“Assata” is an autobiography written by Assata Shakur. This autobiography takes place in the 1970’s when Shakur is being charged with several assaults, many that she did not commit. Throughout this autobiography, Shakur begins her book by showing how big racism is towards African Americans, but later on shows how it racism occurs with other races as well, like Native Americans, Chicanos, hippies and so on. Shakur makes it clear that to us that she believes America is a place that contains so much racism. Although she does not say it specifically, she shows it through the choice of her vocabulary and language. For example, there are many scenarios where Shakur misspells America by using a lowercase A, replacing the C with a K, or sometimes even …show more content…
Shakur doesn’t tell us straight forward, instead she shows it through her way of spelling certain words. This sticks to me the most because she showed this in the whole book rather than just a small section of it. She did this to show us that how she feels is consistent and it wasn’t just at a certain period of time where she felt the way she did. The purpose it serves the book is to show her feelings in a discrete way rather than just bashing America with vulgarity. A certain part that I thought was important was when rejects a boy because he’s a negro although she is black herself. I find this to be insightful because this shows how much of an effect racism really does have on people. Although she was black, she rejected the boy that liked her because he was black and it wasn’t right. This part of the book also shows how something negative can affect everyone because although whites were being racist against blacks, this taught kids, in this case black kids to be racist against black kids. Another part I find to be important is when Shakur travels to San Francisco and she sees that blacks aren’t the only ones that want change when it comes to police brutality, there are also other races that are …show more content…
What I enjoy is that Shakur provides descriptive scenarios of when she was being attacked by police officers, when she was in prison and even of her childhood. By doing such thing she gives us the opportunity to feel and imagine how it must have been for her. The fact that she does she, she gives us, the readers, the opportunity to visualize and see how bad racism and police brutality was, especially against African Americans. What intrigues me the most about this piece of work is when her grandmother went to visit her to tell her that she had had a dream about her being free and soon enough Shakur was in Cuba contacting her aunt to tell her she was fine. Something I would like to know more about is her process of escaping and how it happened. Also, I’d like to know more on how she was able to flee to
1) The major theme of the book is respectability. In the 1950 's Rosa Parks became the symbol for black female resistance in the
¨Father forgive us for living (Shakur, 1). Tupac speaks from the african american point of view, as in a world where african americans are discriminated, simply living is a crime In ¨Untitled 1,¨ by Tupac Shakur, the theme is how African Americans have been discriminated by other races and even self-discriminated and how that needs to be changed. Tupac examines the struggles of African Americans, and talks about how they have been discriminated for a very long time and how it has caused sorrow. That being said, he remains hopeful towards the future, and wants to inspire children to spark change.
In her essay, “Momma, the Dentist, and me” Maya Angelou describe her insight in remembering an incident of racism. The incident refer to a time when a white dentist named Lincoln did not treat her tooth ace just for being colored “Niggah.” In America no one should be allowed to be a form of prisoner, because of their native skin color. Americans should be held accountable for their actions whenever a color person are in need of help their social life. There should be laws ordinances to prohibit persons from confronting -either verbally or physically -color people for not being a Caucasian person. This conflict in rights between those held by color people and the American people those held by, because American refused freedom rights, endanger lives, and economic issues.
America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.
From this perspective Souza continuously degrade the fact that racism still exist. According to Souza’s view, racism cannot be the blame for most of the contemporary struggles African Americans face. Souza strongly believe that even if racism goes away, African Americans will continue to seek hand outs and make excuses. Such as, kids growing up in single parent households, excessively long predominately black welfare lines, and inner city crimes. Souza goes to the degree of being irrational when he states that he want a repeal of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. By this Souza mean the law should be changed so that its nondiscrimination provisions apply only to the government. In sum, the real issue is how America can progress over time and live up to being the land of the
Because of the laws against colored people, Rosaleen, as a black woman, lives with constraints in her life. For example, she cannot live in a house with white people (Kidd, p.8), she cannot represent Lily at the charm school (Kidd, p.19), or even travel in a car with white people (Kidd, p.76). The media is also influenced by racism, and constantly shows news about segregation such as the case of Martin Luther King, who is arrested because he wants to eat in a restaurant (Kidd, p.35), the “man in Mississippi was killed for registering to vote” (Kidd, p.44), and the motel in Jackson, that closes, because the owners don’t want to rent rooms to black people (Kidd, p.99).... ... middle of paper ...
