Blue Black Boy Analysis

Citizen An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine is a unique piece of literature that truly encompasses the concept of being a Black Intellectual assessing the state of Black people in the American society. Among many of Rankine 's passages in Citizen, she addresses microaggressions, racial incidents and current events surrounding Black Americans. From there her novel further transitions into assessing high profiled racial and political cases in America of Blacks who have died unjust deaths, as well as examining the complex ideas of reaching a resolution to race and ethnic issues in America.

Intimate partner violence is characterized not only by physical violence, but also sexual, emotional, and mental violence through the use of threats (Understanding Intimate Partner Violence, 2011). In Black and Blue, Anna Quindlen delves into the mind of a woman who faces intimate partner violence in her everyday life. Fran, or Beth, and her son attempt to get away from Fran’s abusive cop husband. While Black and Blue is a fiction novel, its points about intimate partner violence hold true in many cases such as the breaking of traditional gender roles, high levels of stress, alcohol overconsumption, and learned behavior.

In the book All American Boys what the authors suggest about the nature of bias is that it is a factor in the lives of many people in some way, and is one of the main reasons why society is not equal. This is shown when the general white population in the book sides with Paul after the altercation with Rashad, even though the plot made it so clear Paul was in the wrong. The first piece of evidence is when the presumably white school committee was only looking for spray paint cans in the lockers of students of color, which is portrayed in the following quote said by Jill: “‘That’s what I saw. Three black students, boys, in a row. Then Martinez. They skipped me!’” (183). Jill was so outraged by what happened at this point in the book because

Gauri Patel AP Language- Mrs. Davis September 6, 2017 Chapters 1-6 of The Boys in the Boat: Mirrors or Windows? As I read pages 31-37, the edge of a different perspective on life is evident. The author, Daniel James Brown gives the reader a prestigious and detailed window view of every possible adversity in Joe Rantz’s life. The young, hopeless, Joe was the second child of Nellie Maxwell and Harry Rantz and a younger brother to Fred Rantz. Growing up with one catastrophe after another, the reader begins to realize that his weakness and instability was driven out of his traumatic familial relationships. The traumatic experiences Joe faced as a child, described earlier in the chapter, shows why he is such an independent character. Spring of

After seeing a couple of her pieces, it is easy to draw this line between them. She works with predominantly black subjects, and when the subject is white, she portrays a selfish power, a disregard to the land, often with animal heads or bodies. The connection stares one in the face, unignorable. Though still sharing the common theme, this particular painting deals with a topic central to the book - erasure. It is no coincidence that the hands clutching at the child reach for his throat and mouth, attempting to silence him, the bullet through his brain an attempt to kill him, though whether it was a murder or a suicide is left up to the viewer. Throughout the book Rankine brings up experiences where people of color are silenced, their views deemed inferior and unimportant, causing the tones to sing in

The survival of the Black American family is a revolutionary act. The system of slavery purposefully separated and destroyed black families. Yet, in the face of obstacles, the Black family as an institution survived. Langston Hughes and Robert Hayden show the power of connection, love, and learning between the Black parent and the Black child. Many Black poets write about the Black experience in America, but few capture the interactions between Black parent and Black child the way Langston Hughes and Robert Hayden do in their poems “Mother to Son” and “Those Winter Sundays”, respectively. Langston Hughes and Robert Hayden use metaphors and imagery to portray the lessons Black children learn from Black parents.

“Free will and determinism are like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt is determinism. The way you play your hand is free will.” (Norman Cousins) “The Lost Boyz” by Justin Rollins, is a remarkable, personal recount of the author’s dejected youth as well as a deep, raw and vivid insight into the ways and consequences of a broken youths’ mind (Rollins, 2011). Throughout his book, Rollins depicts the divergent factors responsible for his descend into the criminal lifestyle, ultimately attributing them to two key criminological theories; classicism and positivism (Newburn, 2017). Classicist criminology, or the classical approach to criminal behaviour is centred around the idea of free will and rational thinking, defining the criminal

Renee Cox, as an African American woman and artist, uses her body and identity to start a discussion on the Black experience in America. Besides representing a population of minority artists, the female and the non-white, her art has affected society with her brazen approach to her craft. Cox’s significance comes from her open display of race and sex. In many of her pieces, nudity and the celebration of the African American experience is the focus. In addition to this, her medium of choice, mixed media and photography, is opening an outlet of art that isn’t traditionally used. In essence, Renee Cox is an artist that can pave the way for future artists by diversifying through medium, race, and sex.

