“Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” is an award winning short story in which the author ZZ Packer presents Brownie Scout Troop of young african-american girls from the south suburban of Atlanta scheming and plotting to confront a group of disabled white girls all because of an false accusation made by brownie girl Arnetta claiming that one of the white girls called Daphne a “nigger”. Come to find out later in the story the group of white girls are disabled. Although it’s clear to understand the difference in skin colors; planning to attack for redemption won’t be the answer you always want.. The author reveals the story through the narrator’s voice. The narrator’s name is Laurel but is known as “Snot”, since first grade that’s what she’s been called after sneezing in class and a girl nearby had been splattered by two long ropes of mucus (page 10). It is obvious that the narrator is more of an observer in the novel. She tends to stand apart from the other girls and she is very quiet and studious. Snot is disliked by the other girls for her thoughtfulness and common sense. She is the only one …show more content…
The story is about racism experienced by young girls but with a twist. The first fact that the author shows us is that the brownie troops at camp seem to be either an all-black or all-white, no mixed race troops. The black girls in the story were being raised in a racially segregated environment. “When you lived in the south suburbs of Atlanta, it was easy to forget about Whites. Whites were like those baby pigeons: rean and existing, but rarely seen or thought about” (page 5). Because they have so little contact with whites, the black girls seem to be extremely cautious about the differences between themselves. In the extent of racial segregation, although there were no doubts about if Brownie Troop 909 did make the racial slur or not, it is no surprise that the confrontation is full of misunderstandings between the two
Gina Crosley-Corcoran, author of Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person, informs her readers about her misinterpretation of white privilege. After being called out for her unknowing use of white privilege, Gina begins to plead her case. Beginning with her childhood, Gina explains how she grew up “on the go”. Travelling from place to place, Gina lived in a rundown trailer and her family obtained little to no money, had no access to hot water, survived on cheap, malnourished foods, and dealt with a bad home life. After evaluating her history when placed at the end of life’s spectrum, Gina finds it hard to pick out white privilege in her life and therefore argues she has none. Later, Gina is introduced to a woman named Peggy McIntosh
“My Uncle’s Favorite Coffee Shop”, by Naomi Shihab Nye, conveys the cultural experience of an immigrant by connecting it to an immigrant’s relative who first came to a new country and was describing his initial experience by using repetition and symbolism. The character in the poem has trouble with initially trying to fit in with the new culture in the country he came to. The author uses anaphora by repeating “Immigrant” in lines 19-20, “Immigrants had double and nothing all at once. Immigrants drove the taxis, sold the beer and Cokes.” This shows that immigrants arrived in a new country with barely anything, and started from the bottom. Saying that “Immigrants drove the taxis, sold the beer and Cokes,” was inferring that immigrants began their
Being chauffeured around in a white person’s car and being a Negro did not mix well. When the car took a bad turn and crashed, Ethel and one other girl were pinned inside the crashed car. Ethel had hoped that someone would stop, and she prayed and prayed, but deep down she knew what had happened to Negros, who was in a white man’s car – they wouldn’t make it. When two white folks walked past and saw Ethel, they laughed and called them “Nigger bitches”. Ethel defended herself, “I’m suffering”.
During the Civil War, there were people who were extremely prejudiced against the 54th regiment because the soldiers were all different colored skin and the people where used to the idea that different color skinned people worked as slaves. In “Glory,“ Colonel Montgomery, the Sargent that trained and prepared them for war, and the colonel that was in charge of distributing necessities, served as the people who discriminated the African American soldiers. When he was teaching the soldiers how to march, some of them couldn’t tell the difference between left and right. He acted as if all African Americans were uneducated and they were hopeless to teach. Shoes were an essential part of training. Many of the African American soldiers didn‘t even have decent shoes when they enrolled for the war. Naturally, after all the training, their shoes wore down. If the 54th regiment were composed of white soldiers, the department that passed out shoes would already have prepared extra shoes for them. But since the 54th regiment was composed of all African Americans, the regiment was discriminated and there were no extra shoes for them. The other white generals thought the 54th regiment would never go on a battlefield and even if they did, they probably would all die. Therefore there were no extra resources for them. Another fact that there were some racist sentiments was that the African American soldiers only got a $10 pay while the white soldiers got $13.
Danielle Evans’ second story “Snakes” from the collection of short stories, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self depict a biracial girl who has been pressured due to her grandmother’s urge to dominate her. The story pictures her suffering with remarkable plot twist in the end of the story. Evans utilize a profound approach on how to bring readers to closely examine racism implicitly, to make readers recognize the actions may lead to social discrimination and its consequences that are often encountered in our daily life.
