Cost Her A Whipping From Momma Analysis

Both Maya and Louis grew in an era which racial discrimination was extreme. According to “What’s in a name, Louis tells his encounter with Mr. Wilson who despite knowing his father’s name called him George. He noted that George was a name used for black people only since whites rarely used the name. Louis also observed that despite his father’s successful career and financial stability, he was not accorded much respect. In his book Freedman, Louis shows his immense passion and will to fight for the blacks (138). He puts countless efforts towards making the name black legit and natural. Louis shows his patriotism to his race by indicating that he was black during his university application at Yale. After successful enrollment in Yale, Louis was the first to introduce the name Afro-Americans in the class of 1973.

Maya’s upbringing as a child is very parallel to Taylor’s because she is raised by her grandma, whom she calls Momma, without an affective paternal figure in her life. As a child, Maya sees that her grandma successfully raised her and her brother on her own. Momma owns a shop in their town called, The Store and she runs it generally by herself. She makes an effort to protect Maya and Bailey from being mistreated in society because when the dentist refuses to attend to Maya’s needs, Momma tells the dentist, “I wouldn’t go press on you like this for myself but I can’t take No. Not for my grandbaby” (Caged Bird 189). Momma asserts her power in demanding service for her granddaughter and shows Maya that she is strong and possesses the power to be successful in society and overpower a male in some circumstances. Maya watches her grandma in this situation and instantly categorizes her as a powerful woman and looks up to her even more now. Maya visualizes her Momma as a form of a hero because, “Momma had obliterated the evil white man” (Caged Bird 191), because she stood up to the white dentist that is seen as evil in her family’s eyes. Maya then realizes that Momma is one of the more powerful black women in society that is able to stand up to the white race when the blacks are mistreated. Maya can then exert her

Her rap is peppered with ain’t gots and don’t have nones and Ii done beens and she be’s and he be’s the way mine is when we are sweet color among coloreds and don't have to worry about being graded. I see no shame in this” (p 276-277). Smith says this to persuade us that the history in her mother’s voice should not have shame behind it. She uses the terms colored to show us what time frame her mother grew up in and is apart of her that she passes down to her, something respectable. Her mother wants, “ to wash history from her throat, to talk like a woman who got some sense and future, to talk English instead of talking wrong” (p 277). The views of how she sees her mother and how her mother views herself are different but comparable because of who it is coming from, mother and daughter. Only Patrica Smith knows her mother in the reading to form an accurate opinion and view for the readers to

During this time lived Red, living in the hoods of Riding City with her mother. Her name is not a typical white male’s name, mind you, but a name to show her courage as a fine person. One fateful day, she was asked to deliver some healthy fruits to her grandmother in another part of the hood, not because the

This representation is depicted more explicitly as it manifests itself in both Juanita Mae Jenkins’ We’s Lives in Da Ghetto and in Monk’s own novel, My Pafology. When Monk is flying to Washington D.C, he reads a review of the new “runaway bestseller,” We’s Lives in Da Ghetto. The novel is about Sharonda, who “is fifteen and pregnant with her third child, by a third father. She lives with her drug addict mother and her mentally deficient, basketball playing brother Juneboy” (39). While the novel’s premise is ridiculous, what is offensive is the way it is acclaimed and the claims that are made about it. The review heralds the novel as one that depicts “the experience which is and can only be Black America” and claims that Sharonda “lives the typical Black life,” before the conclusion of the novel when she has become “the epitome of the black matriarchal symbol of strength” (39-40).

After Selina’s debut solo performance, Margaret’s mother regards her “with an intense interest and irritation” (Marshall 286). Her voice is “preoccupied” (Marshall 286) with prejudice, as she keeps trying to label Selina’s identity. By asserting that there is “something different… about Negroes from the West Indies” that she could “always spot” (Marshall 287), Margaret’s mother shamelessly overgeneralizes Selina’s ancestry and characteristics. Although she asks questions, she hears only what she could identify and what she wanted to hear. Moreover, she goes on to talk about their old maid who was honest and implies how the same cannot be said about the majority of the black race. From an offensive and provocative sentences such as, “You can’t help your color” and “you don’t even act colored” (Marshall 288), readers can clearly see that Margaret’s mother is labeling Selina as one of the majority. All the while, Margaret’s mother has a “warm smile, which was cold at its source” (Marshall 287), on her face and places her “consoling” (Marshall 287), “restraining” (Marshall 288) hand on Selina’s knee, which symbolizes the white supremacy. With “a sharp and shattering clarity,” Selina realizes that the woman “saw one thing above all else” (Marshall 289) when she looked at her: her black skin. She truly sees

