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Social Issue on Racism
Wole Soyinka is a name that is larger than life in the literary world. His masterclass comes to the fore in the poem Telephone conversation (Soyinka 52). The poem has subtitles, irony, and an underlying theme, which is racism. A dark reality that he skillfully reveals and shows is utterly ridiculous. The poem introduces a West African persona to the audience. The poem tells the story of the man who makes a phone call to a potential landlady, as he is in need of a place to stay. However, it quickly boils down to the matter of his skin color. Any relevant details, such as the price of the apartment or amenities available, are left untouched. Telephone conversation paints a sorry picture of how bias, prejudice, and stereotypes can arouse the most primal feelings in the most cultured or intelligent people. The thesis
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The landlady in the poem is pivotal in this context. The speaker suggests that she is well off and comes from a good background. She is polite by default, but the man can still sense her strain to remain civil, when a deeper stronger desire resonates within her. The desire temporarily escapes like steam, when her “light impersonality” (22) transitions to “hard on the mouthpiece” (25). The poem, albeit ironically, continually describes the landlady in glowing terms. It is her final action (to deny lease) and her crude questions that reveal her shallow and racist self. The West African man thinks she is considerate enough to vary her tonal emphasis to keep it civil, but her civility wears thin under the weight of her racism. As the reader, one gets the impression that she has a sense of decorum. If she was dealing with a white person, she would be well-mannered, but she is talking to an African. The thought itself leads to “silenced transmission of pressurized good-breeding”
The stories that the author told were very insightful to what life was like for an African American living in the south during this time period. First the author pointed out how differently blacks and whites lived. She stated “They owned the whole damn town. The majority of whites had it made in the shade. Living on easy street, they inhabited grand houses ranging from turn-of-the-century clapboards to historics”(pg 35). The blacks in the town didn’t live in these grand homes, they worked in them. Even in today’s time I can drive around, and look at the differences between the living conditions in the areas that are dominated by whites, and the areas that are dominated by blacks. Racial inequalities are still very prevalent In today’s society.
...ws in effect in the United States from the 1870’s to the 1960’s that segregated African Americans from Caucasians, made it clear that the woods the speaker was referring to were only supposed to be traveled by Caucasians and African Americans knew that not having a fence up did not excuse them from entering into the woods. These restrictions are also what made the speaker in Moss’ poem bitter, angry, filled with hate and jealous. She was bitter because she was being unfairly treated solely based on something that was beyond her control, the color of her skin tone, and this bitterness, translated into anger and hatred towards Caucasians and those feelings, translated into jealously. She was jealous of the Caucasians because she wanted nothing more than to be treated with respect, like she mattered, like she was a human being with feelings, irrespective of her race.
He refers to all the immigration groups in a judgmental way. He complains about the intelligence levels of the Italians, how dirty and deceitful the Jews are, and even the immaculate cleanliness of the Chinamen. Although he does possess quite a bit of bigotry that boarders on the line of prejudice when it comes to African Americans he recognizes that they are suffering from racism and he sympathizes with th...
Then, in the play, Wilson looks at the unpleasant expense and widespread meanings of the violent urban environment in which numerous African Americans existed th...
Reading these poems is an incredible learning experience because it allows readers to view segregation through the eyes of someone most affected by it. In the U.S. History course I took I didn’t take away the details and specific examples I did from reading and researching Brooks’ work. For example, the history textbook only mentioned one specific person who was affected by segregation, that person was Rosa Parks. The example of Rosa Parks demonstrated just one isolated incident of how black people were punished if they disobeyed the laws of segregation. In contrast, Brooks’ work demonstrates the everyday lives of black people living with segregation, which provides a much different perspective than what people are used to. An example, of this would be in Brooks’ poem “Bronzeville Woman in a Red Hat”. The speaker of this poem hired a black maid and referred to her as “it”(103). By not using the maid’s name or using the pronoun her, the speaker is dehumanizing the maid. This poem expresses to readers that white people thought that black people weren’t like them, that they weren’t even
James Baldwin, an African American author born in Harlem, was raised by his violent step-father, David. His father was a lay preacher who hated whites and felt that all whites would be judged as they deserve by a vengeful God. Usually, the father's anger was directed toward his son through violence. Baldwin's history, in part, aids him in his insight of racism within the family. He understands that racists are not born, but rather racist attitudes and behaviors are learned in the early stages of childhood. Baldwin's Going to Meet the Man is a perfect example of his capability to analyze the growth of a innocent child to a racist.
Racism has been and always will be a form of segregation concurrently and in the history of humanity. From Ancient times to current, the status of segregation by some means of oppression privied by power, wealth, and prestige has been as second nature as drinking water. While Coates has his own perspective of reality and its structure, it’s interesting that a so called genius had taken almost 30 years to finally see the true nature of “the beast” he frequented. That Beast known as Racist America and all if its capitalist racial qualities. While some have their own experiences and perspectives, “Between The World and Me”, past historical events on racism in America including the Civil Rights Movement, correlative measures of other countries on racism and the slave trade, and the many obstacles that are implemented to secure such advantages will continue to be the key topics of discussion.
