Compare and Contrast Essay Minorities struggle to break free from poverty, due to the systematic oppression and racism established in America. There is an odd belief that granting minorities rights would allow them to instantly be on the same playing field as majorities. However, the various deaths and unjust sentencings that have occurred for decades, prove civil rights were not the only problem. Pedro Pietri’s Puerto Rican Obituary and Wanda Coleman’s South Central Los Angeles Death Trip, 1982 shed light on what minorities face, with some stylistic differences. Pietri’s Puerto Rican Obituary focuses on the problems that the Latino community faces. Although the poem focuses on Puerto Ricans living in New York City, …show more content…
Although the deaths are confined to one location, the experiences and events are relevant across America and is representative of modern cases such as Trayvon Martin. The first theme the poem address is stereotypes and prejudices people have of African Americans. The voice described what the victims were wearing or doing during their time of death: dangling gold chains & pinky rings nineteen. done in black leather & defiance teeth white as halogen lamps, skin dark as a threat… strangely he was dodging & ducking, bouncing & rolling, tipping & slipping The police viewed their behavior as strange and criminal, judging them on the basis of their skin. The second theme the poem addresses is police corruption and cover-up. Each vignette ends acknowledging that the victims were innocent of their suspected crimes. However, law enforcement was not blamed for their death; instead the cause of death was implied to be the victim’s fault, for being black. Pietri’s poem is an epic while Coleman’s is a series of vignettes, making this the main stylistic difference. As a result Coleman’s poem is distinctively separated into nine vignettes, each focusing on different victims connected by the same underlying theme. On the other hand, Pietri’s poem is separated into stanzas and the five victims are always mentioned together. There is no separation between the characters, thus emphasizing that they have the
In the poem ‘Southern Cop,’ Sterling A. Brown uses an array of rhetorical devices to reiterate the poem’s purpose. One of the rhetorical devices he uses is parallel structure, which he uses to express the the other two rhetorical devices in a more expressive way. He also uses sarcasm throughout the poem to show the underlying harm being caused by the casual approach to the problem. . Brown also uses understatement, expressing the shooting of the negro as lesser than it should be taken (if it was real.) Sterling A. Brown uses these devices to express the poems purpose.
Additionally, Pathos is seen in Cose’s recognition that the history of the noose is a delicate subject. He acknowledges that “sick, benighted souls” have been killed by lynching. Cose explains that lynchings and hate crimes have been directed not only at blacks but also whites, Mexicans, and Asians.
The two stories, High Noon and The Most Dangerous Game, build up the protagonist Rainsford and Kane in different ways, and create similarities and differences in which these characters have. The differences impact the stories to make them different; however, they still end up being some what the same. As these stories progress, there are similarities that start to form. High Noon and The Most Dangerous Game both have common ideas that help create the stories but also share a handful of differences as well.
One phrase is repeated throughout the passage: “And still you are not the guy and still you fit the description because there is only one guy who is always the guy fitting the description.” (Rankine 109) This quote from this piece in the novel refers to how even though the victims of police brutality are often innocent, they are still labeled as guilty. This ties in with stereotypical racism. Blacks are labeled as criminals due to their skin color, and the fact that they are still repetitively targeted as criminals despite the removal of segregation proves that we as a society have no made as great of advancements as we thought we have. The police are allowed to brush off their mistake as “harmless” because they claim that the victims of police brutality looked like perpetrator of the crime, as if that is a good enough reason to forcefully arrest a person with no explanation to that person. When they are caught making these mistakes, they claim they were attacked first, despite the common evidence of proof that was not what happened. This phrase is repeated numerous times throughout the seemingly short passage. The phrase is repeated for emphasis on how the speaker was just a civilian, who was wrongfully arrested for a crime he did not commit, just based on his minority status. If police had some kind of protocol to follow before their arrests, then this situation could have been avoided completely. If the police are really here to help us, then they would have sought for what was in the best interest of the person who was arrested. There is an urgent need of change in our justice systems, starting from the arrests themselves. Blacks and other minorities are being dehumanized and targeted randomly every
In recent years, there has been increased discussion about the treatment of minorities in the U.S. While there have been numerous laws passed that protect their freedoms, many Americans maintain a negative mindset toward other ethnicities. Due to people’s reservations, our country has been unable to make substantial progress toward equality. In The Nation’s article, “The Truth About Race in America: It’s Getting Worse, Not Better,” by Gary Younge, the author utilizes factual information, historical allusions, and related quotes to effectively contend that race relations are worsening within the United States.
