Communities
There is a black man walking along the highway needing a lift do you stop to pick him up? In the essay "Umbilicus" by James Alan McPherson, two white men stop and ask a black man if he needs a lift, and he accepts their offer and the journey begins. Most people would not stop; this is a trust issue that many people go through almost everyday. The issue of trust seems to come and go with each decade. For instance, in the 1960's there was little trust or relationship between communities; you had the blacks and the whites. Then in the 1970's and 1980's after the Civil Rights movement and the hippy era, there was a great deal of trust and coming together of groups and communities. Now, in the present day, society once again loses its trust, with all the violence and crime in our world. These are just three ways that cultural communities relationships have changed within the past four decades. The 1960's was full of segregation, hate, and racism. The relationship between different communities and cultures were very distant. The groups stayed as far apart as possible, doing their own thing, which caused some tension and awkwardness. This led to more and more mistrust. In the case of the essay "Umbilicus," a black man wh
Back in my home town, all the African American people live in the south part of town called Dixie. Through the decades stereotypes involving fear of black and whites has somewhat diminished while there has been an overwhelming increase in the fear instilled in people because of their fear of their fellow man, not based upon their race. In the present decade that is full, once again, with more violence and crime it is hard to trust each other. I believe that today, the two brothers might have done the same, just kept to themselves and drove right by. o stays inside his home, and mainly to himself, and who's community consists of him, decides to go on a trip up north, thanks to some advice from a friend. Throughout history there have been so many significant changes involving communities of all kinds. New issues that are rising like homosexuality and interracial relationships, communities are once again being divided and segregated as more and more conflicts grow between them. This is the kind of trust issue that each decade explores. As he began to walk, a truck stops and two white brothers offer him a ride. The black man's car broke down as he was driving back from his sight-seeing trip across the north. In this day and age, if I saw a black man or any man walking down the highway, I would be reluctant to stop and help because of all the horror stories you hear of murders, muggings, and kidnappings that people go through in these kinds of situations where they are trying to help others. This is good evidence that this would have been the ideal decade for the essay to have taken place, because of the overcoming of racial segregation and the beginning of trusting one another again, just as the brothers told the black man while he climbed into their truck: " A lot of our friends don't like the colored, but, hell, me and my brother here, we got colored neighbors, we go over to their houses sometimes for parties. This type of situation would rarely happen in this decade; instead of getting a ride from two white brothers, he might have been dragged behind their pickup truck for the simple fact that he was black, but of course this is the most drastic scenario. If only every community could be as open and trusting with each other as the two brothers and the black man, for these two communities to come together and helped each other in a time of need. This is just what the brothers and the black man did, I think the brothers said it best, " We toasted our Beer and talked of the need for more brotherhood in the world.
Common topics in this essay:
Civil Rights,
African American,
Alan McPherson,
,
1970's 1980's,
white brothers,
umbilicus black,
violence crime,
1970's 1980's coming,
coming communities,
relationship communities,
trust acceptance,
community segregation,
decades follow,
issue trust,
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Acceptance Essays
