To Pip A Bird Analysis

James Baldwin experienced two decades of successful writings in the mid-twentieth century, a time when racial tensions were high in the United States. Born in Harlem, Baldwin lived and adapted to the world of social and racial unrest; though most of us cannot understand these times, Baldwin shared through his writings the hardships many families endured. Baldwin reflects on this difficult time by writing a story titled “Sonny’s Blues”. This story is about two black brothers who are tormented with daily life and struggle to overcome the hopeless confines of the city.

Welcome to my essay, I will be talking about inequalities such as racial inequities in maycomb and the time period. Inequalities can be a big impact to anyone's life. And can change people's judgment and views on integer people. To kill a Mockingbird shows a lot of inequalities. One way for inequalities, is It uses Tom Robinson an innocent black man and how he was treated and framed because he was black

In this piece, McKay talks about how African Americans have been oppressed throughout history and shows the sadness he has for his people, “My heart grows sick with hate, becomes as lead,/ For this my race that has no home on earth(7-8).” He also wants his people to be liberated and be able to live as equals with white people, which they've been denied the right to do. Another poem which shows how the themes of the Harlem Renaissance shaped his writing is If We Must Die. In this piece, McKay talks about how he doesn’t want black people to die in vain like that had been throughout history but rather let them die with honor and dignity because they matter just as much as the white people, or “the murderous, cowardly pack”. In the line, “ If we must die-let it not be like hogs/ Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,/ While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,/ Making their mock at our accursed lot./

Hip Hop was the wildfire that started in the South Bronx and whose flames leapt up around the world crying out for change. James McBride’s Hip Hop Planet focuses on his personal interactions with the development of Hip Hop culture and his changing interpretations of the world wide movement. Many of his encounters and mentions in the text concern young black males and his writing follows an evolution in the representation of this specific social group. He initially portrays them as arrogant, poor, and uneducated but eventually develops their image to include the positive effects of their culture in an attempt to negate their historical misrepresentation.

Historical Criticism on “A black man in public spaces” “A black man in public spaces” is a short story in which the author, Brent Staples, presents the very well known case of racial profiling. Mr. Staples recalls his experiences of being a young black man in a society hell bent on profiling all black men as a danger to a peaceful community. When looking at the piece in the historical view you can rally together the author’s reasons for writing the essay, whether that is previous events in his life or the time period and social influences as to why he wrote it. Brent Staples, a 6’2 very broad man, with a curly beard and billowing hair may seem very intimidating if you where to face him on the street.

Diamond Williams Professor Wolfe LIT2001 3 January 16 Fiction Analysis “Sonny’s Blues” is a short story written by James Baldwin that reflects on the ongoing struggles between failure and atonement amongst two brothers. The older brother who is also the narrator, gives us insight on the struggles in Harlem, and the life he had with his drug addicted younger brother, Sonny. As we follow the narrator, we later discover who Sonny really is. Published in the mid nineteen hundreds, the burdensome of living in Harlem in “Sonny’s Blues” reflects the life that James Baldwin endured.

In The Blind Side by Michael Lewis, he writes about the life of Michael Oher, an American young man, who was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He struggles with issues such as poverty, his childhood, trying to maintain dignity, and he hoped to dream of a better life. It is difficult for African American’s living in poverty to obtain their dreams, especially since they deal with many difficulties such as racism and discrimination. However, even though it takes a lot for one to obtain his/her dreams, dreams are always achievable if one enhance their social and economic life. While the idea in Michael Lewis’s The Blind Side, reveals that it is possible for one to succeed in life, it is the outcome of one’s socioeconomic factors that ultimately defines the merit of one’s character and the degree of his contentment.

Throughout James Baldwin’s stories, such as “Sonny’s Blues”, “The Rockpile”, and “The Outing”, he uses classism, racism, sexism, and despair to express hardships throughout his life and others. The life of James Baldwin was very difficult since he lived during the Harlem Renaissance, 1920s. Being born as a gay black man without much money. Being black during the 1920s made you a target of hateful actions and thoughts. While being gay during the 1920s also made you a target for hate, even worse than for being black in some cases.

This is still used as a racist term for black people from some. Take the Ku Klux Klan for an example, they are people who claim to hate every race except for white. In Roots, there's a scene of the KKK being formed by Evan Brent. Him and a bunch of other people go to Kunta’s descendants plantation and terrorized his grandchildren. The “n” word should stop being used because it is an ugly, mean and hurtful word towards African Americans.

Why? A mockingbird represents something innocent, and to kill something innocent is a sin. The book To Kill A Mockingbird is a great example of this; because it is taken place in the deep south where the racism caused many black to suffer only because of their race. Manying blacks are like mockingbirds which were usually innocent but falsely accused and harmed (like Tom Robinson). Another mockingbird in the story is Boo Radley.

In his early life Macklemore , “...was influenced by the likes of hip-hop groups Kris Kross and Digital Underground as well as pop superstar Michael Jackson.” as said by Biography.com Macklemore attended a musical school where he developed an alcohol and drug addiction. He then went to rehab and started taking steps towards being sober. He then started rapping. He recorded music at his parents house and turned down record labels.

The fiction appears in many films and literatures. But appears most in rap music, which now has turned into a medium for worshipping misogyny, materalism, and murder (Staples). Hip hop is causing society to negatively see black people, and positively see whites, while both can be done the same

Civil Rights and Black Liberation movement inspired artists such as Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder to express social commentary in their music. Stevie Wonder expresses social issues in all of his songs but, the two songs I am going to talk about are “Big Brother” (1972) and “Village Ghetto Land” (1976). In his song “Big Brother” accuse the government of spying and killing African American leaders. “Village Ghetto Land” invites the politicians to see the inner city of families suffering from starvation. Both songs reveal the hardships that African Americans face as a result of deception, abuse, and neglect by government.

Despite these possible explanations about whether rap and hip hop artists use homophobic language as an attack against white men, homosexuality or as a way to affirm their masculinity, it does not change the fact that the use of this homophobic language is wrong and not a viable solution. However, there are artists who currently resist the masculine gender representation of rap, hip hop and even alternative R&B. In Frederik Dhaenens’ “Resistant masculinities in alternative R&B? Understanding Frank Ocean and The Weeknd’s representations of gender” he writes, “Hegemonic R&B and hip hop masculinity is grafted onto a history of racism and systematic oppression by White Americans of African-American men… the manhood of Black men has been constantly scrutinized, questioned and defied” (285). When black manhood is threatened oftentimes

The gay topic in hip hop is not trying to destroy hip hop. Cashun is a gay rapper, who challenged the homophobia with enough dignity. “Disidentification resists an unproductive turn toward good dog/bad dog criticism and instead leads to an identification that is both meditated and immediate, a disidentification that enables politics.” Black gay folks who are in the middle of different dominances find the practice of disidentificacion more seductive and enabling than major subjects. Black queer subjects in black, presumed heterosexual or gay (mostly whites) contexts find that an identification with larger groups is more a liberatory exit for survival than those people who identify themselves with dominant ideologies.