...Steve Estes’ book, I am a Man!: Race, Manhood, and the Civil Rights Movement skillfully captures the attitude and way of thinking for black men during the twentieth century. Systematic racism has forced black men and women to develop a dual identity; one that is their true unapologetic self and one who must disguise their identity and thoughts from whites as they struggle with their black humanity (Estes, 2005). Black men have often had to mask their masculinity in order to protect their lives and the lives of others around them as threats of murder, lynching, and incarceration loomed above their heads. The black man’s journey for racial equality began as black men and women wanted recognition of their basic human rights. During the Civil Rights and Black Power Manhood, many male leaders referred back to the past in order to justify their rights for all citizens (Estes, 2005). The philosophy of “manhood” within American society derived from the ideas of European Enlightenment thinkers, who used terminology such as, ‘rights of men’, in order to represent all citizens (Estes, 2005). Southern white manhood during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was explicitly defined as white, male, and land or slave owners. Southern white manhood depicted having numerous dependents such as wives, children, and...
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...Essay Comp B/Mrs. Light 11/22/14 Who Am I In Richard Wright’s “ The Man Who Was Almost a Man”, the main character is a 17-year-old child, Dave Saunders. Dave is shown as a troubled child who does nothing but work and spend time at home with his family. Dave struggles with who he is as a man so he has to experience different scenarios to find his manhood. Wright’s theme of identity was revealed through Dave Saunders by expressing his feelings towards facing adulthood. Dave’s family is a struggling African-American family that lives in poverty. This is made clear when his mother says, “Waal that’s good. We kin use it in the outhouse”, referring to the store catalog. His family is at a financial point where the bare necessities cannot be met. They have to find resourceful methods of meeting their necessities. This is one of many clues that point to the Saunders family being of low social status. The family seems to be struggling to a point where Dave isn’t even trusted with his own money. Dave is not trusted with his own money because his parents seem to think he would spend it unwisely. This makes David feel like his manhood is jeopardized. David’s mother, on the other hand, makes it quite clear that as a family every penny counts and that’s why she takes care of Dave’s money. The next analysis that can be observed is the family relationship. Dave’s father intimidates him and this is made clear when he wants to buy a gun yet he will only ask his mom for money when she...
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...made it their mission to strip blacks of any power and would not yield to anyone, even the northerners. Southerners cared more about derogating blacks and showing their superiority than working with the Northerners to receive investment, industrialize, and advance their society. As DuBois correctly pointed out, they were obsessed with dominating other races, no matter the cost. As long as they saw other races as inferior, they would never feel remorseful and their attitudes would never change. In fact, contrary to Washington’s belief, he was not recognized by the common white man. This was merely because he was a black; they did not regard his success as significant. People were shocked that the president invited him for a meeting. Therefore, his theory that whites will recognize economically successful blacks was false. This example instead established DuBois’s point that only once whites altered the foundation of their thinking and understood...
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... For future clinical approaches, given the growing emphases of the role that racism plays in the psychological health of Black American men, an assessment of experiences related to racism should be a part of a normal intake protocol when involving Black American men in any study. Trauma assessment may be a routine of the intake interview (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2009); however, it should be expanded to include experiences of race-related trauma and stress (Carter, 2007). It would also be beneficial if the therapeutic interventions for Black American men provided the necessary tools to help them understand the implementation of psychology associated with exposure to racism as a goal to eliminate the sense of shame, and powerlessness that is often experienced by individuals who encounter various form of race-based oppression (Franklin, Boy-Franklin, & Kelly, 2006). The focus of counseling and psychotherapy should include the establishment of adaptive coping mechanisms and teaching of strategies for helping restore their manhood confidence and resistance (Pieterse, Howitt, & Naidoo, 2011). ...
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...She sculpts the bodies in the traditional form of Grecian Gods with anatomical accuracy to be representative of Greek heroism. This, in conjunction with the male holding up his broken chains, depicts the male slave taking full control of his freedom. His grappling of the chains showcases that he is responsible for setting himself free, as if he is his own hero. Lewis illustrates a triumph over slavery and defiance against traditional beliefs about the African American race. Similar to the racial belief Drake epitomizes, the two figures’ faces stretch up, peering in an expression of hope for the future. However, their faces are not the typical depiction of African Americans but more generic in detail. They could be any individuals flaunting their prized possession of freedom. Lewis does speak to freedom for slaves at first glance, but this sculpture communicates far...
