Racism In Beth Macy's Truevine

James Baldwin “Sonny’s Blues” and “Battle Royal” Ralph Ellison are two stories by young african american men in the 50’s. Racial abuse was in abundance during this era. In both stories race has an important role however, in “Battle Royal” Ellison used race as the driving force of the story. In “Sonny’s Blues” Baldwin uses race as an important theme but is subtle as opposed to Ellison who directly addresses race as the issue. “Sonny’s Blues” and “Battle Royal” depicted the suffering of young black men in harlem, and illustrated the struggle of generation past and present; and the vicious cycle of the stereotype of african americans. African americans during this time endured in environment of hatred, but not only by whites but also by themselves, they hated who they were because they weren't white, in order for a person to be accepted in society or seen as valuable african americans believed they had to be white.

The narratives of Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglas were nothing short of powerful as their unique resilience reflected a gruesome upbringing that would then influence audiences everywhere. Immediately the reader is introduced to the gendered distinctions in narratives as Douglas has letters and statements of prominent men reinforce the validity of his work while Jacobs is forced to create a pleading tone for acknowledgement of her experience as a female slave. Although slavery was an excruciating experience that unjustly plagued millions of African Americans, gender roles and constructs allowed for distinct offenses that forced women to experience unique abuse relative to their male counterparts. The narratives of Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglas reinforced the trials of slavery with examples of educational hardship, physical trauma and differing aspirations of freedom. These factors and a few others such as motherhood and masculinity influenced their legacy in context of slavery as a gendered experience.

She remembers small details like how her friend only had black dolls to play with. She didn’t realize this at the time because she was so young, but she thinks that the reason why her friend’s parents weren’t too fond of her wasn’t necessarily because she was white, but because they were probably afraid of what would happen to them for associating with a white person, or if something bad had happened to her while under her supervision. Like in Mosaic, Ida B Wells discusses some of the reasons why black people were lynched. A lot of those reasons included being falsely accused of committing acts against a white person. Even if the black person did nothing and just happened to be there at the scene, they were almost always punished for it. For example, when white landowner’s wives would get pregnant and the baby ended up being of mixed race, even if it was never the black worker’s fault, they were blamed for it. This is why a lot of the times many African Americans fled from where they worked and were never to be seen again. “The daily papers last year reported a farmer’s wife in Alabama had given birth to a Negro child. When the Negro farm hand who was plowing in the field heard it he took the mule from the plow and fled… In Natchez, Mississippi, Mrs. Marshall,... [gave birth to a child who was] unmistakably dark. All were alarmed, and ‘rush of blood, strangulation’ were the conjectures, but the doctor, when asked the cause, grimly told them it was

Racism was hard for Melba, her family, and every person who was one of the little rock nine. Racism brought hate between black and white people. Racism is a bad thing. Melba’s mother shouted the words “epsom salts and water”, as she raced down the hall, desperately searching for a nurse. The woman was in digant, saying yes, come to think of it, the doctor had said something about epsom salts. “ But we don’t coddle niggers.” She growled.(page3). Why people write “colored” on all the ugly drinking fountains, the dingy restrooms, and the back of the buses.(page3). Melba wanted to ride the merry-go-round but the white man said “there’s no space for you here.”(page4).

Angie Thomas’ novel The Hate U Give is the story of a teenage girl facing racism in the world around her. Starr Carter lives in Garden Heights, a neighborhood filled with gangs, when one of her best friends Khalil is shot by the police, she is quick to know he had been killed because of the racism that exists in our world. Throughout the novel, Starr is constantly trying to show the world why Khalil died in order to get justice for his death. She does not believe he deserved to die or the cop who shot Khalil deserves to walk free of the crime he committed. Through different characters, the author is able to convey the message of one should not form opinions on someone or something based on stereotypes. Throughout the novel, some characters struggle with judging people before they know their past. Angie Thomas is able to get this across to readers not only through Starr, but also characters such as her father Maverick, her friends from school, and even Officer Cruise, the officer who killed Khalil.

The route the children are designated to take, in addition, is specified in the writing to inspire in the audience fear. The segregated school for Black students is located within a mass of railroad tracks, warehouses, and red-light districts, all notably dangerous locations for children to be in. By specifically mentioning that Ellison had “forbidden words” added to his vocabulary, he implies that he had interacted with the many unsavory individuals in the area to the extent of learning immoral materials or skills (Ellison 4433). This emotional appeal enforces the idea that impressionable children are innocent and that their actions were forced upon them by the adults in control. It also appeals to the parental instinct to protect children and preserve their future. By being forced to maintain continuous exposure to dangerous environments and professions of ambiguous morality, the Black children are victims of tarnishing and possible injury by the White authority purposefully segregating the children to hazardous areas. The strategy in specifying the unfortunate circumstances the African American children are facing is for causing the White adults to appear as villains who impose professionals of socially denigrated on innocent children. In contrast, Ellison, despite not doing anything particularly virtuous, is designated the ‘hero’ to be cheered for along with all his associates and peers, who are also victims.

