High School Around The United States Is Debate Essay

The Condemnation of Blackness by Kahlil Gibran Muhammad outlines the struggles and tribulations that African Americans had to face after the American Civil War. The book gives specific accounts as to why African Americans were deemed “The New Problem” and how that changed, highlighting discrimination of African Americans as the real problem. Muhammad also focuses of on the work done by social scientist, criminologist, libertarians, activist of both black and white races and how their work affected the African American people and their place in society as a whole. Muhammad also explains how the labeling of blacks as criminals has had an influence on our society today.

The phrase “art imitates life” can be used to describe many works of literature. Authors and the stories they write are often influenced by the changing world around them along with the evolution of new perspectives and ways of thinking regarding a subject. While this may sound simply like a common literary trope, it is of great importance and significance in many genres of literature. None has this been more apparent than in both the anti-slavery and women’s empowerment movement of the early to mid-1800s. Two major influence authors in their respective subjects, Frederick Douglass and Fanny Fern, were heavily influenced by the changing societal trends of the time of which they expressed through their writing. Douglass’s speech in particular “What to a Slave is the 4th of July?” was heavily influenced by Douglass’s own personal experience as a slave as well as the rising prominence of the abolitionist movement in the United States. By referencing the contradictory nature of the Constitution relegating personal freedoms exclusively to white, property owning males, Douglass bluntly references the systematic inequalities faced by people of color in the United States. Never would the works of an African American author, especially one challenging the established institution of slavery, gain so much attention if not for the anti-slavery movement and shifting perspectives surrounding it.

Throughout high school, I harbored a deep admiration for debate and dreamed of joining the team. Its quintessence of ideals in rational argument, tolerance for conflicting points of view, and rigorous self-examination appealed strongly to me. Yet simple things, like pronouncing a word wrong or having an accent, were enough to hold me back. Thus, I passed through my high school years unnoticed.

Writing in the favor of black people has always remained controversial from the very beginning. Critics regard such writing as “a highly conventionalized genre” indicating that “its status as literature was long disputed but the literary merits of its most famous example such as Frederick Douglass 's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass…are widely recognized today.” (Ryan:537) Despite of such severe resistance, writers like Douglass have penned down their autobiography to present the misery of their fellow beings.

The American public educational system is filled with an assortment of problems. Most students are graduating with less knowledge and capability than similar students in other industrialized countries. Classroom disruptions are surprisingly common, and in some classrooms, nearly continuous. The public education system is having difficulty adjusting to the no child left behind act. The No Child Left Behind(NCLB) is a landmark in education reform designed to improve student achievement and change the culture of American’s schools.

Critics struggle to fit Douglass’s narrative into a literary genre, some believe it fits within the realm of Romanticism while others argue his narrative belongs under Realism. In nineteen century America, the African American voice was missing from literature. Slave narratives were not taken seriously and most slaves were not taught how to read or write. Douglass’s was a self-taught slave his narrative was a game changer Douglass was considered an intellectual and respected by most as a reputable author. Douglass’s narrative is difficult to place within genre because it has aspects of both realism and romanticism. It is realistic to have a narrative explaining the horrors of slavery: some of the horrors so terrible it is hard for someone

The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois, published in 1903, and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, published in 1845 both show the complexity of the life of an African American living in Antebellum and Post-Antebellum America. To be Black in America means to identify with two separate groups, one accepting, and the other neglecting them. In this society it is difficult to be seen as equal. Africans Americans must see themselves through the eyes of their oppressor and through the eyes of their own race. Even from looking at the two points of view it is hard to find actual freedom. Double consciousness has the ability to cause a disenchanted view of the world because both sides of the Veil are flawed. Therefore

The controversy of racism is a big part in the Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, written by Frederick Douglass himself. Douglass unveils the atrocious truth about slavery that at the time, was not spoken about. Douglass debunks the mythology of slavery in his narrative by rebuking the romantic image of slavery with very disturbing imagery, promotes his own views on the intellectual belief of slaves, and exposes the “system” for promoting the disloyalty among slaves.

