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How social norms affect human behaviour essay
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How do social norms influence human behaviour
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To illustrate “In the Kitchen” Henry Louis Gates shapes an identity of a young person growing up in a lower class black community and also the community as a whole in Piedmont, America in the fifties and sixties when the Black Civil Right Movement was taking place. The identity is based on his life and upbringing with his “mama” and the ways they used the kitchen for straightening their kinky hair to make them fit in with the wider community. Gates has developed the identity of an African American community who are frowned upon in the wider community due to having kinky hair instead of straight and also the struggles they went through in their everyday lives through many techniques used within the development such as textual form, figurative …show more content…
To show how the African Americans straightened their hair. Gates says, “It made a scorching, crinkly sound, the hot iron did, as it burned its way through damp kink, leaving in its wake the straightest if hair strands, each of them standing up long and tall but drooping at the end like the top of a heavy willow tree” (41). This is a simile and also imagery because it is saying someone’s hair strands are long, tall and droopy at the ends comparing it to the top of a heavy willow tree. Also the imagery is describing what the iron is doing to the black person’s hair. Another use of figurative language to establish how the kinky hair was treated and how the barber talked about the quality of an African Americans hair when it was being trimmed, is in the text where Gates has stated, “It is like a doctor reporting the overall results of the first full physical that he has given you. “You are in good shape” or “blood pressures kind of high; better cut down on the salt” (Gates,44). This is a metaphor and means that the barber that is cutting the hair has analysed it and they gave him “not a bad grade” for how his hair is looking at the moment but there is room for improvement when they cut his hair for the first time. Personification is also used to …show more content…
Also the efforts they went to too fit in with the whole community and experiences and what the struggles of having kink hair mean for him and the community. Blacks liked doing their hair and the effort they went to get it perfect, but there was negative comments due to the Blacks having different hair styles to the whites. Gates also talks about times with growing up in the period of Black Civil Rights and learning how to deal with not being treated the same as whites. In the text Gates states, “because daddy had straight hair I would do anything to have straight hair, and I used to try everything to make it straight, short of getting a process, which only riffraff were dumb enough to do” (Gates, 45). In other words, this means that they would do anything possible they could just to get straight hair so they were not picked on by the white people for being different. Another attitude that the community portrayed was that they were ashamed of their hair and how they looked. For instance, Gates stated “Mr Charlie would conceal his Frederick Douglass mane under a big white Stetson hat which I never saw him take off. Except when he came to our house, late at night, to have his hair pressed” (Gates 43). As a result, it shows that he was too embarrassed to be seen in public because he did not want to be personally invaded or harassed for
They tried to feel some sort of acceptance by straightening their “kink” with a hot iron in order to have “good” hair. Gates says, “The kitchen was permanent… no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t de-kink a person’s kitchen. So you trimmed it off as best you could” (627). In other words, Gates is saying that the kitchen hints that African Americans will never be apart of the white society, the dominant discourse. Gates uses Nat King Cole and Frederick Douglas as examples to argue his point that even the most expensive or unorthodox way of trying to remove the kitchen is impossible. Frederick Douglas, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Nat King Cole are famous recognizable African American names that support Gates’ credibility as a writer and representative of the black community. By the end of the essay, Gates is upset when he sees Nat King Cole on television, and is reminded of how African Americans were willing to go as far as ironing their “kink” in order to feel the acceptance that they were deprived from as being
After pin pointing the major differences between black and white culture, Malcolm finds white culture to be extremely bland and lifeless, rather than black culture which is lively, colorful, and the exact opposite. Malcolm takes up a job as a shoe shiner at the Roseland State Ballroom where his first early lessons on hustling began. After being “schooled” Malcolm’s point of view enhances as he starts to learn the ways of how Boston works. While working at the ballroom Malcolm observes the dancing styles of blacks and whites, how “The white people danced as though somebody had trained them-” and “-those Negros – nobody in the world could have choreographed the way they did whatever they felt-”(pg.52) Malcolm feels as if dancing is in the blood of African Americans, and feels prohibited by the fact that he doesn’t know how to dance (“I could feel the beat in my bones, even though I had never danced”). The author describes the feel of the ballroom during these dances by using fast paced words and short sentences to create the illusion of a lively environment. Exclamation points and hyphens add on to the noisy, ear-ringing atmosphere. The way the sentences are structured makes the reader want to read faster and faster, trying to keep up with the rapid movement. Malcolm begins to change his style, by buying outrageous zoot suits, knob style shoes, and he even gets his first homemade conk. The conk represents black people inflicting pain upon themselves trying to look “pretty” by white standards. It shows how blacks would “literally burn my flesh to have it look like white persons hair.” Malcolm even admits that “This was my first really big step toward self-degradation.”