...Stilson and starring comedian Chris Rock. It is a documentary on black women and the hair industry. Rock starts his journey on learning more about black hair after his daughter asked him whether or not she had good hair. Rock dove right into the black hair industry, examining everything from relaxers and weaves to the chemicals in relaxers and where weave comes from. The highlight of this video was that it examines what hair means to black women. A host of celebrities and professionals shared their insight on black women and their hair. I chose this video for my opinion paper because I have always been obsessed with black hair. From the time I was young I knew what a relaxer was and I knew not to talk about a family member’s weave out loud. I have learned so much...
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...“ALL IS FAIR IN LOVE & HIP-HOP” The degradation of women of VH1’s reality show “Love & Hip-Hop” and Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Atlanta” “And what of the black woman? I most seriously doubt that any other race of Women could bring up its fineness through such devilish fire.” -W.E.B. Dubois W.E.B. Dubois said it the best. The black woman. She faces adversities that are unknown to any other race. She received her rights well after justice was a commodity, and still struggles today. Though her struggles have been evident she has worked to the top… Why is she continued to be made a mockery of through Reality television? Networks like VH1, and Bravo, all have had a hand in the degradation of the black woman for over a decade with shows like Love & Hip-Hop, Single Ladies and Real Housewives of Atlanta are a prime example’s. The Black Woman is no longer a symbol of power and positivity but of greed and pettiness. It is safe to say that, the Claire Huxtable’s and Moesha’s of the 90’s are no longer found on your television set teaching a lesson of what a woman should be, or how she should act in certain situations. Reality television has definitely taken a turn for the worst and cannot be taken serious on the grounds of : it doesn’t show Black women in all aspects of their lives, but more so fortune seeking, self-centered, disrespectful and moral-less women, and secondly it seems to show only one type of woman, it glorifies one specific lifestyle, and lastly it seems...
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...Introduction + Tone/Meaning The song, written by rapper Tupac Shakur, Keep Ya Head is a song dedicated to black woman. It's a self-love feminist anthem, that showed that Tupac care about the woman in his community. The message of the song is conveyed clearly and concisely, and although it uses similes, metaphors, symbolism, and other literary devices to get the point across, the message is very clear. The song is very upbeat and positive, like it is a song to uplift people, particularly the black woman. It meant to say, life is gonna get better, and no matter what happens you just gotta keep your head up. Song Interpretation The first verse tackles the abuse black woman face from black men, questioning their actions. For example, he says, in the song, “I wonder why we take from our women, Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?, think it’s time to kill for our women, Time to heal our women, be real to our...
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...How many people can say they know what its like to be a young black woman? We all face obstacles as a individual but there is a common struggle that are faced among black women. Watching the protest and riots breakout in neighborhoods where people looked like me caused me pay attention to the black community in America. The first thing I noticed is the difference between a black woman and a black man in America. Most of the cases of injustice that I've seen has been centered around black men. It is too often that I see a black man gunned down or arrested on the news. This lead me to wonder, are black women equally effected in the injustices of America? I dug deeper and realized that black woman may be the ones that hurt the most. I though...
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...Dear Ms. Educated Black Woman Dexter R. Conner Upon realizing that my baby daughter would one day read this, I re-examined every word. To the most beautiful girl on earth – Daddy loves you. 1|Dear Ms Educated Black Woman Preface I began having serious thoughts pertaining to the dynamics of Black romantic relationships in college upon traveling to Atlanta and conversing for hours with Spelman College’s exceptional Black women. It was like the television show A Different World. While my reason for routinely making the two hour trip from my college was to convince a particular one of these women that she was to be my wife, it became clear that a unique dynamic was on the horizon. Many of the educated Black women I encountered had confidence in their academic and professional journey, but lacked clarity on whether enough educated Black men with at least an ounce of swagger shared their dream of creating a formidable family. It was a fair question then, and remains a growing dilemma affecting educated Black women today. Since that time I have consistently spoken with Brothers, Sisters, family members, friends, and others about the challenges facing Black relationships. Those conversations have inspired me to share my humble thoughts for anyone willing to indulge me. As you read beyond the passion of my words, hopefully sincerity and love will be visible, along with a creative spirit that you find interesting enough to continue the exposé....
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...THE MEANING OF 'INDEPENDENT WOMAN'' IN MUSIC MiA MOODY Introduction Rapper Roxanne Shanté's 1989 rendition of "Independent Woman," explored relationships and admonished women not to dote on partners who do not reciprocate or to buy into the fairytale dream that a man would always take care of them. The definition of an "Independent Woman" in the Urban Dictionary, a predominantly African American written and defined Web site, is "A woman who pays her own bills, buys her own things, and does not allow a man to affect her stability or self-confidence. She supports herself on her own entirely and is proud to be able to do so." Another depiction of independence is found in Tina Portis' video clip titled the "Deception of the Independent Woman" posted to YouTube in 2010. Portis, an entrepreneur and former single mother, offers her opinion on statistics showing 42% of U.S. black women have never been married and are "independent" because they focus on achievement, often waiting too long to compete for the small number of black men who are equal in status (Johnson, 2010). In the video, she asserts that independent women do not need a pat on the back for doing what grownups are supposed to do: pay their bills, buy houses and cars, etc. She adds that independence discourages relationships as people begin to believe they can do everything alone, so they do not need a mate. Mia Moody, PhD, is a professor of journalism at Baylor University. She is the author of ...
