Colin Kaepernick a form NFL quarterback sparked controversy when he kneeled during the national anthem. Nancy Armour a writer for USA Today explained why Kaepernick took a knee over racism and discrimination because, “people don’t like to address that and they don’t like to address what the root of this protest is”. What Armour is explaining is that most people don’t want to address a problem at all and when there is a problem as big as racism in the present most wont deal with it. I think there could be better ways that to get the point across than Kaepernick did; on the other hand, it did spark a lot of talk about the subject and bring it to the eyes of the public. Kaepernick provides a good explanation for his actions when he told the press,
African Americans face a struggle with racism which has been present in our country before the Civil War began in 1861. America still faces racism today however, around the 1920’s the daily life of an African American slowly began to improve. Thus, this time period was known by many, as the “Negro Fad” (O’Neill). The quality of life and freedom of African Americans that lived in the United States was constantly evolving and never completely considered ‘equal’. From being enslaved, to fighting for their freedom, African Americans were greatly changing the status quo and beginning to make their mark in the United States. They have endured severe oppression and racism for many years and suffered under Jim Crow Laws as well which were created specifically
In Patricia Smith's’ What It’s Like to be a Black Girl (for Those of You Who Aren’t), she eliminates the use of stanzas in her poem, which makes it appear as a miniature short story to the reader. Without the stanzas, the reader is encouraged to read the poem straight through, only breaking where there is punctuation. Her powerful words keep the reader attentive and truly capture the essence of her life. She begins her poem with the line “First of all”, the F in first being the only capitalized letter in the poem. She does not use other transition words like then, next or second, which one would expect, however, with each line, she takes the reader as she transitions from childhood to womanhood for a young black girl.
Some might believe that we are done with the dog days we say stuff like, “Oh there is no more racism,” or “Racism is over we have a black president now.” In addition, just because we have a black president does not mean racism is over, one person cannot make racism end, something that has been occurring for various centuries since the first ship arrived to Jamestown in 1607. As we have seen over and over these ongoing trends of dehumanizing people of color and how that is affecting them now. If you do not believe that racism and segregation does not exist anymore well black people where there are unstable social and economically and black were out of the housing market, where they could not buy a home where white people lived. (The House We
Over the past year’s different Afrocentric theorist have formed theories of what black history should represent. One philosopher that I feel we should pay attention to is Alain Locke for his work, “The New Negro”. Alain Leroy Locke was an educator, a philosopher and a writer. Locke publicized the Harlem Renaissance to a wide audience. Alain Locke Charter Academy is named after him in Chicago, Illinois. If we were to design a philosophy-based curriculum for Black Studies, it would be based on several things; knowledge, misconception and ethics.
This assignment, I'm going to discuss the poetry of Langston Hughes. This Harlem Renaissance was an early twentieth Century movements to be an artist. How they felt to be black and the meaning behind being black. How to be black, and how to be an American at the same time. Harlem Renaissance started after first War world, and didn't end until the Great Depression. The Harlem Renaissance was a political and social movement. It made literature so inspiring as well as poetry. Langston Hughes always compared the Africa American’s as Negros. However, John Green did state in his video, “like the white people.” Which he did say that he doesn't use those words. I kind of found that kind of humorous to me. I did find out that Langston
During the Harlem Renaissance, African American culture demonstrated literature, music, and art. It marked a movement when white America started incorporating and recognizing African Americans. However, before the Harlem Renaissance, discrimination was at its highest peak; African Americans were treated like property, and violence was used as a persuasive, and psychological technique. Individuals that were targeted had to cope mentally and emotionally due to the agony that racism caused. Conflicts were created from an individual aspect, based off of prejudicial actions or comments, causing individuals to feel harmed with trauma and pain. This idea is illustrated in Langston Hughes 's collection The Way of White Folks. Langston Hughes’s inspiration was created by his own life in Harlem, New York. He had a strong sense of racial pride which was demonstrated through his mix of blues and jazz with traditional forms, giving him a unique style. Langston Hughes investigates the emotional anguish caused by discrimination through Slave on the Block, and The Blues I’m Playing using overt racism, covert racism, and classism.
