African American Women After Michelle Obama

The fourth chapter of "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”is about the identity development in adolescence. It is said that when black children are growing up, they engage in many of the white culture’s beliefs and values as it is all around them. It is not until a little later where they begin to recognize the impact of racism. This can happen around the early stages of adulthood. It might even happen around the junior high age. Gender also comes into play around this time as well. A black girl wouldn't be acknowledged for her beauty in a white setting as she is not in the society's standard for beautiful. Since the black girls aren’t considered beautiful, they begin to feel devalued. The black youth are beginning

The intended audience for this speech was young women who aspire to become a better woman independently. Even though the actual audience was young women, the place where she gave a speech was the best place to show the similarity between Michelle Obama and her intended audience. The school was “girls-only, inner-city, its pupils, of whom 20% are the children of refugees... 92% of whom are from a black or minority background”(Cadwalladr, 2009, para.9). She says, “ I want you to know that we have very much in common”(1:24). Then, “I did not raise with wealth or resources or any social standing to speak of, and I raised on the Southside of Chicago. That is the real part of Chicago”(1:50). She uses her personal statement to lose the gap between

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a book written by Michelle Alexander. This book explains the mass incarceration that African-American males faced in the United States. Alexander uses many examples of discrimination throughout the book, but the most prevailing one to me was how the criminal justice system used to the War on Drugs. Alexander describes a “racial caste system” as a way that African-Americans are kept at a lower social standing then the white people. The way that Alexander presents her arguments allows we the reader to see the true racism that was faced by African- Americans. This book gives many arguments but there are some main arguments that Alexander stresses throughout the book that

Olivia Pope is a star in the hit television series, Scandal which airs on ABC. She is an African American women, she has no children, single and is career driven. She is a crisis manager for those who are in the political world. As the show progresses your opinion of Olivia slowly changes. In the beginning of the show she is strong, hardworking, loyal, helper and fixer. As the show progresses you see her develop into a character who has personal issues of her own and you wonder if she deflecting her own problems and if that is why she is always trying to help others fix their.

The author, claims and argues that Black American females are geniuses by presenting quantitative education and income data to substantiate this claim. 2 Kaba provides historical data that demonstrates that Black women have made many notable achievements in history, despite the difficulties that have been faced by the black population for almost 400 years. This author described “genius” as a person of extraordinary intellect and talent and extraordinary intellectual and creative power. Utilizing United States census data, the author points out that of the 14,000 Doctorate degree recipients in the USA aged 18-24, 11,000 were females and Black females accounted for 4,000 (28.6%) and 36.4% of the 11,000 females (Kaba, 2009). The author surmises that with all the statistical census data, educational records and achievements they

The month of February is dedicated to black history month and in this short essay I will be speaking about the first African-American women to ever join the United States Navy. These women went by the names of Frances Willis and Harriet Ida Pickens. These women who joined the Navy were inducted by a program that was created in the mid 40s called, “WAVES,” The program stood for, (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). The program was created for women to become nurses during World War II and the women served as nurses until the war ceased.

Race relations have always been a very controversial topic in this country and still are. In the mid-1900s there were many writers who felt very strongly about how African Americans and white people interacted together. In this paper three individual excerpts by three different authors will be discussed. All three of these authors have different viewpoints because of how they see the world based on their individual life experiences.

The United States prides itself on being a land of opportunities, and in many ways it is. We look at countries like South Africa, which not long ago was segregated through the laws of Apartheid, and we are glad that we are so much further along than the land of Mandela. However, every now and then we need to stop and ask ourselves just how far along we really are, and we have to wonder if many of the once oppressed countries we helped free are not passing us up in the area of civil rights and opportunity.

After the seminary days, the women church ministers encounter numerous challenges as they begin and carry on with their professional career. In modern African American churches, women’s’ leadership has shifted from the typical roles as leaders of women in missionary societies and groups to congregational leaders like pastoral ministry and Christian education. In the current paper, the focus is on the problems single women minister, pastor, preacher faces with dating or being in a relationship and not married. The paper first briefly explores the contemporary women leadership in African American churches, encumbrances to effective women’s leadership, approaches to solving the obstacles, notable contributions of African American women and lastly signs of hope and encouragement.