This story has affected me in a few ways. One of the ways was how children think and see the world. One of the ways is how children see and picture racial equality. They do this in a way that many adults are not readily capable of doing, or choose not to. From the story early on we are told of a girl named Kesha who distinguishes beyond the socio-typical distinctions of black and white, when she states, “‘Okay, peach with spots for you and brown without spots for me, except his one and this one on my cheek”’ (Paley, pg. 15). In another part in the story, the author says two children, Jeremy and Martha, playing a game of Guess Who? Jeremey asked

The time of racism, segregation, and discrimination in the Civil Rights era was a difficult time for many people: whites, other races, and even children. Racism brought the realization to many people to think about how racism might affect their children and the way they were brought up. The real interesting fact is, that even though most Americans showed concern towards children there wasn 't a large percentage that took in consideration the feelings, thoughts, and affects that African- Americans and other racial children, including whites had towards the consent segregation, discrimination, and racism that went on in the Civil Rights era. Even the

“Cruelty is contagious in uncivilized communities.” In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs provides a portrayal of her life as a black slave girl in the 1800s. Though Harriet described herself as having yellowish brown skin; she was the child of a black mother and a white father. “I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away.” Born with one drop of black blood, regardless of the status of her white father, she inherited the classification of black and was inevitably a slave. Harriet endured years of physical and mental abuse from her master and witnessed firsthand how slaves were treated based on the color of their skin. Years of abuse can only be taken for so long, like many

The website Remembering Jim Crow gave useful information on the harsh lives endured by the African Americans in the South during the late 1800’s and mid 1900’s. This information expanded my knowledge of how the racist whites treated blacks unfairly and unjust. Places I visited on this site included “Bitter Times”, “Danger Violence and Exploitation”, and audios such as “Wrongly Accused” and “Mob Attack”. With this information, I was able to understand the cruelty that the African Americans felt. Listening to audios of peoples’ stories made me feel what they were going through, as I heard the fear in their own voices. In addition, I learned how the whites disgraced the blacks, and the blacks were put under the constant fear of the white man, even in their own communities. This material enhanced my understanding of Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird by helping me understand the circumstances of the Finches town and the biased judgement of the Tom Robinson trial due to the color of his skin.

During the years of the 1930’s, the Scottsboro Boys and Tom Robinson went to court due to an alleged rape of a white female. Throughout the events that took place in both cases, Harper Lee repeatedly presented examples of racism and prejudice. Between the court cases of both Tom Robinson and “The Scottsboro Boys,” many of the featured characters’ actions and reactions were similar in responding to the weak evidence.

As hip hop’s first all-female crew of MCs to rock the microphone at old school block parties and clubs like the Rooftop and Latin Quarters, The Mercedes Ladies paved the way for female rap acts such as The Sequence, Finesse & Synquis, Salt ‘N Pepa, Deadly Venoms, Oaktown 357 and the Conscious Daughters.

names’s Tom Robinson”. Discuss the effects of racism on Maycomb citizens such as Tom and Helen Robinson,

As time passed, the racial begun to slowly deteriorate. Sometimes, motherly instincts will overcome anything, and in this case it is to persuade the women to stand up to the children. "The lady who was afraid of embarrassment saw the boys jerk forward and backwards and grab the swinging guard chains…She stood up with determination and went to the door" (191). Allowing her maternal

In Truevine, Beth Macy the author argues that the kidnapping of the Muse Brothers was unintentionally orchestrated by their own mother Harriet temporarily traded them for monetary gain, during times of extreme poverty and racism. This is story is in contrast to the more commonly known story that says that the boys were captured by Circus hunters, and never returned, despite the mothers struggles to get them back. Consequently, those who will disagree with this book, probably disagree with the author’s position regarding the real story. The amount of evidence presented to contradict Macy’s thesis is prevalent, whereas there isn’t as much information that proves the boys weren’t initially kidnapped. Especially considering the fact neither the mother or the boys were able to dispute the rumor, it is disrespectful to bring it back up again and label it as truth. That being said, this book for the most part is factual, to disagree with anything besides her thesis and personal opinions, would prove to be contradictory because it is all true information. Another thing, that a reader might disagree on would the emphasis placed on racism being the main contributor to the events of this story. Macy includes explicit details of monstrosities that occurred during the Jim Crow era in the south, that occurred due to racism One might believe that the boy’s situation had less to do with race, and more to do with the boy’s rare (at that time) condition and the trends of that time (circus and