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Racial and social identity
Respect in society
Racial and social identity
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Respectability Politics are limiting concepts that take away people's individuality and social values. This issue directly affects the African American community, within the entertainment business, politics, and everyday social interactions. Many actions and traits are scrutinized by members outside of the African American community, but are then imitated and seen as acceptable when done by other cultural groups. This has gone on throughout centuries and is still very prevalent in today’s society. Fredrick C. Harris and Tamara Winfrey Harris have a distantly different ways of addressing the topic of respectability politics in today's society. Mr. Harris identifies multiple examples of societal punishment for not following the codes of respectability, …show more content…
They are expected to conform to society's unwritten rules while simultaneously trying to be unique and embrace their culture. Winfrey Harris in her article "No Disrespect: Black Women and the Burden of Respectability” states that black women “…are required to be noble examples of Black excellence. To be better. To be respectable. And the bounds of respectability are narrowly defined by professional and personal choices reflecting the social mores of the majority culture—patriarchal, Judeo-Christian, heteronormative, and middle class” (Winfrey Harris). These thing confine black women to a small box because, if they are not white, middle class, straight men who rule over society, they will be treated as less than. Black women struggle the hardest with trying to fit into these narratives because they happen to be women and of a different race. These boundaries affect black women in everything that they attempt to do in their lives. Some may argue that if these codes are so difficult to follow that black women should refuse to abide by them, and still be able to live fulfilling lives without facing any consequences. Unfortunately, for black women in today’s current society that method would lead to isolation and brutal judgement from everyone, including the black community. Winfrey Harris points out the complexity of what is required of black women to not only survive in the …show more content…
Harris and Tamara Winfrey Harris analyze respectability politics in ways that reflect on a particular issue in the black community. Winfrey Harris focuses in on the struggles Black women face and the codes that they are meant to follow, while Harris provides not only the struggle, but alternative routes young men can take to avoid ridicule. Both of these definitions of respectability matter in today’s society because the youth is learning from the lessons of their elders. Older generations of the African American community are setting the precedent for how young black children should behave and how they should expect to be treated in a society that refuses to accept their culture. These two authors are trying to reach two different audiences in their writing. Tamara Winfrey-Harris take a women’s perspective and speaks to black women who struggle with maintaining dignity and respect within society. While Fredrick C. Harris targets young black men and educates them on how to combat the constant ridicule they receive based on their appearance and lack of privilege. Both authors want to inspire change, but each has their own specific method of creating awareness about respectability politics in
In his article “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space”, which first appeared in the women’s magazine Ms. Magazine and later Harpers, Brent Staples explores the discrimination he faced as a black man living in Chicago and New York. In writing this piece, Brent Staples hoped to use a combination of pathos and ethos to demonstrate to the women that read Ms. Harper’s that Staples is actually the victim when the women treat him the way they do and to get these women to view him, and other black men, differently and to make them realize that they are people too. Staples use of his ethos and pathos serve well to support his position and convince others to take a new perspective. Staples uses ethos in multiple ways
The black women’s interaction with her oppressive environment during Revolutionary period or the antebellum America was the only way of her survival. Playing her role, and being part of her community that is not always pleasant takes a lot of courage, and optimism for better tomorrow. The autonomy of a slave women still existed even if most of her natural rights were taken. As opposed to her counterparts
Carter is a professor of law at Yale University who has written a number of books and articles which are, for lack of any better terminology, criticisms of American culture. “Just Be Nice” is actually part of a much larger effort by Carter that includes his non-fiction books The Culture of Disbelief, Integrity, and the work for which the article may have been taken from, Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy. Hence, it is obvious that Carter is no stranger to the issues detailed in his article, so much so that his body of work points to someone who is arguably obsessed with issues which are related in the article. However, the article at hand opines for a return of etiquette and civility within the national fabric, and how he frames his argument is by using examples that, as an African American, he...
As both Tracey Reynolds and Audre Lorde have emphasized, Black women are not perpetually passive victims, but active agents. It is totally possible for Black women to seize a form of empowerment, whether that be alternative education, or the creation of organizations that weren’t situated in either the Civil Rights movement or Women’s
In his essay, “On Being Black and Middle Class” (1988), writer and middle-class black American, Shelby Steele adopts a concerned tone in order to argue that because of the social conflicts that arise pertaining to black heritage and middle class wealth, individuals that fit under both of these statuses are ostracized. Steele proposes that the solution to this ostracization is for people to individualize themselves, and to ‘“move beyond the victim-focused black identity” (611). Steele supports his assertion by using evidence from his own life and incorporating social patterns to his text. To reach his intended audience of middle-class, black people, Steele’s utilizes casual yet, imperative diction.
