Maya Angelou Racism

Moving on was rough especially growing up in the 1930’s-1940’s deep within the south. Maya being the young child that she was expressed large amounts of resilience towards the “powhitetrash” living within her mother property. Not fully understanding just how racist people living in her time are. Maya at first commences are as static character, showing complete hatred to those she deemed “trash” and believed that by if she “pinched it” things would get better. So in a sense that she would cause a revolution. Maya remain static throughout a majority of the story until she faces the main

The audience of this poem are the people who want to learn about how America was during segregation. Teachers have taught us what they have been told to teach. However, Angelou has lived through this time and has experienced segregation. She is a credible

Maya Angelou’s essay is describing her eighth grade graduation and the racism that was prominent at that time. With an explanation of the roles at graduation, she begins excited for her own graduation but as she listens to the speech of a white man, she becomes angered with the racial discrimination that was hinted at in his speech. In the midst of her anger, she regained hope from the black valedictorian’s speech and proudly stated that her race still continued to live happily even with the limited opportunities that were given.

For one thing, not only is Maya a girl, but she is an African American as well. This means there is the added factor of racism on top of society’s expectations for her. These two combined lead Maya to have very little self-esteem and confidence in herself. From a young age, she believed she was ugly, comparing herself to her brother Bailey saying, “When I was described by our playmates as being shit color, he was lauded for his velvet black skin” (22). She is constantly teased for her appearance because of her skin color, and believes the horrible things people say about her. Angelou shows us that the pressure from society to be attractive and beautiful suffocates her, and that she is under the belief that she is ugly for the majority of her childhood. This, along with her parents leaving her and her brother when they were only three and four respectively, makes Maya feel unwanted. Incidentally, it does not help when she notices a pattern for the heroes in the books she reads. Maya praises an author named Horatio Alger, claiming he was “the greatest writer in the world. His heroes were always good, always won, and were always boys” (75). Maya notices that heroes were always depicted as boys, and it makes her wish she had been born a boy as well. The lack of representation of female heroes makes her, and possibly many other little girls, feel as if there is no possible way they would achieve

The thoughts and/or opinions of others often have to be overlooked or else they’ll ruin every happy moment that is to come. In Maya Angelou's story, Graduation, she discusses her eighth-grade graduation. Maya describes how she feels after listening to someone else opinion on her and the rest of African Americans of her graduating class at that time. This person's opinion had a huge impact on Maya herself, and the crowd. No one ever wants to feel wretched on the most memorable day of their life but this is exactly what took place on the day of Maya’s graduation.

Maya Angelou is a leading literary voice of the African-American community. She writes of the triumph of the human spirit over hardship and adversity. “Her style captures the ca-dences and aspirations of African American women whose strength she celebrates.” (Library of Chattanooga State, n. d.) Maya has paved the way for children who has had a damaged

Maya Angelou, the current poet laureate of the United States, has become for many people an exemplary role model. She read an original poem at the inauguration of President Clinton; she has also appeared on the television show "Touched by an Angel," and there read another poem of her own composition; she lectures widely, inspiring young people to aim high in life. Yet this is an unlikely beginning for a woman who, by the age of thirty, had been San Francisco's first black streetcar conductor; an unmarried mother; the madam of a San Diego brothel; a prostitute, a showgirl, and an actress (Lichtler, 861927397.html). Her book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings argues persuasively

During her graduation, two speeches were given, one was from a fellow black student who directed his speech in the way of pathos in which he tried to evoke emotion and motivate all the students to be their best despite their backgrounds. The other speaker was a white man, who was an elected official and went more the way of ethos, using ethical words, which made him lose the audience. He implied that all the white kids would go on to do great things and all the black kids would go to be athletes or do some sort of social work. In Maya’s essay titled “Graduation,” Angelou mentions “The white kids were going to have a chance to become Galileos and Madame Curies and Edisons and Gauguins, and our boys (the girls weren’t even in on it) would try to be Jesse Owenses and Joe Louises” (51). From this quote I can resonate with the fact that people, including my mother thought that white kids had more of an opportunity to be great as opposed to minorities, which is why she moved me so I could be a Galileo, or a Madame Curie. Also, that shows how I might relate to Maya in the fact that even though they are two completely different times, the reality is that based on race or being colored there is a pre-placed weight on one’s shoulder to break past that. Another quote that resonated with me personally is when Angelou discusses the speech made by Henry Reed- “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” (Reed qtd. in Angelou 53). I personally think that this quote compares Maya and I’s thinking because she felt like she had no control over her life and it was determined, and at one point my mother felt like that was going to be my path, however we both chose to be the “captain of our own soul”. I could of chose to be a stereotype and be like the majority but I decided to take my life into my own hands

Maya makes her decision to study in the States because she wants to forget about her troubled past. She applies for a university in Virginia and receives the acceptance letter. Her parents agree to let her go, but her other relatives and close friends are not too keen on the idea. Maya is warned that moving to a new country takes a lot of decision making skills. This affects her relationship expectations because she is expected to keep everyone happy, yet wanting to pursue her dreams and future careers and has difficulty doing both.

Perseverance Towards Racism “The system’s mesed up” is an issue going on in not only America, but other countries. Why is it so hard to give people of color justice, a chance, kodos without discriminating them? The common phrase is not anything new, people such as Maya Angelou has struggled through times like these in her earlier life of wanting a job. Maya Angelou discovers how hard it really is to be a real citizen, a real American, have a job and live a life while being black. No, the story does not take place during the slave eras, but equality still does not mean equal.

the society she lives in is trapping her and trying to keep her from reaching her full potential. Maya feels like the white society is keeping her and her people in bondage, by saying subliminal things and doing certain actions to keep them on a lower level than whites. The speech that the white man spoke did nothing but clarify the societies expectations of people of color. Maya got angry because she wants to break free from those expectations. She wants to be able to have her own aspirations and not let her future be shaped based on the society that she lives in and what they expect from her. According to Elizabeth Fox Genoese’s essay called “Emphasis on Community in Caged Bird” she says that unbreakable barriers closed black communities

Angelou feels dismayed about the situation and says “It was awful to be a Negro and have no control over my life.” (par. 47) In the last few paragraphs of the essay, Angelou describes how everyone sang the Negro national anthem and how they all came together and she says “We were on top again. As always, again. We survived.”

This movement revolved around the idea of change. Through only Reed’s words, Maya’s willingness to accept death over living in a world compelled by social injustice illustrates the initiative to create a better world environment. Secondly, Henry Reed’s speech also unified the audience, setting their perspectives directly on change. While listening to Reed’s speech, Maya realized, “Our mothers and fathers stood in the dark hall and joined the hymn of encouragement” (Angelou, 2014, p. 188). The hymn, which brought upon encouragement, unified the whole congregation together along with Maya to reveal their social

But all of those things did not stop Maya Angelou and Maya Angelou kept on moving on because she had a lot of self-belief in herself like the caged bird who showed huge self-belief by still trying to sing even though it’s stuck in the cage, the caged bird still hopes that it can get out free and be free with the free bird in equal turns like some Black women like Maya Angelou wants to be equal with the White people, not different because of the colour of their skins or gender they were born

Maya Angelou describes what her life with her grandmother is like while constantly being discriminated against her race. She then found her father, and he leaves Maya and Bailey off to their mother’s house. There, the mother’s boyfriend rapes Maya. After suffering from psychological shock, Maya then moves back to her grandmother’s. As a teenager Maya gets nervous about her sexual identity and tries to discover it. Through these harsh times, the naïve and softhearted Maya grows to become a strong, independent woman.