...Alicia A. Smith October 29, 2014 Eng.4705/Essay #2 Beauty Complex The word beauty has many negative connotations for African American women. Over the years African American women have been subjected, misrepresented and also dehumanized by the exemplification of beauty and identity. This pattern of internalizing the perception of beauty to coincide with European standards have caused many African American women in the process to alter their physical appearances and personify a culture that has disregarded the uniqueness of being “ black and beautiful”. The cultural aesthetics of being “black and beautiful” has been distorted in literature, movies and television shows to appease an acceptable standard of beauty that in reality is unrealistic....
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...The Harlem Renaissance was an enlightening period of time for African-Americans. A time where African-Americans embodied and celebrated their race, heritage, and culture despite the discrimination and negativity they faced. However in these times, there were a great deal of African-Americans who desired to “pass” as white to gain the privileges they could not access. In the novel Passing by Nella Larsen, its main protagonist, Irene Redfield, demonstrated a clear disapproval of “passing” in the beginning of the book. As she learns about her friend’s life while passing, her negative opinions on the subject are only affirmed, as her friend and rival’s husband is an extremely racist man that is oblivious to the fact that his wife is a passing woman....
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...Change does not happen overnight, especially when it involves breaking former beliefs and rules in a society. In pre-civil war America, slavery was part of the American culture and lifestyle. The reconstruction era was a period of rebuilding and reevaluating the foundation for the United States after the civil war. It was a buffer period that allowed for the fight for equal civil and political rights of African Americans to be introduced into a dominant white society. The events and values of Reconstruction did not dramatically transform African Americans lives at the time due to Black Codes, the fight for suffrage, and Jim Crow Laws. To undermine the legal status change of former slaves, states created the Black Codes. The thirteenth amendment...
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...Although this was vetoed at first by President Andrew Johnson, Congress managed to override the veto by passing a 2/3rds majority in both houses, and the act went into effect. In addition, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed simultaneously, which also guaranteed citizenship to freed slaves. Furthermore, this important amendment protected many individual liberties by prohibiting states from depriving “any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law”, as well as“the privileges and immunities of citizenship”. Most importantly in the progression of the movement for African American civil rights, however, was the equal protection clause. This clause, found at the end of section 1 of the fourteenth amendment, reads “[No state shall] deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”. This clause would be important in future cases for civil rights, including Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of...
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...Biracial Identities within the African American and White Communities Black enough, white enough, light or dark enough are just a few aspects to a biracial individual’s physical perception. For many with one ethic background, understanding who and what they are tends to be reflections of the expectations that are held by society. Those who carry a dual ethnic background have dealt with many expectations of identification not only by society but by standards upheld culturally as well as a parental influence in regards to exposure to both ethnicities. From early interactions of blacks and whites, a slave master and his slaves operated with a purpose to erase blacks from society and purify the American race. These actions transitioned the views of biracial individuals into a focus of passing through society as color was essential and being too dark was detrimental. Historically, self identification and association with specific ethnic backgrounds were dismissed to fit society’s standards causing one to identify as more white than black. Passing through the early 20th century became an important component to a person deriving from the African American and White communities. Jim Crow laws and other governmental provisions denied many African Americans opportunities in everyday life because of their darker skin causing a huge jump for those who were biracial; black and white to take advantage of their light skin to “pass” in order to get through society. Light bright skin just...
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...You Ken Tan Christopher Hennessy LI 208 U.S. Multicultural Literature 26 Feb 2013 Passing: An Analysis and Close reading Nella Larsen’s Passing is a story about the tragedy of an African American woman, Clare Kendry, who tried to “pass” in the white American community. However, while she passes as white, she constantly seeks comfort from her friend Irene Redfield who is a representation of the African American community. Gradually, Clare has become the double image of Irene, due to the similarities of their ethnicity and the contrasting lives they lead. At the end of the story, Clare’s death is a result of the extreme burden on Irene’s shoulder due to the presence of Clare in her life. The death of Clare is very much Irene’s responsibility based upon her suspicious acts at the end of the story. The ending of Passing, and of the life of Clare Kendry, begins on the sixth floor of an apartment complex at a party in the home of Felise and Dave Freeland. During the party, Irene says that, “It seems dreadfully warm in here. Mind if I open this window?” (Larsen 110) However, when Irene opens the window, “It had stopped snowing some two or three hours back” (Larsen 110). This means that the weather is still rather cold and despite the freezing temperature, Irene still sits beside the window. Another reason why Irene would want to open the window is because she wants to smoke her cigar. She politely uses the warm temperature in the room as her excuse to open the window. Although...
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...terms of racial equality became evident as the national government began to respond to protests held by groups of African Americans seeking equal rights. Since the ratification of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 signaled significant development, members of society often came to the conclusion that racial equality had been achieved. However, in reality, society was far from establishing this equality. Though, in writing, discrimination against individuals based on color could no longer take place, states still found ways to subtly put specific groups at a disadvantage. Even today, over half a century later, states continue to treat different groups of individuals unequally based on...
