...There has been a recurring theme in the literature we have read. The theme has been showing African-Americans as oppressed people. They faced bouts of racism and hardships. In Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, and Alice Walker’s Everyday Use; the protagonists each face different trials and tribulations in their life. Clay Williams, Walter Lee Younger and Mama are from different times in history, but they faced similar adversities. In Dutchman by Amiri Baraka, the main character Clay Williams meets Lula. Clay is described as a well-dressed, young intellectual African American man. While Lula is described as a sexual attractive, older white woman. Lula taunts Clay and attacks his the doubts he has about his social...
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...hundreds of years ago! This is what happened back in 1991 when construction was underway in Manhattan. Construction stopped when a CAT operator saw something unusual with the ground he was digging. Archeologists plummeted into the area one after another, and by the end of the day, every one of them went to the same conclusion. They had found 419 sets of human bones, specifically African American, dating back to the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Shortly after, it got its own memorial and visitor center built right on top to preserve the sacred mound forever. It still stands tall and proud to this day, right down...
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...21 Review on place of rage A Place Of Rage is a documentary focused on two African American women both June Jordan and Angela Davis, who were civil rights activists both in the 60’s and 70’s. The film focuses on the struggles, hopes, and hardships of what life was like back then in the 60’s and 70’s. It was tough for them because racism played a strong role during that time period. They would refuse service’s to blacks for instance restrooms would not be allowed, if you wanted water they would refuse to give it to you it was a terrible time. The Basic needs were not gained they had to be fought to gain them. The African American’s couldn’t take it anymore and soon enough the Black Panther party was born. The Black Panther party said that it would defend the black community and it would not put up with police crime. That brought so many blacks together and that’s when Angela Davis and June Jordan join the Black Panther party. Alice walker says that”people of any color really have to know there history and past because they don’t want to repeat it. They want to build on it better than what there ancestors had if it can be. One way of making sure it is better is to know all the bad things that you don’t want to do over”. June Jordan said that things changed because we made them change. As an African American male I Through the struggles and hardships as we African American man and women face, we are in this world and it is a vine of a broken leave the we will prevail into...
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...The African American community has had significant hardships brought to them over many years in the United States. They were put through the terrible time period in which slavery and the violent treatment of the community was vibrant. African Americans have been segregated, oppressed, bullied, killed, lynched, and many other terrible things that has provided them an extremely unfair life. The African American community has had a long history of racism, oppression, and not having the same rights and access to public space as others have; they have had an enormous amounts of successes overcoming the oppression and gaining the rights to public space, but most importantly overcoming segregation in the United States education system. First and...
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...In the modern day, America faces constant problems of inequality, yet we are conditioned to have a notion of superiority to other countries with similar problems. This ultimately leads the American people to become more ignorant. Similarly, The Poisonwood Bible, a novel by Barbara Kingsolver, introduces characters that are forced to deal with their ignorance in the Congo, as well as reflect on their inner self. The main theme Kingsolver touches upon are the ideas of indifference and ignorance, and whether or not it is part of the human conscience to escape. Typically, Americans are not aware of the many atrocities that occur in other countries. Even when they recognize these unjust acts, they tend to look down on these poor countries in which...
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...Hispanic, 12.4% African American, 5.2% Asian, and 0.7% Native American. The United States is a melting pot . Everyone has different religions, values, and beliefs. Our society helps shape these values. Even though our society changes over time, three values remain prominent. In today’s young American: hard-work, perseverance, and passion serve to make the United States the great nation that it is. First, lets bring attention to the hard-work every American goes through. Americans face hardships everyday, like unemployment, debt, and war. Americans have always had hardships, but Americans always overcome challenges. In Letters from an American Farmer: Letter III - What is an American by De Crevecoeur says, “We are all animated with the spirit of an industry which is unfettered and unrestrained, because each person works for himself…”...
