...Richard Wright, mostly known for his success as an author and his views on equal rights for African Americans. One of his most popular pieces of works, “Black Boy,” is an autobiography on Wright's struggles throughout his life as an African American during the early 1900’s. The book is full of many controversial topics, most notably racism. Unfortunately for Wright, he never got to see the passing of the Civil Rights Act. History has shaped the world to be a significantly better place for people of color from when Richard Wright had written Black Boy. The lives of many minority groups changed from said act, which begs the question: If Black Boy were to be written in the 21st century, what would Wright write about? One might assume he would...
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...Struggle for Individuality The autobiography, Black Boy, follows the life of Richard Wright and his experiences as a young African American teenager facing racism in the South. Throughout the novel, Wright focuses on the oppression society inflicts upon him. He finds difficulty in remaining employed because he does not act “black” or submissive enough. He is physically and emotionally attacked for being African American as the majority of the South contains an extremely racist culture. Wright does not even have his family to rely on for support because they criticize and beat him as well. Differences within his family along with incidences of violent attacks and disrespectful language plague Wright and try to deplete his confidence and identity. However, Wright simultaneously finds measures within these aspects to gain back his individuality and happiness. He fights back through violence to uphold his right of walking safely in Memphis; he uses all of his ability to avoid beatings from his family, and he finds joy and sense of worth when he writes stories. Ultimately, Wright struggles to keep his sense of identity in a society that degrades his persona, but manages to obtain his individuality in the end. Through violence, Wright begins to understand that society is laying out a persona for him to accept that is not initially his. In the South, he learns he must accept the role as the meek and respectful “nigger.” Wright experiences violence one day that teaches him how whites...
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...“BLACK BOY” This novel focuses on the struggle for identity of a young black boy in the Deep South. It is a powerful testament of Richard Wright’s life which depicts a tale of hope and determination. Richard’s life growing up as an African American in the Jim Crow South, paints for the reader the economic and social struggle that were clichéd for African Americans at the time. It follows young Richard through his youth, examining the hardships and obstacles faced by both him and his poverty-stricken family. Richard’s only thought is to find a haven outside the prison that is his family’s circumstances. Black Boy also shows a hunger in Richard not just for food but for acceptance, love and a sense of understanding about what is happening around him but most importantly he is seeking knowledge. Richard uses writing to explore and expand his mind but Richard discovers through an epiphany that writing will help him break out from the constraining worlds of racism, poverty and family. Throughout his life, Richard faces the need for a loving family to help and encourage him, but his family in a way, unknowingly help to form his independence. Richard’s family was unable to provide what a family is normally supposed to, which was love, acceptance, and security. Throughout his youth, he faced the need to be independent. Richard's father was a terrible example to Richard of how an African-American man should act in the struggle of being black by drinking and womanizing. Richard's...
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...Racism has been a trait common in the human race for thousands of years to this day. Many have suffered because of it and many still do. From African Americans, Caucasians, Hispanics, Asians, Jews, and Homosexuals, racism has not just been directed upon on a certain group of individuals but to many shades of humanity. Some more infamous cases of racism have been committed against the Jewish people. In 1941 the nation of Germany lead by Adolf Hitler committed one of the most horrid acts of racism known to man. Adolf Hitler’s hatred towards the Jews was so great that as he took over more and more European countries he developed a plan known as the “Final Solution” in order to eliminate the Jewish race. His plan ultimately created what historians today call the Holocaust. During Hitler’s reign he first started the racism against the Jews by requiring them to wear the Star of David in order to identify who was a Jew and who was not. This act of labeling was bad enough but it would only grow worse. After humiliating and branding the Jews, Hitler then funneled the Jews living on his land into cramped ghetto quarters barred from the rest of the public. There they perished from disease and poverty with no hope in sight and as time progressed so did the vile ideas of Adolf Hitler. Not only did he put the Jews into ghettos, he also forced millions of them into death camps where they were forced to work until they could no more. In these camps the ones who were too weak to participate...