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...W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were both black right activists. They both had received an education, they also believed in the importance of education and moving their race forward. Both being born in the U.S. they had both faced segregation and discrimination, but both had different approaches on how to go about fixing these problems. Washington was born as a slave in Virginia. Although he had worked as a slave, he was determined to receive and education. Later in life, he was one of the most influential men for black rights and had founded Tuskegee University in Alabama. He believed that black people had to accomodate to the white people to receive respect and rights for his race; to be an accommodationist. His most famous speech "The Atlanta Compromise" had been a staple of his beliefs; 'Cast down your bucket where you are,' work behind the scenes, adjust to segregation, and abondon agitation. "It was about black people working but on white peoples terms" (Rivalry, 1:42). One of those ways to 'accomodate' was for African Americans to get an education in agricultural farming. To learn normal farming skills rather than trying to become a doctor or lawyer. When Plessy V. Ferguson had deemed segregation constitutional the ruling "reinforced Washington's view that African Americans had best concentrate on economic progress, not legal and political equality. Frugality, intergrity, and job skills... would bring success in the only areas in which black Americans...
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...Gloria Naylor is an African American from Queens. In the essay “The Meanings of a Word” she discusses how a word can be interpreted in many different ways. “Word themselves are innocuous; it is the consensus that gives them the true power.” To each individual a word can have different meanings depending on qualities such as race and gender. Positive or negative connation can come from how the word is being not only spoken, but from who it comes from. Naylor wants to educate people by sharing the first time she remembers hearing the word ‘nigger’. She wants others to understand how she was affected throughout this personal experience. It was in her third grade class when math tests were being passed down the rows as she handed the paper back...
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...denying his black origins (pages 33-36). Clay is an individual who has shed the roots of his race, disregarding many of the cultural implications that such a decision could have on him. He is a misguided individual who, because he is human, does the wrong things at the wrong times for the wrong reasons. He continually struggles with his own identity and the power struggle between him and Lula. Racism can be picked up by the reader as he/she follows along Lula and Clay`s conversation, she questions his rights to wearing a suit and tie since his grandfather “was a slave and didn`t go to Harvard” (Page 18). She continuously attacks him about his identity “I bet you never once thought you were a black nigger” (Page 19). Furthermore she goes as far to call him an “escaped nigger” and a murderer. Lula's continual concentration on Clay's "Uncle Tom" stereotype seems to be not simply her own ignorance, but it symbolizes the entire white people's ignorance of black people before and during the early...
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...As a response to the establishment of Jim Crow segregation, African-Americans, either in the group or individually demanded the rights that have been granted. And as the time travels, resentments against Jim Crow laws intensified among the African-American community. Some African-American participated in the anti-lynching movement, while some demanded improvements in their life. Overall, the reactions of the black varied from dependent praying to independent ideas of establishing their own nation in Africa. But, equality is the one common desire shared by all African-Americans in the United States. Despite the absolute orders of the Constitution, segregation through the colors of race continued until the temporal settlement in the mid-twentieth...
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...Alice Niako English 15.6 Racial Profiling refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targets of targeted individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual’s race, ethnicity, and religion or nation origin. I am against racial profiling, it is typical practiced by police upon reliance on a group of characteristics deemed to be associated with crime. In 2000, 20 state legislatures considered legislation which would require compiling records on police stops according to the journal article Racial Profiling by Baltimore: Prejudice Institute. Some proposals include fining police officers who engage in profiling and withholding state funds from offending police departments. According to the article Trayvon Martin case highlighted as radical profiling by Senate panel, “4.3 million street stops done by the New York Police Department from 2002 to 2011 disproportionately targeted black and Latino residents and that just 12 percent of total stops resulted in an arrest or summons.” This demonstrates the concept of racial profiling being abused, in these stops along with the Trayvon case “stereotypes played a role,” said Anthony Romero. Countless accounts have been made by activists regarding to this sensitive and controversial topic of racial profiling. “There is a real tension between black boys and the police. Not perceived but real. If you walk into any inner city school in the African American community and ask students, Have any of you ever been...
