Danzy Senna's Where Did You Sleep Last Night

Melton McLaurin, in his book, “Separate Pasts,” recalls memories of growing up in his hometown of Wade, North Carolina. During this time, McLaurin works in his grandfather’s store in the segregated South. McLaurin writes of his interactions with the black community and observes the segregated lifestyle of black and whites. In his book “Separate Pasts,” McLaurin describes the black citizens of Wade that have influenced and changed his views of segregation and racism.

One way she covers this is by highlighting Morrison’s disregard for censorship in her work. By presenting us with the raw truth, Morrison’s novel becomes all the more compelling. The author wants us to be condemned by her work; she inspires us to think deeper on its roots. Morrison accepts black history for what it is and therefore can use her work to express her opinion and take a stand for her beliefs. This article shows us the power of censorship and the strides we could potentially make if we were to cast it aside when dealing with things like

This autobiography is about a young girl named Frado, who was born free but when her mother Mag and step-father Seth abandoned her, she was forced into being an indentured servant for the family she was left with. Mag was a white woman who became an outcast after she bore a child out of wed-lock. The child only live but a few short weeks before she passed away; Mag found it to be a blessing for the child couldn’t be taunted for her mother’s mistake. After leaving the town that looked down upon her, she met and befriended a black man named Jim, he later convinced her to marry him, which in this 19th century society put her even lower on the totem-poll. Together they had two beautiful mulatto children, Frado and a son whose name was never mentioned in the book. After a couple of years of being

The late 60’s and early 70’s were a time where African Americans held legal rights mostly equal to those of whites but faced major challenges in many aspects of life. Gloria Naylor’s short story “Kiswana Browne” seamlessly intertwines the author’s experiences, showcases the frustration of a mid to late 20’s African American woman and the conflict between her and her mother’s ideology. The differences in attitude between Kiswana and Mrs. Browne are widely due to the differences in the treatment of African Americans in Mrs. Browne’s young adulthood as opposed what her daughter is currently experiencing. Mrs. Browne’s struggles in the early part of her life were to secure the legal rights of

Our differences, no matter how we tie them together, raise another issue in Blanco’s life and in everyone’s life: family. This is an issue everywhere, whether one has an adoptive, mixed, half, semi-normal, lack-of-a, or a nuclear family, family influences everyone, it unites us in humanity: casts judgment, gives praise, provides support, and frustration. Because even though, Blanco’s relationship with

Reading is a crucial part of my academic life, it is a subject that is used multiple times throughout my life. Among the many genres that I have explored, suspense, adventures, and mysteries are my favored because they catch my attention and make me wonder what happens next. Two books that fit these qualities are Alan Gratz’s young adult novel “Code of Honor” and Mildred Taylor’s historical novel “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry”. In the novel Code of Honor, Kamran Smith has it all; a beautiful girlfriend, he is his school’s football star and his best friend got them free tickets to the Super Bowl but his life takes a sharp turn for the worse. Kamran’s older brother, Darius, who fought in the US Army in Afghanistan, is accused a terrorist. He is seen on video bombing the US Embassy in Turkey. Important themes the novel conveys are brotherhood and loyalty. Kamran displays these themes by believing that Darius is innocent. This book has personally affected my life by strengthening my brotherhood and loyalty. I now have a stronger relationship with my brother and we are more loyal to one another. In the novel, Roll of Thunder, one African American family, the Logans, fight to stay strong in the face of brutal racist attacks, illness, poverty, and betrayal in the deep South of the 1930s. The main character and narrator, Cassie Logan, speculates many events during her childhood which takes place in the time of the Jim Crow era. This book has affected me on a personal level because I

“I sleep sound” (Glaspell 619). These are the words of a woman defending herself against a horrific crime. Sound: it is a word that strikes us as something that might keep us up at night. In the correct context, it obviously implies noise. People often say, “That is an annoying sound,” or, “that sound is deafening.” These are what we think of when we hear the word, sound. Susan Glaspell’s play, “Trifles,” covers a crime scene that includes one witness, Mr. Frank Hale, who quotes the only suspect in a case involving the murder of the accused’s husband. When used in the context referring to sleep, however, sound is a magical and refreshing descriptor, mostly considered to mean ‘like the dead.’ In a small town, not too far from Omaha in the

Physical violence wasn’t the only hardship that she endured in her early life. Her family became severed when three of her sisters were sold to other plantations that were far away. A trader from Georgia approached interested in buying her youngest brother, but their mother successfully resisted, preventing further