He portrays the racist tendency of people to assume black men are potentially violent and dangerous. He describes about a white woman’s reaction when she and him were walking on same street but on the opposite sides during the night. He says that women seemed to be worried, she felt uneasy and she thought that he was ‘menacingly close’. He even shares his experience on how he was taken as a burglar, mistaken as a killer and forced out of a jewelers store while doing assignment for a local paper. The reason behind being kicked out of the jeweler store and women running away was because he was a black man. During that period black men were stereotyped as rapist, murderer, and gang members. These names upon a person’s personality can hinder ones feelings and can also affect ones confidence level. Thus stereotyping can cause a person to miss opportunities and the person might face difficulties in building relationships with specific types of people. (Brent
The poem “Heritage”, written by Linda Hogan, tells the story of each trait she inherited and the lessons she learned from key members of her family. When analyzing poetry, there are many literary elements that the reader can observe. These elements can range from diction, syntax and rhyme schemes. In Hogan’s poem, there are three literary elements that stand out the most. These are figurative language, tone and diction. By using figurative language, Hogan can better communicate her ideas towards the audience. The use of tone allows the reader to understand the character’s feelings. Lastly, her choice of diction determines how the reader views the story. The author’s use of these three elements allows the audience to connect to the poem because
By writing long lines then opposing them with short phrases, the writing is able to convey an adverse view, which is generally applied to black culture, onto the local more privileged community. She again employs plural point of view to demonstrate how, as a collective minority, “we often think of uptown”(5), referring to white society. The silent nights then described in line six refer to the apparent blandness of white culture when compared to the lively nature of the inner city. The long lines of 6 and 7 are then disrupted by line 8 in a very abrupt and jarring manner: “and the houses straight as” (7) “dead men” (8). This wording not only plays on the uniformity of White Culture, but addresses social divisions both past and present. The comparison of the white houses to dead men is a comparison of the insipid area that is uptown to the lively nature of the inner city and black life. A passed and darker meaning also rests on the shoulders of these dead men, as the houses that these wealthy whites inhabit have been built on the backs of African American’s since the countries origins. By applying these new and controversial images to both cultures, Clifton challenges societal conventions among both races in attempt to shift views concerning how black life is portrayed versus its
These last words that his grandfather tells him makes him feel like that there is a curse hovering over him. The family being black had a harder time growing up than the more wealthy white folks did. He wrote a graduation speech that totally went against his grandfather’s words that he gave the narrator. The town’s "leading white people" loved the speech and asked him to deliver it at a local hotel in the ballroom. This starts a "revolution" in the narrator’s life. The people at the hotel make the narrator feel very uncomfortable. This group of "town’s officials" turned out to be the local men’s club. They were smoking and drinking, paying no attention to what the guests have to say. The leaders of the club are more interested in the entertainment. At that time, they could have cared less what the narrator had to say. They had a woman ...
After the war, America was stricken with poverty and many unfortunate families were tormented. The Cunningham family is a typical example of a “Poor” (21). The Cunninghams were so poverty-stricken that Walter continuously came to school without lunch as “He had none today nor tomorrow or the next day” (24). Majority of people in the South treated the Cunninghams with less respect because they’re impoverished. Aunt Alexandra told Scout not to play with Walter. “I'll tell you why,” Aunt Alexandra said "Because- he- is- trash, that's why you can't play with him” (244). Everyone needs somebody to look down to, Aunt Alexandra is trying to lift her own self-esteem up through shaming the Cunninghams. Whereas Calpurnia is a fair women that believes people should be treated equally. When Walter “drowns his food in syrup”(24), Scout decides it’s normal to disrespect Walter because “Hes just a Cunningham”(24). Calpurnia responded to Scouts statement by "Don't matter who they are, anybody sets foot in this house's yo' company, and don't you let me catch you remarkin' on their ways like you was so high and mighty!”(25) Calpurnia shows Scout and the readers a significant message that wealth shouldn’t determine how we treat people. Lee is trying to persuade us to act more like Calpurnia’s manner towards rich and
I think that Bonilla-Silva is correct when she talk about racism in her article because racism do exist in the country. In some places in the country, there are people who are more racist then others. Elie Wiesel says “no human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgements are wrong. Only racists make them.” I agree with this quote because there is no such thing as differentially when it comes to people. We are all humans and it is how it should, there shouldn’t be any reason why we have to categorize ourselves just because our society says so. Does it really matter whether or not we are different colors? No, because anything that a colored man can do, a white man can do it. For example, in the movie white man can’t jump it all black men on a basketball team thought that a white man couldn’t play basketball as good as black men could. They were wrong because white or black we are all humans and even though one may be better at certain things it doesn’t mean that another person from a different race can’t.
There is some evidence that connects our protagonist's line of thinking with his upbringing. Our protagonist's mother tells him, "The best blood of the South is in you," (page 8) when the child asks whom his father is. Clearly, his mother was proud of (and perhaps still in love with) this genteel white man who gave her a son. So his bold pronouncements make much sense in light of his own condition.
As the poet says in stanza one and four, “purple-flowering, amiable weeds”(Afrika) is compared to “the single rose”(Afrika). The purple-flowering represents the blacks while amiable weeds symbolize as being friendly. So it is being described that the blacks are friendly, while the “single rose” represents the whites, indicating that they are the minority as it is “single”. Moreover, rose has thorns which are pointy and sharp, this represents that the whites are not easy to get along and they set a boundaries for themselves to restrict any non-whites from entering their white society. Hence, the blacks are angry towards the whites as the above contrast shows inequality and the poet gives a message that blacks should be treated equally as other