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...Blues Personality Profile……………………………………………………..6 Words of Blues Song…………………………………………………………7 Blues Instruments…………………………………………………………….8 Jazz Personality Profile……………………………………………………..9 Words of Jazz Song…………………………………………………………10 Original Blues Song…………………………………………………………11 Afterword……………………………………………………………………12 Introduction Blues has its deepest roots in the work songs of the West African slaves in the South. During their back-breaking work in the fields of the Southern plantation owners, black slaves developed a "call and response" way of singing to give rhythm to the drudgery of their servitude. These "field hollers" served as a basis of all blues music that was to follow. Although the lyrics of many blues songs are soulful and melancholy, the music as a whole is a powerful, emotive and rhythmic music celebrating the life of black Americans. The lyrics of the songs reflected daily themes of their lives including: sex, drinking, railroads, jail, murder, poverty, hard labor and love lost. Congo Square (past) Congo Square was a market area where African slaves could sell their wares on “free days.” Though legally slaves were forbidden from owning any kind of property, gathering in large groups, or conducting trade on their own, slave masters and colonial authorities usually did not interfere with the market. Freed from forced labor on Sundays and religious holidays, slaves would typically use these days to hire themselves out or bring their surplus product to the market...
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...Ivy Tech Community College Abstract Story of a young African American woman (Celie), growing up in the rural south during the early to mid- Nineteenth century the depression era. Her life is a struggle early on. She is beaten constantly and raped by her father as a result two children were born. Both were taken at birth. She leaves one hell only to end up in another one. Her father basically sells her into marriage her fate is no better with her husband. The beatings continue. She has to endure having sex with him. She is there only to take care of his house and raise his children who have no respect for her. She has no voice until a woman named Shrug comes into her life. She then becomes a woman with a voice and learns how to use it. The Color Purple Celie’s Life In the movie The Color Purple we deal with a young African American woman (Celie), who grew up in early to mid-ninetieth century in the rural south during the depression. She grew up poor and uneducated. She deals with poverty, racism and sexism. There is nothing about being a black woman in this this period of time to be proud of. In social comparison, her race, that is being black compared to being white, black people are considered inferior. And by being a woman only makes it worse. Thus we have the formation of Celie’s culture being the system of learned and shared symbols...
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...oppression to the capitalist system. Women suffer a double exploitation as women and as members of the working class. Radical feminists disregard all questions of political and economic dispensation to concentrate on the roots of the problem. The central root of the problem is the system of patriarchy which leads to all kinds of discrimination against and devaluation of women. Politico-economic questions are not the roots but only auxiliaries. The concept of gender is the real villain and has to be demolished. Lately, more groups like Psychoanalytical feminism, Postmodern or Poststructuralists feminism, Black feminism and so on have also been added. Black feminism mainly studies the issues of self- consciousness and self identity of black women who are caught in a dilemma and tries to provide methods to help black women achieve self realization. In the long history, that is black women’s double identity,...
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...Morrison’s Beloved: A Realistic Saga of Black Female Slavery by Vaseem G Qureshi Margaret Atwood in The New York Times Book Review says about The Beloved by Toni Morrison as thus: In the book, the other world exists and magic works, and the prose is up to it. If you can believe page one – and Ms Morrison’s verbal authority compels belief – you’re hooked on the rest of the book. (Atwood, 1993, 35) Toni Morrison’s fifth novel, Beloved (1987) explores the degradation imposed upon all African slaves of America. The novel is about matrilineal ancestry and the relationships among enslaved, freed, alive and dead mothers and daughters. The text is so grounded in historical reality that it could be used to teach American history classes. The protagonist of the novel, Sethe’s character is based on a factual slave woman Margaret Garner in an exaggerated way. For Random House project, The Black Book (1974), “scrap book” of three hundred years of the folk journey of Black America, Morrison had to gather details for the text. A fugitive from Kentucky, Garner attempted to kill her children rather than having them re-enslaved when they were all captured in Ohio in 1850. She succeeded in killing only one, however, whose throat she slashed. Acknowledging that she had indeed conducted research while writing Beloved, Morrison told Martha Darling: I did research about a lot of things in this book in order to narrow it, to make it narrow and deep, but I did not do much research on Margaret Garner...
