Ntozake Shange's Poem For Colored Girls

Literature is perhaps the greatest gift that the human race has. It is capable of creating entire worlds to share, it can take us on amazing travels, it can incite rebellions, and most importantly it can change perspectives. This essay examines poems for prejudices, including poems from WWII as well as examining poems about modern day biases and prejudices. The National Socialist German Workers party [Nazi] slaughtered 6 million Jews in WWII.

Nikki Giovanni's "Poem for Black Boys" is a poignant literary work that addresses several issues concerning the young black male in America and the conflicting views taken by members of the African-American community during the Civil Rights Movement with an inclination towards the peaceful movement perpetuated by the likes of Dr. Martin Luther king, Jr. and his non-violent contemporaries. Giovanni's use of allusion, imagery and the sardonic humor of the speaker blend effortlessly to denounce all of the negative connotation of the young African-American male and to sound the battle-cry to black male youths that while society-at-large may place them in a box, it is up to them to prove society wrong.

On the other end of the spectrum, the black end, is the story of Shirlee’s father and his family history. This narrative, Haizlip tells with pride; she mentions how she would have very much liked to meet her Native American grandmother from years back and how she too would have loved to have a name like “White Cloud.” In this narrative there is no shame, no abandonment, and no sadness. This is a story of a family and it’s success despite their skin color and the changing times around them. Her father, as his father before him, had inspired her with confidence and pride in the way she was, dark or light, and from this end of the spectrum she learned to love the dark pigment in her skin. Haizlip tells various stories of black communities in which her father grew up and how her grandfather was respected by his fellow citizen. This is a completely different story than that of her mother. Instead of running away from their darkness, her father’s family reached for it, yearned

Throughout American history, people have been categorized based on what gender they are, and what their race is. In order to explore these ideas and come to terms with their importances many musicians, film makers, and authors have described the inner-workings of this societal construct. Indeed, both racial and female identities have been at the epicenter of many works of art throughout American culture as can be seen in: Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane, film “Modern Times,” Bessie Smith’s “T’ain’t Nobody’s Bizness If I Do,” and James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.

Bone Black is a memoir detailing a “girlhood” beset with racial segregation. bell hooks’ struggle for autonomy involves a struggle with racism, gender,

“I continue to write since my life as a human only includes my life as a poet, it doesn’t depend on it”, Lucille Clifton. Known to most as Lucille Clifton, Thelma Lucille Sayles was born to Samuel L. and Thelma Moore Sayles on June 27, 1936 in Depew, New York. Her parents were a New York steel mill worker and a homemaker/launderer and lived in poverty. Clifton overcame adversity and earned a scholarship to attended Howard University at the age of sixteen as a drama major, then in 1955 she transferred to Fredonia State Teacher’s College now known as Fredonia State University of New York. She was introduced to her husband by Ishmael Reed, an author, poet, and activist, who later took her poems to Langston Hughes in 1966 to be included in his

Defying the Myths of the African American Woman - Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Song of Solomon, and Push

The Color Purple, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Sula represent feminist ideals of overcoming stereotypical misrepresentation, personal insecurities, and social conflicts. The experience and struggles of an African American woman is thoroughly discussed within these three novels with three different protagonists sharing their stories of self-discovery and social respect. Over time, the African American feminist genre has educated readers on the African American experience and how segregation has divided society. Stories such as these remind readers of not only how far they have come, but how their arduous battle is not over. Prejudice continuously plagues civilization, but The Color Purple, Their Eyes, and Sula provide substance to the equal roles of men and women, blacks and whites, and people to people.

The Different Shades of Beauty What is beauty? Is it determined by your body structure? Is it assessed by your skin color? Women of African American descent struggle with concepts of beauty based on complexion- dark skin or light skin. Colorism is discrimination against people based on skin color and it affects the African American women with regards to self-esteem and self-acceptance.

This poem is just the same as the real event. This poem tells about the white woman as the speaker/narrator and the black boy as the observed. In the first stanza the author shows the comparison or the contrast between the white woman and the black boy (lines 1-13). The second stanza, the author shows the apparent disparities to that interrelationship emerges (lines 14-20) and the third stanza is about insight into how the scene is equal to American culture on a larger scale (lines 21-34).

As societies change and adapt to the changes happening around them, so to will the people change. Each generation will be different in some little and some large areas from the generation before them. The cultural differences in the experienced of women, seen generationally, is most evident in the lives of immigrant and minority women. The differences in each generation can easily be seen within the Chinese and Mexican women who immigrated to America. In Judy Yung’s 1999 collection, Unbound Voices: A Documentary History of Chinese Women in San Francisco, she has gathered the narratives of each generation of Chinese women when the immigrated to the United States. Yung presents the narratives of each woman as the struggle first for freedom from slavery then to trying to fit in with the dominating white Anglo society that surrounds them. Each generation of women was treated different, not only within their own community but by society at large. With each new generation, the next generation would assimilate into the American culture trying to fit in. While some succeeded in assimilating to the American culture, the previous generations of women, their mothers, aunts, and grandmothers, were there to remind them of their history. As each generation assimilated to the white Anglo dominated society, they still retained their cultural heritage.

Jackson, Janet, Loretta Devine, Michael Ealy, Kimberly Elise, Omari Hardwick, Hill Harper, Thandie Newton, Phylicia Rashad, Anika N. Rose, Tessa Thompson, Kerry Washington, Whoopi Goldberg, Macy Gray, Khalil Kain, Richard Lawson, Ozzie Areu, Joseph P. Genier, Nzingha Stewart, Michael Paseornek, Roger M. Bobb, Paul Hall, Tyler Perry, Alexander Gruszynski, Maysie Hoy, Aaron Zigman, and Ntozake Shange. For Colored Girls. Santa Monica, Calif: Lionsgate, 2011. Tyler Perry’s movie adaptation of Ntozake Shange poem, for colored girls… a group of black women, most of whom live in the same Harlem apartment building, faces personal crises, heartbreak and other challenges.

Shostak, Marjorie. Nisa, the life and words of a !Kung woman. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981. Print.

In this poem it talks about different people and two different races. The white guy is the speaker and he contrast his life with the black guy’s life. In this poem the tone, the imagery, and organization is very understandable and detailed.

Brown Girl Dreaming focuses on the reality of growing up as an African American child during the 1960’s and 1970’s a period of intense energy and organization surrounding race and racial justice. Jacqueline grew up during the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement and how her life was shaped by race, mostly negatively. Racial prejudice and the legacy of slavery results in economic disadvantages for the Woodson Family. At the same time, by Jacqueline linking both movements to her life shows this pivotal moment to be more than just an abstract period in the timeline of American History; it was a time of revolutionary change for the better of real people’s lives.