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...manager of the Lincoln Motion Picture Company, a successful black film production company. Ultimately, Micheaux turned that offer down and created his own firm, which was called “Micheaux Film and Book Company (Butters). Oscar’s first film, “The Homesteader” was released in 1919 in Chicago. He film was released during the era of silent film. This film was considered the first full-length film made by an African-American. Soon after the release of his first film, Oscar Micheaux continued to release films that not only the African American Community wanted to see, but other races wanted to also. His films led the way for other “race films” that told a more realistic story of black people and their lives. Micheaux’s films often dealt with controversial issues. (Kelly). Oscar’s films were based on two themes, the exposure of racial hostility and prejudice toward African Americans, and alternative depictions of black manhood (Butters). Unfortunately, Oscar Micheaux passed away on a business trip in 1951. It is important to know African American Filmmakers looked inspired to be like Micheaux, and this included Spike...
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...In Richard Wright’s “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” tells the tale of a young boy, seventeen year old Dave Saunders, struggling to prove his manhood, buys a gun. Evidently, to Dave the gun will make him a man because it represents power and masculinity “And if he were holding his gun in his hand, nobody could run over him; they would have to respect him.” (p.6) Also, his reasoning for associating the gun with power and violence stems from his father. Dave looks at his father as a man, but his father resorts to violence and fear to resolve things. In fact, when Dave gets in trouble at work his father threatens to beat him “ N Pa says he’s gonna beat me...He remembered other beatings, and his back quivered.” (p.11) At the same time, however,...
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...“MOMMY, WHAT DOES 'NIGGER' MEAN?” Study Questions: 1. The author, as a third grader, at first misunderstood a word she has heard so many times before because of the different meanings that the word connotes during different occasions. During family gatherings when she was young, she used to hear the word “nigger” be used in different context. For instance when a person boasts or proudly relates stories, it could mean an approval for strength, intelligence or drive. When nigger is used as a possessive adjective, it could also become a term of endearment for husband or boyfriend. It becomes a word that describes the pure essence of manhood – the struggle and present survival against the odds. On the other hand, nigger(s) could also mean or describe the following: parents who neglect their children, drunken people who fight in public, people who don't look for job, people with excessively dirty mouths or unkempt households. The one she heard when she was at school was used against her. Out of jealousy, the word was used as a curse or derogatory term to humiliate her. For that moment, the word nigger had a negative connotation. But, what about the times it was used positively like what I've mentioned above? Well, according to Naylor, the word itself is harmless but it is the consensus that gives power it. The collective opinion of people controls the meaning of a particular word. 2. Naylor explains what happens when a community decides to take over a word and renegotiate...
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...unacceptable. The democratic opposition worried that this new caste of Freedmen would become a powerful force, one that could potentially alter the entire social structure of American society. Moreover, the opponents to emancipation and black equality were also concerned with the sanctity and purity of white blood and many feared that another term under Lincoln would mean that “compulsory marriage of white and black had finally become the main plan in the republican platform.” To that end, two New York City Democrats devised a plan which they believed would reveal that the “mongrelization” of America, or the amalgamation of races, was indeed the final goal of the Republican Party. The “miscegenation hoax,” as it came to be known, was their plan to disenfranchise republican voters in the coming 1864 election. The war was the primary focus of the election of 1864, but race and the future of...
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...Assignment 2: Harlem Renaissance Poets Demetria Davenport HUM 112 Dr. Jeff Kersh Countee Cullen (1903-1996) “Heritage” (1925) What is Africa to me: Copper sun or scarlet sea, Jungle star or jungle track, Strong bronzed men, or regal black Women from whose loins I sprang When the birds of Eden sang? One three centuries removed From the scenes his fathers loved, Spicy grove, cinnamon tree, What is Africa to me? So I lie, who all day long Want no sound except the song Sung by wild barbaric birds Goading massive jungle herds, Juggernauts of flesh that pass Trampling tall defiant grass Where young forest lovers lie, Plighting troth beneath the sky, So I lie, who always hear, Though I cram against my ear Both my thumbs, and keep them there, Great drums throbbing through the air, So I lie, whose fount of pride, Dear distress and joy allied, Is my somber flesh and skin, With the dark blood dammed within Like great pulsing tides of wine That, I fear, must burst the fine Channels of the chafing net Where they surge and form and fret. Africa? A book one thumbs Listlessly, till slumber comes, Unremembered are the bats Circling through the night, her cats Crouching in the river reeds, Stalking gentle flesh that feeds, By the river brink; no more Does the bugle throated roar Cry that monarch claws have leapt From the scabbards where they slept, Silver snakes that once a year Doff the lovely coats you wear, Seek no covert in your fear Lest...
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