The Bench

The protagonist of the poem is Rosa Parks, a seamstress and an active member in the local NAACP, who refused to give up her seat for a white man. Parks was arrested, which led to a boycott against Montgomery bus system. As a result of more than one year of boycott, the segregation law was announced unconstitutional.

The three themes that stood out the most to me were: prejudice, leadership, and bravery. My first theme is prejudice, in my opinion it is not right to own someone as “property”

In both countries, the schism between Africans and their government worsened. To illustrate: “[The Emancipation Proclamation] ended [slavery] . . . , but blacks . . . had more in common with African-American slaves . . . than with the [Caucasian businessmen]” (Bausum 2012, 19). For instance, Congress passed the discriminatory Jim Crow Laws – in order to establish a hierarchy based on “the plantation mentality” (Bausum 2012, 14). For South Africans, the National Party (the Nats) in 1948, made apartheid the official law. Both forms of segregation continued the cycle of poverty for coloured people and “ensured [that Caucasians had better quality education], hospitals, and other public services” (Rose 2011, 12). For example, African-American garbage men’s insufficient salary “was based on their garbage routes” rather than an hourly wage (Bausum 2012, 14). Similarly, black South African staff received inadequate pay and the law outlawed strikes and the formation of unions.

Caliendo and Mcllwain (2011) have suggested that the historical claims of white supremacy within nations such as the UK and South Africa, has created racial conflicts and segregation between ethnic communities. Relating back to Weber’s example of the caste system, the “authentically white” (Caliendo and Mcllwain, 2011:22) communities are dominant and control the minority communities. Caliendo and Mcllwain (2011) argue that the “authentically white” have increased wealth and status, which they use to create boundaries and exclude the ethnic groups within the community. An example of this would be the issue of Apartheid in South Africa throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth century. Apartheid can be defined by the New Oxford English Dictionary (1998) as “a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on the grounds of race” (Guelke, 2005:61). Throughout the period Guelke (2005) discussed the fact that the minority white communities within South Africa ruled over the black majority, living “a lifestyle with a standard of living matching the very richest countries in the world” (Guelke, 2001:1-2), whilst the black communities lived in extreme poverty. Linking back to the system of monopolistic social closure, the white population viewed themselves as the elite members of society, and via legislation such as the native policy, used their power to justify the exploitation and segregation of the black South African

The Apartheid was initiated as a ploy for Europeans to better control the exploited populations for economic gain, as maintaining tension between the different racial classifications diverted attention from the Europeans as it fed hatred between groups. This assisted in minimizing unity between the exploited to rally against European control as it backhandedly induced “submission” for survival. One way of accomplishing this was by instilling laws that’d force segregation, classification, educational “requirements”, and economic purposes. The Population Registration Act of 1950 enacted, requiring segregation of Europeans from Afrikaans . Following shortly, the Group Areas Act of 1950 was enacted as a new form of legislation alongside the Population Registration Act. This detailed act separated tribes based on ethnics; consequently, further detailing segregation amongst the natives .

In both countries, the schism between Africans and their government worsened. Despite the Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery, “blacks . . . had more in common with African-American slaves . . . than with the [Caucasian businessmen,]” due to the Jim Crow Laws – which established a hierarchy based on “the plantation mentality” (Bausum 2012, 14,19). Similarly in South Africa, the National Party made apartheid the official law in 1948. In other words, both forms of segregation: isolated races (ex. through outlawing intermarriage and integration), trapped coloured people in the cycle of poverty and ensured that only coloured people were deprived of quality education, health care, and other government services . In addition, only African-Americans were garbage men who received an insufficient salary that “was based on their garbage routes” rather than an hourly wage (Bausum 2012, 14). Similarly, black South

The theme I chose was racism and how it takes a big part in the book. In the first chapter James lived in Suffolk Virginia with his mother Ruth They live in a neighborhood with all black people. Ruth rides her bike around and she often plays her piano. “When i was fourteen, my mother took up two new hobbies: riding a bicycle and playing piano.”

As a target of racism and prejudice, Brent Staple wrote Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space. Throughout this essay he explains his personal experience in public spaces and the stereotypes he has faced. Since society has deeply embedded their views of “blacks,” just their presence induces fear and causes unnecessary feelings and emotions to arise. Staples presents no anger in his decision to alter his actions and his appearance to ease those around him despite his skin tone. Societal views on blacks are based on reputations as a whole and not on each individual person, Staples presents this through the uses of point of view, ethos, and pathos.

The South African Apartheid, instituted in 1948 by the country’s Afrikaner National Party, was legalized segregation on the basis of race, and is a system comparable to the segregation of African Americans in the United States. Non-whites - including blacks, Indians, and people of color in general- were prohibited from engaging in any activities specific to whites and prohibited from engaging in interracial marriages, receiving higher education, and obtaining certain jobs. The National Party’s classification of “race” was loosely based on physical appearance and lineage. White individuals were superficially defined as being “obviously white'' on the basis of their “habits, education and speech as well as deportment and demeanor”; an

My first theme is prejudice. It is never right for one individual to own another, or for one group of people to be denied equal rights because they are different in some way. In NightJohn, they were prejudice and made African American people be enslaved and work for them and treat them differently just because they were a different color than them. I’ve seen prejudice a lot all my life. Whether it’s for for colored people or gay people or whatever, in the end we’re all the same and should all be treated equally.

6) Apartheid laws in South Africa enforced racial separation and have had long-term consequences. In South Africa, it was the law for white and black people to be seperated in almost all aspects of society (known as apartheid). This created large poverty in black areas because of discrimination. Today, though apartheid has been abolished, people who were previously disenfranchised by apartheid still have greater poverty

The structure of the novel is significant in presenting the issues of racism from both sides of the story. The story starts with a prologue which sets the scene and

One significant theme that is present throughout the story is the one of unequal rights for African Americans. One instance of social injustice is described in the very

South Africa really began to suffer when apartheid was written into the law. Apartheid was first introduced in the 1948 election that the Afrikaner National Party won. The plan was to take the already existing segregation and expand it (Wright, 60). Apartheid was a system that segregated South Africa’s population racially and considered non-whites inferior (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”). Apartheid was designed to make it

Many of the contemporary issues in South Africa can easily be associated with the apartheid laws which devastated the country. The people of South Africa struggle day by day to reverse “the most cruel, yet well-crafted,” horrific tactic “of social engineering.” The concept behind apartheid emerged in 1948 when the nationalist party took over government, and the all-white government enforced “racial segregation under a system of legislation” . The central issues stem from 50 years of apartheid include poverty, income inequality, land ownership rates and many other long term affects that still plague the brunt of the South African population while the small white minority still enjoy much of the wealth, most of the land and opportunities