Stereotypes And Prejudice In Maya Angelou's Champion Of The World

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Maya Angelou’s essay “Champion of the world” highlighted the cold fact that stereotypes and prejudice of race is existent for both white and black. Have you ever encountered a time where you felt biased to a person because of race? Well, if not you must live in a perfect world because Stereotypes and prejudice are just as relevant today as they were in the past. We as a people need to recognize this problem regardless of color; it is wrong. When I read “Champion of the world” that’s what I believe Angelou was trying to imply that Stereotypes and prejudice are even so more relevant today as they were in the time of her childhood especially to the so called “minority”. Stereotypes occur every day on a consistent basis but we tend to overlook …show more content…

I think to myself if the Joe Louis would have lost the fight what would the people say? “Oh the fight was rigged” or “The judges just didn’t want a Negro to win”, this is because the people aren’t rooting for a person to win the fight they are rooting for a race to win. Is it okay for this thought to just be human nature in a way? Yes but no, I say no because in order to move forward as one we must be able to forgive and forget. In Angelou’s essay she stated “my race groaned. It was our people failing; it was another lynching yet another black man hanging on a tree”. (Bedford Reader pg. 104). The thought of Joe Louis losing the fight would have been truly heartbreaking for the African American community at that time, but not because he was a great boxer but because he was a black man. To think that even to this day we make decisions with race being a factor. In 2008 I voted for Barack Obama, I can honestly say that the only thing I knew about him is that he was a black man running for president so why not vote for him, I know I was not the only person to vote the same way. This is a prime example of prejudice; I did not look at the other person as a candidate only because he was not black. The line is there and clear we do not have to accept that this is an …show more content…

A black boy” (Bedford Reader pg. 104) this is the moment that made me realize the prejudice underlying in the essay and even in our society today. The first thing that came to her mind was the ethnicity of Joe Louis not his strength, stamina or even his personality. Angelou mentioned in her essay “It wouldn’t be fit for a black man and his family to be caught out on a lonely country road on a night when Joe Louis had proved that we were the strongest people in the world” (Bedford Reader pg. 104). This first informs me that obviously the African American community is not the only race guilty of being prejudice. She means that the whites would be angry towards all blacks because Joe Louis won they might try to take the anger out on any African American person. Secondly it makes me continue to believe that African Americans were just as prejudice because she believes due to joe Louis winning the boxing match against the white male that the African American race was the strongest race in the

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