Books like the one by Frederick Olmstead opens his eyes to the massive brutal actions towards the black slaves brought to the United States who struggled for freedom. He argues that white people have always been racist and treated the minorities with such disrespect, and unfortunately, it still continues today to a certain extent. The truth which is very crucial and hurtful for him is to find out that World's most monstrous crime, the sin and the blood are on the white man's hands. Here the author brings another wonderful novel on stage; one can never stop being inspired (nor Malcolm ever does) by an anti-slavery novel after American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. That's exactly when his hunting on information about black history and "slaver's total horror" begins in the library.

There are several methods to analyzing literature, many critical approaches have been influenced by Marxism. The literary element being evaluated is “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin. African American and Ethnic literary criticism approaches the literary text by…taking a structuralist position that takes into account the race of the author, reader, or that focuses on African American characters or themes (Mays 2349).

After reading Douglass’s The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself, I have a better understanding of what it meant to be a black slave in the antebellum era, and have a better understanding of what form of oppression that they had to face. The fact that black people were oppressed into slavery created their own cultural identity. During this era, Douglass was able to pull himself out of terrible circumstances and taught himself how to read and write. As a writer capable of telling his own story, Douglass wrote an influential autobiography showing how he triumphed against prejudice, and he also offers a positive image of black people in a world where slavery was justified on the basis of race.

The black freedom struggle has not yet come to an end – there are still prejudiced and racist radicals that try to negotiate white supremacy and dominance in order to prevent the blacks from their long wait for equality. Consequently, the movement has progressed very sluggishly in the past few centuries. Nevertheless, the campaign for equal rights has led to the triumph over slavery and has led to the accrual of suffrage rights. However, this is still not enough, not after centuries of enslavement, lynching, segregation, and discrimination. Oftentimes, there is still no justice in court houses, especially when black people are accused and convicted, even for the simplest of crimes – as compared to the white and powerful who are charged for heinous misconducts and get away scratch free. Hence, throughout the period of the Blacks’ long fight for freedom and equality, several Black intellectuals have come front with ideas that could administer better treatment for their people. A good strategy to encourage the black populace to fight for their freedom and their rights is by inverting popular ideas so that there is a clear distinction between the reasonable and unreasonable notions of equality and justice. Thus, it was not uncommon for these literati to undermine dominant discourses in order to bolster their own analyses. Among the discussed black intellectuals who inverted prevailing dissertations, three that stood out the most are Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, and

Throughout any struggle, there is a great effort in discrediting the other side. This may seem natural, simply because if the one side can convince others that there was no wrongdoing, they wouldn’t be wrong. However, a wrong has been deeply etched into the cultural consciousness of the American people, and that is the disenfranchisement of the African American voice. Brought over as slaves, their struggle for equality has faced blatant ignorance to intellectual bigotry, and thus has left the people deeply scarred. These scars are brought forth as American literature, and their voice is greatly heard through the constant iterations. Out of these iterations, the writings Fredrick Douglass has written set forth many of the standards the slave narrative would follow. Unlike many, however, his story The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, is autobiographical, and therefore has a stronger presence than many of the subsequent fictional narratives. Critics at the time attacked the credibility of his words, and to this day many of the concerns African American students have are dismissed or blatantly discriminated against. In the face of these critical controversies, the contemporary reviews and peer reviews of Fredrick Douglass’s work, as well as other examples of this discrimination, should be examined to better give credit to a voice long abused over the course of American history.

Education in the United States is a very crucial part of a person’s life. Going to school opens doors and facilitates the pathway for future individual achievement and economic success. Formal education is a conscious effort by human society to convey the skills and modes of thought considered essential for social functioning.

Many African American authors have tried to counter these prejudices reposition the place of the blacks in the society through their literary