Times were looking up for African Americans, their new freedom gave them the option to go down a road of either criminal actions or to make something out of themselves. But the presence of racism and hatred was still very much so alive, Klu Klux Klan, although not as strong as they were after the Civil War was still present. Laws like Jim Crow laws and “separate but equal” came into play and continued to show how racism was alive. Besides these actors of racism, blacks still started gaining a major roll in American society.
The poem with the same title as the collection ’’I am not a racist but…’’ she uses satire to show how easy racism is not recognised or played down. She was hurt at a very young age by racist attitude and words as she wrote about her school years in the poem ‘’Making...
Racism had effected society over many generations. There are 4 texts that showcase this Remember the Titans by Boaz Yakin , A Party Down at the Square by Ralph Ellison, Changes by Tupac Shakur and Oppression by Ben Harper. Repetition is used in the texts to either degrade African Americans or show that racism is still happening. Also they try and draw an emotional response from the audience and use scenes of violence to get a reaction from the audience
Imagine being objectified not being seen like a human. How would you feel? Sad? Angry? Depressed? Devastated? In “Assata An Autobiography” by Assata Shakur that is what happened to her and other people whom were not white. Being arrested and shot by troopers with no evidence simply by assumptions is what happened to Assata Shakur. Since she and Zayd were black they were mistreated and taken into custody. During the 70’s social justice rarely existed, the whites had power over any other ethnic group. All thought the autobiography social justice is what Shakur empathizes and how she did not obtain it with many other blacks. That caused her to become part of The Black Panther Party. She wanted a change to happen for the better not only for her and her people but for other facing the same issue of inequality. Social justice being a touchy topic in Assata Shakur’s life has made more people
Elsa Barkley Brown focuses on the intersectionality of being a black woman in America, in “What Has Happened Here?”. Black women experience different forms of oppression simultaneously. Indeed, racism, sexism, classism, as well as heterosexism, intertwine and form layers of oppression.
The poem “Riot Act, April 29, 1992” by Ai Ogawa seems to be a straight forward style of poetry, the poem involves anger, historical points, as well as racial controversy. Though the poem is in a way a voice for the African American group, the writer contradicts herself throughout the poem. While being told by what seems to be an unnamed black individual, the poem explains that white America does not care about Black America or the lower class. Ogawa is trying to state that America expects certain actions from the Black party, yet writes in the poem that they in fact participate in those actions.
Everyday, racism is perceived as one of the most negative aspects of society. When people think of racism, they obviously see hatred, evil , and ignorance. It has been a part of world culture since recorded history and , no doubt , before that. When one thinks of racism in the United States, invariably , though not only , the struggle of the African-American is singled out. That is the main issue Ellison so powerfully addresses in his short story "Battle Royal". In it the author allows us to see the world through the eyes of a young black boy who is struggling to succeed in a predominantly white society. The thing that is absolutely essential to our understanding of the story
Throughout, the documentary one can come to the conclusion that most of these African- Americans who live in this area are being judged as violent and bad people. However this is not the case, many of them are just normal people who are try...
We want “poem that kill”. Here Baraka is using Synecdoche a figurative form to refer to human (black) “stinking whores” he want the reader to know that poem become a powerful and important object so he can use to teach a lesson to the enemy. Moreover, here he writes about his wish to have “poems that wrestle cops into alleys/ /and take their weapons, leaving them dead with tongues pulled out and sent to Ireland”. Author wishes they could undo the role of power so African- Americans take control over the white and black and those from the other side of the world can return to their country where they belong so we can have some kind of peace right here. If only they can reverse that power, it would be a much easier for us. In addition, it sounds like an imaginary fiction of the African-Americans uprising. Baraka says “Knockoff poems for dope selling wops or slick half white//politicians Airplane poems, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr….tuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuh rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr… Setting fire and death to whities ass”. Right there the author is referring to enemy as whities that letting them know black people do care, by using weak syllable follow by a strong syllable that is the way Amiri is using an imaginary gun to kill his enemy. He is also telling the white audience, I dare you to try to comprehend it. He used the words as gun to shoot somebody or the enemy. Well words can be hurtful when you take into