Abstract This paper discusses Claude Mckay's poem "America". The paper argues that this is one of his best protest poems and since he was one of the very first poets to start the Negro Renaissance of 1920s, his poems voice the feelings of African-Americans vehemently.
Abstract This paper explains how Toni Morrison uses jazz and histories to explain African American displacement. t also looks at how the characters use jazz and the image of Dorcas to bring their identities full-circle. It examines, in particular, Joe and Violet's deconstruction and reconstruction and how this relates to the larger story of African American history.
From the Paper "The story begins with the outcome of the character's displacement, a murder and an attempt at a dead girl's mutilation. Right away the reader sees the fracture which converges in acts of violence. How it came to this point is where the story lies, found in pieces hoping to be put together, Violet's crack and Joe's traces. Along with the history that could allow these individuals to come such a state; the brutalized body of slavery and post-Civil War oppression. Morrison tries to find a restructured identity in which lies the power to heal. Dorcas and jazz are instruments towards that healing (Jones 481)."
Abstract This paper examines how racial profiling has long been an issue of debate in America and has recently been given a shot in the arm due to due the terrorists? attacks on September 11th. Through a literature review, it attempts to show that, although many feel profiling is a warranted tool necessary to combat crime, a growing number of people have come to view it as not only unjust, but counterproductive to reducing crime.
From the Paper "Many who condone racial profiling assert that government policy affects not only resources, but, values and behavior as well. However, this is the same argument used concerning welfare policy (Foreman 2001). Policies makers argued that subsidizing unmarried and unemployed mothers created a culture of dependency and that citizens needed to take responsibility for their own lives or government would never be able to effectively combat poverty (Foreman 2001). If authorities believe that ?sending out welfare checks with no strings attached sends the wrong message,? they must understand that racial profiling does also (Foreman 2001). For if one is to believe that hard work and responsibility is the path to success, then one has to believe that with those equal responsibilities come equal rights."
Abstract It is the contention of this paper that the standardized SATs, intended as a tool to help predict a student's collegiate potential, fail to meet this objective. Instead, the exams often misrepresent or portray a potential student in a negative light because of the cultural bias of the test. The paper asserts that this is especially true for the African-American and Latino American population. Experts in the fields of education and social sciences are quoted, and data is presented that supports the author's contention. Other problems that are considered intrinsic to the SAT are also covered in this paper.
From the Paper "Today's educational system supports tests such as the SAT?s, which are often biased against minority students. The SAT's were developed by the Educational Testing Service as a means to predict successful collegiate performance. However, the tests in actuality seldom accurately predict the potential for a student's success. The SAT's have statistically in fact, been shown to have little value in predicting a student's future performance. They also negatively impact admissions representative's perceptions of a student's potential for academic success. The SAT's have also been shown to negatively impact minority groups, specifically African Americans, Hispanics and even low-income white students. The tests more accurately are a predictor of socioeconomic influences than a student's potential, and unwittingly favor middle and upper class students, who often have the opportunity to prepare and memorize for such tests, placing them at a disadvantage over their peers."
Abstract This paper provides an analysis of King's "I Have A Dream" speech, focusing on the speaker's effectiveness in evoking his message against black American oppression and encouraging his fellow men, black and white Americans, to support and champion the rights of the black Americans in the United States.
From the Paper "The "I Have A Dream" speech composed by King was delivered on August 28, 1963 at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. King's speech was said to have become significant for the formulation and approval of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and has become one of King's greatest actions that made him achieve the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 (USC Online 2003). The speech primarily discussed the issue of pushing forth for a thorough and more detailed legislation that favors equality not only for white Americans, but for black Americans as well."
Abstract This paper provides an analysis of Sue Monk Kidd's book, "The Secret Life of Bees". Set in the early 1960's, at a time when civil rights were just becoming popular and significant in American culture, the paper shows how important the ideas in the novel are for this time period. The paper includes direct quotes from the book.
From the Paper "Because of where she lives, Lily could easily have slipped into a more regional speech pattern. But there is nothing here to indicated Lily lives in the Deep South. Perhaps her use of the word lack, instead of a phrase to indicate the condition of motherlessness, is a hint. It is certainly not the way most girls would say it. So it may be regional. Or it may be the author's way of pointing out that Lily was bright and thoughtful and could spare herself the pain of talking about or thinking about her dead mother by referring only to a lack, not a death."
Tags: literature, english, black, south, african, american
Abstract Discusses the nature of gangs. Examines why children and teenagers join gangs. Considers children at-risk and gang involvement. Reviews and critiques five studies on gangs and violence, and discusses the methods of the studies.
From the Paper "Over the last 20 years in the city of Los Angeles at least 10,000 African American and Latino young men have died due to gang activity and gang warfare (Vigil, 2002). As large as that figure is it is still only a portion of the deaths..."
Abstract The paper examines Nella Larsen's novel as a complex response to U.S. racial and class segregation in the 1920s. It discusses black feminist criticism's concept of social marginalization and the politics of sex and race.
From the Paper "Nella Larsen's Passing is a complex response to and critique of the patterns of racial and class segregation that characterized the US in the 1920s. However, the critique has resonance for the modern period because, despite the demise of legalized ..."
Abstract This paper looks at the reasons Title VII of the Civil Rights Act was needed and enacted, what rights the law has secured for individual workers, what legal aspects it covers, and the history of the law itself. The paper also looks at the impact Title VII has had on the workplace, its successes, and its failures.