However, it is not just Luma who faced struggles in the story, such discrimination was experienced by an African immigrant by the name of Chike Chime who suffered police brutality and an extended stay in the local jail for doing nothing wrong other than having dark skin pigmentation and knowing the rights that American laws provide him, such actions that have caused a recent uproar in cities across the United States. This sudden influx in violence is not new as it has always been the belief that immigrants should have to conform to American standards when they arrive. In fact, when St. John interviewed the police officer responsible for the discriminatory actions against Chime, his response was “’They’re in America now. Not Africa.’” Although these immigrants and refugees have experienced a total upheaval of all that they have known, they are expected to further change their heritage and values to fit the template that middle-class, white Americans have set. These changes in themselves are often hard enough for these men and women to accept, however, those most affected by the adjustment are most likely the children. Children such as those who constitute the

During the struggle to rise to a higher social class, many African Americans have chosen to embrace white ideals while rejecting their heritage and anything that associates one with their “blackness” This type of rejection to one’s culture has been shown many times in African American literature. In “The Wife of His Youth,” by Charles Chesnutt, and Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, the authors use their writing to show this disconnection; both Chesnutt and Ellison are able to capture the struggle and help their characters to overcome it by embracing their pasts, which can be a very difficult ideal in African American heritage.

Dana finds herself travelling between her present day life in 1976 and her ancestral plantation of 1815 – two time periods that represent two opposite concepts of her identity as an African-American woman. In the beginning of the novel, Dana’s identity is constructed strictly through the lens of her experiences as a modern African-American woman, and she defines herself solely through these contemporary constructs and experiences. Her experiences of time travel cause her to alter her self-identity from that of the modern woman to one based on her life as a slave in antebellum Maryland, experiencing and overcoming racial and gendered oppression. Essentially, we follow Dana as she attempts to reconcile her historical, fragmented reality. This fragmented sense of self creates a double-consciousness for Dana,

In this autobiography Anne Moody gives detailed information of how she grew up poor in Centreville, Mississippi, a racist town. Starting from age four throughout her childhood, to high school, on to college and graduation, Anne give us a picture of the good, the bad, and the ugly she had to endure. Anne’s story of family and friendships, poverty, and racism is depicted in an in-depth account of her life. Although Anne had lots of family around, there always seemed to be emotional distance between them.

In the book “Woman of Color, Daughter of Privilege,” the author Kent Anderson Leslie discusses the life of Amanda America Dickson. Ms.Dickson was a born-into-privilege daughter of a young slave and her white master, who was also a very wealthy and socially accepted planter. Being a mulatto child from a white father who was greatly successful, Amanda America Dickson’s life could have been completely different. Yet, her father David Dickson and some of his family, made sure that her life wasn’t. Amanda America could ave been freed in another state, but would not have been able to return back to Georgia, so Elizabeth, and David decided to keep her as a slave.

40 years ago, American government went from celebrating influential African Americans for only a week to a full month. This became the start of Black History Month. In the month of February, some Americans celebrate and remember black heroes around the United States for their efforts and accomplishments they made to help alleviate prejudice for present and future African Americans in order for them to have a chance at becoming successful and living the “American Dream” in peace. Though Americans still will exemplify discrimination towards African Americans today, vicious crimes towards blacks are not as detrimental as they used to be. As time continued from the beginning of Black History Month, many Americans have forgotten the importance of February. Black History Month shows that those who assisted in making America were not all of European descent. In my essay I want to bring the spotlight back to one of my favorite activists, Maya Angelou: a poet, author, performer, screenwriter, a strong, independent black woman who not only was intelligent but also the voice and the mind of the captive ones.

In the 1940’s and the 1950’s, America was going through a world war and several difficulties that included problems in civil and woman rights on the home-front. In two different nonfiction memoirs by female authors, we see different yet similarities in the novels. Nisei Daughter by Monica Sone is a memoir by a Japanese-American woman, in which she describes her childhood, adolescence, and young womanhood while growing up in a Japanese immigrant family in Seattle, Washington in the 1930 's. In the second narrative, Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody is a memoir by an African-American woman whom writes about her childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood life and growing up in her home state during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s. Moody and Sone had childhoods that lacked positive influences in certain areas and tell their stories to help others in understanding the issues that surrounded them as being minority women in a society that don’t accept them.