Racism And Personal Identity By Anna Deavere Smith

Racism can be a uniting and dividing factor; whether united in hatred or united in suffering. One may believe they are justified in their actions, but that belief is biased to each person and is irrelevant to others. Hatred can unite as strongly if not more so than fighting for “good”; one’s purpose in life is unclear and because “good” is not in human nature, those blurred lines allow selfish people to rise and lead among the rest. In The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, cruelty functions as a method to amplify racism, and in order to reach the power of one, one must lose all prejudice.

To start off, both of my parents are white Americans. My father’s great grandparents came to america from czechoslovakia in the late 1800’s and same for my mothers German great grandparents. Born and raised in primarily white small towns, my parents are your stereotypical middle class white americans. About 10 years into their relationship when my mom first got pregnant with my oldest brother Dalton (23), they bought a 3 story house that was right outside of a suburban neighborhood on the outskirts of Anoka, Mn. The nearest gas station was about a 8 minute drive, and the nearest restaurant was 10. They had 3 boys together, and took in my oldest cousin Chey when she was 10 because my aunt had passed.

The play uses stereotypes and biased cultural

There can be many causes of violence that affect a person or a group of people to carry out acts of violence targeting specific people or a specific institution. There are dozens of potential triggers. The main one to focus on is violence in the media. The media is able to portray violence all day long thanks to social media, 24-hour news channel, newspapers, radio broadcasts etc. It is easier for the media to use these various outlets to broadcast violence because we are always plugged in via our phones, tablets, laptops, computers etc. It is often said that the United States of America was conceived and nurtured by violence. Americans not only engage in violence; they are entertained by it.

Racism; a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others. In the historical fiction novel, Midnight Without a Moon, by Linda Williams Jackson, the author shows how horribly blacks were treated when they tried to vote. The main character, Rose Lee Carter, battles with understanding why blacks were facing such repercussions while trying to fight for their rights. Levi Jackson, Reverend George W. Lee, and Lamar Smith face several acts of racism while trying to vote, and because of this, they are brutally murdered. However, the reader is left wondering if the punishments the characters received actually occurred in real life. In Midnight Without a Moon, the author uses history by including key details to emphasize how far whites were willing to go in order to ensure that blacks wouldn’t be allowed to vote, while at times altering it to highlight the intense feelings Rose has over the situation.

Author, Dr. Beverly Tatum a clinical psychologist whose main study of interest is Black children’s racial identity development wrote the text Why Are All the Black Kids sitting Together in the Cafeteria? After receiving a letter from a school principal in New Jersey applauding her on her reason of why, in racially mixed schools all over the country, Black kids were still sitting together in school cafeterias. In the text Tatum shares her thoughts about the development of racial identity faced by the African American population and how it is interrelated to racism at the turn of the twentieth century while highlighting the Black-White relation in childhood and adolescence age group. The book entails controversy in that, Dr. Tatum understanding of racism is centered heavily on race. Tatum’s explanation of racism suggest that Blacks cannot be racist based on the fact their racial bigotry do not stand or rest on a structure of advantage.

Phillis Wheatley is a black, African slave, female poet, and then Christian American (Acton/ American Literature). The life of Phillis is attractive, some painful and some pleasant (poetry foundation). At that time, black skin people cannot be educated while she was American Christian and educated. Wheatley was a model of all black skin people or those were persecuted (Acton/ American Literature). She is the owner of the first published poems book in the colonies at 1773 after brought her from Africa to America; by that Wheatley was the first slave and third American woman do that (Biography). Indeed, Phillis is not her real name, but it is the ship's name which carried her to Boston; she used it until she died. Wheatley did not only change

Racism is still a very prominent issue in America today. Yes, it has improved from the days of slavery, and we do have a black president; but society is nowhere near equal, and that is not acceptable. White Privilege by Paula Rothenberg truly opened my eyes to the extent of the social injustice on African Americans. Just by being white, one is oppressing another race because the privilege and respect that comes with the skin color. Whether intentional or not, the racism is still there and present and that is not acceptable. Being white, I’ve never suffered from the repercussions of racism, but after reading and becoming more aware of the suffering of African American’s, it is significant to write and spread the knowledge about racism and especially implicit racism. Everyone is surrounded by racism on a daily basis, and it’s important to be aware of your actions and the effects they have on society.

