Yasef Gomez Professor Troy English 101 3 December 2013

The Superior Ones

Throughout history we have always had people with power, wealth, and fame. But the ones that always stood out were the ones with power. They tend to let the lower people know that they are in charge and we always have to oblige to whatever they say. Sometimes the people who were targeted were the colored people, because of the color of the skin they were automatically put in the lowest of the low. Authors Maya Angelou and Alice Walker claim that people in power oppress African Americans. Back then not many African Americans had power and were known to be oppressed by the superior kind. Firstly, Joel Chandler Harris takes away the slaves' Identity when he creates Uncle Remus. Joel Chandler states, " “He (Uncle Remus) was not an invention, of my own, but hymen syndicate, I might say, of three or four old darkies whom I know. I just walloped them together into one person and called him ‘Uncle Remus’”(27). Joel Chandler Harris treated the slaves like if they were prisoners in his jailhouse. The government gives a prisoner a new identity which is a number that they must go by while in jail so that it would be easier to keep track of them. Joel Chandler Harris simply gave them new names, names that he would remember because of the persons trait or how dark their skin was. From

the moment he gave them the name, that was their new identity as long as they were under his ownership. That is why Chandler Harris takes away the slaves' Identity when he creates Uncle Remus. Mrs. Cullinan sees herself superior to her employees, Margaret and Miss Glory. “There were goblets, sherbet glasses, ice-cream glasses, wine glasses, green glass coffee cups with matching saucers, and water glasses. I had a glass to drink from and it sat next to Miss Glory’s on a separate shelf from the others”(212). Mrs. Cullinan knew that she was worth more than her employees that she even couldn’t have her same drinking glasses in the same cabinet with the employee ones. She was probably disgusted by them because she sees them lower than her which means they can't be as clean or well groomed as her because they can't afford to. That’s one reason that the people who do not have power are oppressed because they see them as scum because we have no say in anything and all we can do is just take orders from anyone because that’s all we can do and we can't do anything about it. Mrs. Cullinan sees herself superior to her employees, Margaret and Miss Glory. Authors Maya Angelou and Alice Walker claim that people in power oppress African Americans. We all know that we all have had to deal with a "superior" directly once. Whether it had been government, boss, police, anyone, and they are almost all not pleasant. Instead of just bowing our heads down and taking it we should try to figure out how exactly they got there and figure out how we can get there. Anything in life is possible and I know that not all the people with power were born in that spot. Some of them were actually smart enough to stop the chain and move up. Because of that we have many African Americans and other people of color that stepped up and have earn the right of "power".