Analysis Of The Book ' By Claudia Rankine 's Piece ( And The Book Overall ``

Racism is coming back slowly as the years pass us. The only thing that we can do is to keep our bodies safe from all the danger that might happen. Coates feel like the racism is never going to be gone in the world. Coates really wants his son to realize that he won’t always be there to protect his son. There will be who will want to put him down and make him feel less than other people. Coates states, “You would be a man one day, and I could not save you from the unbridgeable distance between you and your future peer and colleagues, who might try to convince you that everything I know, all the things I’m sharing with you here, are an illusion, or a fact a distant past that need not be discussed” (Coates, 90). Coates feel like there will be a bride that will keep him and son from each other one day. That the son will need to know that he won’t be there in person but there as a spirit to help him. The son will need to be able to notice when he might be in danger, and it's all on him on how he reacts from it. Coates talks about how he heard little kids were told by their parents to act extra good around people. The text states, “All my life I’d heard people tell their black boys and black girls to ‘be twice as good,’ which say ‘accept half as much.’ These words would be spoken with a veneer of religious nobility, as though they evidenced some unspoken quality, some undetected courage, when in fact, all they courage, when in fact, all they evidenced was gun to our head and the hand in our pocket” (Coates,91). Coates is trying to say is that there are people that believe in racism and ain't scared to show it at times. People are knowing seeing more racism now these days, since there is a new president for America, and he doesn’t see all people equal. With the actions/ words that Donald Trump are saying towards people, makes other believe that they can also use that type of language and get away with it. We

“These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty – to wit, the white man’s power to enslave black men. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom” (20).

The article “The Negro Digs Up His Past’’ by Arthur schomburg on 1925, elaborates more on the struggles of slavery as well as how history tend to be in great need of restoration through mindfully exploring on the past. The article, however started with an interesting sentence which caught my attention, especially when the writer says ‘’The American Negro must remark his past in order to make his future’’ (670). This statement according the writer, explains how slavery took away the great deal freedom from people of African descendant, through emancipation and also increase in diversity. The writer (Arthur Schomburg) however, asserts that “the negro has been throughout the centuries of controversy an active collaborator, and often a pioneer, in the struggle for his own freedom and advancement” (670).

In part one of “Between the World and Me,” Coates gives constant examples on how the black community deals with the loss of their bodies and violence on the daily. He makes his argument by being brutally honest. He does not hold back when talking on the subject, making the reader feel somewhat convicted after reading. He uses the element of right timing throughout part one to show how intense racism still is.

It was stated that whites need to fix the broken system that we have created and gained

Coates compares the lives of black people and the lives of white people, and the white life seems somewhat better than the way blacks live. For example, Coates explains how when he went to a white neighborhood and he was experiencing what the Dream was all about. He noticed how “There was so much money everywhere”. This means that when Coates seen all the different stored and people they looked like they had a lot of money, his is exactly what the American Dream is. “I saw white parents pushing double-wide strollers down Harlem boulevards”, the Dream is

In Mary Norcott Bryan’s A Grandmothers Recollection of Dixie, the author included a quote which demonstrated the progressive nature of her family in terms of racial relations. The quote was a will from her grandfather which staggered out the release of his slaves. “I will that Owen and Lillie be made free the first court after January…the year 1847; then I most earnestly wish that all shall be free.”1 In this fashion Bryan attempts to distinguish herself and family above other whites. This reflects Bryan’s Antebellum upbringing which held more pronounced ideas of what it meant to be a white southerner from a

Amalgamation, or the genetic mixing of the black and white races, was greatly feared by white people at this time. Taney and Douglas believed that by freeing the slaves, amalgamation would occur rampantly across the nation. Lincoln protests this logic stating that it is ridiculous to believe that "because I do not want a black woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. I need not have her for either, I can just leave her alone. In some respects she certainly is not my equal; but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands without asking leave of any one else, she is my equal, and the equal of all others (Lincoln 1857)." Once again,

The author says that defenders and supporters of Lincoln can always back up his remarks with a redeeming quality. Lincoln admitted his feelings of racial equality; instead he always stated the feeling of white people. He didn’t always carefully construct his answers when speaking about his position of certain topics, although he tried. Lincoln wanted all questions about race removed from all discussion. His strategy to do so was to agree with the Democratic Party that there was no equality between blacks and whites. He used racism strategically to eliminate it. Lincoln did admit that he was in support of colonization because he truthfully believed that blacks and whites could not live together equally. To a man like Frederick Douglass, what Lincoln and the Republicans stood for was disjointed. And to me, while this may have all been a strategy for Lincoln, I feel it necessary to take Douglass’ side of the issue.

This quote shows how the klansmen have forced people to do want they want or they will face punishments. This also showed the lack of equal law treatment in the states at the time that

Citizen is a narrative written to connect with the reader by telling stories in the second person . In the novel, “Citizen”, Claudia Rankine uses short stories and personal experiences to encapsulate the struggle that African American people endure when they are thrown against a sharp white background .

President Abraham Lincoln was put into office March 4, 1861, and this would be the start of a significant change for America. Many people see Lincoln as one of the best presidents that was in office for America, but others have opposing views on how he was not the best president in office. In Lucas E. Morel’s, “Lincoln, Race, and the Spirit of ‘76”, he expresses, “Many people who consider Abraham Lincoln the greatest American president would be surprised to discover that he endorsed black colonizations, did not promote civil and political equality for blacks in the free state of Illinois” (3). By having Lucas E. Morel expressing that, “endorsed black colonizations” and “not promote civil and political equality” shows two ways of how Lincoln was great, but at the same time was not. If Lincoln allowed black colonizations he would demonstrate equality for them, since the freed slaves are still not being treated well. On the positive side, Lincoln was still able to make slaves independent in America which shows how Lincoln affected slavery. As one can see,, Lincoln does not correspond with slavery since he does not see it as a justified act. At the moment in America, human equality was not justified because of slavery. Lincoln wanted to make a change in America and wanted to make sure human equality was justified. In Lucas E. Morel’s, Lincoln, Race, and the Spirit of ‘76, he indicates that, “Lincoln saw this repudiation of human equality as the greatest threat to preserving

In Section 6 of Citizen, Rankine switches her focus towards the script for the Situation videos she created with John Lucas. These videos incorporate events that show how much society abuse black Americans. Rankine covers events such as Hurricane Katrina and Trayvon Martin’s death. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, affecting “hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama”, especially the people from New Orleans (History.com Staff). The Hurricane Katrina script is “comprised of quotes collected from CNN” (Rankine 82). Most of them describe what happened during Hurricane Katrina. Bodies floating, people stranded on roofs and other kinds of heartbreaking things. However, a few parts Rankine included

Rankine divided her lyric into seven sections. Although each section focused on different topics they were connected by an underlying theme, racism. The first section focused on incidents of microaggression. Strategically Rankine begins to display incidents that stem from childhood, drawing a clear line that skin color causes children to be treated

Even after the civil war white society still saw blacks as nonhumans. Lincoln even said that he was not in favor of blacks having social or political equality with whites. He did not think they should hold office, intermarry, or vote. White society could not come to terms with seeing blacks as having as much worth as whites. Cone says that anyone who has examined history carefully can see that “all aspects of this society have participated in the act of enslaving blacks, extinguishing Indians, and annihilating all who question white society’s right to decide who is human.