James Weldon Johnson’s brief novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, testifies to a success that would be nonexistent were it not for learning from the oppression he faces. As slavery ended, white supremacy rises. Many Blacks moved in significant numbers to urban centers in the North, namely New York’s Harlem. For the Blacks to feel secure, they lived together in groups, thus forming Black neighborhoods. Out of these towns and era came many art influencers, such as Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, and Zora Neale Hurston.…
3 Favorite Books If I had to list three books that inspired my way of thinking, it would the Autobiographies of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander Parker, and The Cosmopolitan Canopy by Elijah Anderson. These books exposed me to the realities of the world we live in. The Autobiographies of an Ex-Colored man displayed the constant struggle of a biracial child navigating through a world of privilege, racism, and oppression while simultaneously, searching for his identity. Although both of my parents are African Americans, the constant confliction of seeking acceptance in places where a person may not belong is a lesson that resonated with me through James Weldon Johnson’s story. According to the Myers-Briggs personality test, I am extroverted, intuitive, thinking, and judgmental(ENTJ).…
Identifying with a certain race brings people to a place they can usually belong to; the people around them have the same general values and thoughts. The narrator in ‘The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man’ by James Weldon Johnson belongs to two races. His skin color is that of a white man but his facial features are that of a black man. The narrator grows up with limited views about the African American social views. This leads the narrator to believe he can better the social views of the black man.…
Alonso Estrada HIST 1302 New York Times The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, written by James Weldon Johnson, is a story based around the life of an African American who was blessed with light colored skin. The man was seen by many individuals, and could go around, as if he were a white, normal American man. Because of this the man was treated much better than his brethren with a darker complexion, as he went unnoticed and unbothered by superficial racist people across the country.…
I interviewed Pastor Milton Smith, now 46 years old and his wife, Margaret Smith, now 49 years old. Milton and Margaret have been married for 22 years. They married when Milton was 24 and Margaret was 27. They are the parents of three girls - Marquise, age 20, Marginee`, age 18 and Mercedes, age 16. Shortly after they married, Margaret became pregnant.…
When I was in six grade, my PE coach made it clear to me that I wasn't alone, and I could accomplish anything I put the time and effort into. He was the football coach for Atascocita middle school. An African American in his late 20s, very friendly, and Guidable when it came to his students. On the first day of school as a new student with no knowledge of the language, I was extremely terrified to transform from speaking different language, and having a similar set of friends into an inexperienced world and dissimilar students who I had absolutely nothing in common with. Fortunately, I had my brother as a personal translator throughout the year.…
I have spent a lot of time exploring what it means to be black in America and to be a woman. With a journalism career spanning 17+ years as a writer and editor, I established myself as a trusted music historian, cultural critic and impenetrable voice of my generation. I have interviewed Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Common and numerous others while examining Hip Hop as a sociopolitical movement along with analyzing contemporary black culture and urban life for The Chicago Defender, HipHopDX, Soul Train and numerous other media outlets. After many years of living my dream, I became disgruntled and decided to pursue my life long goal to earn my college degree. I returned to Harold Washington College in my beloved hometown of Chicago and went…
On June 3rd of this year, my father passed away, this was a very difficult moment in my life and many decisions had to be made on his behalf. Preceding my father death, my parents determined that it was important as the only child to be the Executor of his Estate in an effort to propel me into manhood and the realities of life. My parents’ decision regarding my role after my father’s death was programmed and classical because they knew this honor would instill the strength, courage and pride needed to survive in this world as a young African-American man. During this time, I learned the significance of properly planning, organizing and managing the history of a person‘s entire life; therefore, I am thankful to my parents for trusting me…
As a child raised in a predominantly African-American neighborhood, my initial encounter with people from other backgrounds occurred when the school district started bussing kids across the city to largely populated white schools. While this experience took us out of our neighborhood schools, it provided an opportunity to meet students from other races, ethnicities, and religions which were different from me. Interacting with kids from various backgrounds helped me to be more open to different perspectives and not to prejudge. Additionally, the church I grew up in was very strict.…
As a young African American student at Cuthbertson high school I’ve faced several vigorous and strenuous challenges. My challenges are being African American at a predominately white school, I have navigated my way through my high school education beating the odds of my teachers, proving in this essay my GPA does not display an accurate description of my ability as a student, persistently challenged myself with the rigorous classes to grow as an individual, and shattered the established the belief that I would not do well in high school. Freshman year in highschool I was very naive to the school process and by the others around me. Being African American at a predominantly white school challenged me as an individual due to the circumstances…
The place was very large. I assumed the man who took us was rich. He was rich enough to allow us to sleep and eat at his home. I wish that was the case. He was rich, but he did not care for us.…
When I was in the sixth grade my maternal grandfather was diagnosed Multiple Myeloma. I didn’t know much about what it was but I knew it was bad. It was cancer and as I sixth grader I knew that cancer was a scary word typically used to describe some sort of disease that would later turn fatal. My grandfather wasn’t given a sentence, none of us were sat down by the doctor and told we sound be preparing our goodbyes, we were told that the cancer wouldn’t kill him and to go on living a normal life.…
In the society we live in people face discrimination all the time. People are discriminated for a number of different reasons: such as being a different race, being a different color, having a low economic status and being part of a different religion. People are constantly discriminated and misjudged because we don’t look or belief in the same things. No one likes to be discriminated or judged because of our characteristics or beliefs. People will try passing as being part of a different race or religion to try to avoid being discriminated or judged.…
Racial Autobiography Introduction In my life, I wish that I could have known more about my father’s heritage. My father is still alive, but I do not talk to him. Knowing whom my father is, not only by his name, but the by type of person he is along with how he thinks, knowing this would help me understand who I am. Along with knowing whom my father is as a person and where her comes from, I would love to know how an employer looks at me as a student at Bethel University in comparison to a student with the same degree from a State school.…
I have felt many pressures, race is such a big problem among black people but as community can get over the hump of being pressured into a few stereotypes. From my own personal experience being a young black man growing up in many places of black being the majority such as Detroit, Chicago, New York I felt an amazing amount of comfort around these areas. Once I move down to La Vernia Texas, being enrolled into an all white school with a lot of Mexicans and the only black people could only fit on a bench in a hallway that we called “The Black Bench” in high school, I attended La Vernia school district for 7 years from 4th grade all the way to 10th grade in high school. My first encounter with this whole move, and experience this new…