From the Paper "Title VII of the civil rights act was a hard won victory for civil rights activists and workers in 1964. In securing this act, they ended the decades of "separate but equal" treatment that had been used as a justification for discrimination against black Americans, and also wrote into law precedents that would affect change in the labor market undercurrents that subtly discriminated against women. The text of the Civil Rights Act made it unlawful for an employer to hire or discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his/her compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment, because of an individual's race, color, religion, sex or national origin. This act covers hiring, firing, promotions and all workplace conduct."
A comparative analysis of the narrative of the "Life of Frederick Douglass" by Frederick Douglass and "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Harriet Jacobs.
Abstract This paper examines how female and male autobiographical narratives invariably take different forms because of the different, albeit culturally constructed, nature of male and female experience. In particular, it looks at the contrast between Frederick Douglass's narrative, its "plot" or true-life story structure and interest in comparison to Harriet Jacobs' tale of her escape from bondage. It explores how both tales are significantly impacted by the gender of the authors as well as the author's intent in writing and intended audience. Douglass tells the tale of a young man who escaped ignorance and violence through movement. Jacobs tells the tale of herself as a young woman and mother seeking escape from sexual exploitation, not through movement, but through hiding.
From the Paper "Both authors wrote against the institution of slavery, and used their own, personal experiences of slavery in the South to generate support for the national abolition of the institution. At the time, the abolitionist movement was mainly grounded in the Northern states of America. However, Douglass wrote, and also spoke as a gifted orator, mainly to Northern Whites. Thus his autobiography uses elements of how slavery it detrimental to the "souls of White folk" (to turn a phrase of W.E.B. Dubois on its head) as well as those of the enslaved, to generate support for the anti-slavery cause. An example of this can be found in his description of a White woman whom is one of the first mistresses of the young, enslaved Douglass."
Abstract This paper discusses Harriet Jacobs's novel, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl". The paper describes the extraordinary strength of character exhibited by Jacobs in her quest for freedom from slavery. The paper portrays how Harriet Jacobs goes to almost superhuman lengths to assert her status as a person and rebel against the dehumanization of slavery.
From the Paper "In Harriet Jacobs' novel, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the narrator takes several steps to assert her status as a person and to make a case against the dehumanization inherent in slavery. The dehumanization of Jacobs' and other slaves in the novel is clearly shown through the sexual exploitation that they face, and the separation of women and their children. Jacob's continually fights against this degradation, and asserts herself as a person. She refuses the advances of Mr. Flint, chooses another man with which to have an affair, and ultimately goes to the extremes of hiding in a cramped garret to assert her independence. Ultimately, Jacobs' is successful in obtaining her freedom, but she only obtains freedom through an extraordinary perseverance and force of will."
Abstract This paper explains that the Harlem or Negro Renaissance marked the 1920s and 1930s as a period during which the spirituality and potential of the African-American community was expressed in the most explosive way possible. The writer points out that, centered in the Southern states and with a freedom of expression generally trampled upon, black art expression was simply censored or manifested itself in its raw forms. The migration to the northern metropolis after the First World War was similar and implied the development, in all its forms, of black culture. The paper looks at how this impacted literature (poetry and prose), music (jazz played in the notorious Cotton Club and elsewhere), visual arts (painting), and acting in musicals.
From the Paper "Langston Hughes, one of the most representative creators of the Harlem Renaissance, best resumed this period as being a period when "Negro was in vogue" (Langston Hughes in his autobiography "The Big Sea". From Jackson, Caroline. Harlem Renaissance: Pivotal Period in the Development of Afro-American Culture. On the Internet at http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1978/2/78.02.03.x.html). This brief statement meant not only that the Harlem Renaissance was a period of awakening for the African American community, but also the fact that the white population enjoyed Black forms of creation. The rebel period after the First World War, with the Jazz Age and the prohibition, involved openness from the American towards the exotic and what they saw as unusual. In this sense, the African American culture was, for them, something different, as many of the White communities in Northern states had but minor contacts with it in history. They were interested in its forms of manifestation and the numerous patronages of black artists during this time created ripe premises for Black culture to develop and evolve."
Abstract This paper argues that the image of the speaker in Langston Hughes? s"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" as a wise figure representing the black community throughout the ages is conveyed not only in the poem's title, but also its concrete and plain diction, its repetition, and its free verse form.
From the Paper "The speaker's use of repetition relays the serious tone of the poem and the communal wisdom of the Black community. The poem's repetition is very formulaic, much like the oral traditions and histories passed down by African griots. The repetition drives home the point to the audience as well as tying the story together and making it easier for the griot to remember. The speaker begins by asserting, ?I"ve known rivers", a phrase that is repeated at the beginning of lines two and eight."
Abstract The paper presents a review of the movie "Mississippi Burning" that focuses on the 1964 brutal murder of three civil rights workers, and the terrorist actions of the Ku Klux Klan and the FBI.
From the Paper The movie Mississippi Burning presents a fictional account of the very real tragedy that occurred in Philadelphia Mississippi in June of when three civil rights advocates were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan KKK..."
A look at how Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" and Toni Morrison's "Beloved" share a distinctly feminine perspective on the nature of ghosts in the domestic sphere.
2,926 words (approx. 11.7 pages), 2 sources, 2000, $ 86.95
From the Paper "Although they were written nearly thirty years apart, and deal with completely different periods in American history and American culture, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Toni Morrison's Beloved share a distinctly feminine perspective on the nature of ghosts in the domestic sphere. In both novels, while female protagonists are haunted by female ghosts, the root of the disturbance is definitely a masculine, patriarchal one. This patriarchal evil, expressed through feminine supernatural phenomena, places constraints of domesticity and servitude not just on the victims of the ghosts, but on the ghosts as well. Furthermore, the constraints go beyond mere domesticity, but destroy the identity and the sanity of the antagonized woman in the process."