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...The American Civil War was a testing period of opposing wills between the Union and the Confederacy. The main focal point for the war was on the issue of slavery. Headed by Abraham Lincoln, the Union desperately tried to emancipate the slaves while Jefferson Davis, head of the Confederates, tried to lead the Confederate rebellion against this emancipation. The two sides met numerous times in many battles that were spearheaded by brave soldiers. The soldiers of the American Civil War had many things in common including volunteers in their respective armies, military life, and some technology, but the overarching difference was the support of the African Americans the Union possessed. In February 1861, the Confederate States of America were formed which consisted of eleven states that seceded from the Union for their preservation of the right of slavery, states’ rights, and political liberty. Led by Jefferson Davis, the...
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...Rosa Parks’s refusal in 1955 to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, sparked the birth of the civil rights movement. Under Martin Luther King, Jr.’s leadership, African Americans began to demand their rights as American citizens. The African American struggle for civil rights followed a variety of approaches, including the nonviolent tactics of King and the more aggressive methods of Malcolm X. As the movement began to rise, African American literature became more attuned to the events of the decade challenging political ideologies and revolutionary changes. One of these influential figures being Maya Angelou who is remembered as a poet, an author, an actress, a dancer, an educator, even a film director but also as a civil rights activist. While Angelou impacted the world through various aspects, her poetry was used as a political weapon...
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...slaves to serve the European white families. Too many Africans were taken from their homes to be sold into slavery. For many years, my people were beaten and treated very cruelly working in the fields and serving others. These slave trades allowed America to prosper and expand but ruined our villages in Africa. During most of the 17th and 18th centuries, slavery was the law in every one of the 13 colonies, North and South alike, and was employed by its most prominent citizens, including many of the founders of the new United States. The importation of slaves was provided for in the U.S. Constitution, and continued to take place on a large scale even after it was made illegal in 1808 (Learning Page, 2005). Even after slavery was illegal, many Americans challenged and resisted the civilization of my people. To think that so many African Americans were just trying to have something of their own, land and a family, and others were just trying to belittle them. My ancestors worked hard to make a living but were still not seen as an equal to the white man. The Underground Railroad was the saving grace for so many African Americans. Many activists were working undercover and planning daring raids to free fugitive slaves from kidnappers and lynch mobs. This was a grueling process but to many of my ancestors it was the only way to freedom. War broke out in 1861 with the North fighting the South. African Americans enlisted to fight with the North against slavery. By the...
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...RUNNING HEAD: AFRICAN AMERICAN STRUGGLES 1 African American Struggles Shaneisa Smith Soc 308: Racial & Ethnic Groups Risa Garelick November 23, 2011 AFRICAN AMERICAN STRUGGLES 2 African American Struggles African Americans are knows to face various issues throughout their lives. From being discriminated against, to trying to fit into society, African Americans still have problems because they are considered to be the minority (McGhee, 2010). African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendents of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States. Most African Americans are of West African descent and make up the single largest racial minority in the United States (African American Studies, 2001). Due to the fact that African Americans are minorities, they face problems in today’s world. Unlike the civil rights movement in the 1960s, African Americans today are not fighting for basic civil rights such as the right to vote and the right to attend non segregated schools. Many of the challenges are more subtle. The struggle would involve things like fighting negative stereotypes, pushing against institutional barriers that have been strengthened by those in favor of maintaining a historical precedent...
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...portrays Jim as a deeply caring and loyal friend. Jim becomes a father figure to Huck, helping him realize the human face of slavery. Twain Portrays Huck as a young and naive boy who has been under the wrong influence for a long time. Another archetypal element that Mark Twain uses is Jims Quest for freedom. This was a quest for most all African Americans, to run away north so you could be free. But Jim was one of the few who was brave enough to do so; that’s he can be classified as the hero in the story. But Jim’s life is not too bad compared to historical records about the lives of slaves. Even though he had to struggle for his freedom, he didn’t have any good reason to leave. His life contested of helping round and not doing hard enduring work like some of the other slaves. The way Jim’s life is portrayed in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Mark Twain criticizes the life of African Americans at the time. During times of slavery, every African American in the south was either a slave or a free African American. “She treated me with respect” (Twain 5). Jim said when he was asked about how the Widow Douglass treats him. This shows that the life of Jim was not that bad, he had everything a slave at that time could want, and his owner did not disrespect him. Also most slaves were abused and almost beaten to death. Twain tries to represent the hardships of slaves on a daily basis when he doesn’t portray Jim’s life to be much difficult “Even though Jim was a slave, he...