For this assignment I chose to attend the Claudia Rankine reading that was hosted at MLK library. At the start of the event, Rankine explained that she would organize her reading around the images that are presented in her book, Citizen. From there, she dives immediately into the very first image, providing the audience with an explanation for the hoodie cut off that envelops the covers of her book. Rankine indicates that the hoodie was a piece of artwork that was created in 1993 by an African American artist by the name of David Hammons. What I found even more compelling, as Rankine explained the piece, was that Hammons created this hoodie a year after the beating of Rodney King. After she finished explaining the Hoodie piece, Rankine begins reading a piece from her book. Following the reading, Rankine showed another image, this time it was of Jim Crow road, she then points out the reasons as to why she liked this image in her book. Rankine explained that the example the image presented was something that she wanted to “watch over the book, as its first

Color is a very universal topic, describing not only the immediate, but also the mental world of humans. In the article, “What Abstraction Can Teach Us About Race and the Color Black,” the issue of using color to define and go beyond the description of race comes forth through the use of the color black. In different art pieces, the use of the color black evokes a new meaning to the civil rights of African Americans, with an exhibition's purpose to redefine what the term “blackness” means in today’s society. In a Radiolab segment “Why isn’t the Sky Blue?” a discussion takes place that looks at how cultures defined the colors they see, and more specifically how the color blue came about. Surprisingly, the majority of cultures came up with the

This Artwork was displayed in the Black Panther Party newspaper, and is directly related the Black Panther political party. These newspaper prints created by Emory Douglas were known for bold colors, striking drawings of Black citizens, and huge typographic headlines. This newspaper and Emory’s designs clear spread the theme of anger and hope to the community. A need for self-representation was key to the African American population, and everyone needed to have the mindset to overcome oppression. In this art work a women is displayed with a baby while also holding a gun. The bags under her eyes show fatigue, and the anger in her face is prevalent. The baby is an icon for hope for better generations. There are words on this print saying, “Listen

Pershing dared to defy the white man who came into his district asking him to procure a "nice, clean colored" girl for sex. I think he did that because of three reasons. Firstly, he could never dare to defend his sister, never stand up to gang of white men with snuff in their mouth yelling out what they what do to her. And then, when the white man asked him that, his anger flared as strong because his sister as well as the other colored girls were offended seriously about honor and dignity of the human. So to protest them, he had decided to fight back, resist the white man. Secondly, he lived in whites's oppression and repression. He saw many colored people who was killed, hanged, burned alive without any reasons. This was the world he was

Starting with a mezzoforte trumpet tune reminiscent of classic jazz with a supporting guitar harmony, “Blue School” by the Blue Scholars feels very bold and brisk. The rhythm enters a few seconds after on the quicker side of andante -- roughly 97 bpm. MC Geologic, the voice, enters at roughly fifteen seconds in. The layering of the voice, drums, guitar, and trumpet accents create a complex and fairly dense overall rhythm. The volume for the remainder of the song sits around a forte, temporarily having a trumpet blast around fortissimo, and dropping suddenly to a mezzo piano at roughly three minutes in until 3:22 when the rapping switches to spoken voice and the forte returns. “Blue School” is able to get away with having more simple dynamics because the vocalist is able to convey his message through words so he doesn’t need to try to express it with different volumes. Vocal takes precedence in this song, even with its seeming lack of a true melody.

Tyler, the Creator is a creative powerhouse from the hip hop and fashion world, with a unique and unapologetically individual presentation of self. From his heavily stylized music videos to his eccentric live performances, Tyler’s music is an extension of his personality, and in turn personifies spoken soul. In this essay, I will present my argument that Tyler, the Creator uses writing style and performance techniques in his song “Who Dat Boy” to exemplify spoken soul through themes and delivery. To prove this, I will begin by highlighting writing styles used in the lyrics of “Who Dat Boy”. Next, I will explain how the delivery of these lyrics.

Weems and Thomas are both artists, which are carrying on a distinctly American tradition in politics and art that is conscious of race and racism. Both are however moving into new areas and could be called postmodern or post racism. Both critiques are trying to reclaim the post-political, or reposition political involvement in art. Art that is new