James D. Thorne Grand Ballroom

John Howard Griffin, the author of Black Like Me, writes an autobiographical account what he passed through for a period of about 10 months. Howard has an idea that has been haunting him for a long duration of time; he wondered the various kinds of life changes that a white man would need to be labeled a Negro in the southern region of the United States. Howard wanted to acquire first hand information of the daily experiences of the African Americans in the Deep South. Black Like Me offers an account of the bad and good things that Howard went through because of the vivid makeover from being white to being black. This paper reviews John Howard Griffin’s Black like me, the paper provides a summary of the book,

explained what it was like to be African American in a certain time and place.”

In 1971, William E. Cross, Jr., Ph.D., a Black psychologist and prominent researcher (specializing in Black psychology) developed a framework for assessing how black Americans come to understand what it means to be Black. Dr. Cross introduced his ideologies as the “Nigrescence Model of Racial Identity Development“. He asserts that every black American must undergo a series of identity stages to develop a healthy and balanced understanding of the Black experience and become well-rounded in our global society. This model encompasses five stages of identity development, which Dr. Cross emphasizes, must be performed in order to successfully accomplish this goal.

In the essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”, author Zora Neale Hurston writes to an American audience about having maturity and self-conscious identity while being an African American during the early 1900’s through the 1920’s Harlem Renaissance. Hurston expresses and informs her audience about how she does not see herself as a color, and instead sees herself as all she is made up of on the inside. Her primary claim is that she is not “tragically colored” and she should not have a single care about how the world reminds her of how she should act about her race. Her essay chronicles her personal experiences in being an unapologetically colored woman and creates the argument that she should not ever feel self-pity for being black. She utilizes her personal anecdotes and weaves them with metaphors, analogies, and rhetorical questions in order to create an immersive experience for the reader. Furthermore, Hurston engages the reader with her slightly sarcastic, strong, and blissfully positive tone effectively creates a way with words that communicate her claims in an entertaining way.

In his essay, “As Black as We Wish to be,” author Thomas Chatterton Williams tries to paint a picture of a world where the sight of interracial families was still considered an oddity and shows how, over the decades, society has slowly became more acceptable towards the idea. He begins the essay briefly discussing the ignorance of people during the late 1980’s while also elaborating what hardships African Americans have dealt with over the past century. He explains that even with the progression of interracial families and equality of African Americans, a new problem has now risen for interracial children of the future. While either being multiracial, African American, or White, what do they decide to identify themselves as? This is the major question that arises throughout Williams’s argument. While Williams’s supports his argument with unreliable environmental evidence, as well with other statistical evidence. His argument is weakened by an abundance of facts, disorganization, and an excessive use of diluted information.

A lack of self-awareness tended the narrator’s life to seem frustrating and compelling to the reader. This lack often led him to offer generalizations about ““colored” people” without seeing them as human beings. He would often forget his own “colored” roots when doing so. He vacillated between intelligence and naivete, weak and strong will, identification with other African-Americans and a complete disavowal of them. He had a very difficult time making a decision for his life without hesitating and wondering if it would be the right one.

The memoir “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston, was first published in 1928, and recounts the situation of racial discrimination and prejudice at the time in the United States. The author was born into an all-black community, but was later sent to a boarding school in Jacksonville, where she experienced “race” for the first time. Hurston not only informs the reader how she managed to stay true to herself and her race, but also inspires the reader to abandon any form of racism in their life. Especially by including Humor, Imagery, and Metaphors, the author makes her message very clear: Everyone is equal.

One of Beverly Tatum’s most popular works, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?, outlines racial identity development and shows us what it means to be Black in today’s society. Tatum uses reasonable examples of her experience both as a parent and as a college professor. She is able to get readers to think in ways that might not be comfortable but are necessary and compelling. Recognizing understanding and embracing

Through the writings of James Baldwin, WEB Du Bois, and Caryl Phillips several issues are revealed to the black community. These distinct authors address key concepts such as the veil, double-consciousness, the color line, masculinity, and identity. While at the same time endorsing feelings of closeness, belonging, and a desire to be accepted. Historically, people of color face considerable and unique challenges. Despite internal obstacles, the writers personalize and depict the social and psychological pressures amid 20th century America.

