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Dreams from my father analysis
Race and ethnicity in the united states history
The impact of absent african american fathers on sons and daughters
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Since their arrival to America during the Atlantic slave trade to the twenty first century, African Americans have experienced a drastic change in their family structure. A variety of factors throughout the centuries has caused families to be destabilized, separated, and brought together. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois describes the hardship of being a father and raising a child in American society during the antebellum period in his book The Souls of Black Folk. He explains how an innocent child was born into a land where freedom did not really exist, and would have to deal with the prejudice that comes with being African-American in the United States. More recently, in Obama’s Dreams from my Father, Obama faces identity conflicts and struggles with the sense of …show more content…
Slavery and segregation has resulted in disorganized and unstable African American families, but throughout the centuries, these families have evolved by becoming closer and much more tight knit by progressing in socioeconomic status with the help of the civil rights movement. Dreams from my Father is the story of Obama’s early life, where he strives to find his calling in the world without a father figure to guide him. Obama’s father left him at the age of two, so he never received the opportunity to know him. He formed an image of his absent father only from stories that he heard from his mother and her parents. Destructured families like these are common throughout African American history, and can be traced back to the time of slavery. Slavery and its aftermath played a big role in the evolution of African American families. It had a crippling effect on both the mother and father figures. The father lacked the authority to govern or protect his family, while the mother was also undermined. She had little care and attention for her kids as most mothers would work as field hands or house servants. At many times, the
The transition of being a black man in a time just after slavery was a hard one. A black man had to prove himself at the same time had to come to terms with the fact that he would never amount to much in a white dominated country. Some young black men did actually make it but it was a long and bitter road. Most young men fell into the same trappings as the narrator’s brother. Times were hard and most young boys growing up in Harlem were swept off their feet by the onslaught of change. For American blacks in the middle of the twentieth century, racism is another of the dark forces of destruction and meaninglessness which must be endured. Beauty, joy, triumph, security, suffering, and sorrow are all creations of community, especially of family and family-like groups. They are temporary havens from the world''s trouble, and they are also the meanings of human life.
“How does it feel to be a problem?” (par. 1). Throughout “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” W.E.B. Du Bois explains the hardships experienced throughout his childhood and through the period of Africans living in America before the civil rights movement. Du Bois begins with his first experience of racism and goes all the way into the process of mentally freeing African Americans. Du Bois describes the struggle of being an African American in a world in which Whites are believed to dominate through the use of Listing, Imagery, and Rhetorical Questioning because these rhetorical devices stress the importance of the topic Du Bois is talking about.
His initial indifference to his child transforms into an absolute adoration, but he is devastated by the fact that the child will have to grow up in the veil and experience discrimination. The child eventually dies from an illness that grew too strong. Du Bois becomes devastated and heartbroken, but is partially glad that the boy does not have to live in the veil and grow up in a cruel racist American society. These are two prime examples where the absence of family, specifically the father, has played a significant impact on the African American family. In Dreams From my Father, we see that Obama had to struggle his entire life to find himself and where he belonged, as he had no guide to teach him. His father’s absence was due to his pursuit in a better socioeconomic status. In Souls of Black Folk, although Du Bois is never absent from his son, in a turn of events due to poor conditions within the veil, his son becomes absent from him, and leaves his small family distraught. Du Bois reveals the only thing remaining is “the world’s most piteous thing: a childless mother”
Moynihan perceives the inclusive problem amongst the black family to be its structure. This is a product of disintegration of nativism in the black community. The “racist virus” still flowing through the veins of American society hinders, in virtually all aspects, the progression of the Negro family. Moynihan discusses the normativity of the American family as a reason that people overlook the problems that occur in Negro and nonwhite families. He emphasizes the significance of family structure by stating “The family is the basic social unit of American life; it is the basic socializing unit.” (Moynihan, II 4). This assertion implies that due to the instability within the black family, socially, the Negro family would be unable to prosper. Because Moynihan feels the largest overall issue in the black family is structure it’s structure, he believes that it will only continue to disintegrate. To further his idea, Moynihan highlights the subdivisions of this structure: matriarchy, failure of youth, economic differences, alienation etc. Each of these subdivisions of family structure contributes to the overall issue Moynihan within the Negro family.
King’s critics wrote that he was “unwise and untimely” in his pursuit of direct action and that he ought to have ‘waited’ for change, King explains that “This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never’”. This short statement hits home especially when followed up with a lengthy paragraph detailing injustices done towards African Americans, including lynching and drowning. In his descriptions King uses familial terms such as ‘mother’ and ‘father’, which are words that typically elicit an emotional response from an audience, to picture ones family in such terrible situations would surely drive home the idea that the African American community cannot ‘wait’ anymore for a freedom that will probably never be given to them
“The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, – this longing to attain self-consciousness, manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message f...
