What Is Black?

America is a nation “from many, one” as stated in our country’s original motto. We pride ourselves on the granted equal opportunity and freedom afforded to each citizen. But are these premises held true and adequately carried out? My answer is a resounding no! Our country’s intricate history provides us with the foundation that explains why and how discrimination has infiltrated and given the upper hand to the white race that has dominated the American society, while suppressing races of color. Dating back to the discovery of the new world we know as the contemporary United States, the African American race has been segregated and mistreated as exemplified through

Smell is mentioned many times in the story and can be symbolic too. It also seems to be symbolic of death or decay. Later in the story there is the incident of the terrible smell coming from Miss Emily's home: we later learn that it was a dead body. The color black is also symbolic in the sense that it is associated with the death and funerals. Emily is described as “a small, fat woman in black” and she has “cold, haughty black eyes”.

In “The Devil and Tom Walker” Irving uses the motif of darkness multiple times as he refers to a “dark grove,” “black smothering mud,” (Irving, “Devil” 329). These references to the color black create a tone of mystery because the color black and darkness carry the connotation of mystery and the unknown. In “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Irving uses the color black to refer to setting as well as he talks about ghosts that “walk in darkness” (Irving, “Legend” 12). These references to darkness are symbolic of the unknown territory of the United States, and they illustrate the mystery and the unexplored that the America’s had at the

that black is symbolic of evil and darkness. The first black cat was the victim of the narrator’s evil and violent heart.

To further discuss this I read an article online by Jacci Howard Bear, called Black. In this article Jackie broke down the word Black and showed the good and bad of this adjective. In most Western countries black is the color of mourning. Among young people, black is often seen as a color of rebellion. Black is both positive and negative. It is the color for little boys in China. Black, especially combined with orange is the color of Halloween. In early Westerns the good guy wore white while the bad guy wore black. But later on good guys wore black to lend an air of mystery to them. He felt that the color black conveys elegance, sophistication, or perhaps a touch of mystery. There are good black words that Langston failed to mention. A black belt, which embraces the idea of expert or top in class, highest level of skill attainable. Langston actually added on to the good use of the word black by using statements like, (711) “the earth is black and all good things come from the earth. Trees, flowers and food; however that keeps men alive and healthy come from this source. Coals are

Colors are used in literature to describe the different emotions of a character. Colorism is a type of symbolism used in literature. Death uses color symbolism in The Book Thief to describe a character's emotion because he is the narrator. Color symbolism in literature is when the author uses a color to symbolize the character's emotion; it occurs throughout The Book Thief. Red, white, and gray or silver are the colors that are used the most frequently and have the biggest meanings throughout the novel.

One aspect of life for black people in the United States of America that has always remained consistent is white racial hostility. A history of slavery, segregation, unequal protection of the law, and second class citizenship inflicted by a white power structure that dominates on a national level has created a harmful reality for black people. Every aspect of black public life must either be under the control of or in opposition to white supremacy. Every state-sanctioned institution works to use black bodies as tools for the production of capital in any form, yet simultaneously exploits and maltreats black people so that they cannot fully participate in and benefit from the systems which they are indoctrinated to invest in. White America leverages its money, comfort, and tyranny on Black America. It is for this reason that separate spaces are not merely essential to the viability of black counter-publics but inherent to their existence, since black involvement in white spaces and systems typically leads to black assimilation or marginalization. Within these black counter-publics, hip hop and mass connection through new media forms direct attention and allow for personal expression which shapes black worldview and public opinion, but this simply makes black people more comfortable with their oppression and less involved in politics.

Symbolism plays a major role in the “Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It influences the setting of the story and it complements the moral message. The minister, Mr. Hooper, has a lot of faith and is very committed to helping the society to be more faithful and closer to God. He lives a very harsh live being rejected by society and goes through unpleasant moments to achieve his original goal. When he decides to wear the black veil, he was not trying to be mysterious and create a gloomy environment like he did; he had much more than that in mind. The Black Veil represents the thought of the puritans that sin was an inexcusable mistake, the secret sin and dark side in each individual, and he uses

It is a well-known fact that technology and media outlets today play a major role in a person’s life. Generally, a person has access to the media through cellphones, computers, radios in a car and television. It may be perceived by some, even within a technologically advanced society such as America, that media has no effect upon enhancing cultural relationships, though many social networks do indeed connect cultures.

References to black and white carry the most weight and contribute much to the actions of the characters; those colors often are used as a comment on race, on good and evil, on sexuality,

Personally, I am all over it on consumers creating their own media because media outlets have purposefully ignored and neglected minorities. For example, I wasn’t well aware of the struggles black Americans have endured or continuing to in America. It was through social media sites like Twitter, Tumblr or YouTube that I truly learned about what it means to be black in America. I learned about police brutality, sexism towards black women, the hyper-sexualization of the black body and all types of racism/sexism because of people taking media into their own hands. It truly sheds a light on issues I have not know about or experience and I am grateful for that.

The codes established a progression of prohibitive laws known as "black codes," which were intended to confine liberated blacks' action and guarantee their accessibility as a work compel now that subjection had been annulled. For example, many states obliged blacks to sign yearly work contracts; in the event that they can't, they gambled being captured as vagrants and fined or constrained into unpaid work. Northern shock over the dark codes undermined bolster for Johnson's approaches, and by late 1866 control over Reconstruction had moved to the more radical wing of the Republican Party in Congress.

they paid a fine of $10 to $100, the primary purpose of the “black codes was to restrict black’s labor and activity (Black Codes). In 1966, Nixon linked rising crime to Martin Luther King’s campaign of civil disobedience, he proposed a solution, to double the conviction rate in the country as a means to improve crime in America (Coates 19-20).

“Black Swan Green” is a story about a highschool boy, named Jason Taylor. Jason has a stammer unlike his other peers at his horrible high school. He’s the kid that dreads talking in front of the class because he sees himself as different. He’s afraid to be judged for his flaws. Also, he has a love for poetry he must hide from everyone. He can’t express his feelings for poetry or anything because he's too scared to be himself. In this story, his mentor, Madame Crommelynck teaches him to accept himself and show the world the real Jason Taylor. Jason has many conflicts throughout the story, especially with himself. On the contrary, Madame Crommelynck relates Jason’s high school peers to hairy barbarians. She asks Jason, “So you want a double life. One Jason Taylor who seeks approval of hairy barbarians. Another Jason Taylor is Eliot Bolivar, who seeks approval of the literary world. Is that so impossible?” (Mitchell, 154). Jason wants to fit in at his school, while Eliot Bolivar wants to be accepted in the literary world. Jason thinks to become a good poet he needs to be accepted by his peers but poetry is for yourself. It’s your thoughts and feelings. Poetry is not for an audience to criticise. To be a poet, you need to be yourself and then you’ll truly be accepted.

In one of the scenes of Charlie and the Chocolate factory it’s almost completely black and in the next scene it’s bright white. He uses this to symbolize what the character is going through mentally like with the flashbacks of Willy in Charlie and the Chocolate factory. In Alice in Wonderland he used it to symbolize again what the character is going through or has gone through like in the scene when Hatter was still working for the White Queen of the village being burned down and the lighting was very dark then. The fight scene with Alice and the White and Red queen’s armies were the same with the lighting going from very bright to dark and