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Positive and negative effects of cultural diversity
Essays on the value of cultural diversity
Essays on the value of cultural diversity
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In the essay “The Fourth of July,” Audre Lorde shares a story about a young black girl who struggles to find the answers to why her parents did not explain why things are the way they are. In the story, the young girl and her family, which consists of her older sister and her parents, are taking a trip to Washington D.C. They are taking this trip because her sister, Phyllis, did not get a chance to go when her class went in 8th grade because she is black and they would not let her stay in the hotel. Her father told her that they would take a family trip later on so she would not be upset. However, this trip was not just a normal family vacation; it was an eye opening experience for Lorde. Lorde expresses racism and the different issues that …show more content…
We must acknowledge how views of racism and ethnicity affect each and everyone of us in our lives so that we can avoid conflicts.
Cultural diversity is the hallmark of our society because of the our inherited genetic predisposition or what we learn as we grow up that predominantly shapes us and our differences as individuals. In that same way, we must be more aware of the things others say and do because we’re all different and we all should be able to accept the fact. When it comes to the Fourth of July, every person has his or her own memory during this special occasion. Audre Lorde took a trip during the summer to Washington, D.C., she obtained her own memory and meaning of independence. Lorde’s essay was written in response to her family’s trip to Washington D.C. the summer after her graduation from eighth grade. In it, she writes, “The waitress was white, and the counter was white, and the ice cream I never ate in Washington D.C. … was white and the white heat and the white pavement and the white stone monuments of my first Washington summer made me sick to my stomach for the whole rest of that trip…”(Lorde 257). Here,
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To pretend it doesn’t exist to us erases the experiences of all of society. There is place for everyone and their beliefs in this society then why do neglect the fact that we should all get along. Lorde is furious that the parents know what is happening and they are ignoring the discrimination and hatred the whites have against them and other blacks. To vent her feelings, Lorde writes a letter to the United States President. The same way Baldwin is angered by his relationship with his father. To express how she feels, with strong emotion, Lorde clearly exclaims," 'But we hadn 't done anything! ' This wasn 't right or fair! Hadn 't I written poems about Bataan and freedom and democracy for all?" (257). The way she says this in her text increases from each situation that happens to the family. Using a tone that helps the reader to understand how the writer felt on this day. The other family members did not really have a change in tone; everything about them was expressed in a "monotone" sense of style. James Baldwin explores the complexities of both race relationships and familial relationships. Concerning his relationship with his father, Baldwin admits toward the beginning of his essay, “We had got on badly, partly because we shared, in our different fashions, the vice of stubborn pride” (51). This admission sets the tone for the rest of the essay, an idea of both opposition and similarity in
In the two essays “Cut,” by Bob Greene and “The Fourth of July,” by Audre Lorde they both discuss how disappointments as a child affected their lives. Greene’s essay gives five examples about how five boys were cut from a sports team and how they used that disappointment to become successful as adults. Lorde’s essay differed in that it told one story of how her and her family were on their vacation in Washington D.C. and they were not served at a restaurant because they were black. Both authors discuss feelings of being left out, being discriminated against, and how disappointments affected their lives. However, there are more differences than similarities in the essays. I can relate more to Greene’s essay because I am an athlete; however, I have never been in position of worrying about being cut.