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...Comparative Analysis of Two Texts Preserving Cultural Heritage- Only the Truth Can Set Them Free Individual heritage can and does shape generations to come. Americans, for the most part, accept this as an important and necessary ingredient in the fabric which sets us apart from other cultures in the world. It is a heritage that is uniquely ours. Cultural traditions and stories provide a basis upon which generations to come can connect to all the factors that have shaped how they are living today. The next generation learns from the last and ancestral stories are repeated, passed down and incorporated into the fabric of the uniqueness of individuals within a culture. Within the vast boundaries of our nation there are unique and geographical cultures that have succeeded in surviving despite the odds and then there are the stories of those who didn’t succeed. Both cultures build upon bonding born from the hardship of working the soil in rural America, but only one of these cultures has found a way to liberate its people and share the truths associated with those struggles. Maya Angelou speaks to the African American Culture in her work “Reclaiming our Home Place”. She captures the tragic yet rich history of the America’s south and how celebrating this history as a culture has set the once enslaved African American free. (Angelou) Further to the northwest, based in the rural by-ways of America is the story of the people who claimed the plains as their heritage as told by Kathleen...
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...Anthony Jackson Of the Sorrow Songs W.E.B DuBois Black American Studies Term Paper Professor Serrano African American slaves were faced with not only physical, but emotional hardships such as family tragedies, heart aches and trauma. There were numerous amounts of struggles that forced them into needing a loop-hole, or getaway for the mind. This led to the tradition of singing the famous “Sorrow Songs”. All of the unfortunate injustices they were put through were resolved by a new tradition: singing sorrow songs. W.E.B DuBois’s text, “The Souls of Black Folks” talks about the songs, which all originated in the south, that African American slaves sang and then passed down from generation to generation to get them through all of the hardships and pain through the years. Each song represented a different feeling the slaves had while working, but each one also portrayed hope. Du Bois states that the Negro Folk Song “stands as the most beautiful expression of human experience.” These songs were taught and passed down through African American grade schools where the African American kids would teach the teachers the songs, while the teachers would show them how to sing. The teachers would learn the songs and then teach other African American children who then taught other people and so on. This is how the songs were kept alive as a tradition. In most cases, the songs were misunderstood by bystanders and people of other ethnicities and cultures who could not...
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...Maria Huerta Bruce Franklin HIST:2023 12 July 2015 Slavery was something that started when African Americans were brought into America as slaves. They were brought into America as if they were animals because they were chained up and were thrown in water if they died on the ship that took them to America. Slave trade left many people with good profits, as well as whites who bought slaves because they would put slaves to work on the fields from real early in the morning till whites said its enough. Whites did not care they would also put women to work in the fields, as well as men. During these hardship moments African Americans tried staying positive by singing and dancing to songs they knew. They also met in a place to talk to other slaves...
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...although some nationalities were indeed melting together, American’s that were of different races were being excluded. The physical differences in races, such as African Americans, had caused them to be excluded from reaping the benefits of all that America had to offer. The worst part about all of this is that the people being excluded from “The Melting Pot” were decedents of individuals who did not come to this country by choice. Instead they were brought to this country through kidnapping. Flash forward a hundred years to Nov. 24th, 2008. America elects its first African American president Barack Obama. Article after article published around this time had headlines reading, “Barack Obama: The End of Racism in America.” We finally did it! Racism in America was able to be totally eradicated through the election of an African American as our nation’s president. If only it was that easy. Now in 2014, eight years after the election of our nation’s first African American president, our country is experiencing one of the biggest racial unrests since the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. It has been 149 years since the end of slavery, 46 years since the end of the civil rights movement, and 8 years since America elected it’s first African American president. How can it be possible that Americans still face inequality due to their race? The reason is...
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