To begin with, the legendary Booker T. Washington believed that in order for blacks to gain equality in the United States, we need to peacefully “make friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded” (Broesamle & Arthur, 52). Washington warned blacks that in order to earn the respect and equality from the white population, we must be prepared to start at the bottom. He meant starting at the bottom in jobs such as elementary teachers instead of college professors and manual laborers instead of CEO’s so we could earn the respect of whites. Washington knew that making strong demands wouldn’t get the black race anywhere, so “casting down our buckets” and becoming friends and earning the respect of whites seemed like a better
Yang, G. & Ryser, T. A. (2008). Whiting up and Blacking Out: White Privlege, Race, and White Chicks. African American Review, 42(3/4), 731-746. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40301264
bell hooks states “Racist stereotypes of the strong, superhuman black woman are operative myths in the minds of many white women, allowing them to ignore the extent to which black women may play in the maintenance and perpetuation of that victimization” This quote is significant because commonly, people in minority races/cultures can experience injustice or micro aggressions, which often enact them conscious of their minority position within a dominant, majority culture/race. The minority may be aware that they are “outside the norm,” and perpetually speculate whether their segregation is or is not because of their race or culture. An individual of the majority, thus the prevailing “norm,” creates the privilege of not
Throughout the years, the black community has been looked down upon as a community of criminals and a community of lesser educated and poor who have a lesser purpose in life. Journalist Brent Staples, the author of Black Men And Public Spaces, takes us into his own thoughts as a young black man growing up in Chester, Pennsylvania to becoming a journalist in New York City. He tells us his own challenges that he faces on a daily basis along with challenges that many black men his own age faced and the way he changed in order to minimize the tension between himself and the common white person. Growing up in the post-segregation era was a challenge for most blacks. Having the same rights and privileges as many white Americans, but still fighting for the sense of equality, was a brick wall that many blacks had to overcome.
... Because they are females, they have the “glass ceiling” preventing them from going past a certain point economically and politically. Add in that they’re African American females, then you have the oppression of some work forces putting down black women. Some black women have to work multiple part-time low wage jobs to survive and provide for their family. Two methods that we can use to solve the problem of social inequality: getting off the path of least resistance and standing up, daring to make people uncomfortable.
“On Being Black…” is an autobiographical essay discussing the black working class and how in order for black women to “have-it-all” they must have a career, home, and husband. But when Bonner refers to the younger generations, they find flaws with the working class’ expectations on becoming middle to upper class. The Young Black generation challenges the ideology of what it means to “have-it-all,” while dismantling institutional racism to create their own ideological racial uplift. In both works, she questions racial categorization and the divisions among class amongst African Americans, a reoccurring theme for her later
In his essay, “On Being Black and Middle Class” (1988), writer and middle-class black American, Shelby Steele adopts a concerned tone in order to argue that because of the social conflicts that arise pertaining to black heritage and middle class wealth, individuals that fit under both of these statuses are ostracized. Steele proposes that the solution to this ostracization is for people to individualize themselves, and to ‘“move beyond the victim-focused black identity” (611). Steele supports his assertion by using evidence from his own life and incorporating social patterns to his text. To reach his intended audience of middle-class, black people, Steele’s utilizes casual yet, imperative diction.
Society is filled with prejudices often based on first impressions which are skewed by personal thoughts First impressions play a large role in how we view and judge people before we even know them. However, as people silently judge others most do not consider the impact it has on those who are judged. Both “Black Men and Public Spaces” by Brent Staples and “The Struggle” by Issa Rae exemplify the prejudices they experience as African-Americans and the misplaced expectations society places on them. The authors point of view greatly impacts the details and tone of the story. Through explicit details and clear tone, the author is able to portray their perspective and point of view.
In our society of today, there are many images that are portrayed through media and through personal experience that speak to the issues of black motherhood, marriage and the black family. Wherever one turns, there is the image of the black woman in the projects and very rarely the image of successful black women. Even when these positive images are portrayed, it is almost in a manner that speaks to the supposed inferiority of black women. Women, black women in particular, are placed into a society that marginalizes and controls many of the aspects of a black woman’s life. As a result, many black women do not see a source of opportunity, a way to escape the drudgery of their everyday existence. For example, if we were to ask black mother’s if they would change their situation if it became possible for them to do so, many would change, but others would say that it is not possible; This answer would be the result of living in a society that has conditioned black women to accept their lots in lives instead of fighting against the system of white and male dominated supremacy. In Ann Petry’s The Street, we are given a view of a black mother who is struggling to escape what the street symbolizes. In the end though, she becomes captive to the very thing she wishes to escape. Petry presents black motherhood, marriage and the black family as things that are marginalized according to the society in which they take place.
Women a mother, wife, lover or girlfriend as google define it. But what does it mean to be a black woman in America society? A society where social media seems to define our lives and set the norm of society. According to “Sister Citizen, there are three historically constructed myths of black womanhood: the hypersexual black woman, the mammy, and the angry black women”. But where did such a unique assumption came from?