“The most exciting attractions are between opposites that never meet.” -Andy Warhol. Opposites are exciting. When positive and negative spaces collide, new ways to look at art formulate. When left and right sides of the aisle combine in the chambers of Congress, revolutionary new laws are passed. When the dead meet the living, zombies rise from the grave, a subject so captivating, it has formed its own subgenre in all kinds of mediums. In writing, these opposites take a few forms. In African American author and poet, Audre Lorde’s narrative, The Fourth of July, a stunning display of juxtaposition helps the reader understand how Audre Lorde felt during her fateful trip to Washington D.C. and her argument that racism is a prevalent issue, despite
In 1955 a civil rights activist by the name of James Baldwin wrote his famous essay “Notes of a Native Son”. James Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York during a time where racial tensions where high all throughout the United States. In this essay he highlights these tension and his experience’s regarding them, while also giving us an insight of his upbringing. Along with this we get to see his relationship with a figure of his life, his father or more accurately his stepfather. In the essay James Baldwin says “This fight begins, however, in the heart and it now had been laid to my charge to keep my own heart free of hatred and despair”. This is a very powerful sentence that I believe
The world today can sometimes be a hard place to live, or at least live in comfort. Whether it be through the fault of bullies, or an even more wide spread problem such as racism, it is nearly impossible to live a day in the world today and feel like it was only full of happiness and good times. Due to this widespread problem of racism, often times we tend to see authors go with the grain and ignore it, continuously writing as if nothing bad happens in the world. Fortunately, Claudia Rankine, is not one of these authors. Rankine manages to paint a vivid picture of a life of hardships in her lyric Citizen: An American Lyric. In this lyric Claudia Rankine shows that she truly has a very interesting and not commonly used approach to some literary
A human being is a complicated entity of a contradictory nature, where creative and destructive, virtuous and vicious are interwoven. Each of us has gone through various kinds of struggle at least once in a lifetime, ranging from everyday discrepancies to worldwide catastrophes. There are always different causes and reasons that trigger these struggles, however, there is common ground for them as well: people are different, even though it is a truism no one seems to be able to realize this statement from beyond the bounds of one’s self and reach out to approach the Other. The concept of the Other is dominant in Frederick Douglass’s text “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro”, for it determines the main conflict and illuminates the issue of intolerance and even blasphemy regarding the attitude of white Americans towards Negroes. The text was written as a speech to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence and delivered at Rochester’s Corinthian Hall on July 5, 1852.
Due to their immensely different pasts, the two races have a hard time relating to one another, which keeps us apart as people. I have had to deal with a lot of racism in my lifetime, more so from my family than anywhere else. I have been disliked and not "accepted" by my grandparents and great aunts and uncles, some of whom I have never met, due to the color of my skin. My first-hand experience with racism and dealing with it effectively has made me a better, more complete person. The point of my writing this essay is to hopefully open one’s eyes to realize EVERYONE is equal.
James Baldwin was born in Harlem in a time where his African American decent was enough to put more challenges in front of him than the average (white) American boy faced. His father was a part of the first generation of free black men. He was a bitter, overbearing, paranoid preacher who refused change and hated the white man. Despite of his father, his color, and his lack of education, James Baldwin grew up to be a respected author of essays, plays, and novels. While claiming that he was one of the best writers of the era could be argued either way, it is hard to argue the fact that he was indeed one of the most well-known authors of the time. One of his intriguing skills as a writer is his ability to intertwine narration and analysis in his essays. James Baldwin mixes narration and analysis in his essays so well that coherence is never broken, and the subconscious is so tempted to agree with and relate to what he says, that if you don’t pay close attention, one will find himself agreeing with Baldwin, when he wasn’t even aware Baldwin was making a point. Physical placement of analytical arguments and analytical transitions, frequency and size of analytical arguments, and the language used within the analytical arguments are the keys to Baldwin’s graceful persuasion. Throughout this essay, I will be using Baldwin’s “Notes of a Native Son” for examples. “Notes of a Native Son” is an essay that Baldwin wrote which focuses primarily on his life around the time his father died, which also happens to be the same time his youngest brother was born.
The introduction to the novel is the first shorter essay from him to his nephew. Through Baldwin’s letter to his nephew he goes into depth of what kind of world he is forced to grow up in and what white America expects him to do in this world “this innocent country set you down in a ghetto in which in fact, it intended that you should perish.” (Baldwin, 7) By this last quotation Baldwin is telling his nephew that he was placed in the struggle from the beginning and is expected to suffer there forever. He goes on to say in a way that this is the case because of the fact that you are “black and no other reason” (Baldwin, 7) Baldwin’s essay was a form of delivering encouragement to the young adolescent “if you whence where you came, there is really no limits to where you can go”. He wants his nephew to know that you first have to accept what have been dealt to you and from there you can go anywhere and do anything you desire. This does show how many parents of black children had to be in able for their children to prosper rather perish, particularly during the “Movement”, but yet still today black parents still have to push th...
