A Mixed Race Book Summary

There have been many novels written about the experience of being born black in America but only so few have been able to give the reader a vivid point of view of what African Americans have gone through for generations. The book “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a very sympathetic letter to his fifth teen year old son Samori. Coates explains his experiences in the past on how being born into the world as a “Black Body” is considered as a disadvantage in America. Coates grew up with strict parents that were consistently keeping a keen eye on him always having his father constantly beating him and an always anxious mother. But as he grew older and had a son of his own he then realized the reasons behind his parent’s actions.

Many individuals are often alienated from society. One of many causes can be the racism of African Americans. The alienation caused by racism can affect individuals and society. Due to their race, they were discriminated and led to racial inequality. This can all be depicted in “Incident” by Countee Cullen, “ A Black Man Talks of Reaping” by Arna Bontemps, and “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar. In “Incident”, a young African American is called a racial slur because of her physical appearance. Also, “A Black Man Talks of Reaping”, describes how a black man is discriminated and face racial inequality. Lastly, in “We Wear the Mask” shows how blacks had to hide their true identity because they were colored and did not fit in society. In all three text of Cullen, Bontemps, and Dunbar all show how racism can make an individual feel alienated.

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois is a influential work in African American literature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these lasting concepts, Souls offers an evaluation of the progress of the races and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.

Fast forward to the twentieth century where racism, segregation, prejudice, and hate are said to be on a decline. Perchance some of these changes can be attributed to Paul Betty’s hilarious novel The White Boys Shuffle. The White Boy Shuffle is a novel about an African American male named Gunnar Kaufman and his coming of age in a new Santa Monica neighborhood. Betty does a wonderful job on shining light on the importance

Life on the Color Line is a powerful tale of a young man's struggle to reach adulthood, written by Gregory Howard Williams - one that emphasizes, by daily grapples with personal turmoil, the absurdity of race as a social invention. Williams describes in heart wrenching detail the privations he and his brother endured when they were forced to remove themselves from a life of White privilege in Virginia to one where survival in Muncie, Indiana meant learning quickly the cold hard facts of being Black in skin that appeared to be White.      This powerful memoir is a testament to the potential love and determination that can be exhibited despite being on the cusp of a nation's racial

While someone may seem one way in what they say and what they show on the outside, what they think and feel for just themselves to know is almost always different. In the 1900s, blacks were constantly treated sub-humanly by whites. In his memoir Black Boy, Richard Wright writes of the struggles of growing up a black boy in the south during that time and the mental strain it causes. Wright uses his narration to express the difference between what someone says and and what they think or feel and how the lack of ability to fully express himself was a prime cause of alienation.

There is hardly any contemporary literature that touches the essence of racism at its sore spot since most African American literature either accuse the world of the unfair treatments with extreme statements or exhibits their passive aggressiveness and cynical opinions to the mass majority. However, Ta-Nehisi Coates, in Between the World and Me, does none of those things. Instead, the author took this letter as a vehicle to address how it is like to be of the black community, to three groups of audiences, the Blacks, the New Blacks and the Whites, masquerading as one represented by his son. Through the constant shifts of audiences, Coates strives to persuade all to feel the fear and anxiety of his black community instead of living an ignorant

This theme is carried through Black Boy by describing Wright’s challenges facing racial stereotypes. As an African American living in the South, he is stripped of his individuality and grouped together with others of his race as a violent, criminal, and inferior class of people. When Wright

Du Bois’s main proposal in this book is to explain the effect racism had on the identity of African Americans. Du Bois tries to make his audience comprehend the systematic oppression that African Americans faced during the time of reconstruction through a series of true anecdotes and narratives. He uses the anecdotes and narratives not only to appeal to his audience’s pathos and ethos, but also to convince his audience with evidence in a realistic and clear manner. He tries to have his audience understand the very different life African Americans lived compared to those that white Americans lived, and how that existing racism affected the identity of those African Americans. Throughout this book, he explains that the law and order of society in a post-slavery era prevented African Americans from achieving true equality, which hindered their understanding of their own blackness. Du Bois explains this oppression African Americans faced through three significant

Here it’s important to note that the author’s carefully crafted attention to the details and circumstances of the violence against young black men is heightened as a result of his juxtaposing examples of such violence with urgings for his son (and other young black men) to find and celebrate joy – in history, in identity, and diversity. In other words, the capacity for joy in both black individuals and in the black “community” as a whole comes across as a powerfully defining contrast: the danger of which the author writes, and of which he is warning his son, is made more vivid as a result of his placing it next to images of freedom, happiness, and unity.

If Wright were writing an autobiography “Black Boy” in today's present society about a Black Boy Growing up in the United States he would write about , Police Brutality , the first Black President, and Cultural Appropriation. As we see in today’s news and social media, there’s been a positive out roar of success for young afro americans, but also sadly the misuse of power of authorities.

The racial tension that existed in the twentieth century had a social impact on blacks and whites alike. The blacks were forced into a life of oppression and bleak poverty that strangled any efforts to rise above their social standing. The whites were forced into a lifestyle of bigotry and prejudice to maintain the status quo and to keep the black populace in their place. It was an extraordinary pressure for both races fraught with the pressure of always having to remember one’s place in society. The authors of the two historiographies demonstrate the conscious effort it took to preserve the segregation of the south. On the one hand, Richard Wright, the black child, soon learned that he had to always act as a subservient and never show that he was a human with hopes and aspirations for a different future, by always suppressing ego and machismo. Whereas on the other, Melton McLaurin showed how he always had to act the gentleman and have the upper hand in front of his black, inferior friends. The trauma experienced by both races, although different in nature, proved to be a burden for both.

“Yes, I’m the teacher,” I said. “And I teach what the white folks around here tell me to teach”(Gaines, 1993, p. 13). Grant does not cheerfully accept this identity, but believes this is the only identity that is important. According to Corey and Corey (1978), we must “listen to our inner selves and trust what we hear” (p. 372). not in readings Grant’s reluctance to embrace his own identity, prevented him from realizing who he truly was. Gaines effectively uses Grant to show how society’s oppression of black people can negatively impact a person’s freedom of self discovery. Grant’s success in disproving society’s standards and expectations, allowed him to break free of society’s stereotypes about black people and realize his own identity. According to Corey and Corey (1978), “if we do not develop a clear sense of identity during adolescence, finding meaning in adult life becomes extremely difficult” (p. 65). Grant’s negatives views on race and its viscous cycle, prevented him from acquiring a clear sense of his identity, but after building a relationship with Jefferson, Grant was able to discover his identity and understand the true meaning of life. Grant was able to make a small change in his community, but a bigger change in himself. The way former President Barack Obama stated, “Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race and racism continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways”( Sharpley-Whiting, 2008). Grant

Growing up through hate, violence and loneliness is life changing. In Black Boy Richard Wright tells about his life growing up with racial inequality,being poor and living with his family. Richard Wright demonstrates his experience and understanding of the black community in the early 1900’s by incorporating examples of its disjointedness, low standards of living and violence. Richard Wright uses his experience and understanding to display that black population was disjointed. The suffering that Richard’s mom endures changes richard.

Black Boy, an autobiographical novel written by Richard Wright tells his story starting from his childhood to youth. Wright used ironic tone to express the struggle of being born black in America. In his book, Wright described the political system where colored people were segregated and seen as objects rather than human beings. Reading Black Boy gives me an overview of the time when there was no equal treatment towards whites and blacks and the time when colored people were considered as property. His use of vivid words and his way of describing the difficult situations that he encountered by just being black helped me to visualize the story of Wright’s life and the lives of colored people.