...reality show on African Americans in today’s society. The reason for this is because it degrades African American women in such a negative approach. It shows a sign of low characteristics as well as respect. In the reality show it just shows how black women cannot get along, degrading each other with using foul language. Also, in the show it has this particular image on how a women is suppose to be shaped and living this fancy lifestyle of being rich. It has a lot of different approaches, which shows betraying a black woman’s images in the real world. On the other hand there are a lot of young girls who watch this reality show, and I believe that some young girls look up to these women as a role models. It shows in today’s society especially on social networks on how young girls copy these reality shows and what to expect in men. For example in the reality show the men treats the women badly by disrespecting them with using curse words etc. In addition, African Americans have been suppressed by the media. In most reality shows African Americans are portrayed negatively. Usually shows on African Americans involved topics such as violence, crime, and sexual behaviors. These negative images have made it hard for African American to earn lead roles in shows today. However, this seems to be the images that black’s today actors and actress are limited to. If you look at the history of Hollywood, you will notice that during the time of racism and sexism, small roles were limited to...
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...Chapter 7&8 Midterm Oscar Rubi Burlington County College Abstract In every society there are certain minorities that struggle with certain parts of living in a complex society and being dominated by the superior. While it took many people lives of innocent and people of fame to just get some rights. African Americans struggled from the moment they arrived here as slaves to obtaining simple civil laws they deserved. At one point slavery in america was functional but soon it began violating the norms of society. Even with the fight and the push for rights for African American there is always that gap of equality and some areas the struggle still exist. The stories of African Americans are all in some way related to each other due to the nature in which they were assimilated into. They were treated as property at one point in time and nothing else yet they still tried to keep a “family” atmosphere. African Americans have made their way to freedom, but have been left with a heavy burden of their ancestor’s slavery. Would they ever be seen as anything but slaves brought unwilling from Africa to the United States to be enslaved and be servants to the White Man? Those questions can be answered by looking at the history of African Americans and how they have become great leaders in this country like our President. Today many may say we don't have slavery in some point that statement is true but to some extent it it is not. Just take into consideration...
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...America Culture. Sonny, a pathless protagonist of the story finds music as his aim of escaping society’s African American brutal oppression in the 1950’s. Sonny’s brother makes the claim, “But there’s no need…is there? In killing yourself?” (Baldwin 59) referring to Sonny’s drug use in his musical escapes while playing nightclubs as a pianist in Greenwich Village. In the story "Sonny’s Blues" Sonny's brother makes the inaccurate assertion Sonny wants to die; in reality Sonny’s is simply trying to escape society's oppression. While living with Sonny’s brother’s family, talking in the afternoon with the brothers alone for the night; Sonny was talking about using heroin, “…what heroin feels like-when it’s in your veins…It makes you feel-in control. Sometimes you have to have that feeling.” (Baldwin 58) The commentary prior elaborated this statement when examining the singing quartet on their street and the struggles they went through to be able to sing like that, referring to the pain and passion in their voices. This helped illustrate the conflict of the time – American Culture built around discrimination and limiting the African American inner-city culture. Sonny was using heroin to feel in control of what is going on around him because in reality, he was not in control what so ever. His path or ability to get out of the poor inner-city life was closed by the American Culture at the time. When people aren’t given control over their perceived destiny, people have...
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...Introduction Oppression and resilience of people have been in practice since the beginning of human existence. Oppression can be defined as a person or group of people weighted down by a dominant force. This force has the power to define and label groups. They control societal ideologies of every aspect of our lives including sexuality, family relationships, and self respect. Those who have this power hold it sacred and dear. Their fear of a power shift from the dominant to the subordinate or the majority to the minority continues to guide them in enforcing ideas and laws within society that a particular gender or race has little or no value. Resilience is the ability of those oppressed to continue surviving after being compressed by such a powerful force. It is the oppressive forces of the majority group that have smothered minority groups (women and people of color) for hundreds of years and it is the resilience of those oppressed who continue to inspire change throughout history. Historical Oppressive Forces The Noel Hypothesis is a social learning theory that explains the development of a minority group. It suggest that if two or more groups come together characterized by a differential in power, ethnocentrism, and competition the result will be ethnic/racial stratification (Guadalupe lecture notes, 2008). This theory can also be used to explain the development of gender stratification as well. The majority group in relationship to this paper would be...
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...Patricia Hill Collins is apart of the sociological community and she also happens to be the first African American woman to hold her role (Higginbotham 2008). Her leadership and independence lead African American woman today. During the 1900’s, Collins and Kimberly Crenshaw conceived the concept of intersectionality that dealt with the lives and experiences of individuals in their diversity (Hobbs, Rice 17). Intersectionality was described as women and men living multiple layers of identities and were experiencing oppression and privilege (Hobbs, Rice 18). Intersectionality explores gender, sexuality, race, class, disability, age, and much more but it is evident to men and women to display the positions of power. Patricia Hill Collins published,...