(pg.56) Everything that was white or affiliated with white culture, was seen as superior and everything that wasn’t was considered
There is evidence that suggests that in the corporate world, academia and military, blacks who maintain their natural hair have experienced some form of discrimination. There have been situations where some students and research assistants have been asked to perm their hair or wear weaves since natural hair is perceived as “unkempt” (Philips). The US Army has also been criticized for what most blacks see as discrimination by imposing hairstyles on black female recruits. These policies deny individuals of their racial identity, personal and political autonomy (Greene). Natural hairstyles like dreadlocks, braids and afro are considered unprofessional and are therefore not allowed and this has become a racial-politico issue (Salem).
In 2009, African-American Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. came home after a business trip in the middle of the night and found his door jammed shut. A neighbor saw that Gates and his driver were trying to open the door and called 9-1-1 to report a potential burglary to the police. Upon the police arriving, a confrontation ensued, leading to Gates being charged with disorderly conduct. After his arrest, Gates went to the media and claimed that he was a victim of racism. Even though many did not agree with Gates’ interpretation that the policeman’s actions were due to racism, the backlash came from an unexpected group: other African Americans. Although Gates went through a negative experience, many
Arthur Agee and William Gates, two high school basketball players, dream of playing basketball in the NBA. Arthur controlled the basketball court as point guard at local playgrounds in Chicago. He competed against boys three years older and still dominated. One day, Big Earl Smith, the legendary playground basketball scout, approached Arthur to discuss his future playing basketball. Big Earl delivered to Arthur a tuition paid scholarship offer to attend St. Joseph. This presented Arthur the opportunity to play for Gene Pingatore, the coach of St. Joseph, considered the greatest high school coach in the suburbs and city. With the scholarship, Arthur attended St Joseph and met William Gates, another basketball prodigy and recruit at St. Joseph. Unfortunately for Arthur, William developed into the more proficient and touted player. Due to William’s success and notoriety, St Joseph passed Arthur’s scholarship money onto William. Arthur’s impoverished family situation, coupled with losing his scholarship money, forced him to drop out of St. Joseph and attend Marshall, the local public school. Throughout Arthur and William’s high school experience, they
She set the theme of the article of expressing that straightening of black people hair is the denial of self acceptance in having the confidence of their individual features. She states “Heterosexual black women talked about the extent to which black men respond more favorably to women with straight or straighten hair” (Hooks 538). She explains how they try to please other people in trying to make themselves more beautiful to others they want to attract. This is a personal opinion. She makes a broad generalization that all black men are attracted to women that have straight hair. This statistic is not efficient because there are different men that are attracted to different styles. The majority of people do not change themselves because they want to appeal to others, but to make themselves feel better about their personal beauty.
In “Sonny’s Blues,” Baldwin’s metaphors relate the emotions of his characters. His writing makes the experience of living in Harlem as a black person in the 1950s real for the reader. Moreover, “Sonny’s Blues” is a story that is universally relatable on human level, as the emotions and relationships Baldwin reveals are not unique to the story’s
to their appearance. The way the hair grows has come to represent rebellion against the system
Although, Henry Louis Gates Jr. mentions that education is key to stopping segregation and being successful; he also says that African Americans feel inferior to “white” Americans. This makes them not have the motivation of succeeding, having an education, aspiring, and dreaming because they believe that this is only for “white” Americans and not blacks. In today’s world, anyone can strive for a better future no matter what race they are. At one point in the article Henry Louis Gates mentions that not everyone in any
THESIS → In the memoir Black Boy by Richard Wright, he depicts the notion of how conforming to society’s standards one to survive within a community, but will not bring freedom nor content.
