The book that I chose to talk about is "Who's Gonna Take the Weight" by Kevin Powell. This book breaks down African Americans in society today in three different but very essential categories that is explained through essays about his life and what he went through. My reactions about each category were distinctive as I continued to read each section. For example, the section titled "The Breakdown," he talks about how after the Real World he went to work for Quincy Jones' Vibe magazine and he was surprised about the lack of African American editors or those that were in a head position. As I read that, I was not too surprised at the fact that a Black owned magazine company is actually operated by Whites. During the 90s and even now a lot of Black owned companies are really operated predominately by whites. Although, it is less common now because African Americans are now getting a better education, life, job opportunities, etc, they are now seen as counterparts in the company and even have more say as to what happens inside the corporation.
When Powell was employed at Vibe and he pointed out the fact that even though it was owned by a Black man, that Whites were still running the company. He also stated that there were not many Blacks who were there that had credentials to be in management or one of the head editors. Those factors made me look around at my surroundings and question how many Blacks are the dean of a certain school, how many Black professors this school has, and how many Black students this school has. By doing this, I fully understand what he went through and how he felt working at Vibe. I feel as though we are given the opportunity to achieve many things many take these opportunities for advantage. Then I also wonder why there are not as many Blacks who have some clout here being professors, deans, or students, as other schools that have the same amount of student or lesser than our school.
Kevin Powell has qualifications to write about this subject because of the fact that a) he is an African American male living in the United States, b) he has lived through a lot of oppressions against the genders, race, and power, and c) he was raised as a product of the Hip-Hop generation.
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
A strength I found in Gellman’s book was that it can grab the attention of any reader who has an interest learning more about race, labor movements and the fight for civil rights that took place prior to the 1950’s and 60’s as we more often learn about. The author also ensures to detail the types of strategies the National Negro Congress implemented in working with other organizations and in trying to accomplish their goals. Gellman also takes the time to discuss import people involved besides John Preston Davis and A. Philip Randolph, but also Robert Weaver and Charles Hamilton Houston. The book Death Blow to Jim Crow does a good job of expanding on a otherwise unknown topic, not discussed in history classes or books.
Staples, Brent. “Black Men and Public Space.” Reading Critically, Writing Well. Sixth edition Eds. Rise B. Axelrod and Charles R. Cooper. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002. 134-136. Print.
Stewart’s essay “The Field and Function of Black Studies”, he implies that black history is dominated by continuing challenges by its critics and the weak attachment of many scholars to the black studies movement and to black studies units even when the research of such scholars examines the black experience (pg. 45). Statistics show that 70.2 percent indicated that the number of full-time faculty members who have appointments outside black studies and another academic units is stable, proving the fact that black studies has established a beachhead in higher education. This statistic demonstrates how things have been stable in terms of growing the teachings of black studies, which causes challenges. A challenge that can be seen from this issue, is the lack of financial support available to faculty and students. Small budgets are provided to Black Study departments at many universities, therefore, making it difficult to purchase materials and hire more educated, experienced staff
America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.
Smelcer, my high school history teacher. My teacher dedicated a whole month of class on the topic of “Black Lives Matter.” She loved to read books on opinions on black society. I think this book would fascinate her if she has not already read it. She always taught us about the struggles of African Americans, but never about the privilege that some of them had. Some African Americans were better off than most whites at the time. They were doctors and lawyers, most of the black elite were making salaries close to middle class Caucasians. The book shows how not only how whites look down on the African American racial background, but so did people of their own race. I think this simple fact would be intriguing to my teacher and maybe challenge her views on black society. It could also contribute to her lessons in class, teaching high schoolers about this exclusive society. Lastly, I would recommend this book to Mrs. Smelcer because it proves that while the members of the black elite had “privilege and plenty” they were still racial discriminated against by whites, even through they should have been
Manheim, James M., and Carol Brennan. "Kanye West." Contemporary Black Biography. Ed. Margaret Mazurkiewicz. Vol. 93. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Biography in Context. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
In class, we discussed the works of many amazing authors. Two amazing authors, and great leaders as well, that stood out to me the most would be Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Dubois. You could easily compare the two when talking about themes such as post slavery and the reconstruction era. Although they advocated for the same causes, each author had their own views on the subject in itself. There were many points that they strongly disagreed on such as economics, behavior, identity, and education as well. The different philosophies mainly focused on ending racial injustice and the black community as a whole. Each African American leader had unique points of views on the lives and conditions of African Americans in that time and what should
In “Racial identities” Kwame Anthony Apphia describes the different ethnic groups North America and how they are discriminated specialty the African Americans. In “Besides oneself: on the limits of sexual autonomy” Judith Butler states that sexual minorities suffer from discrimination and violence. In “Our secret” Susan Griffin describes the life of Heinrich Himmler which grows up to be a Nazi soldier. These passages describe the behavior of society and how individuals are affected it by it.