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...fostered a new black cultural identity.” (Rowen and Brunner). It was the African-American boom of cultural expression that peaked in the 1920s. Though it was centred in the Harlem neighbourhood of New York, many French-speaking black writers from African and Caribbean colonies that lived in Pairs were also influenced by the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a celebration of African-American heritage expressed through an outpouring of art, literature, music and dance. It was also described as a “spiritual coming of age” in which the black community was able to seize upon its “first chances for group expression and self determination.” (Rowen and Brunner). With racism still rampant and economic opportunities scarce, creative expression was one of the few avenues available to African-Americans in the early twentieth century. The timing of the coming of age was perfect. The years between World War I and the Great Depression were boom times for the United States, and jobs were plentiful. The Harlem Renaissance was helped along by intellectuals and the expansion of urban cultures. Artistic expression and articulated appreciation of African-American culture helped to get white Americans to take notice of the talents of black Americans for the first time. The Harlem Renaissance succeeded in destroying some racist stereotypes through brilliant works in song, dance, paint and print. For the first time, white-owned publishing houses published books by black authors. Some white...
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...Born on September 4th, 1908, Richard Wright was born in Roxie, Mississippi (outside of Natchez) on a plantation where his illiterate father was a sharecropper. Wright was raised by his relatives at by the age of 17, he was ready to get out into the world. He headed into Memphis, Tennessee (his relatives lived right outside the city) where he worked odd jobs and educated himself. He read array of novels as he grew up and his education helped him realize the unjust ways of segregation. In 1927, Wright moved to Chicago after the peak of the Harlem Renaissance (a pivotal time for African Americans to express themselves through music, writings, and art). In Chicago, he worked as a postal worker, but was laid off with the depression. Wright then joined the Federal Writers Project, a state sponsored guild for authors, in which Wright composed his first novel, Uncle Tom’s Children. During this time, Wright joined the Communist party, which was often carried out into his writings. By 1939, Wright had moved to New York City and kept ties with the party for only a few more years. He married in 1941, and had left the communist party by 1944. During World War II, Wright lectured around New York. With the end of the War, Wright moved to France in 1947 where he continued to write his novels, which often contained themes of racism, poverty, and political matters. His books were often partly based on his life and what he had observed in his lifetime. Wright was the first African American...
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...achievement. They focus on the range of labels that teachers will provide them with due to their different ethnic backgrounds. Their studies prove that teachers often see black and Asian pupils as far from being the ‘ideal pupil’. An example of this is that black pupils are often seen as a disruption to the class and the Asians as unreceptive. These negative labels may lead teachers to treat ethnic minority pupils differently and this could result to failure. A good example of black labelling is from the studies by Gillborn and Youdell; Gillborn found that teachers were quick to tell black students off for behaviour rather than others. They found that black pupils were expected by teachers to disruptive and have behavioural problems which would be seen as threatening or challenging authority. When this was interpreted wrongly, this resulted in negative feedback from the black students which also resulted in further conflict. They both conclude that most of the conflict that occurs between white teachers and black pupils comes from the racial stereotypes that teachers hold. Bernard Coard explains how the ethnocentric curriculum may create under-achievement. An example of this is the history of Britain, which are supposed to bring civilisation to the 'primitive' peoples they colonised. Therefore, this image of black people as inferior undermines their self-esteem and leads to their failure. However, this is not clear as what the impact the ethnocentric curriculum has. For example,...
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...The Search for Self and Space by Indian Dalit Joseph Macwan and African American Richard Wright Vaseemahmed G Qureshi Assistant Professor, Vishwakarma Government Engineering College, Chandkheda A B S T R A C T The subjugation of Dalits in India and Blacks in America is the result of slavery imposed on them in the name of castism in India and racism in America. Writers from these marginalized groups express their revolt against slavery through words. This presentation focuses on one black and one Dalit novel as a manifestation of the quest for self and space. Joseph Macwan comes forward as a prophet of Dalits’ welfare in Gujarat with his Angaliyat (1987) which is a representation of the emerging genre of the Dalit novel. It criticizes systems of internal colonization that exist within the Hindu caste system. Today, Dalits are both asserting their identity and challenging a society that had earlier excluded them, by writing about their lives themselves. Through the protagonist Teeha, the novel succeeds in demystifying ‘dalitness’ and redefining the real freedom of his fellow people. Richard Wright is one of the most acclaimed African American authors of the twentieth century. His Outsider (1953) depicts racial discrimination and the quest for identity. He creates a compelling story with his protagonist Cross Damon, a man of superior intellect who craves for peace and searches for his identity. In this quest, Cross Damon attempts to escape his past and start anew in a...
