Analysis Of The Black Table Is Still There

In his essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid,” Jonathan Kozol brings our attention to the apparent growing trend of racial segregation within America’s urban and inner-city schools (309-310). Kozol provides several supporting factors to his claim stemming from his research and observations of different school environments, its teachers and students, and personal conversations with those teachers and students.

The book has as its principal thesis the consideration of race as “a folk classification, a product of popular beliefs about human differences that evolved from 16th to 19th centuries” (Smedley, 2007, pag.24). The book also specifies three characteristics that distinguish the racial ideology in America: the absence of a category for biracial people, the homogenization of the black or African American Americans, and the impossibility to change a person’s race. (Smedley, 2007, pag.7)

“An awful lot of people come to college with this strange idea that there's no longer segregation in America's schools, that our schools are basically equal; neither of these things is true.”- Jonathan Kozol. The author of the script “Eye of the Beholder”, Rod Serling, puts his point out there about how segregation is going on all around us and it will never stop. The audience he is trying to portray his message to is everyone. He wants to make them aware of the segregation that is still going on today. Through the use of diction and experience, the author uses pathos, logos, and ethos to show that segregation still goes on today and that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Racism and discrimination towards those of African descent can be hard topics to discuss, especially since America still experiences the discriminatory effects of slavery. The history and fundamentals of slavery has created a rift between whites and blacks that is seemingly impossible to overcome. There has been and will be lasting social effects including racial slurs and misconceptions based on how the world views African Americans. Brent Staples, in “Black Men and Public Space,” details his experience being treated unfairly due to his racial status. Gloria Naylor’s “‘Mommy, what does ‘Nigger’ Mean?’” discusses the authors first time being called the N-word, how she felt, and how she asked her mom about what it meant. Brent Staples’ “Black Men and Public Space”, and Gloria Naylor’s “‘Mommy, what does ‘Nigger’ Mean?’” are similar through the authors’ accounts of being treated poorly because of their African descent along with ways to cope with that oppression, and contrast through their tone--in the intro and through there experience of being discriminated against--and overall effect on the reader.

The black characters in the novel are all victims of this “separate but equal” mentality; the younger characters yearn for real equality and the older characters have settled in to their lives by accepting their “fate.” The existing structures of society in Bayonne, Louisiana prevent black characters such as Grant Wiggins and Vivian from ever breaking out of their social class; both are forced to remain in their lives as teachers of young black children who will also grow up to live limited lives. Wiggins says of his classroom, “I’m the teacher... and I

For my Argumentative Essay “Modern Day Re-Segregation in Today’s Schools”, I will be addressing Professor Kelly Bradford and my fellow students of Ivy Tech online English Composition 111-54H. As I chose Martin Luther King’s “Letter from A Birmingham Jail” as my core reading topic, I have gained an interest in not only the fight for civil rights that Mr. King lead in the 1950’s but have gotten interested in how there is still a large gap in equality in education due to the current situation of not only educational segregation but social and economic segregation. Through my research I have discovered that not only segregation in the schools is on the rise, but that socioeconomic segregation exists and is fueling the decrease in academic success by impoverished students. Through my writing I want to demonstrate that the socioeconomic isolation and segregation not only affects those that are directly bound by it, but that it affects every American in some form or other. I am submitting my writing as a formal academic manuscript.

Author, Dr. Beverly Tatum a clinical psychologist whose main study of interest is Black children’s racial identity development wrote the text Why Are All the Black Kids sitting Together in the Cafeteria? After receiving a letter from a school principal in New Jersey applauding her on her reason of why, in racially mixed schools all over the country, Black kids were still sitting together in school cafeterias. In the text Tatum shares her thoughts about the development of racial identity faced by the African American population and how it is interrelated to racism at the turn of the twentieth century while highlighting the Black-White relation in childhood and adolescence age group. The book entails controversy in that, Dr. Tatum understanding of racism is centered heavily on race. Tatum’s explanation of racism suggest that Blacks cannot be racist based on the fact their racial bigotry do not stand or rest on a structure of advantage.

Analysis of Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum

Starting in the 1890s, segregation laws known as the Jim Crow Laws dominated the United States, specifically in the South. These laws required schools, parks, libraries, forms of public transportation and even drinking fountains to be segregated into “Whites Only” and “Coloreds”. Although the Jim Crow Laws intended to treat blacks “separate but equal”, blacks received poorer conditions in their public facilities, were denied the right to vote and were treated with no respect from the whites (Jim Crow Laws). In Richard Wright’s essay, “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch”, Wright describes his first-hand experience with these laws and the negative encounters he has faced just because of the color of his skin.

Discrimination, race, and segregation all dominated society in early to mid-20th century. The articles Racial Etiquette #1, Racial Etiquette #2, and Jim Crow explain how terrible segregation was; it affected everyone in the world, not just the blacks, even though it hit them the hardest. These articles show certain behaviors among the different races as a result of segregation.

In the 1940‘s racial segregation gripped southern American life. The notion of separating blacks from whites created immense tension. Separate water fountains, bathrooms, restaurants, etc. were variables that helped keep races apart. “Jim Crow” laws in the south were intended to prevent blacks from voting. These laws, combined with the segregated educational system, instilled the sense that blacks were “separate” but not equal (174). Many people of color weren‘t able to survive through this time period because of the actions of whites. One individual who overcame the relentless struggles was Ralph Ellison. Ellison, a famous author, depicted racial segregation in the 1940’s through a fictional short story entitled “Battle Royal.” Battle

What do we think about when we think segregation? The first thing we’re most likely to think is schools, parks and stores right? Well it was more than that, segregation affected communities and even libraries and restaurants. Imagine it’s pre-1954, and you’re a black student walking to school. You see the bus pass but it doesn’t even drive as far as you have to walk, the kids get out and go into their heated and stable school while you think to yourself “how come our school isn’t that nice?” This was the whole idea in the

history. The color of a person’s skin has been a deciding factor on the amount of respect

Racism has repeatedly played a controversial role throughout the course of history. This is a topic fueled by the heated arguments of the parties on both ends of the matter, may it be the cry of the victim or defense of the offender. As described in the works of two members of ethnic minorities coping with the alienation they both faced in what is supposed to be the land of diversity, Firoozeh Dumas’ “The F Word,” and Brent Staples’ “Black Men and Public Space, racism is portrayed as a dark shadow cast upon those who may not seem to conform to the “norms” of western culture to the typical American. Such stereotypes and predispositions should not hold the power to classify and simplify human beings to one

People in society are like crayons in a box; some are sharp and beautiful, some have weird names but all are in different colors; but they have to learn to live in the same box. Every day, many people encounter other people, creating many social issues and racism is one of them. Racism is one of the most controversial problem in our society. This is the ideal that many people engage in consciously and the way some people think without even realizing it. Racism is a racial discrimination but discrimination is not always racial. People focus on all different racial groups of people and discuss their fairness, discrimination and prejudice by appearance in their environment. The racism and discrimination throughout American history represented by the stereotypical ideology set by society, the progress in reforming the society and empowerment for younger generation nowadays. This can be seen in Eudora Welty’s literature work, “A Worn Path”.