People Could Fly American Black Folktales

The book that I decided to read was Night Flying Woman by Ignatia Broker. The tribal identity in the book was Oibwe from the White Earth Band. Ms. Broker started out the book from the present day in Minneapolis where she grew up. There wasn’t much culture to be seen, and the younger generations were getting too lost in the new world. Ms. Broker made sure to mention that she still taught her children the Ojibwe ways, and told them the stories that her grandmother had once told her. Throughout Ignatia Broker’s introductory chapter, we got a sense of the amount of respect she had for you great-great grandmother Oona, or Night Flying Woman.

Approximately 10.7 million Africans were taken to North America over the course of history, for the sole purpose to be used as slaves. Although it is impossible to understand how the stolen people must have felt, imagery in novels can help. Images are able to place the reader into the world of the protagonist and can create a strong connection between the reader and the novel. Lawrence Hill uses imagery very strongly in his books and due to that, he is able to connect readers to his novels at a very personal level. The reader can feel what the characters are feeling, by understanding what the characters see in their lives. In The Book of Negroes, Hill uses imagery to show how humans’ have ability to overcome horrific circumstances during the time when Aminata is stolen and taken to North America, her time in Charlestown, as well as her time in New York City and Nova Scotia.

The novel The Book of Negroes, written by Lawrence Hill portrays the life of a young African girl and the hardship she faces while having to endure slavery. The protagonist, Aminata Diallo, is able to succeed when confronted with difficulties due to her ability to see the optimistic approach in every situation. Throughout her journey from a youth to an adult Aminata has encountered many obstacles that have scarred her with shattering memories. She has travelled over the harsh sea numerous times throughout her life and was able to sustain herself through her optimistic approach at life, which drives her desire to survive. Aminata’s journey over the ocean is a major symbolism of her optimism. Aminata uses optimism to cope with difficult events

When defining oneself race tends to stick out in the forefront of our minds. Race tends to separate one person from the next. The term race refers to people who have differences in biological traits that society feels are socially significant. Society’s emphasis on race has caused a seemingly unamendable division. People treat people differently because of their skin color. A person’s behaviors, actions and skin colors have been attributed to race. Skin color is the main factor when it comes to race. Ethnicity comes into play when people are being classified by nationality. Race is simply black or white, or simply light or dark, which plays into internalized or reverse racism. Personally I believe that African Americans struggle with race more than any other ethnicity because they struggle with both internal and external racism. W.E.B. Dubois as well as Glenn Loury spoke about the African American struggle in their works.

A sensitive topic that has been brought up in the book is child abuse. This portrayed by Sarah and her father beginning when she was just a child “ Then he said ‘Here’s your pretty little baby for you’, and i looked up and saw the wood stove coming right at my face”(104).the reason behind the first act of attack was for the father to get revenge on

fighting. What the book did not include is a detail account of the fighting. This was the

To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM) by Harper Lee, based in 1930’s Alabama, follows Scout, a six year old girl, as she navigates through the moral jungle of the racist south while her father defends an alleged black rapist. Although it is often glorified for pioneering new racial awareness but in this new reality of racism, that is 2017, it fails to provide students with a proper education of the issue at hand. Scout, being one of the many white main characters, explores racism but lacks the ability to properly educate today’s ninth graders. Therefore, TKAM should not be a core 9th-grade book at BHS because it negatively portrays people of color and mismatches today’s classroom.

“Black boy White School” by Brian F. Walker was a book that could not have been better if I haven’t read it sooner. I found this book extremely relatable. The book faces issues about race, white privilege, and the dedication to succeed. Anthony Jones is an African- American boy that was raised in East Cleveland where he daily witnessed violence, drugs, and tragedies. So when

Mark Twain’s, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, should be taught in school. The book shows what the late 1800’s and early 1900’s were like including acceptance (which rarely happened) and tolerance. Twain wanted to tell the reader about the poor treatment of those of color and

In The Souls of Black Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois defines the problem of the Twentieth Century to be the color-line. The color line is a metaphor for the segregation within the African-American and Caucasian community The Veil refers to the community of African-American’s in the past (during slavery), present (post emancipation), and future. The color-line is used to describe the racial segregation between African-American’s and Caucasian’s post-emancipation, and because of this divide in the United States the African-American Community cannot therefore strive to become equal with Caucasian society. The great divide includes physical separation through mediums such as slavery, the Jim Crow laws, economic equality, and educational inequality

One slave who ran, Raven Quickskill, is one of the few slaves to know how to read and write and write well. Quickskill’s departure creates a spot for Uncle Robin, who also knows how to read and write,

To Kill A Mockingbird is a good choice if you want to feel a real firsthand experience of not only how life in the 1930's South was like but also learn life lessons. While reading this book the reader could probably relate to at least one character in it. Harper Lee did an amazing job at touching every single aspect of racism, segregation and stereotypes. Her goal was to open the eyes of small minded people and maybe help people realize that not all African Americans are bad people, not all white people are racist, to not judge a book by it's cover and she did a wonderful job at doing

W. E. B. Du Bois’s classic The Souls of Black Folk is an African American heritage text that explores the history of race relations, black education, post-Civil War issues, and the ongoing war between white Americans and black Americans. The Souls of Black Folk, is a collection of thirteen different essays and short stories written between 1897 and 1903 by Du Bois. All of the essays link together by providing common themes; the existence of the veil or the separated black and white populations, the importance of education, and “double consciousness”. The theme of "The Veil" is one of the central pieces Du Bois touches on.

I have read many good books throughout my school career and, in my opinion, To Kill a Mockingbird was one of my favorite and one of the best books. The book is about a very nice white father of two that is a lawyer. He is approached by a black man named Tom Robinson through Calpurnia’s churcg, he asked Atticus if he would be his lawyer because a white girl proclaimed that he raped her. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee she uses tough questions, aha moments, and words of the wiser to build a mood throughout the whole book.

Wearing wings and standing atop a roof, he draws a large crowd of which, not a single person attempts to talk him down but instead encourage him because they all believe human flight is a possibility. They stand and wait for him to fly and among them are Ruth Foster Dead and Pilate Dead. Pilate sings “O Sugarman done fly away.” Robert Smith “flies” off the roof and Ruth eventually gives birth to Milkman. When Milkman realizes at the age of four that people cannot fly, he becomes disillusioned and solemn.