In recent years black woman have made big strides in the area of advertising, but regardless of these efforts black woman all still shown as submissive or being dominated. Few women are shown as strong or self-sufficient. I believe a lot of black woman are made to deal with racism and the f...

Perhaps the most destructive of ideals have been the concepts of physical beauty; particularly in which internalized white beauty standards deform the lives of black girls and women. In Toni Morrison\'s The Bluest Eye, implicit messages that whiteness is superior are everywhere, when the white baby...

I was told to trace the metaphors of blindness in the novel Invisible Man by explaining the plot and thematic significance. There are many metaphors of blindness in this book starting from the Prologue to the Epilogue. I believe that Ralph Ellison was using these metaphors of blindness to show us ho...

Richard Wright's Black Boy chronicles his southern childhood and adolescence and shows his struggle for physical, mental, and psychological fulfillment. More than simply an autobiography, Black Boy represents the result of Wright's passionate desire to observe and reflect upon the racist world aroun...

According to the Webster's Dictionary the definition for assimilation is, "The process whereby a minority group gradually adopts the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture" (13). In the novel Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko provides a reflective examination regarding the effec...

In Beloved Toni Morrison sets the novel after the end of the civil war where slaves freed by Emancipation and those who were given or bought their freedom earlier were victims of random acts of violence. There are several power relationships that Morrison links together to show the aftermath of the ...

During slavery, white Europeans, established hierarchies and maintained power over black people by constructing and constantly manipulating the definitions of "race," "identity" and "culture". In the Caribbean and southern United States white Europeans enslaved blac...

"Native Son" Essay Look! That man is using a walking stick he must be blind. Look! That woman has a dog in the mall; it must be a seeing-eye dog. Look! A child in McDonald's reading a menu in Braille. Common perception is that "those" people with vision impairments are blind, but can others w...

When you hear the word quicksand the image of a damsel in distress comes to mind. You imagine her as she steps unconsciously into what could be considered a natural trap. This natural trap quickly and effortlessly encloses her. This same underlining scenario happens over and over again in Nella Lars...

Maturity falls into two categories, physical maturity and psychological maturity. For most people, physical maturity occurs in any case, whereas only those who quest for self-identity achieve psychological maturity. James Baldwin depicts this kind of maturity in Go Tell It On The Mountain via the pr...

In this article, Jefferson discusses the problems that the institution of slavery created in Virginia and how it affected the slaves. The notes were written while Jefferson was the Governor of Virginia and were based on an inquiry made by the French legation in Philadelphia and discussed s...

1. Title: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings 2. Author: Maya Angelou 3. Major Themes A) Racism In I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya is exposed to racism when she is a young child. She believes that in order to be beautiful, you must have blonde hair and blue eyes. In Stamps, Arkansas, Maya is a...

Battle Royal Ralph Ellison's short story "Battle Royal" depicts the confusion that fills the mind of a young black man trying to survive in a society where those who are white have all the power and those who are black are their puppets. This young man is torn between two choices on how to p...

Racism: A Black Man's Perspective In his essay, "A Black Man Ponders His Power To Alter Public Space," Brent Staples examines racism and the misconceptions that contribute to it. He writes of how something as simple and innocent as taking a late night stroll subjected him ...

A former slave during the antebellum era, Lewis Clarke, said, "How would you like to see your sisters, and your wives, and your daughter, completely, teetotally, and altogether, in the power of the master. – You can picture to yourselves a little, how you would feel; but oh, if I could te...

Jamie Foxx recently made a movie, demonizing the antebellum South and the land and peoples of my ancestry once again, providing an occasion for racial agitation between blacks and whites in America, providing false justification for the invasion and displacement of white men in America by way of ill...

White Privilege-Answers Question#1 In the article "The Matter of Whiteness" by Richard Dyer he mentions that racial imagery is central to the organization of the modern world. I believe Richard Dyer is trying to communicate to us that like everything in the world there is the top o...

Brothers In Arms One of the greatest wars ever fought in our time is World War II; an ideal principle for human's freedom and equality. At a great scale, many men lost their lives and are recorded in many history books. From American to British and even Russian soldiers sacrifice their l...

Mark Twain and William Faulkner write completely different ways than each other. One is a very humorous writer that brings up many issues; most people would never bring up. He fills his works with social satire and makes fun of all different types of writing from almost every era before his time. Ma...

Imagine being in a position that gave you the power to inspire a race and gain the respect of another. Booker T. Washington, a prominent and extremely successful African-American had that opportunity. This opportunity came in the times of the emancipation of slavery, and when given the chance, he ex...

In James Baldwin's "Another Country," the author constructs a tale that is deeply founded in his character's desire and inability to construct the spaces of a 'queer' New York. Much of the book deals with issues of the individual versus society, as each one of his characters is trying to invent and...

The Myth of the Golden Age In the essay "The Myth of the Golden Age" by Mary Beth Norton, Mary did not agree with historians that is was a "Golden Age" for women during the colonial period. She feels that women's lives outside the home were severely limited. Mary felt women never achieved a s...

Changing the World There are many things that could effect the lives of millions, but there is one thing that really stands out from the others, "The Power of One". The important thing about the power of one person is that we need to look at what that one person is doing that is making a ...

Why it's titled I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings depicts the harsh childhood that the author, Maya Angelou, was subject to. The title of the book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, relates to a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar titled Sympathy. The title simply mean...

Black Boy and the "American Hunger" Since the beginning of time there has been hunger. When a person thinks about hunger, the first thing that comes to their mind is food. We never think of the word hunger as having any another meaning. In Richard Wright's book entitled "Black Boy (A...