In James W. Johnson “The Autobiography of an Ex- colored man” he recounts the story of a nameless young boy who lives a more comfortable, aristocratic life than most African Americans at this time. While cultivating his interest in music and art throughout the years, suddenly he has an identity crisis and comes to terms that he’s not viewed the same by society as white. He has a self-revelation that he’s different. He shares the skin tone of white people but he doesn’t share a strong cultural connection to other African Americans. This since of loneliness thus causes him to delve into this studies and flourish into a well-rounded young man. The Narrator of this story, is at first a tad bit mysterious.” I am divulging the great secret of my life, the secret for which for some years.

A powerful instance in this book took place in 2004 at a speaker’s platform at the Virginia Festival of Books. Jensen was seated next to Les Payne, a man well-established in his field and well versed compared to that of Jensen. Despite his value, Jensen still felt superior to Payne, because while Payne was established, he was still black. Jensen recognized his feelings as complete injustice against Payne and even went so far to vocalize his feelings to Payne. The two had a mature and thought provoking discussion about Jensen’s feelings and how they can be seen almost anywhere. It is interesting that Jensen thought to include this instance in his book. It comes later in his writing as if to remind the reader that while he makes strides, he will still fall. This instance resonated with me as my parents have always reminded me that as high as you go, you are still black in a white man’s world. Black musicians also write in their songs that even if you are in “the band”, you’re still black. You are going to be looked at differently. While Jensen told this story to shed light on an automatic reaction of white, it reminded me as a black person, there is no such thing as the top.

Professor Carolyn Ellis’ ethnographic short story, The Other Side of The Fence: Seeing Black and White in a Small Southern Town, lacks accurate ethnographic analysis of the black community and contains various fictional details that misleadingly support preexisting, prejudice stereotypes about black families. Such misinformation resulted from Ellis’ short story being exclusively based on the one interaction that she had with her fellow male, African American schoolmate, Jesse. Furthermore, the text singularly recounts the “exhilaration [she] experienced in the mystery and adventure of [her] experience,” creating a general, incomplete, and biased perception about blacks in Luray, Virginia.

The struggle for the acceptance of dark skin tones in society has been a battle dating as far back as the Colonial Period. Even after slaves were freed, we were segregated. African Americans were seen as less than human, less beautiful, and unintelligent, simply because our skin was a darker complexion than our white counterpart. Even so, after years of battle for equality, influential society members, like Gwendolyn Brooks soon spoke up on this issue. Later in her career, her poems mainly focused on the racial tension of America, and the need for change. Her poem Primer for Blacks discusses not only the need to embrace your skin tone, no matter the shade, but to not feel oppressed by the overwhelming propaganda of European beauty standards. Gwendolyn Brooks’ Primer for Blacks emphasizes and encourages self-confidence in the black community, specifically on the color of their skin, and confronts those who deny their blackness.

In exploring the problem of identity in Black literature we find no simple or definite explanation. Nevertheless, it is generally accepted that it is rooted in the reality of the discriminatory social system in America with its historic origins in the institution of slavery. One can discern that this slavery system imposes a double burden on the Negro through severe social and economic inequalities and through the heavy psychological consequences suffered by the Negro who is forced to play an inferior role, 1 the latter relates to the low self-estimate, feeling of helplessness and basic identity conflict. Thus, in some form or the other, every Negro American is confronted with the

When studying the black diaspora within the United States, the story typically starts with the classic slave narratives including those of Frederick Douglass and Mary Price and ends with the affirmative action decisions of the late 1990s. History tells the story of an internal racial identity struggle through the institutions of slavery and oppression, resistance and rebellion, cultural reawakening and civil rights which evokes the question: what does it mean to be African American? Aaron McGruder’s animated series The Boondocks creates a context to consider the question of what it means to be an African American today and discusses the institutions that are now molding the African American identity. McGruder criticizes the idea of a