Sundiata displays in his poem how the law justifies the way he lives. He writes through the eyes of an African American who finds himself controlled by the law. In his poem, Sundiata was taking a casual drive to visit his girlfriends when all of a sudden the “law” decides to stop him. The policeman insisted he ran the red light, but Sundiata knew it was green. “I was just being a man it wasn’t about no light it was about my ride” (Lines 6-9). Looking at his color, the police automatically assumed he was up to no good without investigating the situation. He was simply driving by.
This poem focuses on the lynching of a African American male. The speaker of the poem appears to console a woman who appears to be distressed due to the events taking place. In the first four lines of stanza 1, the speaker says:
Cullen is hopeful to get to a place where people of different races will be able to look at others without prejudice and discrimination. However, the poem “Incident” is of a less positive tone. She expresses her experience in a shocked manner, saying, a boy stuck his “tongue out and, called, [her] ‘Nigger’,” (Cullen 8). She was so shocked that “From May until December; .../… of all the things that happened... /… that’s all [she could remember” in Baltimore (Cullen 10-12). At the young age that she was at, it is surprising and upsetting to her to be discriminated against for no reason.
In “Puerto Rican Obituary” by Pedro Pietri, the author takes his readers on a journey of the oppressive life of a Puerto Rican immigrant. He describes a vicious cycle of stagnancy in which immigrants work endlessly without reward. Hopeful every day that the American dream they once imagined would come to fruition, but instead they are continually faced with trials and turmoil on every hand. Instead of uniting as a body to work towards greatness, the immigrants grow envious of each other, focusing on what they lack instead of the blessings that they currently attain. Contrary to the ideals of early immigrants, Pietri portrays Puerto Rico to be the homeland. The ideals of early immigrants have drastically changed throughout the development of America. Petri paints a completely different picture of America throughout his poem. Early immigrants describe an America that is welcoming, with endless opportunities, and a safe haven. Despite earlier depictions of the immigrant experience, these ideals are challenged because they weren’t integrated into society, were inadequately rewarded for hard work, and were disadvantaged due to their socioeconomic status.
This is a poem that is mainly directed to the violence that was often experienced by children with an African-American ethnicity. The violence was mainly experienced on the streets where a majority of these children lived.
After the ellipses, there is a shift back to the poetic “I”. The speaker states that while starring into the sockets of the victim’s skull, he becomes “frozen” with the “pity for the life that was gone”. This transitional sentence separates the scene of the already occurred murder from the present material world. The material world revives around the speaker in the next sentence of the poem. In this massive sentence, Wright dramatically personifies the nature in order to transform the cruel historical scene into the current time. However, the significant transformation of the poetic “I” to the “thing” starts when “the ground gripped” the poet’s feet. From that line, the personified ground captures the speaker, and from the observer of already happened images of the lynching, he revives as a participant in the present scene. In this scene, when the dry bones “melting themselves” into the poet’s bones, he becomes the victim of the lynching. The last minutes of the victim’s life are graphically presented in the third stanza of the poem. The first person’s perspective is a very powerful element, which Wright uses in order to put any reader into the African Americans unlawful suffering from the terror lynching. Furthermore, it is obvious that in the Richard
In Puerto Rican Obituary, the Puerto Rican people from New York City struggle to attain
The life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination… the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land (qtd. in W.T.L. 235).
The autobiography When I was Puerto Rican, written by Esmeralda Santiago, tells a story of a poor girl trying to succeed. The settings in this novel have an important influence on Esmeralda. They influence her behavior and change her ideals as an adult. Negi goes through many changes based on the challenges she faces by moving to new locations where society is different. All of these changes allow her to become a stronger person. When she lives in El Mangle, Negi has to face extreme prejudice against her upbringing as a jibara. When she leaves Puerto Rico to move to Brooklyn, she is forced to face an entirely different society. All of these events that took place in Esmeralda’s childhood had a significant impact in shaping her into an adult.
Imagine a world where honesty was the only option. People could not lie if they wanted to. The concept of a lie is inconceivable to the inhabitants of the this made up world. Politicians are as see-through as glass, and criminals convict themselves within seconds. Now place yourself in this world, with the knowledge and understanding of deception. You are an Ambassador of a merited nation, and your country has declared war on a neighboring commonwealth. The citizens of this foreign state are apparently not so different from the citizens in your community, yet their government is unfairly claiming the land of less protected villages on the border of your nation and theirs. Your citizens don’t see the importance of declaring war over a