Hair is interpersonal because it allows for people to connect in ways they necessarily wouldn’t have connected other wise. Jefferson describes an encounter she has at a shore while she buying hair products. During the encounter, the cashier assumes that Jefferson isn’t Black and doesn’t understand Black hair, so he tries to reassure her that she is making the right purchase. Jefferson then goes on to say a series of cultural specific things to confirm her racial identity. She said that she must, “ articulate what we both know to be the chasm that divides ‘curly hair’” and “provide precision since his skin is black-brown and mine is cream-brown” and she ends by stating firmly, “I am African American”(1). I found it interesting that though they were both Black, Jefferson was the one who felt the pressure to have to “prove” her racial identity. She does this through talking a lot more then she should but hair gives her the avenue to have the conversation. In a final act to affirm her identity, Jefferson, while talking about her hair dresser, states, he “understands the mechanics of hair that goes from curly to frizzy to… nappy” (1). And with that single word they were able to connect and share laughs over hair struggles that only the “in” group, another vernacular aspect, understands. Jefferson was also to confirm her identity and establish a relationship though simply talking
Flannery O’Connor was an extremely revered author for his writing techniques that may be examined throughout almost all of his pieces, especially in: “Everything That Rises Must Converge” and “Greenleaf”. Both of these short stories hone in on the two most controversial topics in societal history: religion and race. And with that, “Everything That Rises Must Converge”, a short story in the collection Everything That Rises Must Converge, is a brief tale from a third person point of view, set in the late 1960s; that of an old mother and her young adult son, Julian, who the story focuses on. He is a College graduate that’s too caught up in his own self-proclaimed brilliant mind and knows his mother is too bigoted to deal with the integration of African Americans into white communities. The story moves with an argument between the two about how African Americans really behave. All the while, he is helping her get to The Y for her weekly weight-loss class. She whimpers often about her terribly ugly hat and wanting to return it, but stubbornly gets on the bus continuing to discuss African American integration being wrong. After they board the bus and the whites make comments about it lacking any blacks, An African American gentleman in a suit enters and Julian sits by him to attempt to spite his mother, and then an African American lady and her son enter who ironically dons the identical hat to Julian’s mother. She is playful with the child but is seen as a racist when she tries to offer him a penny. She is denied when the child’s mother views it as an act of pity and Julian thinks that he has finally won the argument but is interrupted when his mother has a stroke. The story ends with Julian shouting for help. While this story focuses ...
This paper will argue that to be a Black woman with natural hair, is deviant in the eyes of white culture. Natural hair is regarded as unkempt, unclean, and unprofessional (Thompson 2009). American society seeks to demonize the hair of Black women because natural hair disregards Eurocentric beauty standards (Robinson 2011). To rebel and wear one’s hair naturally comes with a price - especially in the workplace and school environment - because there are discriminatory dress-codes that prevent Black women from meeting institutional requirements (Klein 2013). Black women face discrimination for their natural hair due to the power imbalance of white men in work and educational structures.
I have read an account called " 'What's in a Name? " ", which is composed by Henry Louis Gates. This account demonstrates to us a youth experience of the creator that happened amid the mid-1950s. In the article, Gates alludes to an occurrence when a white man, Mr. Wilson, who was well disposed with his dad, called his dad "George", a name which was a prominent method for alluding to African Americans in those circumstances. In any case, Gates' dad needed to acknowledge this separation and couldn't make a move around then. By utilizing sentiment to bring out individuals' enthusiastic reaction, and utilizing suggestion, Gates effectively communicates his claim that name shapes individuals' discernments
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.