The Harlem Renaissance, or the New Negro Movement as it was known at the time, was an intellectual, artistic, and social outpouring that celebrated black culture with themes of what it meant to be black in America. This movement lasted from the 1920s through the 1930s and included artists and intellectuals such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B. DuBois, and Duke Ellington. The Harlem Renaissance went beyond art, literature, and music, there were also political, social, and economic aspects as African-Americans questioned how the United States viewed them and how they viewed themselves. The New Negro and the rise of Harlem came about at a time when African-Americans began to urbanize and form a unique urban culture. These African-Americans defined themselves on their own terms, were proud to be both of African descent and American citizens, and were not afraid to push back against racism.
America and its people have worked hard to create a home in which everyone is treated, and feels equal. We’ve fought wars, held protests, and lost many lives in situations where we were fighting for fair treatment. After all of these sacrifices, it's safe to say that Americans have the right to love, and cherish the equality that their home presents them with, but to an extent. Equality in society, government, and basic human interactions should always be kept, and held with great importance. However, we also need to keep in mind that we are not the same people. This is where the government in the story, ‘’Harrison Bergeron,’’ gets out of hand. They tried to make their citizens equal by making them the same which prevents
In the documentary, Renee fights against what people see as culture acceptance and demonstrates that black female models are just as capable and beautiful as white female models. According to the Oxford Dictionary, racial discrimination is concept that is described to be when a person is being treated less favourable than the other person in a similar situation because of their race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin. In relation to the fashion industry, racial discrimination occurs when other racial diverse models are being rejected in the fashion environment due to the colour of their skin. The colour of your skin can have an effect on the decisions involved in selecting model for runway shows. In the fashion industry, Elizabeth
African Americans have been oppressed for over 100 of years, the stories are written in history permanently in poems and stories. Literature allows a reader to escape from reality and into a story with social wrongs and rights. It connects the real world to a character 's story to act as a “mirror” for the readers. Racism is a topic that can be mapped through pieces of literature worldwide.
Langston Hughes was an American poem born in the early nineteen hundreds, who became known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He published many poems that brought light to the life of people of color in the twentieth century. There are three poems that the speakers are used to portray three major themes of each poem. Racism, the American Dream, and Hopes are all the major themes that Hughes uses to highlight the average life of a person of color. Theme for English B,” “Harlem,” and “Let America Be America Again” were three of Hughes’s poems that was selected to underline the themes. Meanwhile, the readers can learn something for each of the poems and apply it to their life. They can also noticed how Langston Hughes’s poems often contains hope and noted the possibility that both white and black people can live together in peace and harmony. And the poems also represent the average person of colors’ life and their struggles and frustrations towards the white community throughout the twentieth century.
I find the text “The day I became black” very interesting. This is a text by Willem Reerink, where he writes about “when he became black”. What he means with that is that one day in school, some of his classmates was talking about that it was no African American kids in their class, but Willem was in fact African American, but it didn’t show. His skin was caramel, so nobody had ever thought of him as “black”. But as soon as Willem “came out”, he felt that the other classmates and the kids at school started to treat him different. He felt like his classmates felt betrayed and all of a sudden, the other kids at school started to give him fist bumps and kids he had never before spoken to, started to speak to him. I like this text because it is very interesting how he describes the way people started to act after they found out that he was African American. At first they didn’t believe him because his skin wasn’t black and he didn’t play basketball or listen to rap, and he felt that the expectations that were set for him, were all stereotypes. This text shows us how the
Racial injustice is an ongoing issue that has existed as far as humanity can remember. Racial injustice is commonly defined as the denial of a person’s basic human rights due to their racial background (“What is Racial Injustice?” 1). In reading the poems Incident by Countee Cullen, Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes, and Afterimages by Audre Lorde, the readers are able to have an idea of how racial injustice was in the past. These three well written poems help give readers a glimpse of how things were like back in the day. It is interesting to see how the racial injustices seen in these poems can still be seen today.
The movie Shrek is a popular classic in the animation genre of film. A big reason for it becoming a classic is its theme. Shrek is an ogre who is constantly feared and looked down in society. His looks make people want to kill him, which makes Shrek isolate himself from in his swamp. So what exactly is the theme of the story? Well, Shrek was always judged by society because he’s simply an ogre. Him wanting to marry the human version Fiona would be looked down upon since he’s an ogre and she’s a human. Judgment is huge part of the society Shrek lives in. This judgement is similar to how the Puritans reacted when they encountered an outsider or someone who’s different. The Puritans were a group of Protestants who wanted to purify their church.