Afro-Brazilian

SHAPING THE INDIVIDUAL In his book In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio, Phillipe Bourgois presents to us several characters which will help him observe life in East Harlem and to proceed with his study. The characters which will be brought forward in this essay, are Ray, Caesar, and Primo. Bourgeois lived for several years among Puerto Ricans in East Harlem in order to render his research accurate. By bonding with the individuals he meets through his research, they open up to him…

Conflict Assignment For my conflict assignment, I have decided to dive into the issue of racism, specifically drawing attention to the political statement made by Beyonce during her 2016 Superbowl performance. During the halftime show where Beyonce was a featured act, she took the opportunity to make a Black Lives Matter statement that was woven into her performance amidst the costuming, song choice, formations and other aspects. Racism is the name that has been assigned to the long and slow…

Systematic Oppression In the biography, Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, he explains to his son the challenges of being a black body in society. Coates writes about his transition from childhood to adulthood. He discusses learning about the truths and laws for being a black body. He questions the American dream, government, and history. He explains that many problems exist because of social constructs such as police brutality, education, and living conditions for the black body.…

As a male I have many advantages over women, and I usually go throughout my day without even noticing one. The Privilege, Power, and Difference article gave many examples of how men have advantages, for example “Men can reasonably expect that if they work hard and ‘play by the rules’ they’ll get what they deserve and feel justified in complaining if they don’t.”(Johnson, Pg. 29) This demonstrates how men do have it easier than women, because it is true that if men do work hard they have a high…

In applying for the Sylvia Wynter Graduate Fellowship, my area of interest is film theory, especially as it is challenged by the work of Sylvia Wynter. Wynter’s work challenges us, as diasporic people of African descent, to create unique stories, and to approach them as “new ceremonies.” In cinema, Wynter’s challenge is primed to authorize the film scholar to approach other ways of performing humanness as a verb, and to find inventive ways of implementing humanness as a creative and biographic…

Set in the 1940’s, Toni Morrison’s novel “The Bluest Eye” is a tale of Pecola, a young Negro girl shunned by society for being ugly due to her skin colour and appearance. Morrison explores life in America during the late 60s and early 70s in which American culture was influenced predominantly by the white race. Using a creative approach, Toni Morrison explores the white ideal that the Negro population strives to attain to shed light on an arguably different kind of racism. Through the use of…

lklore In The Play A Raisin The Sun Folklore is the use of traditions in story telling that are inclusive of the beliefs, the customs and the culture of a people that are passed from one generation to the other. Folklores forms an integral part of the culture that assist transmit information through the word of mouth. There is the use of the folklore in the black vernacular used in the throughout the play to broach important issues and also conflicts such as the poverty, discrimination and also…

In “Be Like Mike? Michael Jordan and the Pedagogy of Desire,” Michael Eric Dyson explores Michael Jordan’s impact on African American culture and society. He discusses Michael Jordan’s success as an athlete calling him, “perhaps the best, and best known, athlete in the world today” (1). He also points out his role as a positive influence, and a success in both marketing and business, specifically referring to his impact in the “sneaker” world. The audience for this article is specifically…

The autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings works by singer, poet, writer, and actress Maya Angelou, it is one of the most widely read and taught book by an African American woman. The title of the book comes from Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem, "Sympathy." The connection of the poem with the novel is where a little persistence bird (Marguerite) struggles against the bars of the cage life barriers , but she gets up, she rises and pushes forward. Although I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings covers…

Symbolism in the works of literature refers to the use of objects, people, animals, and situations that have other meaning than the literal one used in the story. It creates a certain emotion or mood in the story making the reader understand it better. Symbolism is widely applied in the story Everyday Use by Alice Walker. This paper will explore symbolism in the story Everyday Use which includes the house, quilt, yard and characteristics of some characters. One of the prominent symbols in the…