In this book, Bradford Martin an associate professor of history at Bryant University in Rhode Island, illuminates a different 1980s than many remember—one whose history has been buried under the celebratory narrative of conservative dominant power. Written as a social history, The Other Eighties offers an ambitious revision of the decade, one that emphasizes the vitality of grassroots and creative dissent. Marginalized from mainstream politics by conservative electoral victories and the Democratic Party’s concurrent retreat from the ‘full-throated progressive idealism’ (p. xi) of the New Deal and the War on Poverty, leftist politics in the 1980s nonetheless remained animated in grassroots settings. The book is organized into eight concise chapters, each examining a separate movement, including the campaign against nuclear proliferation, the Central American Solidarity Movement, activism to halt US complicity with South African apartheid, popular culture and the ‘culture wars’, the politics of post-punk music, African-American politics and…
While this saved Flavio’s life, the article focuses more on Flavio himself, rather than poverty in general. He saved Flavio’s life, but there are still millions in developing countries who are suffering, without any help whatsoever. While taking Flavio to the doctor is kind, Parks offered no permanent means of improvements to the da Silva family; if anything, he made them worse over time. The editor’s note of the article reveals that Park’s photos had brought upon a feeling of sadness, or something akin to pity in America. People donated over thirty thousand dollars, in hopes of generating enough money to get Flavio some medical attention.…
Civil rights advocate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was one of the most influential African American speech activists of the 60’s. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. applied peaceful nonviolent strategies such as strikes, marches, and boycotts taught by Gandhi to protest African American civil rights. Being a powerful figure in the political and religious world Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a big target on his head and unfortunately was assassinated in 1968. This lead to many calls of violent protesting over the loss of a great leader. Ten years later on the anniversary of his death, in 1978, Cesar Chavez published an article about Dr. King's nonviolent resistance and pleads to his audience to see the reason that being violent will not promote significant change.…
In his essay, “Flavio’s Home”, Gordon Parks describes the horrific conditions of poverty in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro by focusing on the lives of the Da Silva family, specifically the life of a twelve year old boy named Flavio. Parks uses his words to paint a somber picture of life in the favelas, creating a juxtaposition between the rich and poor, both in Brazil and abroad by using moving metaphors and description. We saw into the everyday lives of the Da Silva family; seeing their hardships, relationships, and fears. Life in the favela is grueling and unforgiving. Parks seeks to stamp out poverty through his essay, and I believe he succeeds in his goal by crafting a fascinating and poignant piece that allowed me to empathize with those…
Izzie Case Reflection Paper 1. In working with the family system, point out ways that you could assist in diminishing the following (oppression, marginalization, alienation, privilege and power)? Engaging diversity and recognizing difference in social work practice is key to diminishing oppression, marginalization and alienation.…
The unjustifiable sufferings of migrant farm workers in the United States These days, even though we are fighting strongly for human rights issues such as human trafficking, racial equality, asylum seekers and refugees, child abuse and LGBTQ rights, we have to admit that not everyone is equal. We worked hard to ensure that the people around us have the rights they deserved, but we are ignorant to the suffering of others. In his book Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States, Seth Holmes explores the lives of the Mexican workers who cross the border illegally to come to the U.S and provides an interesting idea on how “the fault lines of class, race, citizenship, gender, and sexuality” have shaped the experience of…
Nearly 60,000 unaccompanied migrant children were apprehended along the U.S. Mexico border between October 2013 and September 2014. Is there anything more frustrating than wanting a happy life, but knowing that it will never happen without help along the way? How does wanting to sacrifice everything you have to reach a dead end sound? These are a few minor, yet inconvenient effects Enrique experienced in wanting to attain a substantial lifestyle with his mother. While others ambitions are chasing a dream, Mexican and Central American children are opened up to so much terror along the way, trying to reach the American dream.…