In the 1950s to the 1960s, there were 3,959 lynching of black men, women and children, the brutal deaths took place in only 12 states in the south of America. All of which were mainly because of racism. Melba Pattilo Beals wrote Warriors Don’t Cry to share her experience of racism when integrating into Central High. This book is to show the harsh reality of the suffering African Americans had to go through when battling racism. It shows that you should do what is right even if it is against society’s standards. In the novel, Warriors Don’t Cry, the importance of historical events greatly impacts the course of the story and the lives of the people in it.

Oftentimes conflicts are only considered to be only an international difference in opinions, however, conflict can be present as a national issue. In the United States of America, although considered a relatively peaceful country, experiences national conflicts regularly. Dennis Prager says “Since neither black animosity nor the Left’s falsehood of ‘racial tensions’ is based on the actual behavior of the vast majority of white Americans, nothing white America can do will affect the perceptions of many black Americans or of the leftist libel.” This quote defends the idea that in most cases, the racial tension is one sided and without clear evidence.

Popular media allow for the general public to be able to properly digest the matters of racial prejudice that are prevalent in our society. There are various ways that racial prejudices are exposed through actions and the structures in society that stems from the perceptions that race is this biological hierarchical supremacy. Additionally, these race classifications that are made by those in power has structured society in a way that puts some in advantage and many at a disadvantage that has continued into modern society. These are disadvantages are revealed through such things as microagressions and socioeconomic structures that favored and continues to favor the “dominant” classes. These matters can be best expressed through personal experiences relating to experienced prejudice, such as Lorraine Hansberry conveying artistically her experience with racial housing issues in Chicago. In her play, The Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry reveals through the Younger family, such issues as community acceptance, lost dreams, and racial discrimination on an economic level. Bruce Norris’s play, Clybourne Park, considers these issues as well as he expands on Hansberry’s world in his personal adaptation of The Raisin in the Sun’s primary plot point. Through experiences shared in the Younger’s future home, Norris explores privilege, systematic racism, white flight, community, and gentrification. Through reference and analysis of Raisin in the Sun and then of Clybourne Park, followed by

FIX IT -In this article is about the writer who is a poverty young white child who was not wasn't privileged as a kid. Gina Crosley grew up in the poor of poor and was taken back when she was reading an article we have read earlier by Mcintosh about how we all have white privilege. Crosley felt as if how someone who grew up with her certain circumstances had any White Privilege but after reading the Mcintosh article she understood. Crosley has said, ‘it's impossible to deny that being born with white skin in America affords people certain unearned privileges in life that people of another skin color simple are not afforded”. This is something that was an interesting fact to me that even a person who is less privileged than most can see the White Privilege they still have even at the lowest of the privilege scale.

Hurston’s words express the presence of racism even after the time of slavery had passed. She shows that the feeling of whites being superior to blacks still existed through the minds of white people. She even showed, through Mrs. Turner, that people with both white and black backgrounds chose to consider themselves white in order to feel superior. Mrs. Turner even sought out Janie as similar to her, because she was “fair skinned”. Here, Hurston stresses discrimination as a major part of the human condition. She shows, that over time, discrimination will never cease as long as the history between ethnicities exist. Her belief is related to God, seeing all human beings are equal before God, a belief that is occasionally overlooked. All human

Through history people have tended to judge the lives of other by what they see on the outside, and completely disregard their actually character. “Stereotyping in the World” today has become a greater and greater problem has history moves on. Some have been known to look past these cases such as Reginald Rose’s book Twelve Angry Men. The play has been shown that one voice can change the thoughts of many by getting past the first layer and breaking it down to their inner person. Twelve Angry Men has showed the theme of “Stereotyping in the World” through the characters’ proper reasoning, communicating, and believing in good faith.

As mentioned in class, the difference between races is defined arbitrarily and varies among different countries. For the place where I came from, which is mainland China, I am defined as Han people, the majority population among 56 different domestic ethnic groups. Being a member of a dominating population makes me unaware of the potential racism happening against other minority groups. Most Han people intuitionally think ourselves as being normal while other ethnics as being exotic. Even though the racisms are not intentional discriminations, rather in forms of stereotypes and excessive curiosities, it creates alienation between different ethnicities. However, it was after I went abroad