Gender and racism are two of the main topics of “The Talk” by Dana Canedy and “What Goes Through Your Mind: On Nice Parties and Casual Racism” by Nicole Chung. Throughout their essays, Canedy and Chung prove whether it is an African-American boy or an Asian American woman, minorities face racism. Also, all types of racism such as casual racism or intended racism all are extremely hurtful, degrading to any minority. Gender has a lot to do with the severity of racism experienced. Police brutality on an African American woman happens, but is not as frequently and sever as it does to an African American man. Nicole Chung, who is Asian American believes that she has control over her own identity. When placed in an uncomfortable racist situation
The first example that shows racial conflict between the blacks and whites is the Jefferson Davis School bus, which is full of white children. Blacks do not have a bus so Cassie and her brothers have to walk to school. However, each morning the children would be threatened by this bus, "a bus bore down on him spewing clouds of red dust like a huge yellow dragon breathing fire". This is surely because of racism. The whites in the bus seem to find it amusing with "laughing with faces" to see the black children run for their lives.
Institutionalized racism has been a major factor in how the United States operates today. This type of racism is found in many places, which include schools, courts of laws, job places and governmental organizations. Institutionalized racism affects many factors in the lives of African Americans, including the way they interact with white individuals. In the book “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere Stories” ZZ Packer uses her short stories to emphasize the how institutionalized racism plays in the lives of the characters in her stories. Almost all her characters experience the effects of institutionalized racism, and therefore change how they view their lives to adapt.
On Being Young-A Woman-and Colored an essay by Marita Bonner addresses what it means to be black women in a world of white privilege. Bonner reflects about a time when she was younger, how simple her life was, but as she grows older she is forced to work hard to live a life better than those around her. Ultimately, she is a woman living with the roles that women of all colors have been constrained to. Critics, within the last 20 years, believe that Marita Bonners’ essay primarily focuses on the double consciousness ; while others believe that she is focusing on gender , class , “economic hardships, and discrimination” . I argue that Bonner is writing her essay about the historical context of oppression forcing women into intersectional oppression by explaining the naturality of racial discrimination between black and white, how time and money equate to the American Dream, and lastly how gender discrimination silences women, specifically black women.
The Civil Rights Movement marked a crucial moment in United States history. African Americans fought for their right to be treated equally and to put an end to discrimination and segregation. Toni Morrison’s short story “Recitatif” features two girls of the opposite race and how their friendship was affected during this time period. The United States has come a long way since the days of slavery, but African Americans’ rights were still not being fully recognized. As a result of this the Civil Rights Movement developed to peacefully protest for equality. Toni Morrison’s short story, “Recitatif”, takes place during the Civil Rights era of the United States to show the reader how stereotyping, discrimination, and segregation affected two girls,
Discrimination is “the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things.” On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was ordered to give up her bus seat to a white passenger and refused. This act of opposition defied all normalities for the average black woman. The treatment of a woman who was black compared to the treatment of a white woman in that age was completely discriminatory. Rosa Park’s strength to influence justice against racial segregation has slowly influenced justice against all discrimination. “The Help,” a 2009 novel written by American author, Kathryn Stockett, is a story about African-American maids working for white households in Jackson, Mississippi set in the early 1960’s. “The Help” depicts these women as individuals similar to Rosa Parks, who want to influence change and equality. Through “The Help,” the reader can relate the thoughts and views of the characters to our society today, particularly on the grounds of race, class and gender.
Brownies is a story by Z. Z. Packer, a young African American writer. This story appears in Packer’s short stories collection, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. The story is about a Brownie troop of fourth-grade African American girls from suburban Atlanta, Georgia, who go to summer camp. At camp, they encounter a troop of white girls and believe that one of the white girls addressed them with a derogatory racial slur. The African American girls resolve to beat up the white girls. This story is about racism and racial segregation as it is experienced by young black girls. Ironically, the story has a twist. Packer shows the reader about racial segregation and prejudice in the world through this short story. Prejudice among groups as well as within
Its that irony, that we love them and they love us, yet…we don’t even allow them to use the same toilet in the house”(125). It is because of this, Skeete writes about the help, due to her social privilege to make a change and give a voice to the black women that was closest to her in her life.Maslin, Dargis, and I share the idea that the emotional needs and struggles of “The Help” should be recognized and credit should be given to these women who are the foundation of the white
Racism is poor treatment or violence against another race. It can also be another race believing that they are better than the other race. This short story is all about racism during the slavery times. The story was written on November 24, 1892. This story takes place in southern Louisiana before the American Civil War.
In the short story “Brownies,” author ZZ Packer uses the narrator, Laurel, to explore the tensions that exist between belonging to a community and maintaining individuality. While away at camp with her brownie troop, she finds herself torn between achieving group inclusion and sustaining her own individualism. Although the events of the short story occur at Camp Crescendo, Packer is able to expand (and parallel) this struggle for identity beyond the camp’s walls and into the racially segregated society that both the girls and their families come from. Packer is exploring how an individual’s inherent need for group inclusion consequently fuels segregation and prejudice against those outside the group across various social and societal stratums.