What It's Like To Be A Black Girl Analysis

Right away Candace G. Wiley’s poem title, “Dear Black Barbie,” caught my eye. Looking through the poem, the author uses multiple literary techniques. However, after reading the poem various times, clearly symbols function as the predominant literary element of Wiley’s poem, and these symbols must be decoded to fully comprehend Wiley’s work.

The small town that I am from in North Carolina is predominantly white. And when I say predominantly white, I mean near ninety percent (NorthCarolina.com. N.p., n.d. Web). While growing up, it was common to be referred to as “that black girl.” It did not take a toll on my self-esteem until I started becoming aware of the negative connotation people were using in order to label me. But to those people, I was Black because I was simply not white. However, when I was compared to other black people from different schools, I was not Black. If I received a dollar for every time someone told me I was a White girl trapped inside of a Black girl body, I would be sitting on bills today. At first I would go along with it because I was afraid to engage

The end of the poem you see her in a casket with a new nose and makeup and essentially she looks like a doll. Everyone who is there to see her comments on how pretty she. She is said to now have a happy ending. This poem talks about how this girl was just an innocent girl who didn't have any issues with herself till she reached a certain age.

Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls film is based on Ntozake Shange’s play, the self-described choreopoem “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf.” In Perry’s film, there is a group of nine black women, most of whom live in the same Harlem apartment building, who all face personal crises, heartbreak and other challenges. Crystal faces an unhappy existence as an abused lover. Jo is a successful magazine editor, but her husband has a secret double life. Juanita is a relationship counselor, but cannot seem to get her love life in order. These three and the others become bound together by their experiences. The film and the play both shed light on the hardships that women of color face everyday. The film is not true

Smith goes on in the fourth stanza to say this is the story of minorities that save themselves standing next to the addicts, exiles, and children of slaves. It is the broken people that are the heroes of this story. A shift is noticeable beginning in the fourth stanza because the poem changes from what the poet wants the movie to be to what elements the movie is prohibited to have. Danez Smith claims he does not want a “hmong sexy hot dude” to save the day with “a funny yet strong, commanding black girl buddy-cop” then uses Will Smith and Sofia Vergara as an example. The preceding lines go on to say there will be grandmas taking out Raptors while sitting on her porch and for once a movie will not obsess over violence, race, and status, only normal people doing amazing

Langston Hughes' "When the Negro Was in Vogue" brings light to the issue of racial inequality and cultural appropriation. These topics remain relevant in our modern society, and are present in current cultural trends. Racial inequality is a problem that has always been around it seems; white is portrayed as "good" and black (and every other color for that matter) is portrayed as "bad." The title "When the Negro Was in Vogue" makes the point that during the time of the Harlem Renaissance, it was actually "good" to be black; that was because white people liked what black people were accomplishing and creating at the time. This is something that continues to be an issue, even today. While our society has made a significant amount of progress in terms of racial inequality, there is still much more

Whitman’s experience as a wound-dresser at the time of the war gave him a unique perspective of the men and women on the front lines. One way he shows the realism is through his free verse style that doesn’t have a rhyming pattern or many other traditional poetry rules. This gives his poetry sort of an edge that lets the realism come through. The way Whitman gets the audience’s attention in his free verse style is through repetition of words that rhyme but with no necessary order. One example of this is his use of the first-person pronoun I in “The Wound-Dresser” for example at the beginning of most stanzas Whitman starts out by saying “I dress a wound in the side, deep, deep, … I dress the perforated shoulder, … I am faithful, I do not give out” (Levine 78).

He also repeats “higher” three times in stanza two. This gives the poem that over-the-top feeling that makes it seem magical. Lastly, he uses rhythm to give the reader an easier way to read the poem, as well as much needed structure. Each of his stanzas are written with the lines in a pattern of, long, long, short, short, short, long.

The song describes most of what is going on in the story. For example, “We found him with his face down in the pillow With a note that said I’ll love her till I die.” These two lines in the stanza are very descriptive. Using detailed lines makes a better understanding for the audience. It makes the song become more realistic.

Zora Neale Hurston is another example of bringing attention to the tension of race. She, however, still demonstrates pride in her race as demonstrated in her work, “How it feels to be coloured me”. Hurston demonstrates her pride throughout the piece through word choice. Throughout the piece, Hurston chooses words that bring

In the poem “ What it is like to be a black girl”, Patrica Smith uses metaphorical language to show us how young black girls are being judge in society based on stereotypes . It’s describing how she wants to change and become like other people in the racial society because she’s having a hard time accepting who she is.

Grace Nichols effectively utilises idiomatic language, word choice and various aesthetic features to show westerners the struggles which outsiders of society face. There have always been marginalised groups within society, and it can feel horrible to be in that position. Nichols has really struck a chord with this poem, as it really speaks out about what it’s like to be an outsider. She uses the fat black woman not fitting into the clothes as a metaphor for her not fitting into society; not just for her size, but for her race and colour as

sharpest young critics, believes that male rapper uses violence as a symbol to express macho power, as a way to resolve all the disagreements between blacks and as necessary for individual protection. Due its popularity, hip hop exacerbates the criminal image of black men in a criminal justice system that has an overpopulation of black men in the prison system. Sorrowfully, many believe that this is the direct product of overly increasing black male criminality as opposed of blaming the social structure.

Recent statistics show that positive imagery of black women in the media appears two times less than negative imagery (Thomspon). The survey has illustrated that black women believe that representation of negative stereotypic characters in the media is prevailing, compared to the portrayal of pure Afro-American beauty. It questions the claim of our generation that it has entered the post-racial era, even though modern society proclaims itself to be alien to the racial and ethnic differentiation. Ethnical and racial minorities still come across deep-rooted prejudices, particularly at media platforms, such as movies, music videos and advertisement. Historically, negative stereotypes of black women were very popular in the course of the last century, and there were historical events that were justifying their presence, such as slavery era. Modern movies often portray the past times conforming to the events, lifestyle and principles that existed within the societies. Therefore, in such films degrading stereotypes of black women are long-established and very popular. However, continuous negative representation of black women at media platforms shapes societies’ bias outlook towards them and works on development of frameworks for black women. This essay is going to analyze to what extent long-established continuous stereotypes of black women

Growing up my parents instilled in me that I was beautiful and my skin was beautiful. It was clear to me that everyone else didn’t feel the same way. I went to a couple different schools throughout my life starting with a predominantly black school then a predominantly white school then a very diverse school and at each one I still experienced colorism. At the black school I was not liked because I was darkskin and my hair was kinky and I was just not as pretty as the light skinned girls. At the white school I already felt different so I changed my hair I began to straighten it and talk different. I wanted to blend in but no matter what I did I was different. I stuck out like a sore thumb. Forget having a crush because no ones likes mean angry black girls. I find myself to be a very fragile girl and I want to protect myself so I don’t walk around crying all the time. So I began to put on my hard shell. They couldn’t hurt me if I didn’t give them the chance to be near me. By the time I got to high school I was then at a very diverse school. I had my protective shell of anger with me and I was ridiculed with in the first month of school. I realized there is no where I can go that won’t make me feel this way. Not only was I darkskin but I was an oreo because of the way I talked now. I was an angry black girl because no one thought I was beautiful or that I deserved respect or that I should be treated just the same as the light skin girl with long curly hair.