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...Oppression: To Resist or Adapt? Humans have this mysterious conception the one skin tone, religion, region, or ideology is superior than another human beings. From the beginning of mankind to our world today, groups of like minded people have degraded or oppressed groups that do not categorize under their idea of who is equal to them. The groups that are degraded or oppressed have historically shown that they either resist and fight against the oppressor or adapt and strive to continue living peacefully to the best of their abilities. This can be shown through the examples from the 19 century when African Americans were freed and struggled on whether to resist or adapt to post Reconstruction era America; in World War II between how people of the Jewish faith tried to adapt without resisting to Nazi occupation, imprisonment, and even murder; and finally today, how women in the Middle East, who are going against culture and trying to gain basic rights as human beings. It would be beneficial to begin describing the situation that African Americans faced during the 19th century. After 1877, slavery ceased to exist in the United States and former slaves had constitutional protection against oppression, yet African Americans continued to be oppressed in the South. During the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century Democrats, who at that time supported the Confederacy and slavery, started to implement a series of laws called the Jim Crow laws. The primary...
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...Many historians and scholars in the field of African American studies know about the ambitious rivalry between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBouis. This rivalry between two great leaders of the black community in the late 19th and 20th century gave birth to many debates and dissension about which leader actually offered a better way for black people to advance in American society back then. I personally viewed Booker T. Washington’s beliefs about racial equality as somewhat…“colonized”. I believe his ideas were too ground in the white agenda that was going on in that era. I believe W.E.B DuBois ideas were better for the improvement of African American people in American society. Of these two great men, the first to come along was Booker T. Washington. He was a reformer, an educator and one of the most influential black leaders of his time. He preached the philosophy of racial solidarity, self-help and accommodation. He pushed for black people to accept the vicious discrimination that they were going through for the time being and instead concentrate on advancing themselves through material prosperity and hard work....
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...North American politics was at a turbulent stage. America was experiencing a break-through of racial politics in the 1960’s, led by leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. Shortly after Canada also went through political turmoil in 1970 with the FLQ Crisis, which was addressed by Pierre Elliot Trudeau. Both leaders responded to crisis through action and by political writing. Martin Luther King’s political writing, “Letter from Birmingham and Pierre Trudeau’s, “Notes for a national broadcast, October 16 1970” both have similarities and differences. Both works address the public to deal with civil disobedience, the means to make political change, roles of government in handling civil unrest in democratic regimes and the responsibility for citizens to protest or disobey ‘unjust laws’. How ever both works are written from different perspectives. Despite their differences both works do well at complimenting each other since they share the same values. Martin Luther King’s arguments were addressing segregation and inequality experienced by African-Americans. The “Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, jr.]’ written by the American civil rights activist is concerning the issues of terrorism and summons action to respond racial laws through non-violence in attempt to establish peace and end oppression. Acts of terrorism were, “unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches” (King, paragraph 6). King refers to Birmingham experiencing such high levels of terrorism acts against African-Americans...
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...rise of patriarchy-based societies and the slow decline of the importance of women in society. For the longest time the history of the world has been written by men who have been the head of the patriarchy and have forgotten the role of women in history. It is important to realize that women do in fact have a place at the table with men when it comes to importance in history, and are not just the ones cooking and serving the meal. It is women who tasked with raising the next generation. By looking at women of the past, people of the future can learn and evolve to fight oppression and gain their own power. Come up with a good thesis that doesn’t suck. While women hold different experiences with power,...
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...shifted from the ideal of integration towards the resurgence of Black Nationalism. This movement sparked an interest in the Black culture, as well as the role in life and struggle. From here, a strong commitment to revitalize, reconstruct and actually construct Black culture came about. This newfound inspiration to rediscover the black culture led to the unveiling of a few paradigms that were centered on the theme of bits and pieces of the Black culture being lost or forgotten. The Deficiency Paradigm argues that Blacks have no real culture, that slavery destroyed it, and that what passed as Black culture was simply a pathological reaction to Whites, a duplication of them or an expression of lower-class culture rather than a specific Black culture. The Crusian Paradigm argues that although culture must be seen as central, the three factors of culture, politics and economics must be welded together into a dynamic synthesis and social strategy. Both of these paradigms argue that Whites have tried to destroy black culture by forcing their ideas and ways upon blacks. The argument in both of the paradigms is also that an American culture existed instead of a Black culture. There are differences between the two paradigms. The basic idea behind the Deficiency Paradigm is that blacks have no culture of their own and that what they do have is borrowed from the white culture. The Deficiency Paradigm argues that there is a misjudgment...