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...Muddy Waters who was playing a fresh, thrilled music named as the rhythm and blues, or R&B. The Muddy Water’s rhythm and blues and other artists of urban blues cited as the basis for the Beatles, Elvis, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and other of the greatest rock-and-rollers. An elusive mixture of European and African societies, it delivered the essential rudiments and stimulus for the foundation of rock and the accomplishment of Little Richard and Chuck Berry. Notwithstanding their ground-breaking parts, artists of R&B rarely received the acknowledgement or the cash which they really deserved. Conventional crooners, record company executives and disc jockeys, viewing their market share shrink with the cumulative admiration of R&B and its offspring rock-and-roll, destroyed the new-fangled music by proposing white, toned-down copies of originals of black that left numerous African-American pioneers unhappy and occasionally broken (Govenar, 2008). The Birth of the Blues The music of blues were a formation of black slaves who reformed their African musical inheritance to the American setting. However taking an array of shapes and experiencing numerous variations over the years, the blues shaped the foundation of rhythm and blues, jazz, and the rock-and-roll music. Africans, after been torn from their skin, suffering a cruel journey from their West African homes to the South of America on slave ships and enforced into a submissive mode of life, reserved a steadiness...
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...American Dilemma The fiftieth anniversary of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education—which said that the segregated schools of the South were damaging to black children, and thus began to dismantle the system of legalized segregation—was an occasion for assessing the last half century’s progress in the lives of African Americans. While there remains deep disagreement about the current state of black America and the policies that ought to follow from that, most would agree that the status of African Americans has changed dramatically, if insufficiently, since Brown. Not only has the system of legal segregation been eliminated and widespread prejudice diminished, but the economic, political and educational status of many blacks has significantly improved. Gunnar Myrdal’s An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, generally viewed as one of the most important results of grantmaking by Carnegie Corporation of New York, played a major role in the story that led from an America, which after World War II still had a legal Jim Crow system in the South—along with a segregated army—to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It was cited as the social scientific evidence justifying the Supreme Court’s decision that what had been deemed separate but equal education for black children was, in fact, detrimental to their development. Published in 1944 (by Harper & Bros.; reprinted in 1996 by Transaction Publishers), An American Dilemma served to crystallize...
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...critical theory today critical theory today A Us e r - F r i e n d l y G u i d e S E C O N D E D I T I O N L O I S T Y S O N New York London Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN © 2006 by Lois Tyson Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business Printed in the United States of America on acid‑free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number‑10: 0‑415‑97410‑0 (Softcover) 0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) International Standard Book Number‑13: 978‑0‑415‑97410‑3 (Softcover) 978‑0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data Tyson, Lois, 1950‑ Critical theory today : a user‑friendly guide / Lois Tyson.‑‑ 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0‑415‑97409‑7 (hb) ‑‑ ISBN 0‑415‑97410‑0 (pb) 1. Criticism...
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...Barack Obama Dreams from My Father “For we are strangers before them, and sojourners, as were all our fathers. 1 CHRONICLES 29:15 PREFACE TO THE 2004 EDITION A LMOST A DECADE HAS passed since this book was first published. As I mention in the original introduction, the opportunity to write the book came while I was in law school, the result of my election as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. In the wake of some modest publicity, I received an advance from a publisher and went to work with the belief that the story of my family, and my efforts to understand that story, might speak in some way to the fissures of race that have characterized the American experience, as well as the fluid state of identitythe leaps through time, the collision of cultures-that mark our modern life. Like most first-time authors, I was filled with hope and despair upon the book’s publication-hope that the book might succeed beyond my youthful dreams, despair that I had failed to say anything worth saying. The reality fell somewhere in between. The reviews were mildly favorable. People actually showed up at the readings my publisher arranged. The sales were underwhelming. And, after a few months, I went on with the business of my life, certain that my career as an author would be short-lived, but glad to have survived the process with my dignity more or less intact. I had little time for reflection over the next ten years. I ran a voter registration project in...
