Discrimination In Maya Angelou's Still I Rise

Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still I Rise,” explores the strength that everyone posses’ to stand up against discrimination. This poem sets a positive and strong tone on fighting against racial and sexual discrimination. Angelou’s personal experiences during her lifetime are expressed throughout the poem from the point of view of an African American woman like herself. Maya Angelou is an African American women who was born in 1928. She was born into a period of strong racism within the United States. Angelou writes about what she knows through her poems, so the poem “Still I Rise” represents her experiences with discrimination. Angelou was raised in Missouri and Arkansas by her father’s grandmother. Her family instilled many characteristics of her seen …show more content…
This is important because the 1970’s mark the advances in the civil rights movement and the rise of the feminist movement. Since Angelou was African American, a woman, and confident, she played a large role in advocating for rights. During this time, Angelou also wrote a book called I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This controversial book made the best seller list, but was banned in many schools because of its inappropriate content about a sexual abuse story. This goes to show that Angelou is not only a talented writer, but she writes about what she knows with no fear of the consequences she may receive. It was increasingly difficult to be an African American female writer during the 1970’s because of the discrimination, but Angelou did it anyway. Throughout the poem, Angelou references her gender with words such as “sassiness,” “sexiness,” and “the meeting of my thighs.” When she references her feminism, takes a strong stance and compares them to valuable things like gold mines and diamonds. Angelou also references her race with comments about history, roots, and her ancestors. Again the speaker gives the impression that she is not afraid and will continue to stand tall against the