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...working class and much poorer classes. Regardless of social class, women's focus on spousal relationships, childrearing, personal fulfillment, and relationships with other women was affected by 19th century change. Industrialization left women in control of the domestic domain, thus affecting her role as a woman (Woloch, (2002) p72). The power and responsibility that came along with this new status would be dictated by the middle-class lifestyle. Unfortunately this new focus was not easily attained by working class women. "Most women, moreover, were only remote beneficiaries of or untouched by the social changes being affected by the Industrial Revolution. “ In rural areas, on farms North and South, and on the frontier, traditional ways of life persisted (Woloch, (2002) p72)." Generally, women and children continued to be part of the "family labor force" under the authority of the male head of household. The new sphere of influence experienced by some women was limited to those who had their own money, or were attached to men who were wealthy. (Woloch, (2002) p73). Emancipation of African-Americans from slavery brought about a trend toward marriage. Male and female African American freed slaves traveled far and wide to restore relationships with each other. "Former slaves viewed legal marriage and a stable...
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...Chapter1 Introduction Feminism is not one unitary concept; it is instead diverse and multifaceted grouping of ideas and indeed, action. The basis of all strands of the concept may be stated as that it concerns itself with women’s inferior position in society sand with the discrimination encountered by women because of their sex. “Feminism is a doctrine suggesting that women are systematically disadvantaged in the modern society and advocating equal opportunities for men and women.”(The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology, second Ed). The term includes many loose like liberal feminism, Marxist and socialist feminism, radical feminism. Liberal feminists work for equal rights for women within the framework of the liberal state; they did not question the structure –economic or political-of the state but they demand the rights and privileges given by the state should be equally shared by man and women. Marxist and socialist feminists’ link gender inequality and women’s oppression to the capitalist system. Women suffer a double exploitation as women and as members of the working class. Radical feminists disregard all questions of political and economic dispensation to concentrate on the roots of the problem. The central root of the problem is the system of patriarchy which leads to all kinds of discrimination against and devaluation of women. Politico-economic questions are not the roots but only auxiliaries. The concept of gender is the real villain and has to be demolished. Lately...
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...come with racism too.) Racism is a global problem that needs a solution that will result in endless benefits. It affects all facets of society including the learning process, which especially affects people of color. Since the 1600’s it has been hard for the of African descent persons. In education they have had a hard time prospering, like in the 1600’s; of African descent being was not allowed to even learn. In 1870, 81% of African Americans in the United States were illiterate (when only less than 9% of white Americans were illiterate). But that was because only about 9% of the African American went to school, while 50% of white American children attended school. After this key point in history, the numbers improve and things get a little better but not much. In 1896, the Plessey v, Ferguson (Plessey was a man who could easily pass for white but was jailed for sitting in a white only train car when he took matters into his own hands to challenge the separate car act .He took them to court and they made great points but the supreme court still kept the “separate but equal” law because they thought it was constitutional ).Supreme Court decision to pass equal but separate laws went through and it only made things worse for the African American student. In 1898, a Georgia school board did not want to open a public high school for African American students who lived in a town where there was no public black high school and this case Cummings v. Georgia, let the Georgia school board...
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...having a strong character can play a significant role in overcoming racism and distress. In the course of the story, it is evident that Maya changes from being a casualty of racism to become a young woman with self-dignity and identity that helps her to overcome prejudice. The context of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings focuses on the problems associated with racism that was prevalent in the southern states. Racist oppression is a common theme in the book that is portrayed by all the major characters; in fact, all the other themes in the book are closely related to racism, identity and segregation. In addition, the style and genre, and the structure of this literary work make significant contributions towards its thematic development, which focus on resistance to racism, the significance of the family, self-identity and definition and independence. Walker (95) argues that I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings is characterized by thematic unity, which is achieved using the structure adopted in the text that takes more of a thematic form rather than a chronological form. In addition, Angelou managed to emphasize on the universal ideas in her literary work irrespective of its periodic quality. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou used the major characters of the book to facilitate its thematic development identity, racism and literacy throughout the text. Basing on this assertion, this essay uses evidence from the book to affirm the role that the major characters played in the development...
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...Persecution, death, despair and glorified agony describe the ways in which African Americans felt during the 19nth century leading to social change and the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was sparked by the pain that African Americans felt being slaves and in turn they moved to the more urbanized and industrial north. It was considered a Renaissance because the liberal arts like, music, literature and art were uplifted independently for African American culture. This in turn created a social change for African Americans to have more freedom and liberty. Social change associated with freedom in the Harlem Renaissance can be attributed to three different reasons, literature, art and music. Literature played a gargantuan role in the...
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