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The Mobility Of African Americans In Passing By Nella Larsen

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Mobility What is Mobility? This word has numerous meanings: mobility means the ability to move. I think of African Americans and their mobility when I think of this word, for example, the movement of enslaved Africans to the Americas, the movement of African Americans in society and the struggles they face throughout history? We learned in class about the diverse ways African Americans show mobility, for example, flight, fugitive, passing, and many more. The one that resonated with me the most was passing. When you hear the word passing used to refer to African Americans you automatically think that it means the ability for a black person to pass for a white person, but that is only the surface-level meaning of the word, this word could …show more content…

Through this book, you can see the literal meaning of the word passing and some of the other meanings of the word. In the book, we meet people with the ability to pass Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield, but they both live vastly different lifestyles. The reason that Clare passes is for a better life and to get away from the racism that Black people face in their lives. When thinking about why she does it, it is the same reason people did it in real life, they want to have a better life and have the opportunity to live their lives without the fear of being discriminated against, but the people that do this seem to lose touch with their roots and lose touch with their culture, this is seen with Clare she ended up cutting off all her black friends and family to live this lifestyle, that was until she met Irene, that was when she realized that she wanted to get grounded again and get back into her culture and roots. Besides just her ability to pass as a white person, she was able to pass through the social classes. When someone passes through a social class, this means that they can move from one class to another, for example, moving from the working class to the wealthy class. They showed this through Clare. She was able to go from the working class to the wealthy class by just marrying her husband. Irene on the other hand passes sometimes, but what makes her different from Clare is the fact …show more content…

In this book, the uncle loses his voice at the beginning of the book, and to him, he felt like this was his death. To Uncle Joseph, a voice was a way of passage for him and a way for him to help people and to show feeling to his family. They showed this when he says, “It reminded him how important voices were. If you had one, you could use it to reach out to your family no matter how far away” (39). Taking a step back from the book’s voice is especially important in the real world. It creates a passage for people, gives people the ability to uplift people, create innovative ideas, and help fight for what they believe in. A person that uses their voice to the fullest is enormously powerful. They can change many things just with their voice. A person that was exceptional at using his voice for good and creating mobility and passages for people to succeed and to be united, is Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was able to elevate African Americans and fight for equality for all, he gave African Americans a passageway to success, to equality, and he improved the African American race. He did this only with his voice. His words motivated people and spoke to

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