In the short story “Mrs. Turner Cutting the Grass”, written by Carol Shields, the author shows that one’s reputation shouldn’t get in the way of one’s happiness. For example, when Mrs. Turner goes to New York City, she moves in with a black man named Kiki in the 30s, at a time when racism was present and when mixed-race relationships were not tolerated. It never crossed the woman’s mind that her reputation was threatened; indeed, the fact that Mrs. Turners is “more than a little doubtful about what ebony is” (p.6, ll. 100-101) when she thinks of her past lover’s name extension “as black as ebony” (p.6 l.98) indicates how she doesn’t really care about the mean description that people used for Kiki. In addition, it is also portrayed that the

When she was hired as a maid for a white lady, Mrs. Cullinan, she faces the worst case of racism by far. DUring the first few days when Mrs.Cullinan was told that Maya’s name was Margaret, she claimed that “that name’s too long, I’d never bother myself” (107). Maya is furious by the audacity Mrs. Cullinan has because “it was a dangerous practice to call a Negro anything that could be loosely conserved as insulting” (109).

As a result of the size of Stamps, and the people that inhabited the town, there was very little you could do without the whole town knowing. Throughout Maya Angelou’s and Bailey’s childhood they were constantly limited by the narrow-minded town and in San Francisco they gained the freedom to expand their minds. In San Francisco they left Momma’s disciplined ways and benefited from Vivian’s laid back ways. Considering this independence that they children were given, they reacted well and due to it, they realized who they were as a person and were able to

Race, gender, age, and social class are things sometimes used to define a person. Mrs. Cullinan assumed because Maya was African American she had no say. The blacks have suffered so much harassment from the whites for many years that being “called out of his name” was an offense. It was such an insult to take away Marguerites name just for the convenience of Mrs. Cullinan it was like taking part of her away from her. Maya describes how this impacted her and how she decided to get vengeance. Times have now changed but there are still some people who believe that one gender or one race is superior and better.

In Leslie Savan’s essay, “What’s Black, Then White, and Said All Over?,” Savan talks about the “hidden costs”(381) and benefits of the black language in America. When observing this economic and psychological boundary its clear that African American people went through lots of pain and suffering when creating trendy words and sayings. This is important to African Americans because most people do not understand that these words have now been adopted by white people “who reap the profits without paying [their] dues”(Savan 382).

The woman who raised and loved him did not know him any longer. This is one of many instances that illustrates the white society’s “lack of mercy and compassion” (22). Malcolm X blames whites for robbing his mother’s dignity, for separating his siblings, and for “disintegrating” his home and unity. Therefore, Malcolm X states he has no compassion for “a white society that will crush people” (22). The word “crushed” imparts the same horror he feels on the audience to illuminate the extremity of racism so that the audience can sympathize with his reasoned anger. Being called the ‘n-word’ in his life is another factor in Malcolm X’s belief that white society is demeaning to blacks. When Malcolm X told his English teacher that he wanted to be a lawyer, she replied, “That’s no realistic goal for a n-word” (118). The teacher’s statement is a clear portrayal of the widely accepted sentiment in that time period that African Americans are too incompetent to have good jobs and have ambitions. As a result, this incident deeply affected Malcolm X and has contributed to his disapproval of blacks being servile in a white society. Malcolm X appeals to the audience 's sense of horror and hatred by sharing his experiences in order for paint a more illuminated picture of racism.

“Caroline, why do people call you Black?, why do let them?” He gazed at me, reaching through my pale blue eyes up into my mind. Speechless and astonished at the question, I nearly tripped over myself. I couldn’t even begin to comprehend the name that he just called me. I was positive that no one remembered my name. Even the teachers referred to me as “B.” The only people who call me Caroline are my god-awful parents. I felt exposed and my instinct was to turn cold; to freeze him out.

In “My Name is Margaret”, Maya Angelou, the author of this short story, elucidates upon a fictional scenario depicting the dictating entitlement and superiority exposed to a myriad of African Americans during her generation. Angelou demonstrates this racial contrast by emphasizing the feeling of irrelevance through the looking glass

In the essay “What’s Your Name, Girl?” Maya Angelou explores the injustice and suffering of her childhood as a black girl living in Stamps, Arkansas. Immediately, as the essay begins, you acquire insight on how Angelou seemed to be envious of white girls: “But Negro girls in small Southern towns, whether poverty-stricken or just munching along on a few of life’s necessities, were given as extensive and irrelevant preparations for adulthood as rich white girls shown in magazines. Admittedly the training was not the same. While white girls learned to waltz and sit gracefully with a teacup balanced on their knees, we were lagging behind, learning the mid-Victorian values with very little money to indulge them.” (17-18). Angelou recognized how unfair black people were treated. They had to scrounge up money whenever they could, while white people would effortlessly “waltz and sit gracefully” whenever they wanted to. She was envious of white people’s social statuses and what little work they had to do in the world and she wanted to be one of them; she wanted to live an easy life.