Two Different Essays by Two Different Black Authors: Two Incredibly Different Choices
One hundred and four unarmed black people were killed by the police in 2015 (Mapping Police Violence). Not surprisingly, the most recent killings of unarmed blacks by police have black people protesting and rioting across the country. At this critical time of racial unrest, words imploring racial harmony must be found. Searching for an author seeking racial togetherness, I analyzed Kiese Laymon’s essay, “The Worst of White Folks,” from his book How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays and Claude Steele’s essay, “At the Root of Identity,” from his book Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us. As my analysis will show, although Laymon’s essay and Steele’s essay bear technical similarities, the differences between them are pronounced; one preaches racial divisiveness …show more content…
First, racism was the central theme of Laymon’s essay. Throughout his essay, Laymon repeated the phrase “the worst of white folks.” By referring to the worst of white folks, Laymon implied that all white people were bad; by only talking about the worst of the white people, it was as if no other people were bad. A racially neutral phrase that Laymon could have used would have been the “worst folks out there.” However, Laymon’s essay was not racially neutral; his essay was negative against white people. For example, when Laymon mentioned that black gangs appeared in his hometown, he did not use any negative words to describe or blame them. Laymon casually wrote that the gangs would beat him if he wore the wrong color clothes or tilted a cap on his head an unacceptable way (29). The gang’s laws, according to Laymon, “[I]mmediately altered the way … I moved through space” (29). The gang members were black; therefore, Laymon apparently spared them any judgmental terminology in his
One hundred and four unarmed black people were killed by the police in 2015 (Mapping Police Violence). Not surprisingly, the most recent killings of unarmed blacks by police have black people protesting and rioting across the country. At this critical time of racial unrest, words imploring racial harmony must be found. Searching for an author seeking racial togetherness, I analyzed Kiese Laymon’s essay, “The Worst of White Folks,” from his book How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays and Claude Steele’s essay, “At the Root of Identity,” from his book Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us. As my analysis will show, although Laymon’s essay and Steele’s essay bear technical similarities, the differences between them are pronounced; one preaches racial divisiveness …show more content…
First, racism was the central theme of Laymon’s essay. Throughout his essay, Laymon repeated the phrase “the worst of white folks.” By referring to the worst of white folks, Laymon implied that all white people were bad; by only talking about the worst of the white people, it was as if no other people were bad. A racially neutral phrase that Laymon could have used would have been the “worst folks out there.” However, Laymon’s essay was not racially neutral; his essay was negative against white people. For example, when Laymon mentioned that black gangs appeared in his hometown, he did not use any negative words to describe or blame them. Laymon casually wrote that the gangs would beat him if he wore the wrong color clothes or tilted a cap on his head an unacceptable way (29). The gang’s laws, according to Laymon, “[I]mmediately altered the way … I moved through space” (29). The gang members were black; therefore, Laymon apparently spared them any judgmental terminology in his