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...A BLACK WOMAN’S JOURNEY: FOR COLORED GIRLS Created in 1975, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf, focuses on the struggles of black women not only from that era, but issues still pertaining to black women 35 years later. Shange’s powerful choreopoem is comprised of seven women trying to "sing a black girl's song…. Sing a song of life, she's been dead so long"(Shange 18), creating a voice for every woman. None of these women possess a name, only a color, to show that they represent all women of color. Shange includes themes of love, abandonment, sexuality, abortion, and domestic violence to emphasize what women in her community were and still are subjugated to. Through dance, poetry, and music these women slowly but surely find their true identity. Ntozake uses her work as a tool to empower all “colored girls” by creating these seven strong women that form a bond when they are able to find their identity as black women, and essentially in their journey make it to the end of their rainbows without committing suicide. When looking into Shange’s life there’s no question that situations, which she had observed day-to-day or experienced herself, were imposed on her writings. Born as Paulette Williams she was raised in a middle class family, which was not a childhood common for blacks. Her family moved to St. Louis and she attended a non-segregated school where she had to endure blatant racism at the mere age of eight years old. She rebelled...
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...by Alice Walker / what it's like to be a black girl by Patricia Smith represent African American women who have faced challenges of sexism, racism and stereotypes in American life. Racism and Sexism are questions that I will discuss and examine. I will compare tand contrast similarities of both poems. I will explain and give examples to show how these two poems exhibit different scenarios but similar views about how race and ethnicity can affect women of color based on prejudice and stereotypes. The main character is a nearly blind, old black woman with a lean build and a grayish tone to her skin. She wears a mildewed black dress with missing buttons and a grease-stained head rag covering her pigtails. She has blue-brown eyes, is ashen in appearance and much wrinkled. She is perspiring from her walk and is shivering from the cold. She enters the white Church and sits, singing in her head. She is physically thrown out of the church. After the woman is turned away she begins to feel a sense of loneliness, and an outcast. “She sees Jesus walking down the highway and is giddy with joy. Jesus tells her to follow him and she does, walking alongside him. He looks just like she thought he would, and he listens to her sing and talk to him. She feels great beside him and can walk as long as he wants. (Smith,).The women in my opinion feel that God will reward her in the end. Not because she is black but because she knows who she is through...
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...Discrimination In The Welcome Table And Country Lovers” Katie McWilliams Instructor: Heather Peerboom 10/30/2014 Introduction I chosen to compare and contrast the literary works, “country Lovers” by Nadine Gordimer and “The Welcome Table” by Alice Walker, the theme being race / ethnicity. Theme: “The Racial Conflict and Discrimination In The Welcome Table And Country Lovers.” I want to explore the difference lives’ of these two woman was face with, and the way the narrator made me feel while I was reading the story of two black woman. Two strong black women that face all types of problems life had to offer them. These two stories shows feeling, pain, hate, and disappointments in Country Lovers and The Welcome Table. Both of these women had to struggled with their emotions and all they had to go through. Both stories are told in third person omniscient point of view, you can tell by the way the narrator describe the characters and how they’re feeling in both story. “The Welcome Table,” the old woman had her faith to guide her. To carrier her through the hard times. All she wanted was just to attend church. There is a rascal tension centered on both of these stories, in “Country Lovers” the black woman in this story was a pretty black woman fell in love with someone she grow up with a white man, she had a baby for him. This paper will explain every little details concerning The Welcome Table and Country Lovers. “The...
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...Nick Torkildsen Essay #3 Professor Warner Woman in a Red Hat The poem by Gwendolyn Brooks “A woman in a Red Hat” tells the story of a black maid through the eyes of a middle class white person; Gwendolyn Brooks the author of this poem is black herself which lies great irony inside of the story. The poem was written in the 1960’s which was a time of great racism in America, it was the heat of the civil rights movement, and the way blacks in America were portrayed is often of lesser value. Having the author of this story being black is a key propent to understanding what this poem is trying to get across. The author wants you to see the way that a black person would see a middle class white American and this is what Brooks did in this poem. The poem starts with “They had never had one in the house before”. This word to this line is the word one. The way the brooks uses the word one is saying the blacks are not even seen as people in this time era. They are often throughout this poem addressed as one of them or it. This is one of the many specific prejudices that are portrayed by Brooks in this poem. Another prejudice that is portrayed by Brooks in this poem is the way that she describes the woman in vivid detail. It is important to take in the irony of this poem when reading the descriptions. Brooks is the one who wrote this poem so when she goes into the vivid detail about how the new maid is dressed or her actions she is talking about herself. Brooks says “There it stood...
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...to be more attractive to men; they should be less- less educated, less independent , less discerning, less themselves” (Harris 2012, pg. 466). Article titled “Singled Out” (2012) talks about how Black women are marrying less than their White counterparts, and “reasons” contributing to those statistics. Tyrese Gibson, who is an actor and recording artist had an interview with a gossip site warning Black women not to “Independent their way into loneliness” (Harris 2012, pg. 465). Just one month after Tyrese’s interview, Robin Thicke, who is also a recording R&B artist said that Black women aren’t marrying because “Maybe the women have to take better care of their men, Maybe they are being too stubborn. Maybe they aren’t saying sorry. They have to take good care of their man. They have to give love to get love” (Harris 2012, pg. 465). Just like Kimberly Springer says in her article “Queering Black Female Heterosexuality” (2008) that until Black women are inclined to express their sexuality, their sexuality will still determined by others (Springer, 2008). The same concept goes for being independent, being educated, being discerning, and being themselves. Until this happens, the way a Black woman should act will continue to be determined by men....
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