fryer, who wrote a research paper called, “Acting White: The Social Price Paid by the Best and Brightest Minority Students” agrees with this theory and has come up with a way to prove this theory to be true. Fryer tries to prove this point by basing this theory off of a students’ GPA and popularity in school. Another person who has done research, Ivory A. Toldson, disagrees with Fryer and the theory, that
Following many years of struggle, Du bois succeeded in achieving the NAACP organization that still stands today and strives for equality. Also for Du Bois he knew what he was doing as as. ”political thinker. As he stated in one of his novels The Philadelphia Negro
It was 1943, a second lieutenant of a segregated Army Cavalry unit stationed in Texas walked onto a bus, an unsegregated bus. This man took a seat near the front of the bus but then was told that he must move to the back of the bus for a white man, and he refused to give up his seat. He was then arrested by the military police and was later brought to court for this “crime.” He was never allowed to be deployed overseas and never saw combat again, but these actions would symbolize a life full of pain, adversity, persistence, civil rights walls broken, and triumph… This is the life of Jackie Robinson (3).
In one speech he made he stated “ I won’t be used by powerful white people who are fighting for their own beliefs and freedoms,and neither should you, especially if you’re poor and/or black.” He believed that society should get rid of racism and
The profound effects of Progressivism had done little for African Americans, with very few that managed to gain a foothold by services and products to the black community. Especially in the South, where racism was much more prominent, and where many more white Americans possessed the ideology that blacks were inferior to whites. W.E.B. Du Bois was the very first African American to receive a PhD, and he published several books and essays, describing in great detail the numerous hurdles they were presented with. In his own journal, The Crisis, he displays an example after World War I, explaining the lack of recognition African Americans received for fighting “gladly and to the last drop of blood; for America and her highest ideals” (Document I). African Americans were kept extremely busy with “lynching, disenfranchisement, caste, brutality, and devilish insult” (Document I), fighting to protect and secure the rights they had already worked so hard to achieve.
Stokely Carmichael was a black civil rights activist, who gave his speech, “Black Power” on the twenty-ninth of October, 1966 to other civil rights activists on the basis of black power, or black rights. Carmichael's tone for this speech is most noticeably empowering, and thought-provoking. Carmichael’s main use in his speech was his choice of diction. He created a vast majority of degrading words towards those who were white, such as, “That failure is due to the white’s incapacity to deal with their own problems inside their own communities.” Here, Carmichael is degrading the white population, in which they can not deal with their own problems.
During the bus boycotts in Alabama, King and President Nixon have a chat. King thinks “only through a boycott can we make it clear to the white folks that we will not accept this kind of treatment any longer” (Doc. B). He is courageous and won't take no for an answer. Courage drives someone towards a cause; weakness makes the person let conditions get
W.E.B. Du Bois on “The Souls of Black Folks” Success is something that every person want to achieve in life because everyone love the taste of winning. However, not every each and individual person can accomplish success in every attempts because there will always be the times of winning and the time of losing. Our society is built on the principle of generalized competition that every aspect of life is a game. One must engage at a personal level that every other person is a competitor or potential competitor because competition is generalized to most parts of society.
Whatever the educated and often professionally successful person previously thought her position in society was, now she is challenged, as random white persons casually but powerfully degrade her. This moment is always insulting and even a relatively minor incident can have a significant impact. (Anderson 253) Anderson is simply restating, how a competent and successful individual will face discrimination if their race is different from the white-ruling class. He describes how anyone from a different race will be forced to self-evaluate their social status as an individual. His description of self-evaluation is similar to the time when I was in high school, every time that I felt I had finally, become equal to my peers and enjoyed the same
DuBois’s first post-dissertation book, The Philadelphia Negro, released in 1899, determined that housing and employment discrimination were the principal barriers to racial equality and black prosperity in the urban North. (blackpast.org/aah/dubois-william-edward-burghardt-1868-1963) In his written book, The Souls of Black Folks, released in 1903, he argued for "manly" and "ceaseless agitation and insistent demand for equality” which demanded a education of equality for blacks that’s not inferior to whites. (W. E. B. Du Bois and the NAACP, Virginia Historical Society) Du Bois promoted the idea of self improvement, without giving up full citizenship rights, which impacted the general well being of African American and visualized the idea of having an exclusive group of all black, educated leaders called “The
Because of this experience, Malcolm X becomes less resilient to the idea that people of all colors can coexist. This relates to my thesis in that showcases both a positive and negative environment created by Malcolm’s interactions, and the interactions of those around him, with white
In the analysis of the abundance of wonderful leaders who made a difference in the African American community since emancipation, W.E.B Du Bois made a special impact to advance the world. From founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to his influential book The Souls of Black Folk, he always found an accurate yet abstract way of verbalizing the strives of African Americans as well as making platforms for them to be known. Although he had less power than most of the bigger named African American leaders of his time, W.E.B Dubois’ overweighing strengths verses weaknesses, accurate and creative analogies, leadership style, and the successful foundations he stood for demonstrates his ability to be both realistic and accurate in his assessment since emancipation. Though Du Bois did have a beneficial impact
The Hard on Truth There are many connections you see between the impact of Jim Crow laws on life in the South and the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Jim Crow laws impacted life in the South by creating inequality, racism, and segregation. This plays out in To Kill a Mockingbird in an immensely powerful way.
Teachers didn’t believe Michael could learn efficiently, because he was large and black skinned. He wasn’t the smartest kid out there, but the lack of confidence the teachers showed didn’t help the cause. The teachers were against certain tones, and all for others. If you were white then you were treated in a fairly manner, if you were of another skin color then you were just “there.” Michael’s test scores were disappointing when he first