The Book That I Read

Racism is a big part of this book. It shows the absurdity of what people thought back then, which is an important lesson. It is important for us to learn what people’s views used to be, and how important it is not to go back to that mindset.

“Battle Royal” provides a realistic portrait of the difficulty of being a black person in a

Reading the content in this book made me get a picture of what it was like to be a colored person in this time. My eyes were opened to the meaning of the word “nigga”. Nigga is such a derogatory term, yet now-a-days it is used by people so much. Kids in this generation use it as a term of endearment when they see their friends, or they say it when they are shocked by something. Frankly, I don’t believe they know how serious it really is. The fact that white people could look at a person and see less than a human being when they did nothing wrong distresses me. They (white people) treated them as if they were property and below them. Even though we don’t have racism to this extent

One of Beverly Tatum’s most popular works, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?, outlines racial identity development and shows us what it means to be Black in today’s society. Tatum uses reasonable examples of her experience both as a parent and as a college professor. She is able to get readers to think in ways that might not be comfortable but are necessary and compelling. Recognizing understanding and embracing

Wright would examine racial profiling if he was to write Black Boy today. Racial profiling is a very serious issue in the society today. Many African American were being target, and in some case murdered by law enforcement official because of their race. On August 9, 2014, a white police officer named Darren Wilson shoot an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown multiple time in Ferguson, Mo. According to news article “From Ferguson to Charleston and Beyond, Anguish about Race Keep Building”, Even though there was a video tape showing that the black teenager was unarmed, the county grand jury still decided not to indict the police office because they believed the old assumption that African Americans are more likely to be criminals. “Grand juries have tended to give the benefit of the doubt to police officers. National polls revealed deep divisions in how whites and blacks viewed the facts in each case. Whites were more likely to believe officers’ accounts justifying the use of force. Blacks tended to see deeper forces at work: longstanding police bias against black men and a presumption that they are criminals”.

We live in a media saturated environment where everything we know and what we consider to be important is often based on stories produced and displayed to us by the media, Brooks and Hebert (2006). Much of what we know and care about is based on the images, symbols and narratives in radio, television, film, music and other media systems. How individuals construct their social identities, how they come to understand what it means to be male, female, Black, White, Asian, Latino and Native America is shaped by commoditised texts produced by media for audiences that are increasingly segmented by the social construction of race. In short the media are central to what ultimately come to present our social realities. For example for many Whites and people from other races and ethnicities the media’s portrayal of young black men is the primary bias for their knowledge and reaction. With a few notable examples in politics, most media present young black men as figures to be admired for their athleticism, artistic, entertainment talent or feared for their criminality. However this essay will focus on the way young black men are portrayed in news.

Imagine a situation where one is walking down an empty street and a woman gives one a glance and begins running, or one is told to leave a public restaurant simply because of the family one was born into. This is the reality for two African-American authors in the 20th century. Over the history of the United States minorities have faced a numerous amounts of racism. The types of racism that was expressed to these minorities has evolved as time went on. Two authors decided to write about their experiences and they occurrences vary vastly. The details that really set one essay apart from the other include the time of day the racism took place, time period of the occurrence, and type of racism witnessed.

black man fights against, constantly trying to identify himself. At the same time, black men have found approaches to detach from this narrow minded image that society has created for them including; sports, education and family. The black male struggles to gain his own identity because there is already a firm image created for them that the white man visualizes the black male and the expectations of the black male. However, it isn’t just the society that plays a role in the development of the black males identity, there is also the consideration of how black males are brought up or raised in their current lifestyle situations. For example, athletes,

Brent Staples essay, “Just Walk on By,” narrates his story about discrimination against black men. As a result of this, black men are stereotyped as dangerous or frightening just because of their appearance. In his essay, “Just Walk on By,” Brent Staples does this as he builds his persona with his powerful diction and his effective implementation of ethos in order to push his message of how people shouldn’t be hasty to judge others based on society’s views.

People like to believe their thoughts are their own, not subject to outside bias or prejudice, but this is rarely true. In the essay “Just Walk On By,” Brent Staples explores this topic of people unjustly applying broad stereotypes to individual people; he incorporates pathos and ethos in his writing to convey the message that labels culturally prescribed specifically to black men change others’ perception of them, therefore, affecting the way they must carry themselves.

In a book-length letter titled “Between the World and Me”, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes to his son about his personal experiences as a black man in America, a country built on the oppression of black people. Coates discusses race and police brutality in the lives of African Americans and how it constantly defeats us while some put in efforts to pursue the “American Dream”. Coates goal is to provide his son with advice based on his life at Howard and as he grows up. He does a great job at explaining to his son what it means to be African American man in this time period.

I think the main idea that John Howard Griffin is trying to make is that nobody had any idea what the black population was feeling, or even doing. The white population was just content to think they were all happy and smiling all the time. On page 166 Griffin says “if he did not do his yessing and grinning and act out the stereotyped image, then he was immediately considered a “bad Negro,”. On the same page”

About thirty or so people eagerly gathered at the microphone so that they would be able to ask him a question. One question came from a journalist she said “As black journalist what can we continue to do”. Coates answer was short “Continue to write and spread the word”. One concerned African American male said to Coates “I am interested to live a life without fear, how do I go about that”. Coates answer was probably not what the boy expected but he stated “We have a lot to be afraid of. Incident people are getting killed on the streets. The real question is how do we act despite that fear? And the answer to that is to do positive things and stay

This weeks selected works all center around the theme of race and the harmful effect of the subjugation and  apocryphal stereotype that comes with it.  In Tomi’s segment she states “Is it because the black unemployment is double what it is for whites, or the homicide rate or the dropout rate…..”  . While in “I , racist he states “Black and Muslim killers are ‘terrorists’ and ‘thugs’. Why are white shooters called ‘mentally ill’?”. And lastly in  Chief Seattle's 1854 Oration he states “If we have a common Heavenly Father He must be partial”.  Evidently all these works center around the subject of race and its effect and perspective on all parties, However there is contrast between I, Racist and ‘Tomi Lahren DESTROYS Colin . In I, Racist, he

In addition to Jonathan’s insight on light skin privilege, He also discussed trying to blend in culturally.