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The Representation Of Black Men And Women By Angela Davis And Malcolm X Essay

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While the representation of Black men and women is one that throughout the years has not often been given thought to by people outside of the Black community, in the Moynihan Report and essays and speeches by both Angela Davis and Malcolm X, we see how the representation of Black people has for years been detrimental to the progression of the Black community. Through careful analysis of several different texts, I will highlight the ways in which Black people have through the oppressive forces of negative representation been seen as inferior to their white counterparts and been held back because of those very same forces.
The Moynihan Report, released in 1965, was a report that discussed the nature of the Black family and how the degradation of it stemmed from a lack of father figures and poor parenting by Black women. The Moynihan report specifically blames what it calls the “deterioration of the Negro family” solely upon the backs of Black women. The report moves through a racist, patriarchal framework that uses inaccurate data to paint Black families and parents as though they are incapable of stability and building their children into productive members of society. Although the report slightly references historical oppression and its effect on the African American family, it does not state the injustices done to Black people nor does it attempt to connect how they continually plague Black family structures. When it does reference them, it is only in relation to how Black

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