The story “The Fourth of July” by Audre Lorde demonstrates that she comes across a realization that she had to speak up for her rights and independence when she visited the capital city of the United States, Washington, D.C. Lorde explains how she was frustrated with the situation that occurred in Washington, D.C., which shows that she had learned the reality of the society. She writes about many things that she came across during the trip to Washington D.C. in the summer vacation. In the essay, the meanings of independence for Lorde are to fight for it and to speak up for the rights that they deserve. Lorde and her family visit many places in the capital city where they were told to leave the place because black people were not allowed there.
Baldwin and his ancestors share this common rage because of the reflections their culture has had on the rest of society, a society consisting of white men who have thrived on using false impressions as a weapon throughout American history. Baldwin gives credit to the fact that no one can be held responsible for what history has unfolded, but he remains restless for an explanation about the perception of his ancestors as people. In Baldwin?s essay, his rage becomes more directed as the ?power of the white man? becomes relevant to the misfortune of the American Negro (Baldwin 131). This misfortune creates a fire of rage within Baldwin and the American Negro. As Baldwin?s American Negro continues to build the fire, the white man builds an invisible wall around himself to avoid confrontation about the actions of his ?forefathers? (Baldwin 131). Baldwin?s anger burns through his other emotions as he writes about the enslavement of his ancestors and gives the reader a shameful illusion of a Negro slave having to explai...
After reading this essay a few times. I consider this piece does help to highlight that racism in America as being wrong; nevertheless, I do not believe that there is a considerable deal of significance for this narrative taking place on Independence Day. If this story would have happened on any other day would anything changed; nevertheless, the only thing that might have changed is that they probably would not have gone into the ice cream parlor. No matter, when they would have taken this trip to Washington, D.C., the result would have had been the same. Both of the parents planned to take this trip as the outcome of Phyllis being not permitted on the senior class trip; therefore, the parents decided to take all of their children to Washington,
... came as a big shock. After having analyzed his feelings towards race relations in his life, his father’s interpretation of this passage now resembled that of his own. At the start of the essay Baldwin hated his father because his bitterness bothered him but he concludes with the desire to be with his father again. As he evaluates his experiences with racism alongside his feelings from the death of his father, he realizes that his father held correct opinions on white people and his whole life he hated the wrong person. James Baldwin perpetuated hate during his life by directing it at his father and didn’t even notice until he was hated himself; unfortunately, he lost that precious time with his father.
The reality of the matter, only known to the mother and father, is that the status quo of racist policies prohibited the Lordes from dining in the car. Lorde appeals to the reader’s pathos by subconsciously creating empathy for Lorde as she struggles with her parents not being truthful about foundational aspect of mid 1900’s American society – racism. Moreover, the use of situational irony is shrewdly expressed in Lorde’s interpretation of her family’s D.C. trip: “…the waitress was white, and the counter was white, and the ice cream I never ate in Washington DC was white and the white heat and the white pavement and the white stone monuments of my first Washington summer made me sick to my stomach…” (para. 24). Employing vivid imagery of how Lorde perceives her recently awoken sense of actual reality, she is able to express her understanding of the displeasing disparity between superior Whites and inferior Blacks. Unlike her jaded parents, Lorde expected the United States’ capital to uphold the same virtues it was founded upon – freedom, equality, liberty. Ironically, she finds Washington D.C. to be filled with inherent discrimination. Consequently the reasoning for Lorde’s blatant irony in her essay’s title: “The Fourth of July”. July 4th is supposed to represent the day the American founders broke away from an oppressive British rule to mark the birth of a free land. Paradoxically, they created a regime that was was more oppressive than the British. The racist foundation of the new nation is not exposed until the understanding of Thomas Jefferson’s implication of the phrase “all men are created equal” in the Constitution. These “men” strictly refer to the elite men that have conquered this new land of America – property-owning white men. Thus, women and those of color were not recognized as entities that possessed inalienable rights. Founding a
the life of Harlem and knew that equality and freedom was definitely not present. The poem portrays
Historically, as a country we have ignored many of the values that our nation is based on when it comes to our racial and ethnic past. Liberty is the state of being free, to enjoy the social, political, or economic rights and privileges, the power of choice (Liberty, n.d.). Liberty should not be limited by sex, race, or ethnic background. “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.” (Douglass, 1852) to think that a former slave would be asked to speak at an event regarding the 4th of July, a holiday meant to celebrate our freedom, something that we deprived Mr. Douglass of. Legal equality and...