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...50 Key Concepts in Gender Studies Jane Pilcher & Imelda Whelehan Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies i Recent volumes include: Key Concepts in Social Research Geoff Payne and Judy Payne Key Concepts in Medical Sociology Jonathan Gabe, Mike Bury and Mary Ann Elston Forthcoming titles include: Key Concepts in Leisure Studies David Harris Key Concepts in Critical Social Theory Nick Crossley Key Concepts in Urban Studies Mark Gottdiener The SAGE Key Concepts series provide students with accessible and authoritative knowledge of the essential topics in a variety of disciplines. Cross-referenced throughout, the format encourages critical evaluation through understanding. Written by experienced and respected academics, the books are indispensable study aids and guides to comprehension. JANE PILCHER AND IMELDA WHELEHAN Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies SAGE Publications London • Thousand Oaks • New Delhi iii © Jane Pilcher and Imelda Whelehan 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the Publishers. SAGE Publications Ltd 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP SAGE Publications Inc 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd B-42 Panchsheel Enclave Post Box 4109 New Delhi 100 017 British Library...
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...GAME CHANGE OBAMA AND THE CLINTONS, MCCAIN AND PALIN, AND THE RACE OF A LIFETIME JOHN HEILEMANN AND MARK HALPERIN FOR DIANA AND KAREN Contents Cover Title Page Prologue Part I Chapter One – Her Time Chapter Two – The Alternative Chapter Three – The Ground Beneath Her Feet Chapter Four – Getting to Yes Chapter Five – The Inevitables Chapter Six – Barack in a Box Chapter Seven – “They Looooove Me!” Chapter Eight – The Turning Point Chapter Nine – The Fun Part Chapter Ten – Two For the Price of One Chapter Eleven – Fear and Loathing in the Lizard’s Thicket Chapter Twelve – Pulling Away and Falling Apart Chapter Thirteen – Obama Agonistes Chapter Fourteen – The Bitter End Game Part II Chapter Fifteen – The Maverick and His Meltdown Chapter Sixteen – Running Unopposed Chapter Seventeen – Slipping Nooses, Slaying Demons Part III Chapter Eighteen – Paris and Berlin Chapter Nineteen – The Mile-High Club Chapter Twenty – Sarahcuda Chapter Twenty-One – September Surprise Chapter Twenty-Two – Seconds in Command Chapter Twenty-Three – The Finish Line Epilogue – Together at Last Index Author’s Notes About the Authors Copyright About the Publisher Prologue BARACK OBAMA JERKED BOLT upright in bed at three o’clock in the morning. Darkness enveloped his low-rent room at the Des Moines Hampton Inn; the airport across the street was quiet in the hours before dawn. It was very late December 2007, a few days ahead of the Iowa caucuses. Obama had been sprinting flat out...
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...C h a p t e r 1 Prewriting GETTING STARTED (OR SOUP-CAN LABELS CAN BE FASCINATING) For many writers, getting started is the hardest part. You may have noticed that when it is time to begin a writing assignment, you suddenly develop an enormous desire to straighten your books, water your plants, or sharpen your pencils for the fifth time. If this situation sounds familiar, you may find it reassuring to know that many professionals undergo these same strange compulsions before they begin writing. Jean Kerr, author of Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, admits that she often finds herself in the kitchen reading soup-can labels—or anything—in order to prolong the moments before taking pen in hand. John C. Calhoun, vice president under Andrew Jackson, insisted he had to plow his fields before he could write, and Joseph Conrad, author of Lord Jim and other novels, is said to have cried on occasion from the sheer dread of sitting down to compose his stories. To spare you as much hand-wringing as possible, this chapter presents some practical suggestions on how to begin writing your short essay. Although all writers must find the methods that work best for them, you may find some of the following ideas helpful. But no matter how you actually begin putting words on paper, it is absolutely essential to maintain two basic ideas concerning your writing task. Before you write a single sentence, you should always remind yourself that 1. You have some valuable ideas to tell your reader,...
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