Sprouted from slavery, the African American culture struggled to ground itself steadily into the American soils over the course of centuries. Imprisoned and transported to the New World, the African slaves suffered various physical afflictions, mental distress and social discrimination from their owners; their descendants confronted comparable predicaments from the society. The disparity in the treatment towards the African slaves forged their role as outliers of society, thus shaping a dual identity within the African American culture. As W. E. B. DuBois eloquently defines in The Souls of Black Folk, “[the African American] simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and
In section two (Chicago) of Baracks book, Dreams from My father: A story of Race and Inheritance marks an experience of learning for Obama. Obama throws himself into his new job as a community organizer with determination. His specific role includes the mobilization of local churches of all backgrounds, politics and community representatives, but he is up against a wall of cynicism. Of the numerous lessons he learned, the most drastic would be learning how to move in towards the centers of people’s lives by communicating with them and his change in faith.
The American Narrative includes a number of incidents throughout American history, which have shaped the nation into what it is today. One of the significant issues that emerged was slavery, and the consequent emancipation of the slaves, which brought much confusion regarding the identification of these new citizens and whether they fit into the American Narrative as it stood. In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B Dubois introduces the concept of double consciousness as “the sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others” (Dubois 3). This later became the standard for describing the African-American narrative because of the racial identification spectrum it formed. The question of double consciousness is whether African-Americans can identify themselves as American, or whether the African designation separates them from the rest of society. President Barack Obama and Booker T. Washington, who both emerged as prominent figures representing great social change and progress for the African-American race in America, further illustrate the struggle for an identity.
While I never knew my father, I did grow to know the challenges faced by African Americans. I first began to feel different when I transferred from public to private middle school. People began asking about my ethnicity for the first time in my life. Until this time, it had never seemed important. Although I had never been overly fond of my curly hair, it, along with other traits deemed too 'ethnic' looking, now became a source of shame. I had a few not so affectionate nicknames because of those curls. I was shocked to realize that people considered me different or less desirable because of these physical traits. Being turned away from an open house in my twenties was just as shocking as being ...
“Notes of a Native Son” is an essay that takes you deep into the history of James Baldwin. In the essay there is much to be said about than merely scratching the surface. Baldwin starts the essay by immediately throwing life and death into a strange coincidental twist. On the 29th of July, 1943 Baldwin’s youngest sibling was born and on the same day just hours earlier his father took his last breath of air from behind the white sheets of a hospital bed. It seems all too ironic and honestly overwhelming for Baldwin. From these events Baldwin creates a woven interplay of events that smother a conscience the and provide insight to a black struggle against life.
Coates’ article “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration” opens with the story of a man named Daniel Moynihan. Moynihan, born to a broken family in the great depression era, entered politics and developed to become an important political figure in the labor department during the 1960’s. The principal belief of Moynihan was that unemployment was destructive to the potential social mobility of the poor, a lynchpin of the American dream. Once the civil rights movement gained momentum, Moynihan gained interest on how his theory affects black families specifically and began to research this topic. The results of his research showed just how devastating the effects of three hundred of years of slavery and institutionalized racism were on black families and how much worse off they were than white families in general.
In Barack Obama’s Dreams from my Father, many aspects of race, gender, class, education, etc. are involved in the life of the current president. This novel introduces and brings out discussion for further analysis into these categories of privilege and discrimination. Though certain categories have caused great adversity for Barack Obama, he is still able to overcome his minority group due to the other privileged groups that he is in.
A main theme in this novel is the influence of family relationships in the quest for individual identity. Our family or lack thereof, as children, ultimately influences the way we feel as adults, about ourselves and about others. The effects on us mold our personalities and as a result influence our identities. This story shows us the efforts of struggling black families who transmit patterns and problems that have a negative impact on their family relationships. These patterns continue to go unresolved and are eventually inherited by their children who will also accept this way of life as this vicious circle continues.
Prior to the period of slavery, the majority African family structure was in the realm of 2-parent households and was the main importance for everyone. However, during the period of slavery and beyond, the 2-parent household has been transformed and its looming effects are still in place today. The effects include the phenomenal increase in female-headed households and also the increase in households with individual living by himself or herself. African-American family structure has been inconsistent, and it has a tremendous impact on the children. Statistics have shown that African American males growing up without a father are more likely to end up in prison (Krampe & Newton, 2012). It is important, as the children are dependent on the family in terms of obtaining success in the future. In addition, the single-parent mother ends up taking new roles as mother and father for the child. This topic has many aspects, which showcase the prominent influence in