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...Have you ever wondered why African Americans are much more likely to be incarcerated? Be killed by the police? Live an impoverished life? Live a shorter life than their white counterparts? Have a lower IQ than other races? Some may attribute these disadvantages to the injustices of the past. It can be argued that the effects of the transatlantic slave trade continue to reverberate today. Does the United States owe African Americans reparations for the injustices of the past, and the aforementioned disadvantages they experience today? Yes. There is no doubt in my mind that the United States owe a form of reparations to African Americans. But why do they deserve it?History does not erase itself with each passing generation, so the fact stands...
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...1. African music was so highly integrated as a part of their everyday life that for almost every activity there was an appropriate music to accompany it. In other cases, music was also used as code to communicate messages between Africans during slavery. This makes it easier to describe how this music was able to survive and evolve in spite of the persecution and oppression of its people. 2. Through the 17th and 19th centuries, African music had already evolved highly into a complex art form built around concepts of structure. It was used ritually as an important part of life events. It was used to commemorate such major events as crowning a king, religious ceremonies, the birth of a child, and even the moment of someone’s passing. 3. The African heterogeneous sound idea was a term first described by African American composer Olly Wilson. It was a term used to describe an assortment consisting of many contrasting elements. This assortment was described as the interaction and combination of a wide variety of instruments. The degree of complexity within each assortment varied among individual African ensembles. 4. One notable aesthetic in African music is call and response. It is when a statement in music is made, either vocally or instrumentally, so that it may be responded to. The response can be the repetition of the first statement or the completion of it. This musical attribute is popular in jazz, ragtime, blues, gospel, and R&B. This is one of the many ways...
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...with America advancing laws were being created and discrimination was being a problem. Laws that were being created violated American civil rights, these laws made people break rules and it also increased discrimination. As technology increased so did the consumption of alcohol increased during the 1920’s. Alcohol was consumed by almost everyone, and it was bringing bad effects to America. The 18th amendment was passed, which was known for prohibition, banning every drink that contained alcohol, except medicine that contained alcohol. The law of prohibition violated people’s civil rights, it was forcing people to stop drinking when they have the freedom to do as they please. This led to Americans to breaking more laws which increased organized crime. For example, Americans opened speakeasies, gang members were still producing and transporting alcohol. By passing prohibition people were breaking more laws than when Americans were allowed to consume...
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...At the start of our nation, African Americans had a tough time. They brought to this country to be slaves. They were not considered a person they were considered property. When drafting the Constitution the founding father created a very controversial decision. In the Constitution, African Americans were considered three-fifths of a person when it came to determining the population of the south. This did not mean African Americans were being considered citizens, which meant they did not have any type of rights. After the end of the American Civil War in 1865 the 13 amendments was passed which abolished slavery. The next year the Civil Rights Bill of 1866 was the law that actually gave people born in the United States rights. This meant that...
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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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...Madam C. J Walker was the first African American woman to become a Millionaire due to products she invented. Madam Walker was originally born as Sarah breedlover, a child of recently emancipated African Americans during the 1860’s. Sarah parents were poor and worked as sharecroppers, which Sarah herself participated in when she was of age. However; when she turned six, both of her parents died leaving her to be taken in by her older sister, Louvenia, who lived in Mississippi. When Ms. Breedlover turned 14 she married Moses Jeff McWilliams, who they then had a daughter named A’Lelia Walker, who would become one of the most influential painters during the Harlem Renaissance, which was a time period in Harlem that ideals and artistic influences changed the culture of then Modern African-Americans....
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...Paul Cuffe was born on January 17, 1759, during the French and Indian War, in Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts. He was one of the ten children born to Kofi Slocum, a freed slave, and Ruth Moses, a Native American of the Wampanoag tribe. Kofi anglicized his name to Cuffee. He was a skilled tradesman and in 1772, he died. Once his father died, Paul persuaded his brothers and sisters to take their father's first name as their surname. However, Paul signed his name by spelling Cuffe with only one e. As a young teenager, he built small boats and traded among the Massachusetts islands, as his father had done for many years. He shipped aboard a whaler owned by the prominent Rotch family, Quaker merchants and whalers of New Bedford. During the American Revolution, he served on a privateer and often participated in running...
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...movement and their role in American society. The Progressive Era was a movement that influenced the improvement of the United States through both political reform and social activism. This movement occurred from the 1890s to the 1920s. This era is marked by the policies, ideals, and people that positively transformed our nation. Though this movement was marked by many positive advancements, three policies are memorable enough to stand above the rest. The addition of women’s suffrage worked to give American women the representation they deserved. The entirety of the occupation issues found hazardous...
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