Racism: Two Short Stories

In his essay, Complexion, Richard Rodríguez uses the rhetorical modes of description and symbolism. The description gives the work a story-like flow, while the symbolism makes the reader more able to experience the emotions and feelings present within the authors “complexion.” The utilization of the stylistic tools aids in conveying the true message of the author’s claim which is that he received mass racism out in the society. Since the essay is an account of his own experiences with racism, the description works well to take the reader to different periods of time and events in Rodriguez’s life.

Have you ever encountered a racist person? Well in the book "The Hate U Give” is about racial profiling and shows police brutality, which has been happening recently. The author of the book, Angie Thomas, shows occasions in her book that relate to real life events. In her book, the main character, Starr, deals with the loss of her 2 friends, one of whom dies due to police brutality. This essay will show how literary elements such as dialogue, conflict, and symbolism are used to explore the theme of racism.

In “On the Subway,” Sharon Olds creates a menacing tone by utilizing figurative language in order to illustrate the detrimental implications of racism on individuals. Olds portrays a contrast between the character’s based on their physical identities through the utilization of menacing tone. The author conveys a menacing tone by utilizing similes when she states, “... black sneakers laced with white in a complex pattern like a set of intentional scars” (Olds 1). The prejudices between both the man and the woman are rooted deeply within violence; as society has taught

Writing in first person or third person determines not only the pronouns, but how we perceive the story. Often, first person creates more intimacy between the reader and the character. The unreliable narrator is also most common in this perspective. Third person is less invasive and less limiting. In third person, the narrator does not participate in the action.

Around the world, differences in race cause people to constantly get stereotyped and segregated. A paradigm of stereotypes and segregation, Rau recounts her experience of attending an Anglo-Indian school with her older sister, only to be discriminated. People of color are stereotyped every day: in school, in work, and everywhere else. Rau utilizes diction, sequence of events, and structure of text to inform the public of the fact that the discrimination of people of color begins at a young age. Phrasing is important to the overall effect of a story; for example, the use of diction in “By Any Other Name” adds to the effect in Rau’s storytelling.

It doesn’t take long to figure out that race and ethnicity issues continue to affect America - a quick glance at the news will show the latest riot, hate crime, or police brutality incident. This centuries old struggle has given rise to a number of literary works on the topic, many of which take a different approach to the issue. W.E.B. Du Bois, for instance, published the work The Souls of Black Folk in 1903, arguing for blacks’ right to equality in a horrifically segregated society. In these essays, Du Bois coined the term “double-consciousness,” wherein those with black skin must view the world both from their own perspective, and from the perspective of the predominately white society. The short story Recitatif by Toni Morrison explores this concept through the removal of the characters’ races, and the film Do the Right Thing, directed by Spike Lee, tells a story to demonstrate it. While the former shows double-consciousness through the usage of ambiguity, the latter almost directly references the concept. Taken together, these two sources argue a multi-faceted version double-consciousness, wherein society alienates the characters in ways that go beyond just the color of one’s skin.

In hopes of reconstructing the term ‘”race”, Eubanks incorporates personal anecdotes to appeal to his audience’s side of logic and empathy. Eubanks begins his story with a personal anecdote detailing how he came across a secret photograph of a white man in his grandmother’s closet. Eubanks says, “My parents kept my grandfather’s portrait hidden because in 1960s Mississippi, with all its racial paranoia, displaying the picture in our living room would have been risky, if not impossible.” He evokes feelings of pathos by eliciting his readers to be afraid as to what would happen to his family, because he wants his readers to imagine how dangerous it was to be related to someone who was white and the dangers from being related to them. Next, Eubanks goes on to divulge a little history about the American south during the 1950s and “60s.

Annotated Bibliography – The impact of Internationalized Racism on the ‘Black people’ Racism is one of the major problems that human race has been facing since the Early Modern Age up till today. Racism was once defined as discrimination against other races and colours based on the individual beliefs that a specific race is more prestigious and superior over another. However, racism can no longer be explained with a single definition as it became more complicated over time. The ‘Black people’ was one of the main victims of racism. They were called as ‘Black people’ because their skin colour are different and darker than the other populations.

Amiri Baraka’s 1964 play, Dutchman, is a prime example of a work that has an allegorical meaning of the race relationships between African Americans and Caucasians during its time period. A major theme of this course is studying stories as narratives, in terms of understanding cultural diversity. Although Dutchman is a play, and not a novel or short story, the interaction between Lula and Clay assists the audience in conceptualizing black oppression after World War II through the system of language. This revolutionary work, a “product of the 1960s Black Power movement,” represents how the system affects Clay, whom symbolizes the African American population (Lecture 9/3/15). The interaction between Clay and Lula represents the system of language, in which its linguistic rivalry, through stereotyping, represents the race relationships of America during the 1960s.

Citizen’s opening poem sets the tone for reflection. She writes “when you are alone and too tired even to turn on any devices, you let yourself linger a past stacked among your pillows,” – a self-awareness of the events that will arise in the rest of the text (Rankine 5). Throughout the text, the subject in each testimony manifests a sense of consciousness towards invisibility of his or her body. In an example of microaggression, the black woman details an incident in a which a white girl cheats off her test and takes the initiative in “thanking [the woman] for letting her cheat and feels better cheating from an almost white person” (Rankine 5).

In life, racism and discrimination have played a part in many people's lives. Even though there has been countless attempts to try to fix the problem, people were and still are affected by it. This theme of racism and discrimination can be found in plenty of works of literature, where the authors uses this one theme to develop their story. Some types are in fictional stories like Of Mice and Men, memoirs like “Night” and plays like “Fences”.

Racism and discrimination are two major themes that are expressed throughout this novel. These two themes are widely used be Lee too show how society

Throughout literature, human rights issues are explored whether it be in fiction or non-fiction texts. The notion of racism can be seen in many books, movies, poems and all throughout social media, showing the prejudice many people face every day. To Kill a Mockingbird (Novel/Movie), Jafar (Short Film) and White Man, Dark Man (Poem) are three different types of texts that explore racism in diverse ways with To Kill a Mockingbird being the most persuasive as it examines how individuals were poorly treated just based on their

When I first arrived in the US racism was not a concern at all, after all I was just a child. Racism didn’t hit me until I started school. The kids were friendly teachers were sweet and even the parents, at least to me. I remember over hearing a parent talking to my mother about some Mexican little girl who's nothing but trouble and firmly suggested that I should not be hanging around with that Mexican girl. My mother snapped at her saying that " that Mexican girl has a name, she's been in our children's class since PreK, and may I remind you I also have a Mexican girl who happens to be my daughter." The lady took a step back trying to fix her words as she said, "oh well Hilda is okay because she has you and Alan." "so you mean because we are

Last night I encountered a video where a white cop kept harassing a black man for "trespassing" on a local convenient store but the man is a clerk on the same store but cop kept racially profiling him. It was about a man named Earl Sampson who was stopped by cops 258 time In 4 years, searched more than 100 time, and was arrested 56 times, but there was only 1 time that he was charged with something and that was for a low level marijuana possession charge. But the only thing that upsets me the most was the fact that the black man did not commit any crime but the cop kept harassing him because he is a black man. Part of it was just a corrupt cop who was abusing the power that was given to him, but I do believe that most of it was racism. So yes,