In this narrative essay, Brent Staples provides a personal account of his experiences as a black man in modern society. “Black Men and Public Space” acts as a journey for the readers to follow as Staples discovers the many societal biases against him, simply because of his skin color. The essay begins when Staples was twenty-two years old, walking the streets of Chicago late in the evening, and a woman responds to his presence with fear. Being a larger black man, he learned that he would be stereotyped by others around him as a “mugger, rapist, or worse” (135).
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a prime example of Woodson’s argument on “miseducated” blacks. Although Thomas benefitted from programs like affirmative action, once he reached the high point in his career he supported legislature to end such programs. Hampton University and other Historically Black Colleges and Universities must take it upon themselves to teach their students the importance of contributing to their communities once they graduate and enter into the business world. Colleges like Hampton, Howard, Spelman and Morehouse have the opportunity to produce professionals that can restructure and save the black community. Students who graduate from these institutions have the resources and knowledge that are needed to revive the African American community and their economy. Black colleges must educate their students on the need for black businesses, role models and the importance of staying connected to their culture and community.
Brent Staples effectively used his personal experiences personal experiences that he has had in the past and present to convey his message to the reader. Staples conveys his message with the Prejudice is still occurring. The article Black Men and Public Space for Harper’s Magazine was effective in the rhetorical strategies staples used such an appeal to pathos with strong diction and imager, and
Brent Staples and Richard Rodriguez’s autobiographical essays both start out with a problem, but they deal with it in different ways. Brent Staples’ “Just Walk on By” deals with the issue of racism and social judgment he faces because he is African-American, while Rodriguez’s essay “Complexion,” details the self-hatred and shame he felt in his childhood because of his skin color. Both of these essays deal with race, appearance, and self-acceptance, but the authors write about them in different ways. When looking at the similarities and differences together, the points of these essays have a much stronger message about how to deal with discrimination.
During my early years of school, I remember being taught white accomplishments and wondering if blacks and other people of color had made any significant contributions to today's world. I noticed that television consist of all white people. Throughout my research paper I hope to cover certain aspects of African American heritage. Aspects such as blacks making up the largest minority group in the United States, although Mexican-Americans are rapidly changing that. The contributions blacks have provided to our country are immeasurable. Unfortunately though rather than recognizing these contributions, white America would rather focus on oppressing and degrading these people. As a consequence American society instinctively associated white with light and all good things; while black is associated with darkness or evil.
I’ve seen racism on a day to day basis, and I know how slavery has had long lasting effects on the advancements of the black community. It was compelling however to learn some of the logistics and facts of his argument and to understand even more how the government segregated people of color. I was pleased that he made this book promoting the truth and backing it with facts that a lot of white people like to deny. I feel it is Caucasians people duty to try and help educated other Caucasian people on the injustices in America and I applaud him for that. He was extremely well educated on the topic of his book and mentioned some upsetting and surprising facts and terms. I was able to learn about the de facto segregation I had been living in my entire life and exactly why. Racial segregation, especially in public schools, that happens “by fact” rather than by legal requirement. For example, often the concentration of African-Americans in certain neighborhoods produces neighborhood schools that are predominantly black, or segregated in fact ( de facto ), although not by