The aim of the thesis is to analyze and discuss the African American women`s quest for voice, acceptance and fulfilment. The analysis will be based on three selected novels, namely, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Color Purple and Beloved. Since their authors - Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker all - experienced some difficulties in their life related to the subject matter of the thesis, their biographies will be sketched, too. The analysis focuses especially on three women who are the protagonists of the selected novels. Their personal and social problems will be juxtaposed within the context of the criticism selected for the purpose of this thesis.

By 1815, slavery within America was already institutionalised affecting the majority of African Americans; by 1860, there were 3.5 to 4.4 million enslaved African Americans as a result of the Atlantic Slave Trade in comparison to the 488,000–500,000 free African Americans. The Emancipation Proclamation (1863) freed all enslaved African Americans; nonetheless, African Americans were still considered inferior. Especially African American women who were treated significantly worse- sexually exploited, rejected by various southern suffragette groups as well as the National Woman Suffrage Association which opposed the 15th Amendment, enabling African American men to vote, fearing the setback it could cause women in obtaining the vote. Historian Deborah Gray White highlighted the status of being an African American woman stating that being "Black in a white society, slave in a free society, woman in a society ruled by men, female slaves had the least formal power and were perhaps the most vulnerable group of antebellum America." From 1815 to 1917, the lives of white women improved economically, socially and politically. Nevertheless, the improvement of African American women could be questioned. Therefore, this essay will focus on how the lives of African American women from 1815 to 1917 were marked by continuity rather than a period of change and improvement.

Michelle Obama is the topic of this research for she is a role model and inspiration to Americans across the nation. Michelle’s life has shown nothing but mere dedication, outstanding perseverance, a willingness to learn, affect change and be a leader to those who believe and admire her work. Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, Obama is the daughter of Fraser Robinson III, a city water plant employee and Democratic precinct captain (Slevin, 2015). During her early years, Michelle has seen the detrimental effects segregation can have on a community, which was later reflected on her fight against inequality. Being raised on the

Throughout many decades, African American women have been able to set their own standards of beauty. Lonnae Parker, a writer for The Washington Post, states in her article Black women heavier and happier with their bodies than white women, poll finds, that “Freed from that high-powered media gaze, generations of black women have fashioned their own definitions of beauty with major assists from literature, music, and help from their friends” (Parker, 2012). The importance of this quote is that they were getting help from their culture, the music and literature is essentially the culture that helped them to define their own standards of beauty. By being isolated

Gerald Early, the author of the essay Life with Daughters, describes the hardships of being African American especially when trying to raise two daughters who don’t believe they are beautiful . Early’s purpose is to inform the reader of all the difficulties that black girls face growing up in a society who has defined beauty with the image of a white, skinny blonde. He adopts a bitter tone in order to point out all of the difficulties these girls face in order to appeal to similar feelings and experiences of other African American girls their parents.

The third part starts with an example of a women (ll. 73-79) with which Obama wants the listeners identify with him and wants to show that he is just a human being as everyone else. After the example fallows an enumeration (ll. 80- 82) which emphasizes the strengths with which the women stands for her country because there were many things which she had seen but it is an example which says that she never lost her faith and that everyone else should act like her. The repetition (“New”, l. 86) shows that Obama wants to create something new and wants the audience to feel so, too. He arouses the audience`s emotions in giving the anaphora “Yes we can” (ll. 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 94, 104) which he uses very often to stabilize the feeling of triumph in the listeners and to make them want to feel supported that they want to and can change something. With another enumerations (ll. 91-92) Obama wants to tell everyone what happened in the world which was from importance and that this little thing a women did (“ And in this year, in this election, she touched her finger on a screen, and cast her vote,...”, ll. 92.93) is as important as moving events in the world`s history.