During the late 19th and 20th centuries the United States experienced an influx of immigrants, who brought with them diverse cultures, religions, and languages. Since Columbus’ voyage in 1492, immigrants sought opportunities. By the end of the 18th century, the thirteen english colonies became the United States, and the country prided itself as a “nation of immigrants.” The first wave of immigration took place during the colonial period, and the second wave took place during the mid 19th century. Because they were usually white, English-speaking protestants from Northern and Western Europe, these immigrants mostly assimilated successfully.…
Malcolm X’s use of anecdotes with the assistance of metaphors in Message to the Grassroots proves to his audience that they need to stand up for themselves. His use of anecdotes appeals to the listener’s emotions. Well-known images are presented to stimulate his followers at an emotional level. Malcolm X translates an article as to refer to a more pessimistic outlook on the story. “I read an article in Life Magazine showing a little Chinese girl, nine years old, her father was on his hands and knees and she was pulling the trigger because he was an Uncle Tom Chinaman,” ‘Uncle Tom’ refers to the true story of a slave who obeyed his master's, “[w]hen they had the revolution over there, they took a whole generation of Uncle Toms and just wiped them out.”…
Olaudah Equiano, a victim to the malicious slave trade, gives vivid detail and insight into the world of slavery from a slave’s point of view. The article studied was written by Equiano himself, an Ibo prince who was seized from his homeland of Africa and thrust into a cruel life of bondage at the age of only eleven. Equiano writes of the hardship of his voyage overseas in the late years of the seventeenth century. Part of his story is shared in this article, the story of an African male going from slavery to freedom. He records and shares his story in 1789 as he worked to further the Church of England after purchasing his freedom from a Quaker merchant.…
It is good to see that an increasing number of protests spread nationwide every year because people increasingly become aware of the necessity of speaking out. However, some people still keep silent when injustices happen. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Gloria Anzaldua, a Chicana author, writes about the partial judgment on her accents when she speaks English, but she feels proud of her mother language, Chicano Spanish, because she realizes that her mother tongue is her distinctive identity. Also, she encourages her chicano friends to keep their identities. Likewise, in “To the Lady”, Mitsuye Yamada, a Japanese American poet and activist, writes to a lady in San Francisco and claims that the consequence of people not protesting when injustice…
Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth is a powerful text concerning the struggle faced by colonized people on their journey against colonialism and towards liberation. Rooted not only in psychology but also in Marxism and critical theory, the book provides an analysis of number issues related to colonialism and decolonization. Fanon methodically examines a diverse range of issues including, but not limited to, racial identity formation, language, class, and the way in which they interact with the liberation struggle and alter the relationship between colonizer and colonized. The topic of violence however, is addressed repeatedly.…
Zadie Smith short story “The Embassy of Cambodia” present the main character Fatou experiencing life changing events due to her lower-class status. Fatou happens to be a young African woman from the Ivory Coast who moved around to find a place where she could seek stability and better her non-existing life. Though it may seem that Fatou displays horizontal racism toward certain ethnic groups, in all actuality she is trying to overcome the racist circumstance the continue to hinder her life. Being different in economic status does not mean Fatou shouldn’t receive proper respect like her employers, the Cambodians or the Chinese from her village. The story incorporates a variety of examples of racism, connecting the refugee crisis to how immigrant…
Freedom is not free when your identity is the price. Throughout the semester we read literature that has honed in on the idea of apartheid and post-apartheid affecting a nation. Zoe Wicomb 's You Can 't Get Lost in Cape Town and Phaswane Mpe Welcome to Our Hillbrow both share the themes of identity crisis through language. This theme has shaped what I grasped from South African literature is that identity does not belong to you but is shaped by what others perceive.…
Introduction: In The Museum of Ordinary life, Gabeba Baderoon states that, “In South Africa poetry has offered a ringing voice at a time of enforced silence, and a vision of prescence and complexity at a time when even the humanity of Black people was denied. Poets tell the secret histories of what happens in plain sight, and give voice to what is supressed. They register minute shifts in the air, in an era, and translate the orders of conciousness and the body into the delicate, powerful material of words” and through close analysis of the content and poetic devices used in the poem “They call you Mister Steve Biko now your dead” written by Shabbir Banoobhai , the words of Gabeba Baderoon are validated and prove the powerful place that protest poetry holds in society. Relevant Context:…